Barbers Hill Education Foundation - pile of articles

I guess this fits the Politics board, but only part of it is political due to a lawsuit during a state Rep election.

What the sam hell is up with the BHEF and it's insane funding level, what they do with the funds, and massive conflicts of interest regarding board members???

Our small town Education Foundation raises money and funds scholarships and classroom teaching aides, etc. This story here is a whole different animal and will surely bust wide open eventually.

I didn't see it mentioned (could have missed, didn't read all stories), but I wonder if the ISD sending over $90 million to the EF to avoid the robin hood setup? Any F16 locals involved in any of this?

Jack Squat 83 said:

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I didn't see it mentioned (could have missed, didn't read all stories), but I wonder if the ISD sending over $90 million to the EF to avoid the robin hood setup? Any F16 locals involved in any of this?

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I think I read somewhere that is part of it, if not all of it, the hoping to avoid robin hood in that manner.

I can tell you it absolutely needs to be investigated. Hopefully Terri Leo Wilson can shed some much needed sunlight on it through the discovery process.

I believe there is over $120million under the BHEF now, with minimal oversight and a rounding error amount actually funding education. What's wild is BHISD just got a $95million dollar bond passed for… you guessed it, athletic facilities!

suburban cowboy said:

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I can tell you it absolutely needs to be investigated. Hopefully Terri Leo Wilson can shed some much needed sunlight on it through the discovery process.

I believe there is over $120million under the BHEF now, with minimal oversight and a rounding error amount actually funding education. What's wild is BHISD just got a $95million dollar bond passed for… you guessed it, athletic facilities!

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I looked it up a few months back when this first came up, and the BHEF's fund would be about equal to the endowment of colleges like Sam Houston and Lamar.

Apparently, F16 is not privy to how things work out on The Hill. There's a reason their slogan is "We Can, We Will, We're Barbers Hill".

Their Superintendent jets around on a private plane. And they've been successful in blocking any section 8 apartment complexes from dirtying up their Utopia. However, it is a fantastic school district.

The System said:

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Apparently, F16 is not privy to how things work out on The Hill. There's a reason their slogan is "We Can, We Will, We're Barbers Hill".

Their Superintendent jets around on a private plane. And they've been successful in blocking any section 8 apartment complexes from dirtying up their Utopia. However, it is a fantastic school district.

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Nothing wrong with flying private if you have the means, and I see no issue in keeping low income housing out either.

But an ISD casually sitting on 120mil without checks and balances is wild. Personally I would have a hard time not dipping my hand into that cookie jar. It's human nature.

I used to serve on a ed foundation board. Those numbers are incredible. We paid out almost every penny we took in, with a small percentage held over for a reserve fund.

A quick search tells me most large Texas ISD ed foundations have around $5 million in reserves -- socked away in case fundraising is reduced for whatever reason. That's a far cry from $100 million-plus.

Also, I've never heard of a district itself contributing to the education foundation, nor of a superintendent being directly involved on the foundation board. Those two items definitely don't pass the smell test.

I eventually left the board because I finally realized that most of the purchases we funded went unused after the first year or so and wound up being thrown out. A lot of the grants were driven by principals who pushed teachers to apply so their schools would look good.

It was just a lot of crap sold by the educational industrial complex. Another red-pilling experience.

I live in the district. My 3 kids went K-12. Poole is a genius. He has promoted and defended this place very well. Lots of haters, but these is no argument over how well the district runs, educates and operates. 8yrs ago, it was a 3 A district. We had 6 national merit scholar finalists. BHISD excels at everything from academics to agriculture. From arts to athletics and wins UIL EVERY YEAR, for 28yrs running. We have former students return to participate in the annual choir Christmas concert where they sing Christian songs about Jesus. Average home prices are $400K and no section 8 apartments in district. Terri Leo Wilson is a TLR funded Galveston socialite who claims to have education experience from Minnesota. She can go to Hell.

