Tuesday, February 2, 2016

MDE to Pickering: HELP!!!

It appears the Hattiesburg School District is going broke or more likely, is already broke.  Mississippi Superintendent of Education Carey Wright asked State Auditor Stacey Pickering to immediately investigate the district's finances.  The general fund balance plummeted from $6.5 million in 2012 to $768,796 in 2015.  The district also obtained a $7 million tax anticipation note in August 2015.  The district has already spent $6 million.  The HSD Superintendent and business manager resigned in December.   Dr. Wright sent this letter to Mr. Pickering:



This picture tells how bad it really is. JPS needs to take lessons:

Click on image to enlarge. Credit: Hattiesburg Patriot





Read the rest of the dismal info at this Hattiesburg Patriot post. 

13 comments:

Messick said...

"Director of Parent and Community Involvement"

Yeah, that exists. Because a state employee - directing a department, no less - should make mention it's always a good idea to pay attention to one's offspring's education.

Anonymous said...

Looks like there are plenty of principals and directors.

Anonymous said...

That school district was once top notch. It is a dumpster fire now. There will be no money to get back from these people.

Anonymous said...

There's something rotten in HPSD. or at least, there used to be.

The former superintendent suddenly resigned shortly after WDAM discovered an "internal error" a contract to be awarded to a consulting firm that was not the lowest bidder. To make matters worse, the (now former superintendent) was on the board of directors of said consulting firm.

Anonymous said...

Maybe an "Administrative Personell List" should be published for every school district so we can plead for more funds for education. Who created this list, Hattiesburg or Dept of Education?

Anonymous said...


"Maybe an "Administrative Personell List" should be published for every school district so we can plead for more funds for education. Who created this list, Hattiesburg or Dept of Education?" ~ February 2, 2016 at 5:59 PM

I am going with 5:59pm, let's see the list for every city and county in the state.

Anonymous said...

I'm more impressed with the spelling of "Personnel".

Anonymous said...

...how about 'Administrative' right before Personnel.

Anonymous said...

I have seen "misspellings" like these before.

More than once I have seen financial reports titled with "misspellings" which are then posted on the internet and the "misspelling" are then made part of the url.

Occam says I should suspect that people can't spell, and that officials like school administrators and boards can't spell and/or do not care.

However; when the search engine won't find the document when the exact document title (spelled correctly) is searched, and I then assume the document is not available, only to find that it actually is hiding behind a misspelling or two, I start to wonder.

WDAM reported that former Superintendent Bacchus had some sort of continuing and long term relationship with a consulting company the school district hired to come up with a strategic plan for the district. Hattiesburg Schools hired P3 Strategies LLC to strategically plan for the amount of $219,000, so I wonder if I need to google "Hattiesburg Pubic School Destruct""Pee3 Stratergies LLC" and a few other combinations?

Words of wisdom from former Superintendent Baccus:
“I’m sure we, people always double check math,” Bacchus said. “Are you saying that we don’t make mistakes? No I can’t say that. No I’m not saying that we didn’t make mistakes, but as far as we knew, we thought it was correct.”

Then there's the unique value proposition which justifies almost anything:

Seven on Your Side noted in an interview with Bacchus that it could have been a $164,000 mistake for taxpayers if the district did that basic arithmetic incorrectly.

“You can always say that,” Bacchus said. “You know, everybody always thinks that education shouldn’t cost anything. That we should basically have people that do something for nothing when it comes to education. Many times, what you want, if you ask people to do something for you too that level that you want it, you have to pay for it unfortunately.”




Now they are out of money?

Anonymous said...

Amazing.

Anonymous said...

Can you post salaries and job positions of other like sized high schools?

It would be interesting to see how this equates with say Lee County or DeSoto County?

Anonymous said...

What is the racial makeup of the employees and administration vs. students?

Can't find this information?

Anonymous said...

8:52 a.m.: It had mixed demographics for a very long time. Had a demographic shift that started slowly in the mid 90's and accelerated in the late 90's, early 2000's. Now basically all black, 95% or so. Every bit as much a warzone as JPS.



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In the spirit of helping those who are less fortunate, Trollfest '09 adopts a cause for which a portion of the proceeds and donations will be donated: Keeping Frank Melton in his home. The “Keep Frank Melton From Being Homeless” booth will sell chances for five dollars to pin the tail on the jackass. John Reeves has graciously volunteered to be the jackass for this honorable excursion into saving Frank's ass. What's an ass between two friends after all? If Mr. Reeves is unable to um, perform, Speaker Billy McCoy has also volunteered as when the word “jackass” was mentioned he immediately ran as fast as he could to sign up.


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This is definitely a Beaver production.


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Jackson Jambalaya is the home of Trollfest '07. Catch this great event which promises to leave NE Jackson & Fondren in flames. Sonjay Poontang and his band headline the night with a special steel cage, no time limit "loser must leave town" bout between Alan Lange and "Big Cat"Donna Ladd following afterwards. Kamikaze will perform his new song F*** Bush, he's still a _____. Did I mention there was no referee? Dr. Heddy Matthias and Lori Gregory will face off in the undercard dueling with dangling participles and other um, devices. Robbie Bell will perform Her two latest songs: My Best Friends are in the Media and Mama's, Don't Let Your Babies Grow up to be George Bell. Sid Salter of The Clarion-Ledger will host "Pin the Tail on the Trial Lawyer", sponsored by State Farm.

There will be a hugging booth where in exchange for your young son, Frank Melton will give you a loooong hug. Trollfest will have a dunking booth where Muhammed the terrorist will curse you to Allah as you try to hit a target that will drop him into a vat of pig grease. However, in the true spirit of Separate But Equal, Don Imus and someone from NE Jackson will also sit in the dunking booth for an equal amount of time. Tom Head will give a reading for two hours on why he can't figure out who the hell he is. Cliff Cargill will give lessons with his .80 caliber desert eagle, using Frank Melton photos as targets. Tackleberry will be on hand for an autograph session. KIM Waaaaaade will be passing out free titles and deeds to crackhouses formerly owned by The Wood Street Players.

If you get tired come relax at the Fox News Tent. To gain admittance to the VIP section, bring either your Republican Party ID card or a Rebel Flag. Bringing both will entitle you to free drinks.Get your tickets now. Since this is an event for trolls, no ID is required, just bring the hate. Bring the family, Trollfest '07 is for EVERYONE!!!

This is definitely a Beaver production.

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