Sworn Affidavit Alleges that Klein ISD Tampered with Public Information

Klein ISD Allegedly Commits Criminal Fraud and Violates the Public Information Act

Proof of tampering of third party demographic report sent through the Public Information Act

The Demographic Study Klein ISD used to form and vote on new zoning boundaries was altered when requested through the Public Information Act.

1. This is a serious crime and the ultimate betrayal of the public’s trust. The veracity of any document or information Klein has released through the Public Information Act or otherwise now stands to be questioned.
2. If there is no accountability for this, there is every reason to believe that the leaders of Klein ISD do whatever they want and rightfully assume they will get away with it, regardless of the legal risk.
3. Superintendents have been arrested for this offense. Llano ISD Hempstead ISD New Caney ISD
4. Zoning decisions impact schools, communities, homeowners, staff, and children for years, if not decades. For the data from this study to be manipulated is devastating.
5. Klein ISD Board Policy GBD Legal states: “The following categories of information are public information and not excepted from required disclosure unless made confidential under the Public Information Act or other law: A completed report, audit, evaluation, or investigation made of, for, or by a board or district, except as provided in Government Code 552.108.”
6. Klein ISD Board Policy GBAA Legal states: “The superintendent of a district is the officer for public information. Subject to penalties provided by the Public Information Act, the officer for public information shall: Carefully protect public information from deterioration, alteration, mutilation, loss, or unlawful removal”
7. There are exceptions to these laws and statutes for various types of governmental records, and none of the exemptions, including the draft exemption, apply to the third-party factual Demographic Study created by PASA in October 2023.

The best visual representation of the public record tampering is a document I made with Klein’s Demographic Study side by side with two others. View it here. You can view one side below where someone clearly removed the bottom half of the page (half of the beige side bar is missing), and then moved the “Students per Home” graph to obscure the empty space.







Main Points

1. During a district-wide rezone process, Klein ISD would not share the demographic study used to create the proposed attendance boundaries, preventing the public from making meaningful testimony on the rezoning plan proposals at Klein ISD Board Meetings.
2. I requested the PASA Demographic Study (Population and Survey Analysts) from Board members and Associate Superintendents but was denied access. Ultimately, on December 28, 2023, I requested the report through the Public Information Act.
3. The report I was sent was deceptively altered to exclude data and content (not redacted), and metadata shows at least some of these modifications happened 10 days after I submitted my request. After I received the report, Klein ISD posted the same altered version to its website where it remains live today. (Bottom of the page, “Demoographic Study” under FAQs)
4. I respnded to Klein’s email saying that the report appeared to have been altered and asked that they send me the original document. I received no response.
5. I contracted Black Dog Forensics to analyze the PDF that Klein sent me, and their findings confirm that the report was altered, and that at least some changes were made to the report after I requested it.
6. Their findings are included in a sworn affidavit with 12 evidence exhibits demonstrating the alterations made to the report.
7. The Public Information Act stipulates that the Public Information Officer commits a criminal offense for preventing access to the public record.
8. The Public Information Act stipulates that a person commits a criminal offense for alteration of public information.
9. Klein ISD School Board Policy GBAA (Legal) states that the Superintendent is the Public Information Officer of the district, “Subject to penalties provided by the Public Information Act”. The Klein ISD Superintendent is Dr. Jenny McGown.
10. The Klein ISD Board of Trustees voted to adopt the re-zoning recommendation plan on February 6, 2024 with a unanimous vote of 7-0.
11. Before paying for a forensic analysis, I submitted my own evidence to TEA and they suggested I file a local grievance. Filing a local grievance would not be possible as complaints have to be made within 10 days of becoming aware of the alleged incident. I would also not trust Klein ISD to find fault with themselves for defrauding me as a requestor of public information, thereby exposing their employees to legal risk.
12. 

Physical/Digital Evidence

• 23-24 PAS Demographic Study
• Sworn Affidavit by Black Dog Forensics
• “Based on the examination of the public-facing document, PASA Demographic Studies for 2023-2024 for Klein ISD, it appears to have been altered from the original report that was created by PASA. Furthermore, this document had a modified date of January 8, 2024, which was after the time Lauren Dougherty sent the Texas Public Information Act Information Request Form to Klein ISD, December 28, 2024. As noted, there was evidence located which supports the claim that the document was altered in numerous places. The exact extent of everything that was altered is unknown and would have to be compared against the original report developed by PASA.”
• “This examiner believes PASA would maintain the original public information document that was provided to the Klein ISD.”
• In closing, this affiant declares under the penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct. I understand they are made for use as evidence in court or any legal proceeding and are subject to penalty of perjury.
• 12 pieces of evidence created by Black Dog Forensics detailing the alteration of the report
• Text messages with Board Member, Dustin Qualls, requesting the study
• Email communication with Chief of Operations, August Wunderlich, requesting the Study and being denied
• All communication that took place through the Public Information Request Process

