The facts are pretty easy to follow. The school was passing a bond to provide keyless entry access to all doors. The keyless entry would be universal throughout the district, provided by Verkada. Many consider Verkada the gold standard in keyless access. However, when walking outside the district with an old friend, the administrator responsible for deciding how the taxpayer dollars were spent made an odd statement. He told his buddy exactly how much the district had to spend and told his friend to make sure he spent it all. This was done in the presence of a teacher and a principal. With the amount to be spent well over 100k this was viewed as odd. How the money was spent is even odder. With this money, the district purchased several Salto keyless entry systems from Texoma Builders Supply in Wichita Falls, TX. The cost for the keyless entry systems and their installation was enormous. The real problem, however, was that the purchase was made knowing they would be removed and replaced by the Verkada system the school bond provided. The proof…. Walk the school and see how many Salto door swipes are still installed. Open a records request for all communication between Texoma Builders and the school district. Unlike the board’s “investigation,” ask the witnesses and listen to them instead of ignoring them and covering up the wasted taxpayer dollars. An email for an itemized breakdown of the spending was requested when trying to justify purchases to the state, and it was simply ignored. How could this be covered up? It would require a very close relationship between the person throwing our taxpayer dollars away and the person managing our district’s finances. That very close relationship existed in a very big way. The leadership didn’t want you to know. They wanted to be seen as noble stewards of our communities and kids. They have failed, but now you know. They should now show us how they paid back the wasted taxpayer dollars. Expect better. Be better. More to follow.
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