Comment Moderation

TGS Watch has been extremely tolerant with respect to the comments. In fact, TGS Watch has only deleted one comment.  In a comment left by an ardent supporter of The Galloway School, the author identified some children and where they may be located.  We determined that this comment violated basic internet security, and we deleted it. It was an easy call to remove the offending comment.

Over time, though, the comments have degenerated into an incoherent mess dominated by personal attacks.  This will not continue.  We will immediately begin deleting comments that are not related to the topic of the main post.  Going forward, if you'd like to comment on the HISD ethics investigation of The Galloway School Board President Dot Woodfin, please seek out a post related to your comment.  Likewise, if you'd like to comment on the Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon allegation against The Galloway School principal Bonnie Cerace, please make that comment on an appropriate post.




TGS Watch will not change the settings on comments so that they must be pre-approved, but we will not hesitate to remove comments we determine to be off topic or a personal attack on anyone.  We reserve the right to change the settings at any time, and our decisions are final.

Please continue to make topical comments on appropriate threads.  We will not delete comments based on their point of view -- we will only delete them if they are off topic or contain personal attacks.  Thank you for your understanding.

==

*** UPDATE ***
June 12, 2012
11:14 p.m. CDT

TGS Watch has received a special request from a long time reader and vociferous supporter of The Galloway School to remove all comments left by her in addition to any comments referencing her name. We here at TGS Watch respect our readers and commenters, and whatever reason she had for her request, we have decided to honor it. Readers may notice a large number of comments have been removed by the administrator. These comments were removed in deference to this request.

TGS Watch extends this offer to any supporter of The Galloway School who has a similar change of heart or any other commenter. Please contact the blog administrator and we will ensure that your comments are also removed.

~TGS Watch

Dot Woodfin Admits Ethical Violation

Dot Woodfin, the Board President and CEO of The Galloway School engaged in a Q & A session answering questions related to the Houston ISD ethics investigation that found her to have very real conflicts of interest involving the sale of MindOH! character education software to HISD schools while she was an employee of the HISD and also owning a significant stake in the company selling MindOH! software. TGS Watch provides some of Ms. Woodfin's statements.

Dot Woodfin Admits Ethical Violation

Ms. Woodfin outright agrees that she violated a conflict of interest provision in a state statute. Ms. Woodfin seems to be under the impression that her ignorance of the ethical standard means that there was no violation of the standard.

Q: Do you agree that [HISD's] finding that there is a conflict of interest in violation of the statement government code was wrong ...

Ms. Woodfin: Had I had knowledge of the protocol of this policy, I would agree ...

Q: Which protocol are you talking about? Standard Practice Memorandum 4168?

Ms. Woodfin: The one that you're speaking of here, which I -- if a person owns 10 percent or more of the voting stock or shares of a business entity, prior to this, I had no knowledge of that.

This ethical violation relates to Ms. Woodfin's 12% ownership in a company named MindOH! LLC. While Ms. Woodfin was an HISD employee, this company earned nearly $200,000 in revenue from the school district. HISD investigators determined that this was a conflict of interest. We are shocked to see Ms. Woodfin suggest that her ignorance of this ethical standard is a mitigating factor.

::

Dot Woodfin Fails to Comply with Houston Independent School District Standards

Below are several examples of HISD standards that Ms. Woodfin failed to comply with:

HISD Standard:
"If an administrative employee of HISD or a member of his or her immediate family is an officer, agent, or a member of or owns a substantial legal or beneficial interest in any corporation, firm, partnership or other business entity doing business with HISD or its affiliate organizations, he or she shall file a sworn statement with the HISD Board of Education Secretary disclosing such interest."

Ms. Woodfin admits she never filed the required statement:

Q: Did you ever file a sworn statement with the HISD Board of Education Secretary disclosing your interest in MindOH!?

Ms. Woodfin: No.

--

HISD Standard:
"It is strongly suggested for the protection of the administrator that any administrator having any interest, regardless of how small, seek written clarification concerning possible conflicts of interest."

Again, Ms. Woodfin admits that she didn't seek the recommended clarification of this HISD Standard:

Q: Is it true that you never sought written clarification concerning your possible conflict of interest between your involvement in MindOH! and your position at HISD?

Ms. Woodfin: Yes.

--

HISD Standard:
"It is recommended that any administrative employee in doubt about a potential conflict of this nature [transactions with other entities in which the employee has a position or interest] seek written clarification concerning any transaction or potential transaction which might create a conflict of interest."

