Subtle Little Lies

Here is the initial communication that I received from Dana Schafer, Osceola
School District Director of Community Relations:

Note: The 1st attachment below is the original timeline
included in Dana's email, the 2nd is the final revised
timeline.

From: Dana Schafer [mailto:scha...@osceola.k12.fl.us]
Sent: Friday, March 18, 2011 9:36 AM
To: 9992200...@schiro.name
Subject: Citizens Search Committee For Superintendent

Mr. Schiro:

Thank you for agreeing to serve on the Citizens Search
Committee for Osceola County's next Superintendent. As
we move through the process, I will be working closely
with the committee as the applications/resumes for our
candidates come in and on any information you might
need.

Attached to this e-mail, you will find a Search
timeline that the School Board created with our
consultant, Dr. Wayne Blanton with the Florida School
Boards Association, that I hope you will find helpful.

Please note that the Citizens Search Committee will
have an organizational meeting with Dr. Blanton on
March 28 at 6:00 p.m. in the Board Room at the district
office, located at 817 Bill Beck Blvd. in Kissimmee.
Please e-mail me whether you will be able to attend.

I look forward to working with you through this
process. Please feel free to contact me at any time
with any questions you might have.

Dana Schafer
Director of Community Relations
Osceola School District
817 Bill Beck Blvd.
Kissimmee, FL 34744
407-870-4007
scha...@osceola.k12.fl.us

This is a very long story. I struggled as to how to present this
information. Should it be presented in one very long post or several short
ones? I decided that presenting the facts in installments would be easier to
write and easier to read.

It took a long time to start this series since many of the facts required
submissions of multiple public records requests (at the insistence of
Osceola School Board Chairperson Cindy Hartig who refused to cooperate any
other way). The last request (ie. Jay Wheeler's phone records) was fulfilled
only today, although Jay did not hesitate to cooperate.

This is an introduction to "Subtle Little Lies". There are several posts on
this topic, as well as more topics related to my investigation of the recent
Osceola County superintendent search process. I think there is much that you
will find surprising.

FYI, although Tom Long now refuses to be accountable in public on this
matter (or any other as far as I know), he still receives these posts at his
public school board email address. So please don't hesitate to ask Mr. Long
questions on any of this yourself, either here or privately. Perhaps he will
discuss in private what he now refuses to discuss in public.

Please note for future reference, when a search committee member or a school
board member repeatedly ignores reasonable requests for information, such
non-responses are interpreted as refusals to cooperate.

Shortly thereafter I wrote an email to Cindy Hartig, Barbara Horn, Julius
Melendes, Tom Long and Jay Wheeler which included the following content (see
http://groups.google.com/group/harmonyfl/msg/1064d0a7d2eb1b90 ):

I am trying to fully document the superintendent search
process from the search committee through the school
board itself. I have already completed most of the
documentation of the search committee's efforts.

I have found that using a single concrete example and
following it all the way through is most illuminating.
As I am sure you could guess, I am using the case of
Dr. Roberta Selleck as the example. I am sure that we
would get similar results following any of the other
candidates in the same fashion.

There are reasons why Tom Long is unwilling to publicly discuss his method
of evaluating superintendent candidates during this process (see
http://groups.google.com/group/harmonyfl/msg/d16e95546396b277 ).

Not only did Tom fall far short of due diligence in evaluating
superintendent candidates ( see "How to Evaluate Superintendent Candidates",
http://groups.google.com/group/harmonyfl/msg/b823adba0ea82768 ), but he also
stood idly by when informed of misstatements made into the public record by
search committee members as well as by the chair of the search committee and
the chair of the school board herself. This misinformation was used as the
primary rationale for the non-selection of at least one candidate (Dr.
Selleck). It is also my view that the other superintendent candidates were
similarly mistreated during the evaluation process.

Tom Long is also aware of two things that I attempted to do, one that
occurred several days before the May 17, 2011 workshop (during which
superintendent candidates were discussed by school board members and the
preliminary decision was made to discard them) and the other that occurred a
day or so thereafter:

Before) When Tom Long told me that googling was
sufficient for him to properly evaluate superintendent
candidates, I pleaded with him to speak to the
candidates themselves on the phone and listen to the
phone interviews that I recorded. He refused.

