Criticism Of FBISD Police Chief Continues, District Remains Mum
by John Pape
More Fort Bend ISD police officers have come forward accusing their police chief of poor management and FBISD administrators of looking the other way while the chief used his office to run two failed campaigns for Galveston County Sheriff.
Complaints from school district police officers first surfaced in the wake of Chief J.L. Campbell’s second unsuccessful sheriff’s race. In the general election earlier this month, Campbell, who had been the Republican candidate for sheriff, lost to current Chief Deputy Freddie Poor by just over 1,500 votes.
Campbell previously ran against incumbent Gean Leonard during the 2004 election. Leonard decided not to seek re-election this year.
Following the election, several Fort Bend ISD police officers contacted FortBendNow and accused Campbell of using his school district office to run his campaign and district administrators of turning a blind eye to the use of district resources and time for a political race.
After a number of people claiming to work closely with Campbell posted comments on FortBendNow denying the claims, additional officers came forward to verify the initial allegations.
They also said members of the chief’s “inner circle” were trying to find out who was talking to the news media and that the atmosphere in the chief’s office had “become paranoid” following the initial reports, with a number of officers being accused of being the source of the reports. . .
Get the full story at: http://fortbendnow.com/pages/full_story?page_label=home&id=719195-Criticism-Of-FBISD-Police-Chief-Continues-District-Remains-Mum&article-Criticism-Of-FBISD-Police-Chief-Continues-District-Remains-Mum%20=&widget=push&instance=home_news_lead_story&open=&
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Monday, November 17, 2008
Important Dates Coming Up!
Important Dates Coming Up!
Nov. 24-28 - Thanksgiving Holidays
Dec. 8 - Regular School Board Meeting - 7:00 PM
Dec. 22 - Jan. 2 - Winter Holidays
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Chron: Continued Problems With FBISD Personnel Software System! (Total costs now nearing $10 million)
FBISD pumps more money into controversial software program
Consultant hired to install tax-regulation updates
By ZEN T.C. ZHENG HOUSTON CHRONICLE
After a multimillion-dollar investment into a problem-ridden business software system, Fort Bend Independent School District officials Monday OK’d another commitment of up to $60,000 to update the program.
The payment will be made to a consultant with Red River, a Lebanon, NH-based information technology service company, for a nine-week project to integrate government tax updates into the system, said Robert Calvert, the school district’s chief informational officer.
The financial and human resources management software system, known as PeopleSoft, is provided by the namesake company, which issues about six updates during a year to incorporate tax-regulation changes by local, state and federal taxing jurisdictions, Calvert said.
The software system, which the district introduced in early 2007 to replace an old system, has been plagued with technical problems from the beginning, causing issues such as payroll snags — delayed payrolls and lack of timely pay increases — and prompting officials to repeatedly allocate large amounts of funds for fixes ¾ the last batch totaling $300,000 six months ago.
Calvert said about 95 percent of the system replacement has been completed. Total project cost could be anywhere between $5 million and $10 million, he said. That replacement work has prevented timely installation of tax updates released this year and eventually an outside consultant has to be hired for the job as the updates must be integrated into the system by the year-end, Calvert said.
Before joining the rest of the school board in approving the $60,000 request, board president Sonal Bhuchar and trustee David Reitz expressed concerns about the cost.
“That $60,000 can hire a person for a whole year,” Reitz said after learning that the price is for a nine-week project by one person.
Get the full article: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nb/fortbend/news/6105838
Consultant hired to install tax-regulation updates
By ZEN T.C. ZHENG HOUSTON CHRONICLE
After a multimillion-dollar investment into a problem-ridden business software system, Fort Bend Independent School District officials Monday OK’d another commitment of up to $60,000 to update the program.
The payment will be made to a consultant with Red River, a Lebanon, NH-based information technology service company, for a nine-week project to integrate government tax updates into the system, said Robert Calvert, the school district’s chief informational officer.
The financial and human resources management software system, known as PeopleSoft, is provided by the namesake company, which issues about six updates during a year to incorporate tax-regulation changes by local, state and federal taxing jurisdictions, Calvert said.
The software system, which the district introduced in early 2007 to replace an old system, has been plagued with technical problems from the beginning, causing issues such as payroll snags — delayed payrolls and lack of timely pay increases — and prompting officials to repeatedly allocate large amounts of funds for fixes ¾ the last batch totaling $300,000 six months ago.
Calvert said about 95 percent of the system replacement has been completed. Total project cost could be anywhere between $5 million and $10 million, he said. That replacement work has prevented timely installation of tax updates released this year and eventually an outside consultant has to be hired for the job as the updates must be integrated into the system by the year-end, Calvert said.
Before joining the rest of the school board in approving the $60,000 request, board president Sonal Bhuchar and trustee David Reitz expressed concerns about the cost.
“That $60,000 can hire a person for a whole year,” Reitz said after learning that the price is for a nine-week project by one person.
Get the full article: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nb/fortbend/news/6105838
Monday, November 10, 2008
Thursday, November 6, 2008
FBN Reports Trouble In FBISD Police Dept.
“It was a tough budget year and there was just nobody there to see to the needs of the department,” another officer said. “He made it pretty clear that this isn’t where he wants to be; all the officers know it. It’s had to have much respect for that.”
One district staffer said the blame for the situation should be shared with Superintendent Dr. Timothy Jenney and other top administrators for allowing it to happen.
“For all intents and purposes, Chief Campbell has been running a campaign out of his (district) officer for the better part of the year and nobody said anything,” the staffer said. “It was the worst-kept secret in the district and if the superintendent claims he didn’t know about it, he’s either not being truthful or he’s totally out of touch.” FBN
Get the full story at: http://fortbendnow.com/pages/full_story?article-Fort-Bend-ISD-Police-Chief-Loses-In-Race-For-Galveston-Sheriff-%20=&hash=comments_347983&page_label=home&id=347983&widget=push&open=&#comments_347983
One district staffer said the blame for the situation should be shared with Superintendent Dr. Timothy Jenney and other top administrators for allowing it to happen.
“For all intents and purposes, Chief Campbell has been running a campaign out of his (district) officer for the better part of the year and nobody said anything,” the staffer said. “It was the worst-kept secret in the district and if the superintendent claims he didn’t know about it, he’s either not being truthful or he’s totally out of touch.” FBN
Get the full story at: http://fortbendnow.com/pages/full_story?article-Fort-Bend-ISD-Police-Chief-Loses-In-Race-For-Galveston-Sheriff-%20=&hash=comments_347983&page_label=home&id=347983&widget=push&open=&#comments_347983
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
2008-2009 Testing Calendar!
Get the state testing calendar at http://www.fortbend.k12.tx.us/about/State%20Testing%20Calendar%202008-2009.pdf
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