"So why was The Driscoll Group paid $68,165 over the past year" With OUR tax dollars?

H/T Geek Pavaler

EYE  just wanted to drop you a quick note to let you know postings will be light this week due to real life circumstances, but I am keeping my big RedEye on the Huntsville City Schools Board of mis- Education and the recent developments in  the court ordered mediation regarding the Federal Desegregation Case.  Needless to say, there is some Shady Stuff going on, and we can't depend on the mainstream media to tell us what we need to know because they are busy telling us what they want us to know, which is nothing.

In the meantime please read Why has HCS Hired a Political Strategist?

From October 2013 through at least November 2014 (the most currently available HCS check register), Huntsville City Schools has paid a total of $68,165.00 to The Driscoll Group a local firm specializing in “Advertising, Public Relations, and Political Strategies.”According to the entries on the check registers this total was paid for “OTHER PROF SERVICES.”So far, HCS has written David Driscoll of The Driscoll Group eleven checks over that period for the following amounts:

1. 10/24/2013 – $3,600.00

1. 11/7/2013 – $3,600.00

1. 1/23/2014 – $8,200.00

1. 2/14/2014 – $5,715.00

1. 3/6/2014 – $4,425.00

1. 4/2014 – $6,725.00 (Beginning in April, the district stopped publishing the exact date of the written check.)

1. 5/2014 – $8,800.00

1. 6/2014 – $4,575.00

1. 7/2014 – $4,375.00

1. 9/2014 – $9,050.00

1. 11/2014 – $9,100.00

Then read a Guest Editorial by the Composer

Amidst a completed prelude of rolling thunder and pouring showers, a scene of calmness covered the atmosphere of 200 White Street, as the central office for Huntsville City Schools served as host for a press conference organized and administered by the North Huntsville Community United for Action (NHCUA).

This group consists of local ministers, elected officials, community leaders and concerned citizens of the Huntsville community. The press conference was called to bring awareness to the  issues that continue to plague the local school system, particularly in north Huntsville where the population is majority African-American.

About 30 individuals, not including representatives of HCS: Rena Anderson (Director of Community Engagement) , David Driscoll (Director of Community Spying?), and local media were in attendance.

Then read #hsvboe gives north Huntsville students, principals, teachers, elected officials, clergy, community leaders, and taxpayers the middle finger....again

About that Director of Community Spying.....

In a previous post, The Composer made a  tongue in cheek referral to David Driscoll as the Director of Community Spying, but when you look a little closer you find the characterization has a ring of truth.

Let's recap:

Who is David Driscoll?  According to his LinkedIn profile he is a former radio personality/sales director and President of the The Driscoll Group  consulting/business services. According to AL.com his firm does consulting work for Huntsville City Schools.

McGinnis, Wilder and Ferrell on Thursday issued a statement through the Driscoll Group, which does consulting work for Huntsville City Schools, in support of extending Wardynski's contract.  "We believe extending Dr. Wardynski's contract an extra year is the right thing to do for the school system," the statement read. "With the ongoing court case, the construction of multiple schools and rapid changes being made to better educate our children, we feel that keeping the same team together is critical.

The Driscoll Group Facebook invites readers to check out the website they designed for soon to be former school board member/President, and failed State Senate candidate, David Blair. 
The counter protest in support of Casey Wardynski was organized and led by James Lomax,  whose LinkedIn profile says he was previously employed by the Driscoll Group.

Lomax, a young politically-active Huntsville resident who, until August, worked for the Driscoll Group, said he organized the rally because he worries that all of the negativity toward the superintendent will "scare him away." "Casey Wardynski coming here has really changed the landscape of the school system," Lomax said. He said Wardynski has done an excellent job since becoming superintendent.  "You don't fire someone doing a good job," Lomax said.

Back to the Director of Community Spying....remember when Casey Wardynski was invited to attend a town hall meeting in north Huntsville organized by Councilman Richard Showers, which he refused to attend, but said he knew everything that was said because "we had folks there"?  Don't know about people, but I know one person that was there, and at all other community meetings..... David Driscoll.

EYE don't know about you, but it sounds like the Huntsville City School Board of Education is a piggy bank for adults.

What say you Commissioner Bob Harrison?

EYE shall return...

RedEye's Weekly Rundown: What we know about #hsvboe SpyGate so far

Fist Dap Crowblog

What we know.

We know Huntsville City Schools, under the control and command of military colonel, turned superintendent, Casey WARdynski, has been secretly spying on students, and probably yours truly and who knows who else, since at least January 2014 and possibly since as early as May 2013

We know Wardynski said a call from the NSA, via a call to Al Lankford, tipped the school district to a student making violent threats on Facebook.

We know Wardynski said, "There was a foreign connection,"  explaining why the NSA would take time out of their busy day to warn HCS, Wardysnki said the student in Huntsville had made the online threats while chatting online with a group that included an individual in Yemen.

We know as a result of this "call" a student was expelled after HCS security searched their car and found a large knife, not a gun and a knife as originally reported, and it was not the student who was making violent threats while chatting online with a group that included an individual in Yeman.

We know  the student wasn't chatting on Facebook with a group that included an individual in Yemen, it was a student from Yemen,  and said student sent tweets (not to be confused with Facebook)  HCS say led to the warning from the NSA, which led Huntsville to begin monitoring student Facebook pages.

We know the Al.com editorial board tends to believe Wardynki over the NSA, and wants Congressman Mo Brooks to get to the bottom of this. 

We know some school board members said they didn't know about the spying program before they said they did know about the spying program.

We know this issue didn't come to light until after the school board election, and the District 3 board candidates facing each other in a runoff  have somewhat different takes on the Huntsville school district's secret surveillance of students' social media accounts.

We know candidate Elise Ferrell said the information she gathered indicated that a second call came to the district about that threat, from a company called GEOCOP, a cyber security software company, among other things.

We know this covert spying program, that may have cost taxpayers as much as $1,050,768.67, has not been overseen by anyone.

We know Casey Wardynski is doing the job he was hired which is to stand up to the aclu (sic) types, and, the ACLU  submitted an open records request to Huntsville City Schools in June seeking information about how the system monitors its students on social media, concerned blacks were being disproportionately punished. We also know Huntsville City Schools spokesman Keith Ward (not to be confused with the Director of Community Engagement) is "working on a response.

We know in a presentation about the monitoring system obtained by AL.com, photos show three black males and one black female. We also know all of the students that have been nabbed by the program are black and brown.

We know all of these dangerous gang members were either expelled or sent to the Pinnacle program.

We know taxpayers have been censored and silenced.

We know Big Brother isn't coming, he's already here.

Are we safe yet?

I was asked an important question yesterday by a good friend: “Do you ever worry that your activism will result in retribution against your kids?”
The short answer to that question is, simply, yes.

Next:   What we don't know about #hsvboe Spygate