It's not all wine and roses though. The Education Foundation has been funded through the 100's of 313 tax abatement agreements with area industry and logistic staging centers and warehouses built in district. Google map the area. 18wheeler traffic ruins our road and causes traffic like Houston. The peaceful area where I built is no longer peaceful. There is a price to pay for this. The $90MM BOND for athletics was overwhelmingly passed by the residents. Taxes did not increase.

The System said:

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Apparently, F16 is not privy to how things work out on The Hill. There's a reason their slogan is "We Can, We Will, We're Barbers Hill".

Their Superintendent jets around on a private plane. And they've been successful in blocking any section 8 apartment complexes from dirtying up their Utopia. However, it is a fantastic school district.

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One of my sisters retired as a jr high teacher at Barbers Hill about 12 years ago. She left a year early because she gave some punk an F for writing obscenities on an essay paper and threatening her. His trash parents complained about her and the principal did nothing. That was her last semester.

Barbers Hill motto:

A little off the top please.

I recently retired from Deer Park ISD administration. My recollection: The 313 agreements were legal property value limitation contracts tied into industry/business expansion where the industry/business gets a tax break and the districts gets some of that savings yearly. (Texas now has severely limited or eliminated future 313 agreements). BHISD had over 30 of the 313 agreements leading to well over $100 million still being paid out with millions more coming in years to come, Deer Park had about 5-6 agreements somewhere in the $30-40 million range. Not too many ISD's have those contracts or at least not many leading to $10+ million in funds.

Most ISD's place the funds in their fund balance or somewhere other than an Educational Foundation. Though some/many may try to "hide" the funds to avoid "Robin Hood" payments, the state could change laws to get their hands on some of those funds.

While I disagree with some of the things BHISD's Supt does, this is not one of them. Administrators are not "lining" their pockets with funds, though those funds can be used for district raises (which allows BHISD to entice the best teachers/coaches/etc.) An Education Foundation has a board that approves, makes decisions on allotment of funds. At Deer Park, we saw it as a way to offset some of the property value tax $ we sent back to the state yearly (most districts don't have to deal with the smell/ugliness of industry so why should they get our funds)…The state never fully addressed the inequities of their "Robin Hood" plan.

Correction: 313 funds are not considered standard local tax revenue so would be harder for the state to get to but they could and probably will go after an ISD's Fund Balance some day.

58-7 said:

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I recently retired from Deer Park ISD administration. My recollection: The 313 agreements were legal property value limitation contracts tied into industry/business expansion where the industry/business gets a tax break and the districts gets some of that savings yearly. (Texas now has severely limited or eliminated future 313 agreements). BHISD had over 30 of the 313 agreements leading to well over $100 million still being paid out with millions more coming in years to come, Deer Park had about 5-6 agreements somewhere in the $30-40 million range. Not too many ISD's have those contracts or at least not many leading to $10+ million in funds.

Most ISD's place the funds in their fund balance or somewhere other than an Educational Foundation. Though some/many may try to "hide" the funds to avoid "Robin Hood" payments, the state could change laws to get their hands on some of those funds.

While I disagree with some of the things BHISD's Supt does, this is not one of them. Administrators are not "lining" their pockets with funds, though those funds can be used for district raises (which allows BHISD to entice the best teachers/coaches/etc.) An Education Foundation has a board that approves, makes decisions on allotment of funds. At Deer Park, we saw it as a way to offset some of the property value tax $ we sent back to the state yearly (most districts don't have to deal with the smell/ugliness of industry so why should they get our funds)…The state never fully addressed the inequities of their "Robin Hood" plan.

Correction: 313 funds are not considered standard local tax revenue so would be harder for the state to get to but they could and probably will go after an ISD's Fund Balance some day.