You get the idea. Ms. Woodfin admits she didn't bother to get this clarification either:

Q: It's true that you never sought written clarification concerning any transaction or potential transaction with MindOH! with respect to whether it might create a conflict of interest?

Ms. Woodfin: Yes.

::

Ms. Woodfin Doesn't Understand Accountability Systems

Long after Ms. Woodfin was in the eye of the metaphorical ethical storm that culminated in an unflattering article in the Houston Chronicle, Ms. Woodfin still did not understand the ethical standards HISD accused her of violating. This lack of knowledge suggests to TGS Watch that Ms. Woodfin had little interest in learning about the ethical standards.

Ms. Woodfin: I don't understand these [HISD ethics] circulars, the Accountability System, the Texas Local Government Code, Section 16 of the Special Act of 1923 because I do not know what those state.

TGS Watch believes that the Houston Independent School District is a professional organization. We've got to believe that HISD offers ethics training to its employees. Regardless, most ethical standards are common sense. We can't imagine that anyone could fail to see the MindOH! transaction as ethically dubious.¹ A good employee will know when s/he is approaching the boundaries of unethical conduct and will seek clarification and advice. Ms. Woodfin seems to have a strange lack of curiosity about the ethical standards she was subject to.

==

TGS Watch is utterly amazed that not only did Ms. Woodfin fail to provide required disclosures and other clarifications, she seems to have no interest at all in ethical standards. We can only hope that things have changed at The Galloway School and that there aren't any related-party transactions between the school and Board Members / Administrative Staff. What are the chances that Ms. Woodfin even bothered to learn the Conflict of Interest policy at TGS?

==

¹ Ms. Woodfin's role in the MindOH! scandal at HISD reminds TGS Watch of the corrupt acts of Andrew Fastow leading up to the collapse of Enron. Mr. Fastow was an employee of Enron Corp. and the General Partner of LJM2, Co-Investment LP. Fortunately, under Superintendent Abe Saavedra, HISD was far more sensitive to corruption in 2004-2005 than Enron was in 2001.

Commenter: Child Present at Incident that led to Bonnie Cerace's Assault with a Deadly Weapon Charge

TGS Watch has previously provided documented evidence from Dallas County that The Galloway School principal Bonnie Cerace had been charged with Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon¹. The commenter, who identifies herself as a parent², does not provide any documentation for her story. However, she says that a young child was present during the incident that led to Ms. Cerace's charge for Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon:

A very close family members baby had been taken from the babies mom by his father. (they were in a custody battle). I can't blog to much surrounding the moms fears of the baby being in the hands of his father but it was enough to risk there lives and face grown men alone to protect him. When the mom (miss ceraces close family member) contacted the police they were told they couldn't help until she had him back. They were told to go get the baby. The mom and Miss Cerace went to Dallas to the house the baby was at and did just that. They got him back. Things turned out very ugly and was a big battle to get the baby.

Spelling and grammatical errors in original

Up front, we want to point out at least one factual inconsistency in this comment. Dallas County court records indicate that this event happened in Irving (Filing agency TX0571500 is the Irving Police Department), not Dallas. TGS Watch also finds it hard to believe that any law enforcement agency would instruct a parent to "risk there [sic] lives" in a contentious custody battle. Again, the person making this assertion provides no documentation for her version of events, so it isn't unreasonable to believe that she is embellishing the factual record.

TGS Watch finds this account of the events leading up to Ms. Cerace's charge of Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon to be utterly frightening. Why would Ms. Cerace put herself in a position where there would be a "big battle to get a baby"? In the opinion of TGS Watch, this account (if true) shows that Ms. Cerace has extremely poor judgement when it comes to the safety of children. TGS Watch wonders how any insurance company could provide liability coverage to a school if even half of the allegations found in this comment are true.

:::

¹ Dallas County court records indicate that the felony Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon charge was eventually reduced to a misdemeanor. *** SEE UPDATE BELOW ***

² The parent (a supporter of The Galloway School) who made the assertion that children were present during the event that led to Ms. Cerace being charged with Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon has requested that her name be removed from this blog. Consequently, the comment that includes this information has also been removed. TGS Watch retains the original text in electronic form. See the update at the bottom of this post for more information.

===

***UPDATE***

Please see this comment with discussion that the hard-to-decipher Dallas County court document is inconclusive regarding the disposition of this case. All we can really divine from it is that the Irving Police Department filed an Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon charge against The Galloway School principal Bonnie Cerace with Dallas County.