Supporting Details

1. Klein ISD is a public school district in Harris County with approximately 53,000 students.
2. The Public Information Act criminalizes the destruction, alteration or concealment of public records. Section 552.351 provides that the willful destruction, mutilation, removal without permission, or alteration of public records is a misdemeanor punishable by confinement in a county jail for a minimum of three days and a maximum of three months, a fine of a minimum of $25.00 and a maximum of $4,000, or both confinement and the fine.
3. Every year since 2010, Klein ISD hires Population and Survey Analysts (PASA) to produce an annual Demographic Study.
4. In Klein ISD’s 22-23 Adopted Budget, page 50, the District acknowledges that taxpayer dollars are spent on an annual PASA Demographic Study every year (see below).
5. "Population and Survey Analysts (PASA) provides integrated school district information with its proprietary new home census information and specific neighborhood forecasts every October to create enrollment projections by attendance zones. PASA has issued an annual demographic study since 2010. This and all subsequent reports are available on the District website at: https://www.kleinisd.net/cms/One.aspx?portalId=568125&pageId=2904659."
6. Prior to 2021, an archive of PASA Demographic Studies was available to the public on the Klein ISD Website per the budget statement above. That hyperlink above is broken.
7. In Fall 2023, Klein ISD began a district-wide re-zoning process of attendance boundaries for all of its campuses. PASA data was referenced in the proposed re-zoning plans but was not made available to the public until nearly a month after my public information request.
8. The public has the right to comment and prepare testimony on agenda items of Klein ISD Board Meeting. Without access to the data used to re-zone campuses, the public cannot provide meaningful feedback on the board’s proposal.
9. The Klein ISD School Board’s attorney is Ellen Spalding of Spalding Nichols Lamp Langlois.
10. I have text messages with Klein ISD Trustee, Dustin Qualls, requesting the report on December 22, 2023. Despite the zoning process being 2 months underway, as a board member, he had not yet seen the report, and he said he would ask Dr. McGown about it at his next meeting with her. I never heard back from him.
11. On the afternoon of the 10th official day of my request, Klein ISD asked for clarification on what information I was seeking. This was a deliberate delay tactic to run the clock before the Board was to take their final vote on the zoning plan. I emailed that response to Dustin Qualls with the message: “Please note that I finally got a response on the 10th and final business day to my PIR. Dustin, I simply cannot believe the extent to which Klein ISD is hiding this data from taxpayers AND personally gaslighting me by pretending they don’t know what report I am talking about. It’s honestly to the point where I have no choice but to question the integrity and morality of Klein ISD leadership.”

Members of the Klein ISD community: this is criminal. Klein ISD and the Board of Trustees (allegedly) knowingly and intentionally kept data from taxpayers and residents when going through the 23/24 Rezoning Process. If someone had told me this a few years ago, my thought would have been, "there must be some explanation because Klein ISD obviously wouldn't do something illegal and expose themselves to that risk." I am here to tell you that thought was and remains a fantasy. 

We, as a community, have made it so extraordinarily easy for the leaders of Klein ISD to avoid consequences, that I am not even sure they give breaking the law a second thought at this point. They openly defy the Open Meetings Act nearly every single board meeting, and there is no one with an understanding of the Texas Open Meetings Act that would entertain the idea that this school district is transparent. 

I have been accused of being a hater, running a hate page, not having integrity, and many other things. Let me be clear, I have lived in Klein ISD almost my entire life. I was this district's biggest advocate, had personal relationships with Klein ISD central office employees and School Board members, and I know many of its secrets - they told me themselves. Why has my opinion changed? Because upon witnessing the district do illegal things and put their interests as employees above the interests of students, I no longer believed they were all great, moral people. I thought changing your opinion is what you are supposed to do when witnessing people cause harm to others. Furthermore, the more I learned about who is in each position in Central Office, what their professional background is, and what scandals they have been a part of, the more I know we have very underqualified leadership at the moment. It's the result of failing upward and not hiring people based on their professional expertise. 

Teachers, if any of you are reading this, I get messages from you every week with another story about how you were mistreated, witnessed the most egregious acts committed by your leaders, forced to resign to cover up someone else's mistake, and most of all - retaliated against for advocating for your students. Every teacher I know who has since gotten out of Klein ISD, whether to go to a different district or different industry, has said that their life has improved dramatically. If you are miserable, I truly hope you will seek something better for yourselves. 

*I have no personal connection to Black Dog Forensics. This firm was hired on the basis that they had no conflict of interest in working on a case involving Klein ISD. To learn more about Black Dog Forensics, click here.