After) When I informed Tom Long that several statements
made into the public record by committee members were
false, and even statements made by Osceola School Board
Chair Cindy Hartig were either patently false or wildly
exaggerated (by 50,000% in one example), he said that
the school board's decision was final and none of that
matters now.

All of this leads to several more questions that will likely remain
unanswered by Tom.

How much lying is too much? How much lying is OK?

How much lying in public is too little lying to cause public concern?

What does it mean when people are willing to speak anything less than the
truth before a public committee?

What does it mean when people are willing to speak anything less than the
truth before a public board tasked with making important decisions based on
the assumed accuracy of such testimony?

Why would people entrusted to serve a role on a public committee or on a
public board say anything less than the truth into the public record, even
if the details are seemingly trivial? Especially if the details are trivial,
why would anyone bother to lie?

Upon hearing the truth, what does it mean when a public official avoids
bearing witness to the evidence that proves the lies? What does it mean when
a public official sits idly by and does nothing knowing full well that the
data that proves the lies is about to disappear?

What does it mean when public officials intentionally sidestep the Florida
Sunshine Law by secretly and undetectably forwarding emails to an online
blogger for the purpose of having their views expressed privately and
publicly by an anonymous and unaccountable agent? What does it mean for the
sake of transparency and accountability?

What does it mean when public officials refuse to cooperate when asked to
produce records that help account for their actions?

What does it mean when public officials offer their opinions in public about
important facts, yet fail to exert even minimal effort to verify the
accuracy of such facts used in support of their final decisions?

What does it all mean?

I think it means that something is very wrong with the superintendent
selection process in Osceola County and this process needs serious review. I
think that it also means that the makeup of the Osceola County School Board
needs serious review by the voters of Osceola County.

Why?? Because the vast majority of people don't get involved in their government UNTIL IT'S TOO LATE!! And then,because they don't like what has happened, they cry out and try to get it undone.

The situation you decribe George, is a fine example. The vast majority of people were not involved likely because they don't care. But, you were involved because someone got you involved knowing that you cared.

Now, the outcome is something that you ( and a few others ) are not happy with and it is my belief that you can NEVER muster the support needed to change it.

BUT---let me ask you this: Had you not been part of the committee, would you have been interested enough to attend all the meetings, do research, and speak your mind at meetings when you could?? Be honest now....my belief is that you would have stood by and watched as the process rolled itself out and arrived where we're at now.

I know that it is very difficult to inject your opinions into public meetings and have them be heard and acted upon; and lone voices don't get very much attention. However, there is strength in numbers and getting those numbers organized into one voice gets attention.

In the superintendant search case, there seemingly were not any lone voices never mind an organized outcry. So, being human, the Board did what many humans do: Take the easy ( and safe ) choice who was a known quantity and thereby kick the can down the road a bit; perhaps, someone else will now have to deal with the next search. Most humans choose to change nothing or change very little--likely because that's easiest and the least risky.

Just my opinion(s).

Steve Berube

Suppose you caught Bob Evans pocketing petty cash from
the CDD fund. Wouldn't you speak up Steve?

I am sure that you assumed the question was rhetorical, so I assumed that
your answer would have been "yes".

I will now answer your questions with the understanding that my questions
that follow will be answered by you since they will not be rhetorical. I
hope that you agree this is fair Steve.

You wrote:

This implies a misunderstanding on your part.

I have no intention of changing the current superintendent. I think Terry
Andrews will carry us through the next two years "OK". As you stated, this
was the safe choice, if not the correct one.

I would have been perfectly fine if the school board had been up-front and
honest and said months ago that they would prefer to stick with Terry
Andrews and forego a superintendent search process.

The problem is the apparent charade of a superintendent search process. My
purpose is to expose the charade so that we can hopefully avoid a repeat of
the same in the future.

You asked:

I was honest when you asked essentially the same question previously Steve
(see http://tinyurl.com/5sqgm2u ).

No, if I had not been part of the committee, I would not have had the same
level of interest. This was true when Dr. Grego was selected a few years
ago. At that time I trusted that the school board was doing the right thing
and I assumed as much. Now I know better.

When I was selected by Tom Long to be on the committee (I didn't ask, he
asked me), I thought that I could help make a difference. By making that
commitment, I was also obligated to attend all the meetings even though I
had to take time away from work and family to do so.

