Lumberton, TX School Board election 2011

Daigle vs. Rhea

Early voting has already begun for the Lumberton ISD School Board election. Voting is at the Administration Building in front of the Middle School and the hours/dates are:

Today-Saturday, 8-5 pm
Mon/Tues next week, 7-7pm
Election Day is Saturday, May 14th, 7-7pm

Update to Lumberton ISD Fishy Attorney Situation - over $40,000 in owed back taxes

I previously reported that the LISD school attorney had not been paid for his last few years. The school attorney told the school board at a meeting that he would request payment when he retired. The school board told him he would not get any money and so he just resigned without ever billing the school. So that led me into asking a bunch of questions. Why was he not getting paid? Why did the school board not know? What is going on?! Everyone denied that anything fishy was going on and some even stated that he was just being nice and working for free. that working for free story just did not add up though. Well after some digging, I found that there was indeed something very strange going on. The Hardin County News was investigating this too and they came out with a story about it revealing some very interesting facts. Basically, the former school attorney has not paid his Hardin County Property taxes on his house since 1998 and he owes over $40,000 in back taxes. It does not appear that he has made any effort to pay his past due taxes nor does it appear that he wants to.... hmmmm, after a while they might garnish a person's wages for something like that right? But what if you could hide your wages by not getting paid till later so that the tax collectors don't come getting the money from his LISD income? Why would someone who owes back taxes not want to get paid his lucrative pay from LISD? Why would he cut some strange deal with the LISD administration to not get paid till later without letting the school board know about it? Is it ethical to have someone legally representing the school and the city that refuses to pay his taxes? I don't know what exactly is going on but something is going on and no one can deny that facts. I just want government to be open and honest. I have never had any personal problems with Furlow and I know most of the school board and do not dislike them. But I do dislike everyone trying to hide the truth from the taxpayers who pay the bills. The people of Lumberton deserve to have open government so that way problems get addressed openly instead of swept under the rug. Lumberton ISD Superintendent Dr. Sims needs to come out and clarify what is going on here.

Lumberton ISD Caught Lying about Obscene Play

A member of the Media called me today and told me that Lumberton ISD has COMPLETELY denied any obscene material being said in front of students at Lumberton High School. They say all of the bad content was taken out and not done in front of the students. I don't know who at the school this media person talked to, but whoever they talked to was lying to cover their tracks and it will hurt the district to be caught in a blatant lie!

My brother came home in Nov 2010 and said there was a play at school that had cursing and talked about putting an ad online to get laid. A kid does not just come home and just make that stuff up. After months of communicating with the School Administration, I requested the script from the school and the script confirmed that the play done in front of the school had this inappropriate material. I then talked to the principal and the principal confirmed that this play had inappropriate material that was performed in front of the students.

School Policy prohibits this language in the school and the principal CLEARLY violated policy by allowing this play.

Go to the School Board meeting THIS THURSDAY at 7PM and tell them you are not happy about this play.

Many of you have called and emailed the school so please continue to do that! the phone number is 409 923 7580 and you can email them at http://www.lumberton.k12.tx.us/education/components/form/default.php?sectiondetailid=10390

below are the exact copies of the play that the school gave me.

As you can see, SOME of the inappropriate content has one line through it. (these parts are highlighted in pink) These parts were not said in front of the whole school. But they could still be read by all the students who got the play from the teacher like all of the drama students.

As you can also see, MOST of the inappropriate content (including vulgar words and strong sexual references) WERE NOT LINED OUT AND WERE SAID IN FRONT OF ALL STUDENTS. (these parts are highlighted in yellow)

This play is CLEARLY inappropriate and violates school policy. Parents already have to deal with their kids getting bad influences everywhere they turn. They SHOULD NEVER have to worry about the principal teaching them the bad material.

Click on the pictures below to enlarge them.

The following parts of the play are posted under the Fair Use Act. The Invisible J. Michael Hess By James D. Waedekin Eldridge Publishing Company

Sexually Obscene Play shown Lumberton ISD - Take Action Now!

Texas School District, Lumberton ISD, performed drama to Entire High School (including 9^th graders) with cursing and talking about putting ads on internet to get laid. (see text from play below WARNING: Don't let Children see the text below, even though the school already showed them)

Lumberton Parents need to call the School and complain about the obscene and disgusting material that the school approved for YOUR CHILD to have to watch at school. Call LISD at 409 923 7580

Parents also need to go to the Thursday, March 17^th School Board Meeting at 7PM to demand action.

Back in Nov. 2010, my 9^th grade brother came home and told my parents that there was a play he had to watch at the Lumberton High School with cursing and talking about creating an online ad to get laid.