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Last I looked about 4 years ago, BHISD had over $7 Billion (with a a B) in tax abetted industrial properties. The district also sends $0.50 of EVERY DOLLAR it collects in residential school taxes to the state in recapture (Robinhood) as a "property rich district" of which we have ZERO say in where it's spent. Chambers County Texas has about 30% of all tax abated industrial properties in the state. Poole is trying to grow the Foundation to be like a university endowment. If we need to build a new school, we can just pay for it. If we want to cater our student lunches from Vic and Anthony Steakhouse we can. Eventually, it will be self sustaining.
The 313's are structured through the state legislature and are not part of the Robinhood scheme. The industry petitions the county for an abatement, the commissioners review and either approve or disapprove of the petition based on a myriad of things. There is some sort of formula they use to arrive at a number to which the industrial business pays to be he school district. It's called a PILOT (Payment In Lieu Of Taxes) and the school district keeps 100% of that money.
Terri Leo Wilson and her ilk do t like the idea of a public school district not begging for money from them and not under their control. She can get ****ed. BHISD is just fine. I have ZERO issue with how the leadership has structured and ran the foundation.

58-7 said:

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Most ISD's place the funds in their fund balance or somewhere other than an Educational Foundation. Though some/many may try to "hide" the funds to avoid "Robin Hood" payments, the state could change laws to get their hands on some of those funds.

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As more and more light is shed on this type of thing, that is exactly what I expent the state to do.

The real question in all this: do BH freshman boys still get mohawked by upper classmen.

I texted a CFO in a neighboring district of BHISD. He stated that BHISD has received between $200-$250 million in 313 agreement funds and that they still have over 30 current agreements that will contribute likely over $100-$200 million more in the coming years until the contracts end in 1-15 years.

NE PA Ag said:

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The real question in all this: do BH freshman boys still get mohawked by upper classmen.

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Yes. We are stuck in a time warp in a lot of ways. I LOVE IT! We expect boys to have boy haircuts. Girls cant wear revealing clothing and respect to teachers and staff is DEMANDED from students. I think they even still have a corporal punishment policy to which parents sign a consent form at the beginning of the school year.

nvm

58-7 said:

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I texted a CFO in a neighboring district of BHISD. He stated that BHISD has received between $200-$250 million in 313 agreement funds and that they still have over 30 current agreements that will contribute likely over $100-$200 million more in the coming years until the contracts end in 1-15 years.

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Most abatements last 10years. At which time, they will probably do a debottleneck project or expand their footprint start the process all over again.

valvemonkey91 said:

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NE PA Ag said:

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The real question in all this: do BH freshman boys still get mohawked by upper classmen.

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Yes. We are stuck in a time warp in a lot of ways. I LOVE IT!

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Thumbs up given.

NE PA Ag said:

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The real question in all this: do BH freshman boys still get mohawked by upper classmen.

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We didn't do that at my high school, but the senior boys "bought" freshman boys. (I don't recall girls particpating.) As I remember, they "bid" on them, but I do not recall the particulars. The freshmen were basically owned by the senior boy for that school day, many freshmen had to wear a dress to school, hands were stuck in buckets of paint, and had to carry the books for the senior boy. All school sanctioned.

Then the year before I would have been a freshman, it all stopped. The prior year someone tied a guy up and pulled him behind his car (I think on the practice field) and it didn't go well. And then, of course, they closed the black school and those kids came to our school and I guess the "buying" someone would have been a bit much.

I stand corrected -

there is $250mil plus in the BHEF

I've served on an education foundation for the past ten years. I can think of NO reason money should ever flow from the district to the foundation. None. Our superintendent is on the board, but he is a non-voting member.

Martin Cash said:

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I've served on an education foundation for the past ten years. I can think of NO reason money should ever flow from the district to the foundation. None. Our superintendent is on the board, but he is a non-voting member.

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I'm not questioning the foundation's existence or the mechanics of their cashflow, etc. I would rather the money go to local ISD students' education, rather than the Karmelo's, or other ISDs. Hell, with that kind of cash, you could bankroll the entire ISD enrollment's college tuition.

I'm simply advocating for a higher level of financial / accounting transparency and oversight. Perhaps those currently in charge of the purse strings are doing so ethically, but it's a ripe for corruption situation.