I hope you understand that I fully understand what a major hassle it is to
drive 30 to 45 minutes to attend such meetings. That's why 99.99% of the
citizenry doesn't do it. That includes me. That is also why I went way out
of my way to publish whatever I could so that folks like you could stay
informed without the hassle of attending the meetings.

You wrote:

This is correct. Making "the easy ( and safe ) choice" is exactly what they
did, instead of working diligently and representing the best interests of
our children.

You wrote "there seemingly were not any lone voices". This is not true.
There were several of us who liked the selected candidates. The problem is
that as far as I could determine, not one school board member called even
one committee member for their opinions of the candidates.

Now here are my questions for you Steve.

Do you think that it's OK for several people to lie during public meetings?

Do you think that it's OK for the school board to never really have any
intention of replacing Terry Andrews?

Do you think that it is our obligation as citizens to do whatever we can to
help expose and perhaps fix problems like these?

But shown there were few candidates worthy, prompted him to agree to stay on for 2 years........

Just a thought, as that's how I saw it played out.. Same way you see it George, but for different reasons....

Jim

As you know, search engines like Google search keywords; in the question you pose, someone's name (perhaps a prominent name)is mentioned, and an action (pocketing) is suggested, an item (cash) is mentioned, and a specific agency (cdd) is named. Based on keywords, a search might return a headline like: bob is pocketing cash from cdd.
And, now someone believes this keyword headline to be true.

Such things can easily lead to something you have written about previously: Google gossip. Such gossip is dangerous for a number of reasons and is just one of the reasons I did not answer your rhetorical question knowing that the fewer times it gets published the further down the return results it falls.

Also, as we've discussed privately, I choose to NOT participate here in my capacity as a supervisor; your rhetorical question attempts to tie my private participation to my public position-not acceptable.

Finally, rhetorical or not, I will not answer it. And,in fact, the very fact that you posted it again makes me wish I had not joined in on what seemed to be reasonable dialogue.

Now, I will answer your questions:

a) No,I don't think it's OK for people to lie; but, there's a difference between lying and not knowing ( or divulging ) that which may be factual.

b)I think the board has every right to not have any intention of replacing Terry; but, I also believe that intent developed AFTER the committee began its search--largely because Terry's supporters turned out in big numbers to keep him there.

c)Yes, I do think it is our obligation to try and "fix" such problems. But, I also think it's important to recognize when one is beating a dead horse; and this equine looks pretty lifeless to me.

Steve

Jim wrote:

But shown there were few candidates worthy, ...

The search committee was formed to proffer five candidates. While five
candidates may be few in number, this was the number specified by the school
board. I assure you that all five candidates were very worthy, far more
worthy that was depicted by the school board. That is one of the main points
of all of this.

Anyone who can conclude that these five candidates were less worthy than Mr.
Andrews is sorely misinformed or just plain dishonest, IMHO.

Now for Steve. I intended no offense by using Bob Evans in my hypothetical
example of public corruption. Next time replace whatever name I use with
"Boris Badenov" and then please respond.

Steve wrote:

a) ... there's a difference between lying and not

It will be demonstrated that "not knowing" was not at all the case.

b) ... I also believe that intent developed AFTER the

The actual behavior of the majority of school board members does not support
this position. This will also be demonstrated.

c) ... I also think it's important to recognize when

The superintendent selection may be a dead horse, but there is much more to
the story than that Steve.

A new horse is just out of the starting gate and in this race for the long
haul.

Whilst you and the board felt worthy, my comment was that they found fault with the 5, compared to the need, and the overall agenda to retain Terry Andrews.

Your missing my point, in your anger that they did not do it your way again George. Let it go, a decision was made, it was not to your liking but that's life. Get over it.

As Steve has already said, if you want to change things, you need to run for office your self. Bitch at elected officials changes nothing mate.

Don’t give your self an ulcer of such a trivial matter. You said yourself terry is a good candidate. It's done, finished, over.

Jim

We get it George. The appointment did not go your way... so what boo bloody
hooo..... Grow up....Get a life.. what's done is done.

The best man got the job, if a little underhanded.. It happens

If you have anything further to say, please create your own thread. You are
free to speak your mind on your own threads. You are not free to interfere
with reasonable discourse on other threads.

http://HarmonyFLcommons.com

This is a continuation of the "Subtle Little Lies" thread and a continuation
of the previous post about Osceola School Board Chairperson Cindy Hartig.

