RECEIVED MAR 22 2010 PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS HISD HUMAN RESOURCES March 22, 2010, Ms. Felicia German, Manager Professional Standards Houston Independent School Dis 4400 West 18" Street Houston, Texas 77092-8501 Re: Key Middle School Investigation Report Dear Ms. German: Lam in receipt of your letter dated March 10, 2010 directing me to appear for a meeting with Dr. Charles Morris on March 24, 2010. Enelosed please find my written response to the Summary of Findings provided to me by you. As you can see by my response, I violated no law of the State of Texas or any policy or procedures of the Houston Independent School District. As you are aware I had already notified Houston Independent School District of my intent to retire. Enclosed herein for your records is my notice of intent to retire at the end of the day March 31, 2010. appreciate your offer to meet with Dr. Morris, however, in light of my retirement | respectfully decline. weerely, thawte Dolores Westmoreland ftRECEIVED Response to Summary of Findings . Concerning Dolores Westmoreland MAR 22 2010 Regarding Investigation of Key Middle School PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS: HISD HUMAN RESOURCES 1-3 When I became a member of the faculty at Key Middle School in the fall of 2005, | was informed by Ms. Peggy Collins, business manager, that the PROCARDS were under her authority. I was told that if 1 wanted to purchase something with the PROCARD. or was instructed to do so by Mrs. Caleb, principal, | had to come to Ms. Collins for one of the cards to use. Ms. Collins stated that the purpose of keeping the cards in her office and issuing them for use was to allow her to see which budget to allocate the purchase. The cards had other members of the Key staff's name on them. I did sign my name to the charge slip, because I was told that this was the protocol at Key. I notice that there were copies of two slips from Wal- Mart in 2008 where I purchased, at the request of Mrs. Reicheck, the school nurse, and permission of Mrs. Caleb, some blankets to use in the newly constructed nurse’s clinic on the Fleming campus. Additionally. 1 purchased timers to use on the Stanford 10 examination in the classrooms. We could not read the instructions over the public address system, as we normally did at Key, because we were sharing the public address system with Fleming, When I had a card issued to my name in 2008-2009, it was kept in Ms. Collins’ office. I notice that there are charges on there for food and other things in the documents. I did not make those purchases myself. The two main vendors that | used for a Procard were Office Depot and Wal-Mart. 1 did not willfully try to conceal from HISD purchases made that were not appropriate uses at HISD because it was my understanding that my card was one of four which was issued to Key and could by used, as needed, for purchases at the diseretion of Ms. Collins, business manager. To my knowledge, the testing procedures of the 2009 TAKS test were not breached. Dr. Richard Adebayo was asked to bring the TAKS booklets from the testing center located on Chimney Rock. The location of the testing center is near Dr, Adebayo’s home and Mrs. Caleb. principal, agreed that he could bring the booklets to the school. Attached is a copy of the Campus Coordinator's Checklist from the state's Distriet and Campus Coordinator's Manual for 2010. However, the one for 2009, which I left on the Kashmere campus when transferred to the West District in January 2010, has the same checklist. On it, the fifth activity states : “ Receive shipment of secure test materials.” It does not state that the Testing Coordinator must pick up the booklets. Additionally, several years ago, when Channel 11 did a report about the Testing Materials Center, the district stated, afterwards, that materials of test result scores could only be picked up by a “certified teacher.” Dr. Adebayo is a certified teacher and, thus, is qualified to bring the materials to Key. Thematerials arrived intact with all of the booklets in their cellophane holders. It is my practice not to break the cellophane on the booklets when issuing, them to the test administrators unless they need more than a number which is divisible by 10. Example: if an administrator is going to test 23 studen he would receive two packages of 10 booklets in the cellophane and three booklets from another package. Each day of testing, when the district monitor left, all of us left the campus so that no one would charge any of us with tampering with any booklets, Again, referring to the Campus Coordinator Checklist from the state manual, there is nothing which stated that I should have checked the special education student’s results with respect to their state folders. It is my understanding of special edueation students that they are not tested each year by the special education testing specialist, thus, their information in the state folders might not reflect their true nature of abilities. Additionally funds are furnished by the special education department each year to tutor students for these examinations. Key held Saturday tutorials nearly each Saturday from January until the TAKS examination, All of the attendance records are in a binder at Key whieh I left when I transferred to Kashmere. I would like the statement, “that Dr, Westmoreland did not take reasonable measures to ensure that the TAKE or the TAKS-M were not compromised,” defined. The books were locked up from the moment they arrived on the campus. No one worked on the week ends at the school when the books were in the building so there would be no thought that the booklets were compromised. Additionally, as stated earlier. all of us left the building when the district test monitor left to assure nothing was compromised.PANG District and Campus COORDINATOR WPAN ENB Texas Student Assessment Program nent of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) Language Proficiency Assessment System (TELPAS)Campus Coordinator Responsibilities— TAKS 2010 TEXAS STUDENT ASSESSMENT PROGRAM COORDINATOR MANUAL 87CAMPUS COORDINATOR CHECKLIST—TAKS SATE ‘This checklist will help you keep track of the activities and steps involved in preparing for, monitoring, and returning materials for the TAKS test administrations, including TAKS (Accommodated) and TAKS-M. Follow the dates on the Calendar of Events for training, the receipt of materials, test administrations, and the collection and return of materials. Check off the steps in each activity as you complete them to make sure you have fulfilled your responsibilities as campus coordinator. Detailed instructions for completing each step are included with each activity. This page may be duplicated as needed. Prepare for TAKS Administrations ‘Activity 1 CJ Read Coordinator Manual, General Test Administrator Manuals, and Test Administration Directions. CF Receive and review shipment of nonsecare est materia 1 Order any additonal nonsecure materials from district coordinator. 1 Prepare for and atend campus coordinator taining session 1 Review and sign campus coordinator security oath Gi Hielp designate test administrators. 1 Distribute TAKS and TAKS-M test administrator manuals and Test Administration Directions. 1 Schedule and conduct training sessions fortes administrators Activity 4 CI Arrange fr testing rooms and organize test sessions Act (H Receive shipment of secure test materials C1 Order any additional secure materials from district coordinator. Act Receive precaded labels and answer documents C1 Supervse the verification of precoded materials. 1 Supervise the hand-gridding of scorabe test booklets and blank answer documents. Activity 8 Ensure the submission of appropriate scorable documents Activity CI Coordinate preparation of scorable documents Activity 10 CF Distribute test materials to test administrators, Monitor TAKS Administrations Activity 11.0) Ensure proper testing procedures; answer questions and resolve problems. Activity 12 CI Oversee make-up testing Return TAKS Materials Activity 13 0 Direct the collection of materials from test administrators Activity 14 Return all scorable materials to district coordinator. Activity 15) Return all nonscorable materials to district coordinator. BB 2010 TEXAS STUDENT ASSESSMENT PROGRAM COORDINATOR MANUALfr € VE VALUE YOUR OPINION! VE ANT TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR. 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