Recycle Tracy Fisher
President Harry S. Truman once said, “The Buck Stops Here”. The phrase refers to the notion that the President has to make the decisions and accept the ultimate responsibility for those decisions.
Based on this, for what I am about to tell you, the buck stops with Board of Trustees President Tracy Fisher.
In a nutshell, Coppell ISD interfered in my child custody matter. Coppell ISD did so by getting its attorneys to file a Petition in Intervention in my child custody case. According to an Administrative Law Judge based in Austin, he had never seen this type of action by a school district, interfering in a custody matter, in his 25 years on the bench. And that too regarding a trivial dispute over how many emails I should be allowed to send (then) Assistant Superintendent, Brad Hunt (see link at the bottom for details).
Thus far, Coppell ISD has spent more than $250,000 in legal fees in this matter (based on information obtained via Open Records and estimated to date). This figure will continue to grow as the legal matter is still ongoing and could reach the half a million dollar mark before the legal matter concludes. This is money that should be spent educating our children.
To put this amount in perspective, $250,000 could have paid the salaries of 5 Coppell ISD teachers for a year.
Why is “Coppell ISD” taking money that should be spent on our teachers and our children and handing it over to a law firm?
We all know “Coppell ISD” is not a real person. So, who made the decision to give Coppell ISD’s lawyers a blank check to spend unlimited amounts of money to interfere in this private matter? Who made the decision to divert sacred public education funds to a private law firm?
There are only 2 suspects – the Administration (headed by Brad Hunt) and the Board of Trustees (headed by Tracy Fisher).
I have known both Brad Hunt and Tracy Fisher for almost a decade and have had excellent relations with both of them. I even regard Tracy Fisher as a friend!
I have repeatedly tried to reason with them to stop this madness, reach a settlement (non-monetary, involving just resolving some communication issues between me and Coppell ISD personnel) and end the bleeding (of dollars) from Coppell ISD – and from Coppell families and taxpayers.
Amazingly, both of them, in addition to contending that they are not responsible for making these type of legal decisions, also act blithely unconcerned that massive amounts of public funds intended for our children are being wasted.
So, from the look of it, the lawyers are now in charge of Coppell ISD and essentially have a free rein to bill at their own discretion with little to no oversight from district management or the Board of Trustees.
Then what can be done to stop this continuing bleeding of taxpayer dollars which should be spent on education, not litigation?
For the solution, once again I go back to Harry S. Truman’s saying, “the buck stops with the President”. In this case, whether she will accept responsibility or not, the buck stops with Coppell ISD Board of Trustees President Tracy Fisher. And since she seemingly has no clue how to stop this hemorrhaging, she has to go and make room for someone else who can take charge of the situation and stop this obscene waste of our tax dollars, money that has been diverted from our children’s education.
That is why I am dumping my old friend Tracy Fisher and will not be voting for her in this coming election.
Post Script: If those of who have read this far and are curious as to what in world happened between me and the powers that be at Coppell ISD that led to this situation, this link should give you an idea: https://venkyvenkatraman.com/2017/04/my-secretary-brad/
Venky, can you post the documents you received through your open records request? It’s not that I don’t believe you, but these are some serious charges you’re making against CISD and the board. Can we see the lawyer’s Billings? Can you provide more of an explanation into why CISD interfered? You speak of emails in your other article that came from a ORR, can we see those too? Are there documents that link these legal actions and fees directly to Tracy Fisher? I told follow your connection of Tracy Fisher to your dispute with CISD, can you clear that up to? To date, all of your claims are unsubstantiated by documents, creditable witnesses, or hard facts.
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It appears that you are a “Concerned Citizen” with an email id of [email protected].
If you are able to identify yourself (that you are not some guy sitting in Russia!) and the reason for your interest in this matter, I would happy to provide any proofs to substantiate what I have written.
On the other hand, if you don’t want to identify yourself to me, could ask Tracy Fisher or CISD to provide a rebuttal to my allegations. One would think they would be eager to do so if they want to disprove whatever I have alleged.
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Hey Venky, I wish I could identify myself and have this discussion in your Facebook forum, but that’s not an option for me. I can tell you I live in Coppell -my favorite menu item at Anamia’s is Jay’s Chicken and when you walk into the CISD admin building the receptionist’s desk is to the right and offices line the left wall- and work for an entity closely related to the district and city. All that said, if Tracy Fisher really is connected to a district action against you to the tune of 250k I’ll be the first in line to vote for Ron Hanson. Unfortunately, you provide no evidence of the cost or connection to Tracy. I don’t think it’s too much to ask that you substantiate your claims with the ORR documents you’ve received. If you can’t, then you are more of a guy sitting in Russia stirring up fake news than I am. It seems like you’re a well educated guy who respects truth and fairness, and this post cannot prove its truthfulness. I see that you are a mediator. If your client’s ex-wife claimed that he had stolen 250k from their live savings wouldn’t you request proof during the settlement?
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Hey Concerned Citizen,
First of all, you need to tell me why you cannot identify yourself for me to take you seriously.
Next, you must be really stupid to say “you are more of a guy sitting in Russia stirring up fake news than I am.” when you have my full name and my address in Coppell is no secret.
Finally, if you are so knowledgeable about Coppell and you are really interested in verifying what I have stated, you should know you can file your own Open Records Request and get the same information that I have easily obtained. Why don’t you do it if you are that interested? Or have someone else do it for you??
