For the past year, we’ve been following the flustercuck rolling out of Owensboro Community and Technical College, part of the Kentucky Community & Technical College System. Former head of the school, Dr. Paula Gastenveld, sued KCTCS because she was allegedly fired for questioning how Kentucky WINS funding was being spent. And as we all know, because we’re borne of the Commonwealth of Kentucky – Land Of Good Old Boys, Bourbon & Obesity, you don’t question how powerful government officials spend tax dollars. We all know quite well that when you do that you wake up the next morning without a job. Or you never wake up and your body is found wrapped in burlap at the bottom of a well.
Here’s a quick refresher:
- AG: KCTCS Must Turn Over Records [October 28, 2009]
- Does This Have Something To Do With Mountjoy? [October 28, 2009]
- KCTCS Is Wasting Your Tax Dollars [November 3, 2009]
So back to the story. OCTC refused to release Gastenveld’s evaluation despite a ruling from the Office of the Attorney General telling the school to just effing do it or else. Translation: your tax dollars were used by a public institution fighting the release of public documents. $145,017 of your tax dollars, to be specific.
Governor Steve Beshear’s people? Helen Mountjoy, Tommy Thompson, Reid Haire, Nick Brake, David Johnson and Michael McCall. Well, their taint is allegedly all over the place. And that brings us to today.
The front page of Saturday’s Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer looked like this:
Since the M-I is living in the dark ages and that story is behind a pay wall (really smooth way to get your blockbuster of a story out there, folks), here are some excerpts:
In October 2008, Daviess County Judge-Executive Reid Haire, Owensboro City Commissioner David Johnson and Greater Owensboro Economic Development Corp. Executive Director Nick Brake went to see KCTCS President Dr. Michael McCall to discuss leadership issues related to Dr. Paula Gastenveld, who was then president of OCTC.
In February 2009, McCall told Gastenveld to look for another job.
-SNIP-
Gastenveld’s personal and professional life were under a microscope as defense attorneys led her through the deposition, which amounted to 1,324 pages.
-SNIP-
In Gastenveld’s lawsuit filed in Woodford Circuit Court, she claims her contract was violated, her reputation was defamed and that she suffered retaliation when she reported suspected illegalities of the Kentucky WINS funds at OCTC.
-SNIP-
She also claims individuals retaliated against her when she questioned whether Kentucky WINS funds were being used properly in the college’s welding training project for Titan Corp.
-SNIP-
She specifically had concerns about Titan employees getting paid with the grant funds to teach welding at the same time they were drawing salary and benefits from their company.
-SNIP-
Gastenveld said that in a conversation with Bird, he told her that her instincts were right about the Kentucky WINS funds, but that Helen Mountjoy, who was then state secretary of education and work force devel- opment, wanted the project to move forward.
When contacted Monday, Mountjoy said she does not recall having a conversation with Bird or anyone else at KCTCS or OCTC about the Titan project.
“I received a call from some- one at Titan in my role as Cabi- net secretary,” Mountjoy said. “That person was looking for money for training and access to state funds.”
-SNIP-
Gastenveld also claims McCall told her that Mountjoy wanted her gone as president.
-SNIP-
At the center of the case is a document with no signed attribution that’s titled “Qualifications for the Presidency of Owensboro Community & Technical College versus the Reality. April 2007- October 2008.”
That document was circulated in the community and given to OCTC foundation and board members as well as McCall.
-SNIP-
Gastenveld testified that in an Oct. 29, 2008, meeting she had with McCall, he told her that Haire, Brake and Johnson came to see him with concerns about her leadership.
-SNIP-
Brake told the Messenger- Inquirer in July 2009 that he was not directly involved in the college’s personnel issues.
Haire also has said that he did not get involved in Gastenveld’s performance, but he intervened on behalf of two employees who were concerned for their jobs.
-SNIP-
Gastenveld found out from a friend, Pam Wilson, that Brake told Wilson the goal was to have Gastenveld removed as president by June 2009, she said.
Just as I told you last year: Mountjoy, Mountjoy, Mountjoy.
I recommend you spend the $1 to read the entire story in the M-I. Especially if you’re one of the thousands of soon-to-be furloughed state employees set to lose income wonder what the shiz is going on with those who don’t get furloughed. Because this is how state government has operated for years and years. And Governor Steve Beshear hasn’t bothered to change a thing. He’s even allowed his pals, as you’ve read above, to operate the state’s higher education system like it’s some mafioso organization.
So much for making education a top priority.
I smell a Crit Luallen audit soon.