The following statements were taken from the official video of the Osceola
County School Board Workshop recorded on the morning of May 17, 2011 (see
http://tinyurl.com/668lamw or
http://www.osceola.k12.fl.us/board/Board_Meetings.asp ) as well as from
documents obtained via public records requests.

From an email quoted in my previous post, I asked Ms. Hartig:

Here's the salient part of Ms. Hartig's response:

FYI, Dana Schafer is the Director of Community Relations for the Osceola
School District. She is responsible for fulfilling public records requests
directed at the school district.

Since Cindy Hartig was unwilling to cooperate at all, I had no choice but to
proceed as she suggested. So I submitted public records requests to Dana
Schafer for the information that Ms. Hartig was unwilling to provide
herself.

Cindy Hartig #1:

I've looked at all five of them [the candidates].
I've spoken to the majority of them.

Hear it in her own voice:

http://tinyurl.com/68dgevh

I personally contacted each of the top five superintendent candidates with
this:

Please reply with your name and a statement confirming
that Cindy Hartig actually spoke to you (or not).

The candidates responded:

Dr. James Browder:

Hi George I did speak to Cindy.

Dr. Roberta Selleck:

The only two people who had a conversation with me
about my application to Osceola County is Jon
Arguello and George Schiro. Cindy Hartig, Chair of
the Osceola County School Board never called or
talked to me.

Dr. Wayne Alexander:

I did not speak with her!

Dr. Thomas Geismar (by phone):

No, Cindy Hartig never called me.

Dr. Ralph Teran:

I did not speak with Cindy Hartig, I did not have a
voice mail either at home or on my cell phone to
return a call to Cindy Hartig.

From the candidates themselves we now know that Cindy Hartig spoke to only
one (Dr. Browder). She didn't even make an attempt to call any of the other
candidates.

Therefore Cindy Hartig's public statement that she had "spoken to the
majority of them" is clearly false.

Cindy Hartig #2:

I called her [Dr. Selleck] and
did not get a phone call back.

Hear it in her own voice:

http://tinyurl.com/69rnx9v

Yet Sprint phone records show that contrary her public testimony, Cindy
Hartig never called Dr. Selleck. This was later confirmed by Dr. Selleck
herself (see above).

Cindy Hartig #3 (from Dana Schafer):

In speaking with Ms. Hartig today, she shared that she
recalls making several calls during her Superintendent
Search research on candidates from the phone in our
Board workroom here at the district office.

The three attachments below are the three pages of phone records produced
via a public records request. These reports detail usage of the school
district boardroom phones from 5/6/2011 (candidate resume deadline) through
5/17/2011 as well as from 4/28/2011 (the day after Dr. Selleck's resume was
received) through 5/17/2011. There were no calls made to phones outside of
the 407 area code or the 321 area code from the boardroom phones during this
time span (other than one call to the Florida Department of Education and an
another call to the New Hampshire Special Education Information System).

So once again we see that Cindy Hartig's statement is false.

During the school board workshop on May 17th Cindy Hartig made a big deal
about her call to Dr. Browder (her only call to any of the candidates). She
had nothing positive to say about Dr. Browder (unlike Julius Melendez who
went on at length about how impressed he was with Dr. Browder "This guy was
amazing.", hear it yourself: http://tinyurl.com/3cevzde ).

Yet Ms. Hartig concluded her statement with a claim that she had a text
message that proved her point about Dr. Browder:

Cindy Hartig #4:

I've got the text message and
I would be happy to show anybody.

Hear it in her own voice:

http://tinyurl.com/4yc8wxg

Yet after saying publicly that she "would be happy to show anybody", here's
what I received instead:

Sent: Thursday, June 02, 2011 4:32 PM
To: 9992200...@schiro.name
Subject: Information

George:

Ms. Hartig does not have the text message that you
inquired about. She did request that we investigate
through her cell phone carrier on whether or not we can
obtain that message. We have been advised through her
carrier that text messages are only retained by them
between 3-5 days from the date they were sent or
received. Ms. Hartig said that she received the text
before the May 17 Board meeting. As such, it is not
available now through them.

Thanks!
Dana

407-870-4007
scha...@osceola.k12.fl.us

Note: My first "Documenting Superintendent Search Process" email (see above)
was sent to Cindy Hartig on May 18, 2011, the day after she claimed publicly
"I've got the text message."