I was surprised when I heard about this so I emailed a couple of school board members about it.

The school board members could not really tell me much about the play because they did not hear about it. They then directed me to the Asst. Superintendent. The Asst. Superintendent was very nice and tried to get to the bottom of what was going on. He figured out that the play did happen. He said that the high school principal, Mr. Bilberry, addressed the issue with the Drama teacher and told her that if there is anything questionable in the future then it needs to be approved.

I did not like that answer very much because if the teacher thought it was questionable to begin with then she would not have done it.

I decided to request a copy of the drama script from Lumberton ISD so I did an open records request and LISD sent me the script for the drama that was done in front of the entire school. The play was titled The Invisible J. Michael Hess. I got this script a couple of weeks ago and I was SHOCKED at what I read.

ALL Parents should know what their Children are getting taught at school BY THE PRINCIPAL

The Contents of the School Play

On top of cursing and the use of the word faggot several times, here are some of the shocking lines from the script:

 I like Girls! I like Girls! So much so, that I even placed an internet advertisement: www.GetJasonLaid.com 

You think I’m hot, eh? You think I’m sexy. You want my body.

Hey faggot. Shouldn’t you be cruising the bushes somewhere or giving head in the public head?

I haven’t heard you complain about any of the places I’ve been kissing you lately.

You’re right. We heterosexuals shouldn’t be kissing in front of the homosexual. We don’t want to contaminate his understanding upbringing. Undo all his sweet mama did for the pussy.

I want to grab something to eat before the movie. Though we won’t be watching much of it.

Beats pleasing yourself…. By yourself

Missy must be a great change of pace for you, you know from all the sluts

But the constant trying to fit in is a pain in my ass

Pissed off or confused. Not sure which, faggot.

That play is OUTRAGEOUS and COMPLETELY INAPPROPRIATE for a high school play. Not only does the play include language that is against the school policy and can get students a $500 fine. It also seems to be promoting and approving that minor children place ads on the internet so they can get laid!! Let’s hope they don’t get a reply from a child molester. A couple of the obscene parts of the play were not said in front of the entire school, but Most of this obscene material was done in front of the whole school, not to mention the entire script was passed out to student with ALL of the obscene material in it for them to read. It was approved by Principal Bilberry so I hate to think that the students think this type of language is acceptable.

I decided to talk to Principal Bilberry after the last school board meeting.

What Principal Bilberry had to Say About The Play

This is the conversation that Principal Bilberry and I had:

He (Mr. Bilberry) said he approved the play. He said the inappropriate parts were said on stage to make the play have more of an effect. I said can’t you make the same point without a curse word? Especially since it is against policy to curse in school. He said sure, but they wanted to make it more real to show what the boy in the play was feeling. He said people hear these things every day. I told him that just because people hear them does not mean the school should promote it as ok by approving it to be said in front of the kids in a school sponsored play.

I said that if cursing is illegal in school then that means on stage too. He said the school has signs in the school that say there is a $500 fine for cursing in school, but then he said that it is not enforced. He said no police officer is going to come down and fine anyone.

He not only said that cursing rules were not enforced at his school, he tried to say that shit was not a bad word at one point in the conversation.

He said that since I complained, from now on if a play is going to be done for the students then a letter will be sent out and the parents have to send it back if they do not want their kid to see it. I said that there should not even be a parent option to send a letter back if they don’t want them to see a play. I told him that they should not have the parent option because they should never do plays like that in school in the first place!

WOW! So the principal, the leader and moral guide for the school kids, thinks there was nothing wrong with cursing in front of the students, using obscene language in front of the student, and talking about putting advertisements online so the students can get laid.

Past Problems with Principal Bilberry

Unfortunately, this seems to be a pattern. When my brother was in middle school, Mr. Bilberry was the principal over there. My brother was repeatedly made fun of by another boy. I personally talked to Mr. Bilberry and was told that the boy was just having fun and that no one is hurt by making fun of a person’s stuff as long as they do not make fun of the person directly. I told him that bullying like that can lead to other things where people DO get hurt. I could not believe I was told by Principal Bilberry that it is ok to bully and make fun of someone’s stuff as long as you do not make fun of the person directly. I was so shocked that I immediately wrote an email to the Superintendent Dr. Sims (I still have the email in my sent box as proof) I told Dr Sims what Mr. Bilberry told me bullying is just kids having fun and there is nothing wrong with it. I told Dr. Sims how it was very disturbing. I never heard back from Dr. Sims about it.

