State schools report shows an agency in breakdown

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By R.G. Ratcliffe - Express-News
AUSTIN — During a year of “fight clubs” at a state school for the mentally disabled, deaths from neglect and abuse at others and a federal crackdown on Texas, the agency charged with managing the problem apparently was in turmoil of its own.
According to an investigative report obtained by the San Antonio Express-News/Houston Chronicle, the headquarters staff of the state school system had a turnover of two-thirds in an eight-month period and the director was suspended for treating her employees in a “demeaning and abusive manner.”
Denice Geredine, director of the state school system, was suspended for five days last April after the Department of Aging and Disability Services found she had created a “hostile” work environment by berating staff and publicly reprimanding her employees.
Geredine's division had a 67 percent employee turnover from July 2008, when she became supervisor, through last February.
The agency also investigated Geredine's boss, Assistant Commissioner Barry Waller, for a “demeaning manner in the workplace” for allegedly yelling at employees. No formal action was taken involving Waller.
Geredine currently is on leave due to two deaths in her family. Her husband, Thomas, defended her actions as supervisor during a difficult period.
“She was just trying to make a difference,” Thomas Geredine said. “She was just trying to hold people accountable. When you hold people accountable, they turn on you.”
Agency spokeswoman Laura Albrecht said DADS commissioners continue to monitor and evaluate Geredine's conduct.
“Many times when you are correcting problems and implementing changes, there will be challenges,” Albrecht said.
Most of the focus on problems in the state school system has been on the 13 facilities around Texas and undertrained staffers who earn about $20,000 a year.
But the investigative document obtained by the newspapers under the Texas Public Information Act raises questions about how firmly the state headquarters has been overseeing the system.
The U.S. Justice Department of last December announced that 53 of 114 deaths of state school residents in a one-year period could have been prevented. The state signed an agreement with department officials in May, pledging to spend $112 million over the next five years to improve standards of care.
In March, videos surfaced allegedly showing Corpus Christi State School staff members forcing mentally disabled residents into fights for entertainment. Jury selection began Monday in a trial of the first of six employees charged in the case.
Under an emergency declaration this year from Gov. Rick Perry, the Legislature passed laws to reorganize the state school system and add more than 1,000 employees for direct services for the mentally disabled.
One of the chief sponsors of that legislation, Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, only learned this week from a reporter that Geredine had been suspended and that there had been high headquarters turnover.
Nelson's legislation will eliminate Geredine's job and replace it with an assistant commissioner over state schools with a facilities manager below that position.
Of the 22-member staff positions under Geredine's management in February, a majority described her as “unprofessional, bullying, abrasive” and a majority described their work environment as “stressful, hostile, a roller coaster ride of manic to calm, crisis driven.”
The report said Geredine required her staff to work on weekends or cancel sick leave without pay. Geredine said those staffers would “volunteer to rearrange their time off.”
The employees said that because of the high employee turnover rate, “the wealth of knowledge and experience ... is gone and not being replaced.”
Geredine said her bosses had an expectation that she would “turn over” the staff because there had been low performers in the unit. Geredine said she was proud of the turnover in her staff.