Jeanette Rivera-Lyles wrote an article in the Orlando Sentinel recently with
the heading "After leadership turmoil, Osceola schools try to find their
bearings" (see http://www.webcitation.org/60Fh1T3o3 ). Cindy Hartig was not
happy with this article. In particular, Ms. Hartig took issue with this
statement:

Hartig was not impressed by the search committee's top
choices, although she acknowledged she had called none
for an interview.

While it is accurate that Ms. Hartig didn't call any candidates for
interviews in person, she did call exactly one candidate on the phone (Dr.
Browder, as stated above). Yet this was her written rebuttal to Ms.
Rivera-Lyles:

Cindy Hartig #5:

I did call candidates and did have conversation with
them so why would you make the statement I did not?

But again, when she claimed to the Orlando Sentinel's Osceola Reporter that
she "did call candidates", Cindy Hartig was not being truthful (ie. she
called only one candidate).

According to the Chairperson of the Osceola County School Board, just one
out of five is a "majority" and a minority of one is considered
"candidates".

It would appear that Cindy Hartig has a hard time with the whole truth. She
often claims a grain of truth that she then molds into whatever lie meets
her needs at the moment.

To be continued ...

http://HarmonyFLcommons.com

This is a continuation of the "Subtle Little Lies" thread. It is also the
culmination of the previous posts about Osceola School Board Chairperson
Cindy Hartig and her false statements regarding the recent superintendent
selection process in Osceola County.

I have spoken to several folks in Osceola County about these matters,
including Dana Schafer and Martha Mann. These folks have been very patient
and understanding with the fulfillment of several public records requests.
They have handled these requests with efficiency and professionalism.

Cindy Hartig #6:

In the process of fulfilling these public records
requests (requests suggested by Ms. Hartig herself),
Ms. Schafer and Ms. Mann have had the opportunity to
discuss these matters with Cindy Hartig and other
school board members. Here is a recent email from Ms.
Schafer describing a brief conversation with Ms. Hartig
about a public records request made last month that I
asked Ms. Schafer about last week (over the phone):

Sent: Wednesday, July 13, 2011 11:02 AM
To: 9992200...@schiro.name
Subject: information

George:

While I am not 100% sure on the date, I am fairly
confident that either on or soon after May 25, I had a
conversation with Ms. Hartig where she told me that she
had not called Roberta Selleck directly but rather
conducted her candidate research by calling one or more
people in her school district.

Thanks!
Dana

I personally called several people in Dr. Selleck's school district (Adams50
in Colorado) after the May 17th school board workshop. Exactly one
individual in the Adams50 school district recalls speaking to someone from
Florida about Dr. Selleck other than me. This one individual was Adams50
Board of Education member, Kevin Massey (see
http://www.webcitation.org/60Mmjmywy ).

Kevin Massey is also the current Treasurer of the Adams County School
District 50 Board of Education. He acknowledged receiving a phone call from
only one person from Florida recently (other than from myself). That person
was indeed Cindy Hartig. Thus even though Ms. Hartig never did call Dr.
Roberta Selleck (contrary to her public testimony which was contradicted by
her statement to Ms. Schafer), she did call someone in Dr. Selleck's former
school district.

Cindy Hartig called Kevin Massey.

At first blush this would appear to be a good thing. It looks like we have
at least one school board member in Osceola County who did due diligence in
preparing for the important superintendent selection decision to be made on
May 17, 2011. It looks like we have at least one school board member doing
her job, the job that she was elected to do and the job (part-time) for
which she is paid $35,000 annually. Clearly, the call to Mr. Massey is what
Cindy Hartig referred to when she told Dana Schafer that she called "one or
more people in her [Dr. Selleck's] school district".

So what's the problem? The problem is that Cindy Hartig's phone call to
Kevin Massey was made on May 24, 2011, a week after the school board made
its final decision on the choice of superintendent!

You can hear this yourself in an excerpt from an interview with Kevin Massey
( hear http://tinyurl.com/3qnr9wy , note: most of the very long pause in the
recording that occurred when Mr. Massey searched for the record of his call
with Ms. Hartig was removed for the sake of brevity). The full interview
with Mr. Massey can be heard here: http://tinyurl.com/3dfzpsj .

