[1st-mile-nm] Santa Fe schools wireless info.

[Richard Lowenberg]

A few list subscribers responded to me personally, with the following
links and articles.   Thanks.
rl
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http://sfe.live.mediaspanonline.com/Local%20News/SANTA-FE-SCHOOLS-Former-worker-under-investigation
for-laptop-s

http://www.santafenewmexican.com/Local%20News/santa-fe-public-schools-District--Software-company-s-
laims-bei

http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2008/02/15/3273127.htm

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Friday, February 15, 2008

Schools Face Audit Over Announced Deal

 <http://www.abqjournal.com/cgi-bin/email_reporter.pl> By Polly Summar
Journal Staff Writer
    The Santa Fe school district is facing a state audit and a police
investigation, apparently all touched off by a bogus press release.
    The district's technology director, John Phaklides, has resigned.
Phaklides was quoted in a recent corporate press release announcing a
$750,000 deal between the district and a Silicon Valley cellular wireless
technology developer that school district officials say never took place.
    Allegations, including whether equipment or technology was purchased
without school board approval, have been turned over to state police and
state auditors.
    Superintendent Leslie Carpenter said Thursday the district delivered a
formal letter to the State Auditor's Office on Thursday regarding
allegations of improprieties in procurement procedures and contracts and
"allegations regarding theft and the sale of district property by an
individual in the technology department."
    Carpenter would not confirm that the individual was Phaklides. He could
not be reached for comment.
    "I can only confirm that the allegations have been made and are being
investigated," Carpenter said. "We have turned over lots of our internal
investigations to state police and are cooperating fully with the state
auditors and state police."
    On Jan. 30, both Carpenter and associate superintendent Mel Morgan told
the Journal they knew nothing about a $500,000-to-$750,000 deal with
California's Meru Networks after local news organizations received a Meru
press release announcing the transaction.
    Phaklides did not return phone calls or e-mails from the Journal,
beginning that day. On Feb. 10, the district acknowledged that he had
resigned, "to pursue other interests."
    The upcoming special audit by the State Auditor's Office will be broad
and not be focused on any one individual.
    "We haven't narrowed our list of people," said State Auditor Hector H.
Balderas. The audit could take a couple of months to complete, he said.
    It's a process very different from a simple financial audit.
    "A financial audit is about balancing the books," said Balderas, an
ex-prosecutor and former state legislator. "A special audit asks the how and
why. Our obligation as auditors is to eliminate areas of suspicion, so we
always start broad."
    Balderas said state law requires the school district to inform his
office "immediately when they suspect malfeasance or mismanagement of state
funds."
    The state police part of the investigation, Balderas said, would focus
on allegations of theft of district property.
    His office put the district's special audit as a top priority because
"an institution's integrity is affected" and because of the amount of money
involved. Balderas is taking auditors off other projects to begin work on
the district's situation.
    It was under Balderas' direction last year that a special audit
discovered "mismanagement, waste and abuse," he said, in Sandoval County's
handling of its broadband network project to deliver cheap, high-speed
wireless Internet access to service providers across the county.
    Sandoval County lost about $1.3 million in taxpayer dollars when two
contractors allegedly breached their project contracts, without delivering a
working broadband network.
    Beyond looking at possible malfeasance, there is an added benefit to
taxpayers in having a special audit of the school district, Balderas said.
    "We really will find out if they're using money well," said Balderas.
The audit will include document requests, interviews, extensive analysis and
evaluation of policies and procedures.

Press release
    News of the purported $750,000 deal between the district and Meru was
first circulated to local media on Jan. 30. Janis Ulevich, a public
relations representative for Meru- based in Sunnyvale, Calif.- issued a
press release about the Santa Fe school district's "adoption of wireless
networking technology."
    Carpenter said at the time she wasn't aware of contract specifics.
"Probably, it would not be unheard of us to use some of our capital funds to
advance technology," she said.
    The same day, associate superintendent Mel Morgan said, "I have not
signed off on a contract for this. Whenever we do a contract of over
$30,000, I have to go to (the school board)."
    The press release was published by at least one New Mexico business
newspaper.
    The district said Thursday it has not found any district contracts with
Meru or Harmonix Technologies- Meru's vendor in New Mexico- for the reputed
$500,000 to $750,000 project.
    However, district staff hadn't previously been aware that Harmonix's
sister company in Santa Fe is called IT Connect. District officials said
they would look into contracts under that name also.
    In a Jan. 30 interview, Harmonix president Jack Vigil described an
elaborate network system being set up for the school district, some of which
is already used in Santa Fe High, Capital High and Agua Fria Elementary.
    "We set up a Meru wireless single cell technology wireless lab for the
Education 2020 (program of computer-based classes)," said Vigil. "This
enabled 20 to 25 student computers to simultaneously get on the Internet all
at once without any hard wires connected to them."
    Vigil said Harmonix also works with schools in Portales, Las Vegas,
N.M., Questa, Albuquerque and in Arizona. The company has the endorsement of
Cooperative Education Services, an agency of all the state's school
districts.
    That endorsement means districts can use pre-approved companies like
Harmonix for amounts under $30,000 without the time-consuming process of
requesting bids. Balderas said it gives approved companies a kind of
"presumed pricing control."
    The January press release issued by Ulevich said that, before deciding
on Meru, "Phaklides' technology team had evaluated numerous wireless LAN
(local-area networks) products and deployed pilot networks from some of the
industry's biggest names without success."
    Phaklides is quoted in the news release as saying that, after the first
Meru network was installed in November 2006, "All the problems went away
just like that," referring to issues Santa Fe High was having in trying to
use its Web-based learning software with more than a few students at a time.
    "We were all well aware that we were moving forward with setting up
E2020 labs," said Carpenter on Thursday. "The question is not whether they
were legitimate purchases, but whether the proper procurement policies were
followed."