Venky
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Venky- Please delete this comment after you’ve read it. I am a contractor that works with CISD and the city. I can’t publicly oppose them. That said I’ve been in Coppell awhile and the folks running the show now aren’t even half as good as the ones that use to be around. I’d love change, but I also love my house and summer vacation so you’ll just have to live with not knowing my name –for now.
I’m asking you to post the documents you already have to prove your claims, because it’ll tilt this election in the direction it needs to go.
Stop asking Tracy to respond, force her to respond.
Post documents that are so damning she has to respond or face a sweeping loss. She doesn’t have the political know how to get over spending 250k of taxpayer money by meddling in your family court matter. If you release the documents you would sink her ship right now, and all but guarantee Ron is elected. Every paper that covers Coppell would be forced to run an article about it, because there would be substantial proof.
Imagine the front page headline in the Citizen’s Advocate: “CISD Lawyers Bill $250,000 Fighting Parent; Tracy Fisher Involved”
I don’t understand your logic of not posting the documents, and then battling with the folks that want more clarity. Me, and the gentlemen on your Facebook page. If you aren’t willing to go all the way, why even write the post? It seems to me like you’re not ready to take the bigger stage. You’re on the edge of having a voice and a say in this town. You’re just a step away from legitimacy.
I don’t think I’m stupid to make an analogy between you and a guy in Russia. A guy in Russia would, like you have here, claim some story to effect an election. But because the guy in Russia just made the story up he wouldn’t have the documents to substantiate his claim.
Don’t go for the adhom attack you so violently oppose on Facebook; it’ll come back to bite you in the ass if you ever want to get elected to a position in this town.
There is no one that can shake this race and the board up more than you can. No need to post this comment, or reply. If you share the documents I’ll know you’re ready for the big time. If you don’t, well then we both know you aren’t.
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Hello Concerned Citizen,
I am publishing your comment (although you prefer that I not do so) because there is nothing here that will allow the powers-that-be at CISD to identify you and retaliate against you (as you appear to fear).
Brief response:
– I am not running for office and never intend to run for any office – so I don’t need to do anything anyone asks me to do
– those involved in the election already have copies of the documents and they can publish them or not as and when they see fit
Venky
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Hi Venky – Can you share the backup with me? I’d like to see firsthand.
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Hi Amanda, I am not sure what you mean by “backup”. Can you clarify?
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I’m confused. If you are suing the district, then aren’t you the one costing us money? It seems like you have a problem of one type or another with many schools and groups you interact with. If the same types of problems occur across multiple entities and interactions, a wise person would look in the mirror to see if they may bear any portion of the responsibility. Is it possible you are a toxic personality? Maybe a narcissist? Overly sensitive? Overly agressive? History of trouble with authority? You are clearly a fan of education and self improvemnt and might enjoy looking into those possibilities. There are also lots of self-help groups if you would like to investigate further. You of course have everyone’s IP address when they post comments so you can confirm that I am not in Russia, silly.
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You are indeed confused. Go back and read the article. It is CISD who is suing me – not the other way around. So how am I the one costing you money?
Since you started off with a factual error, I am not even reading anything else you have written.
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Sure. I mean the documents you reference related to legal bills.
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I am never happy when a governmental entity sues a taxpayer. When it happens in a child custody case it is that much worse. This case is concerning on a number of levels. The amount of money CISD has thrown away on this relatively simple issue is unconscionable (an estimated $250K and growing). After reviewing the files personally, it appears there were multiple opportunities for non-monetary settlement, but CISD has refused to discuss settlement. It almost appears that CISD is pursuing this action to be punitive, to teach this taxpayer a lesson.
This case does not speak well of how things are managed at CISD and is consistent with other circumstances that I have personally witnessed and observed in recent years within the district. I realize that organizations are not perfect, but in my opinion, for a governmental entity to get involved in a child custody case to this extent is completely unacceptable. As a taxpayer I am livid. No private business would ever botch a deal this badly.
The most frustrating thing is that the $250K+ wasted on this case could have been spent in the classroom, for teachers, for kids. It is also a snapshot into the levity and irresponsibility CISD practices when handling our tax dollars. Coppell can do so much better.
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Post. The. Documents. Will one of you please just prove it beyond a reasonable doubt? Till then, this is just a fart in the wind.
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Hey Concerned Citizen,
I already told you earlier that you can go get the documents yourself by filing an Open Records Request after you told me that you were a contractor at CISD.
So if you are really that interested in viewing the documents, you need to stop farting in the wind (or indoors for that matter) go to https://coppelltxisd.mycusthelp.com/WEBAPP/_rs/(S(xiy333aatfdtf2dvji3mw4fg))/SupportHome.aspx?sSessionID= make the open records request and get the information.
If you go and get it yourself, only then anything will be proved “beyond a reasonable doubt”. Then you could take whatever action you want to take, if any.
Venky
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Can you please explain your reasoning for not posting them yourself?
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Because whatever I post, people will still question the authenticity, etc, of the documents. That is why I have shown both the legal documents and the legal bills to the candidate Ron Hansen and you can see that he is confirming that in his comment in this post (“After reviewing the files personally, ….”). If you trust him, then vote for him. If you don’t trust him, then don’t vote for him. I am not the candidate!
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For the benefit of anyone else who may wish to comment, all legitimate comments are welcome but if you chose to be anonymous and post some abusive stuff then you are just wasting your time since your comment will end up in the trash and will not see the light of day as I will not give free publicity to spineless morons.
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