This is the CYA phone call that I referred to in a previous post on this
subject. It is obvious that Cindy Hartig was hoping that Mr. Massey would
reinforce what she had already said publicly about Dr. Selleck during the
May 17th workshop. When he didn't (ie. Mr. Massey clearly disputed Cindy
Hartig's testimony about Dr. Selleck), she cut the conversation short.

Ask yourself what kind of person would make such an important decision to
dismiss a valuable superintendent candidate (Dr. Selleck) based entirely on
unvetted misinformation that itself could easily have been dismissed had a
single phone call been made BEFORE the final decision.

What kind of person would say that she called a superintendent candidate's
school district (thereby implying that she had called during the candidate
evaluation process), when in fact she made the call long AFTER the candidate
had already been trashed in public as a result of a completely disingenuous
evaluation?

Ask yourself what kind of person would try to cover-up her own incompetence
this way and then write the following day "I feel very good about my
research".

Cindy Hartig #7:

She's racked up I believe almost a half million dollars
in finance charges and late fees because she didn't
sign-off on credit cards getting paid.

This is false. Of course like much of what she says, Cindy Hartig's claim is
based on a grain of truth. But even the grain is insufficient to give Cindy
Hartig's point a hint of credibility.

Cindy Hartig's quoted dollar figure was off by almost 50,000 percent! The
actual "finance charges and late fees" that she referred to added up to a
grand total of $1,027 over the course of 5 years. This is a figure that is
almost 500 times less that the "half million dollars" quoted in public by
Cindy Hartig.

Furthermore, the credit card problem used by Ms. Hartig to dismiss Dr.
Selleck was a problem created by Dr. Selleck's predecessor at the Adams50
school district. Yet the problem was fixed by Dr. Selleck 3 years before it
was ever reported in the news.

How do I know all of this? I know because I picked up the phone and called
the Chief Financial Officer of the Adams50 School District, Sandra Rotella,
CPA. Ms. Rotella graciously agreed to be interviewed on the spur of the
moment, the day (May 17th) that I first heard Cindy Hartig's false public
statement on this point. Hear the short version of the credit card story
here: http://tinyurl.com/3zx784h . You can also hear the longer version
here: http://tinyurl.com/3lfhtfl . This is the same 15 minute interview that
Ms. Hartig refused to let be heard during the public school board meeting
later that same day, even after all my pleading. You can hear the entire
interview with Ms. Rotella here: http://tinyurl.com/4xfnzuv .

Cindy Hartig #8:

She also sent 84 people to Alaska
for professional training.

This is false. But once again Ms. Hartig's claim is based on a grain of
truth that also misses the point.

The actual number of people sent to Alaska (teachers and administrators) was
34. These people were sent to Alaska, not for vacations, but rather to see
first-hand what "standards-based education" is really all about - the same
approach to education highly recommended by Dr. Robert Marzano. They went to
see what standards-based education can actually achieve in real-life and how
it had been implemented with great success in the only place previously
attempted in a serious way. How else can an old school district get full
"buy-in" for a fundamentally new way of teaching their children?

What's more, the decision to send all of these educators from Colorado to
Alaska was made, not by Dr. Selleck, but rather by the board of education
itself. Also while Cindy Hartig mischaracterized the Alaska trip as an
extreme example of fiscal irresponsibility, no money from the Adams50 budget
was spent. 100% of the money used for the trip was supplied by a federal
grant specifically allocated for just this kind of professional development
(ie. it could be used for no other purpose).

Hear what Kevin Massey had to say about the Alaska trip and how it was the
school board's idea and its decision to go: http://tinyurl.com/3mk488o .

What Cindy Hartig failed to mention (and failed to understand) is that Dr.
Selleck was hired by the Adams County School District 50 Board of Education
precisely for this purpose.

Orlando Sentinel reporter Jeanette Rivera-Lyles wrote the following in an
article last month (see http://www.webcitation.org/60Fh1T3o3 ):

But Wayne Blanton, executive director of the Florida
School Boards Association, thinks the board should have
taken the top five candidates seriously.

"This was a strong group of candidates," said Blanton,
who was paid $5,000 as a consultant to work with the
search committee. "The quality was excellent."