What other inappropriate material is getting presented to the kids in Lumberton? What other bullying is allowed to go on? This is completely inappropriate and the principal violated school policy and possibly caused damage to some of the kids who heard the obscene material and not think it is acceptable material to use “as long as you are trying to get a point across” as Principal Bilberry would say.

The Principal needs to make a public apology and the School board needs to take appropriate so to discourage Mr. Bilberry from doing something like this again.

School Board Promises New School Policy

On another note, members of Lumberton School Board, Gene Stewart and Kenny Burkhalter have expressed disgust that this happened and have told me that they WILL be supporting creating new school policy to protect the children of LISD and to prevent this from ever happening again. I am sure the rest of the school board would agree. I applaud these school board members for standing up against this unacceptable behavior.

Lumberton School Board Quietly Calls Out School Administration at Meeting

In a very politically correct manner, and hidden in a long speech, the Lumberton School Board last night agreed that the Administration had been hiding millions of dollars from the School Board. While it is true that the federal grant money does not have to be voted on by the board in the yearly budget because the grant money comes in after the budget is already voted on, it is also true that once the money comes in the Administration cannot hide these funds from the School Board members who have been elected to oversee everything.
In a statement read by the School Board President, the School Board said that they cannot "fulfill their responsibility for oversight" as they were elected to do unless they know about all the money coming in and being spent. The School Board president said that from now on the School Administration must allow the Board to "review the use of these funds in the future." The School Board also said that they have "contracted an audit firm to conduct an internal audit" to do a complete review of the "the federal funds" that were hidden as well as all other financial operations of the District.
Did the school board make a big deal out of the issue? No. But that was expected because most school boards do not want bad press coverage. Did the school board do the right thing by telling the school administration to tell them about future money and by also hiring a firm to do a complete internal audit of finances? Yes! The Lumberton School Board, in a very quiet sort of way as to not bring attention to themselves, is standing up and fighting back. The people of Lumberton should be happy to know that their elected school board members are taking this issue of hidden money head on! Please note that this is a completely different school board than just a few years ago so the people did the right thing when they woke up and elected these new faces to the board. Now if only BISD could get some new faces to clean up their big financial mess....

Also note that my previous letter never mentioned anything about slealing money. The local newspaper did that. My previous letter simply said that they were not telling the school board about millions of dollars. The school board is elected by the people to oversee everything and the Administration CANNOT hide this money from them. Government needs to be more open and honest. I also believe there are Great people on the Administration and the Administration as a whole did nothing wrong. It was really one or two people that were not telling the School Board about the money... Lumberton ISD Superintendent Dr. Sims needs to come out and clarify what is going on here.

Sincerely,
David Bellow
mdbellow@gmail.com

Hardin County - May 2009 Election Info

Cities and School Districts all over Hardin County have already started going to the polls to vote. So get out there and make your voice heard! And remember, getting our country back to its conservative roots of less taxing and spending and less government control starts here locally. So get involved and get informed and vote conservative!

HARDIN COUNTY

City of Kountze
Early voting
8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays through May 4, City Hall, 1025 N. Pine.
Ballot items
Place 4: Geary "Sonny" Overstreet, 39, USPS route carrier; Lawrence Brown (I), 60, industrial hygienist

City of Lumberton
Early voting
8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays through May 2, Lumberton school district administration building, 121 S. Main; exceptions, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. May 4 and 5, same location.
Ballot items
Mayor: Don Surratt (I), 69, DuPont retiree; Gene Stewart, 46, ExxonMobil systems engineer

Kountze ISD
Early voting
8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, school district administration office, 110 Vaughn St.
Ballot items
Place 4: Cody Williford (I), 31, Daniels Construction project manager; Wayland Whisenhant, 35, Modern EPC business development manager
Place 5: Donna Moody (I), 56, Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church Southeast Texas District administrative assistant; Lloyd James, 59, , Richard Construction vice president.

Lumberton ISD
Early voting
8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays through May 2, Lumberton school district administration building, 121 S. Main; exceptions, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. May 4 and 5, same location.
Ballot items
Place 1: Bill Nelson, 79, retired; Jace Retherford, 20, ranch hand; Jeff Rhea, 43, Gulf Credit Union chief financial officer and vice president
Place 3: James Glenn, 47, engineering manager; Gene Pickering (I), 49, safety professional
Place 4: Julie Walker (I), 45, business owner; Raymond Jones, 57, retired

Hardin-Jefferson ISD
Early voting
8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Fridays through May 5, school district administration offices, 520 W. Herring, Sour Lake; or 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., China Elementary School, 717 N. Broadway, China.
Ballot items
Place 1: Michelle Yentzen, (I), 47, Sour Lake, attorney; Joel A. Luna, 52, Kountze, control valve technician