13 responses so far ↓
1 The Highlander // Jul 19, 2010 at 1:15 pm
I hope Crit gets on this a.s.a.p. More cleansing needed in the ‘pencil-neck’s administration in order to avoid him and his hand-plucked successor (Happy Pants [along with Larie Haze]) to control this state for another 12 years.
2 jake // Jul 19, 2010 at 1:22 pm
The governor cared so much about education, in fact, he shipped Joe Meyer over to replace Mountjoy. Remember?
3 David Tachau // Jul 19, 2010 at 2:18 pm
Helen Mountjoy is a brilliant, thoughtful, honest and dedicated woman who contributed many thousands of hours of volunteer time in the 1990s until 2006 on the Ky. Board of Education. No one deserves more credit than she does for Ky.’s rise during that time from 48th or 49th in most public school indexes to 33d or 34th. Every Kentuckian owes her a tremendous debt of gratitude. It is simply not possible that she would have acted in a deceitful or corrupt way. And I could go on …
4 jake // Jul 19, 2010 at 3:13 pm
I guess that’s why the Governor’s Office is crapping its pants, right, David? Because she is simple not capable of wrongdoing…
There are a lot of good people who do bullshit things like this in government.
If there’s corruption here, it needs to be rooted out ASAP. If Helen is innocent, we need to know. If she’s guilty, she needs to pay up right away.
5 Blowin' in the wind // Jul 19, 2010 at 3:26 pm
Helen Mountjoy understood absolutely nothing about what needed to be done to make KERA a long-term success. She has no understanding of cause and effect, how to implement programs for the long term. To attribute Kentucky’s success since KERA to her only demonstrates the ignorance of the writer.
6 Boogs // Jul 19, 2010 at 3:44 pm
I don’t consider KERA a success when I interact with young adult Kentuckians every day on Facebook and several times a year in person and find that they are essentially functionally illiterate. I don’t care what the metrics say about the “improvement” of education in Kentucky. The reality is that public education standards in the United States are in crisis, and being below average in such an environment is not a quality to trumpet. I have literally had college graduates from Kentucky argue to my face that not being able to write complete sentences on demand without proofreading is not a skill that the average literate person should possess.
7 Blowin' in the wind // Jul 19, 2010 at 3:52 pm
Boogs, Unfortunately this is not just a Kentucky problem, as you note. I agree about the problems with standards nation-wide. However, there have been real improvements in Kentucky, just not enough of them. Serious change is needed, but the will is lacking at every level of education and government.
8 jake // Jul 19, 2010 at 3:54 pm
In just the past ten years, I’ve watched high school graduates from Kentucky get mind-blowingly more illiterate.
I’m not sure it’s KERA, but SOMETHING is sure the shit up.
9 Blowin' in the wind // Jul 19, 2010 at 4:19 pm
Several things reinforcing one another–education system, low expectations and little real parenting at all levels of income, parents not helping kids to develop internal discipline, shift from words to pictures…I could probably go on for two or three pages, Jake.
10 Bill // Jul 19, 2010 at 4:42 pm
Maybe its the schools themselves really because I’ve seen what you guys have seen with the people being mind blowing illiterate.
It is very interesting because many of them cannot complete a decent sentence and their own work and emails are even full of errors in spelling and basic grammar skills.
In fact, in all of the places I’ve lived and been to in these United States, I’ve never seen such horrid grammar skills and sentence structure. If you look at what would even be considered rudimentary English grammar, these people fail miserably with their lack of writing skills. I am in no way a Nobel prize winner for literature but when someone can’t spell simple words and put together a reasonably coherent sentence then something is seriously wrong. Whether it is KERA or not is up for debate, but something is seriously wrong in the schools but you can be assured that the Bible Thumpers will always have a solution and its not going to make anyone smarter for knowing and adapting to their solutions. Did you know that something like 90 plus percent of ancient Israel and Palestine was totally illiterate much like what Afghanistan is today. No wonder they were largely an ignorant conglomeration of people fit to be conquered. Unfortunately, we are heading down the same path.
11 jake // Jul 19, 2010 at 5:09 pm
All I know is that most kids rolling out of Kentucky’s school system these days are less intellectual and less intelligent than me.
THAT SHOULD ALARM EVERY ONE. SHOULD LITERALLY ALARM YOU.
Because I’m near the bottom of the barrel on the smarts front and have zero idea how to diagram a sentence. Some would say (me, I say it) I have no idea how to write a proper sentence.
12 Blowin' in the wind // Jul 19, 2010 at 5:18 pm
Aw Jake, diagramming is a cinch; I’ll give you lessons.
13 jake // Jul 19, 2010 at 5:25 pm
STOP! You’re going to make my mind melt.
I refuse to learn anything else.
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