In an email response sent to Ms. Rivera-Lyles, Cindy Hartig referred to a
letter that she received from Dr. Blanton:

Cindy Hartig #9:

I also find it hard to believe that Dr. Blanton said
what you stated, I have a letter from him that said the
opposite

This is false. The grain of truth in this case is that Ms. Hartig did
receive a letter from Dr. Blanton. But the whole truth is that what Ms.
Hartig received from Dr. Blanton was a typical boilerplate "thank you for
your business" letter (see the attachment below).

As you can see for yourself, the letter in no way contradicts what Dr.
Blanton told Ms. Rivera-Lyles, contrary to Ms. Hartig's false claim. In
fact, the letter makes no reference at all to any of the details published
in the Sentinel by Ms. Rivera-Lyles.

Cindy Hartig #10 is a lie of omission.

What makes this lie especially troubling (and quite interesting) is that it
is very similar to the one reported earlier that was perpetrated by Tom
Long.

I was contacted about an email sent to all school board members regarding
the Orlando Sentinel article (again, see
http://www.webcitation.org/60Fh1T3o3 ).

Cindy Hartig took it upon herself to respond privately to the individual who
forwarded the news article to her. Here's what she wrote in response (a
little before 8pm the same night):

From: Cindy Hartig <har...@osceola.k12.fl.us>
To: [email address withheld]
Sent: Tue, Jun 14, 2011 7:51 pm
Subject: Re: Fwd: After leadership turmoil, Osceola
school district struggles to find its

Mr [name withheld],

It is a good article. �Not accurate but that seems to
be accepted and ok.

Do you realize that the majority of our school grades
are going down? That our high school grades are
dropping to d and f?

Because under dr grego we padded the ap classes and
twenty five percent of the students are level one? And
last year you could just pad the classes and get the
grade up BUT this year after his team padded the
classes the state sId you have to pass the exam?

Do you know that level one students have not passed any
fcat and we set them up for failure in an ap class?

That 1.5 million dollars for title one was not used as
granted to us and we failed under dr. Gregos leadership
to not give us the teachers our title one school were
supposed to have?

That dr grego had planned with his team to leave and
had plans of DOE?

That Debra pace admits in a letter she controlled the
hiring of contractors and ae firms?

That everything that happened was planned and this
board took the fall?

That dr grego sent an email to the board admitting we
did not meet class size?

That under old leadership it was about politics and not
education?

That many refuse to see the trees through the forest
because they can not handle the truth?

That the grades seen were not real and sustainable

So the question I ask do you support the children and
education or the non truths told?

I look forward to further discussion
Cindy Lou Hartig

Now compare Ms. Hartig's response to what appeared in the "Carl Cricket"
anonymous blog at 9:27am the following morning (see
http://www.webcitation.org/60MfJ1hvJ ):

The majority of our school grades are declining.

Some High School grades are dropping to d�s and f�s.

Under Dr Grego certain AP classes were misrepresented
and twenty five percent of the students are now at a
level one.

And while last year certain classes received �padding�
to get grades up, this year after this alleged
�padding� occurred, the state required examinations for
a pass/fail grade.

Level one students have not passed any FCAT, and it
does appear they were set up for probable failure in an
AP class. While not intentional to have students fail,
it was the process which failed them.

$1.5 million dollars for Title I was not used as
granted to the school system and it appears that under
Dr. Grego�s leadership, the Title I schools did NOT
have the amount of teachers the should have.

There are more interesting facts that we will share
along the way, but it does appear Dr.Grego had been
planning to leave the district for quite some time, and
Mrs. Pace submitted her letter to Brevard County, dated
March 25, 2011. We�ll share that one with you as well
so you can view for yourselves.

It's pretty obvious that Cindy Hartig's private response to the Orlando
Sentinel article somehow quickly found its way into the public hands of
"Carl Cricket" (with the heading "Schools Sentinel Article Laden With
Inaccuracy"). Although you can see that "Carl" made some edits (eg. "going
down" to "declining", "dropping to d and f" to "dropping to d�s and f�s",
etc), it is clear that what "Carl" posted is the same stuff written by
Cindy. It looks like "Carl Cricket" is actually Cindy's secretary, or
perhaps her public defender. Who is this sneaky "Carl Cricket"? (Note: As I
wrote previously, the identity of "Carl Cricket" will be revealed soon.)

