Barbers Hill Independent School District, in response to multiple requests for Barbers Hill Education Foundation financial records, claimed the two are separate entities. This is despite crossover between both, to the point where the district maintains the foundation’s accounting records.
Dr. Mary Bone, a former Round Rock ISD trustee who’s been investigating Barbers Hill, sent the school district multiple requests for Barbers Hill Education Foundation’s financial records, including bank statements, donation records, expenditure records, and records of funds transferred between the district and foundation. She requested these under the Texas Public Information Act.
While Barbers Hill ISD delivered records tracking transfers between the entities and a link to the Texas Education Agency’s audit database, its communications director David Bloom pointed to the foundation for the rest of the requested records. “The Barbers Hill ISD Education Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and operates as a separate entity. Any request for foundation records should be sent to that entity,” Bloom wrote.
Dr. Bone’s posts on social media documented that she received this response after filing a complaint with the Texas Attorney General’s Office. She filed it on February 27, 13 days after she paid the district for records, but still had not received any.
Highlighted overlaps between the government school district and the nonprofit has had Dr. Bone raising questions about the extent of the separation between the two entities.
Barbers Hill ISD’s 2024 audit noted that it “maintains the Foundation’s accounting records” for a fee. Though it is supposed to be a “legally separate” entity, it includes Barbers Hill Education Foundation (BHEF) in its audit as a “discretely presented component unit.”
“Note that while the Foundation has stated the district is reimbursed for handling the books, the PIA response and returned documents do not easily substantiate those claims—leaving key details unclear or unsupported in the records provided so far,” Dr. Bone commented. “If the district is literally keeping and managing the Foundation’s financial records, how can they credibly call it a ‘separate entity’ and redirect PIA requests elsewhere[?]”
More than half of the education foundation’s directors are composed of either current or former school district leadership. Among these crossover leaders are former district business manager Calyn Wesson, Superintendent Greg Poole, who is also executive director of Barbers Hill Education Foundation, and Becky McManus, the school district’s assistant superintendent of finance.
In response to Public Information Act requests for records since 2010, Barbers Hill ISD informed Texas Scorecard that it has no conflict of interest disclosures from Poole or McManus. BHEF was formed in 2009.
In a lawsuit BHEF launched against State Rep. Terri Leo Wilson (R–Galveston), the nonprofit admitted that the “Barbers Hill ISD Board of Trustees exercises significant control” over it due to “the membership of the Education Foundation’s governing board.”
“This looks like a clear attempt to evade transparency and shield information that taxpayers have a right to see—especially given the millions in public funds transferred to the foundation.” Bone posted regarding the district’s response.
It was widely reported that Barbers Hill ISD sent BHEF more than $41 million from 2019 to 2021. Dr. Bone posted that in Fiscal Year 2021, BHEF gave back to the district 2.3 percent in the form of grants out of its more than $29 million in revenue. IRS forms filed by BHEF over an eight-year-period reported that it had given 3.43 percent of $89 million to the school district in that time frame.
A goal listed on the Barbers Hill ISD Trustee Board page is to “diversify and enhance revenue by creating new revenue streams and/or finding more efficient ways to manage such resources that new revenue streams are created.”
On February 25, the Texas Education Agency stated it had launched an investigation into Barbers Hill ISD.
Neither Barbers Hill Education Foundation nor the Barbers Hill ISD responded to a request for comment before publication.
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