Remember, Cindy Hartig suggested that rather than cooperating with me
directly, she would prefer that I make public records requests to get to the
truth instead. So here's one more:

Sent: Wednesday, June 15, 2011 12:50 PM
To: Dana Schafer
Subject: Public Records Request

Dana,

First, please accept my apologies for all of the recent
public records requests from me. I know that you and
Martha are very busy, but I see no other way to learn
what is really going on here.

I would like to see all emails to or from Cindy Hartig
(via any email address used by Ms. Hartig) from
yesterday (6/14) through today (6/15).

Thank you.

Sincerely,

George Schiro

Yet when Ms. Hartig completed the fulfillment of the above public records
request, the transmission of her email to "Carl Cricket" was nowhere to be
found. Is it possible that someone else forwarded Cindy Hartig's email to
"Carl Cricket"? This is unlikely since everyone else who could possibly have
forwarded it denied doing so (including Superintendent Terry Andrews).

I will now repeat what I wrote previously when detailing the same issue
about Osceola School Board Member, Tom Long.

Yet when Ms. Hartig fulfilled this request, she excluded the June 14th email
forwarded to "Carl Cricket". Why? Apparently Cindy Hartig doesn't want the
citizens of Osceola County to know that she has been secretly forwarding

Cricket" receive the June 14th email from Cindy Hartig while Cindy Hartig
also failed to reveal this information in her fulfillment of my public

["Carl Cricket"] and the name of the private citizen to whom Ms. Hartig
originally addressed her response was changed to "[name removed]"):

From: Dana Schafer [mailto:scha...@att.blackberry.net]
Sent: Friday, June 17, 2011 8:19 AM
To: 9992200...@schiro.name
Subject: Fw: Fwd: After leadership turmoil, Osceola
school district struggles to find its

George:
Here is the email to ["Carl Cricket"] from Cindy. She
said that she blind copied myself, Mr. Andrews, and her
personal/work email when she sent it to [name removed].
She forward that one to Mr. ["Cricket"]. She said that
since the body of the email was in First Class that we
were providing, she didn't think she needed to provide
it also. She does ... and she did ... Please below.

Thanks!
Dana
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

-----------------------------------------------------

From: "Cindy L. Hartig" <CHa...@ITDSCorp.com>
Date: Fri, 17 Jun 2011 07:05:58 -0400
To: <scha...@att.blackberry.net>; Dana
Schafer<scha...@osceola.k12.fl.us>
Subject: FW: Fwd: After leadership turmoil, Osceola
school district struggles to find its

Dana,

Here is the forward to Mr. ["Cricket"]..

Cindy Lou Hartig
Cind...@itdscorp.com
President / CEO
WBE / LDBE
ITDS / EDI
3184 S. John Young Parkway
Kissimmee, Fl 34746 407-846-4636 Office
"Absorb the beauty that surrounds you rather than the
trash!" unknown

Besides the fact the Cindy Hartig broke the law by not properly fulfilling a
public records request, she intentionally did so in a manner devious enough
to usually avoid detection. If not for "Carl's" rapid fire post the
following morning, no one would have been the wiser.

Similar to what Tom Long did a few weeks before (ie. he made a hard-copy of
an email to hand to "Carl Cricket" undetected and on the sly), Cindy Hartig
secretly forwarded (ie. "blind copied") an email from her school district
issued Blackberry phone to her private home email address. She then secretly
forwarded the same email from home to "Carl Cricket".

All of this cloak and dagger activity by Cindy Hartig was obviously done to
avoid detection via the standard public records request channels, the same
channels that Ms. Hartig suggested that I use to get at the truth of this
matter.

Keep in mind that it was just last month or so that the school board voted
(at Ms. Hartig's insistence) to incur the expense of Blackberry cell phones
for every school board member. The stated intention was to allow for greater
transparency during the fulfillment of public records requests for school
board member phone records.

I will repeat what I wrote in my previous post about Julius Melendez's
Blackberry cell phone.

for school district related calls. They also didn't vote to make it against
the rules to "blind copy" emails which can't be detected by public records
requests.

board related phone calls on their own private and unaccountable phones as
well as undocumented and unaccountable emails on their Blackberry phones
while still incurring the expense of these school district assigned cell
phones.

Does Cindy Hartig understand the difference? Clearly she does, and she does
whatever is necessary to privately avoid the transparency she espouses in
public.