Kim Olson

I know some of the postings on this blog are out of sheer frustration and sometimes are not based on pure fact, but rumors and he said, she said.

But let’s take a close look at who DISD has brought on board to be the HR Director.

1) Someone whose previous experience in education was an occasional substitute in the Weatherford ISD.

2) She is a member of the Weatherford ISD Board of trustees and when asked why she was running for the office stated “Education is sort of my thing.” SORT OF MY THING!!! Are you kidding me? This is our lives and we (taxpayers) are paying her $182,000 a year for her hobby.

3) At a recent principal’s meeting a few days before the principals were given their “brown envelopes” with the RIF names, she thought it would be funny to take out the flight helmet she stated that she wore in Iraq and offered it to the principals to wear as protection when they told teachers they were being let go. Besides this not being the least bit funny, she never wore a flight helmet in Iraq. She was not in a flying billet but rather was the aide for a retired Army general who was leading the initial reconstruction effort in Iraq after the initial invasion.

When she was hired, Kim Olson said that her goal was to provide principals with a core of quality applicants from which to hire. “We want the best and brightest applicants to come to the Dallas ISD.” HELLO!! We just let the best and brightest go and now she puts out a hiring call to hire teachers (not those RIF’d) who do not have jobs in OCTOBER!!! What kind of quality are we going to find when looking for 60 teachers in OCTOBER!!!

When running for a seat on the Weatherford ISD Board of Trustees, she was quoted in the Weatherford Democrat as saying “So much money comes locally and not out of the state anymore and so we have to be good stewards of the taxpayer dollar and make sure the limited resources we have are spent the most appropriately.” So the Weatherford ISD taxpayer money deserves to be better managed then ours? She wasted our money hiring too many teachers, recommending to lay them off, then OOOPPPS, we let too many go, go hire 60 back? Great stewardship of taxpayer dollars.

There is no more hollowed ground then a national cemetery, Arlington National Cemetery being the most sacred of them all. This is where real heroes are laid to rest for giving the ultimate sacrifice to our nation.

Kim Olson used that hollowed ground to make money. She held a speaking engagement at the gateway to Arlington National Cemetery to sell her book “Iraq and Back: Inside the War to Win the Peace.”

She sells herself as a “highly decorated” war veteran. Let’s look at her decorations. She holds Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Aerial Achievement Medal, Air Expeditionary Medal, Air Force Meritorious Service, Commendation, and Achievement Medals, Humanitarian Service Medal, Combat Readiness Medal, National Defense Service Medal, and Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal.

Any awards with the words “Service” or “Achievement” in the title without a “Combat V” (V for Valor) attached are end of tour awards and are not indicative of any substantial achievement that would warrant calling someone “highly decorated.” The Air Expeditionary Medal, Humanitarian Service Medal, Combat Readiness Medal, and National Defense Service Medal are awards given to those who wear a uniform, have a heartbeat, and are in the right place at the right time. Basically “I was there” awards. The Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal is for community service and could be for helping out with a Girl Scout troop or coaching T-Ball.

"Highly Decorated" is reserved for those who have been awarded medals for Valor such as Bronze Stars with combat Vs, Silver Stars, Army and Air Force Crosses, Purple Hearts, etc. Not staff officer end of tour awards.

Kim Olson used her position on General Garner’s staff in Iraq to line her pockets. She was accused in a military court of using her position to benefit a private security firm that she helped operate, according to interviews and government documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times.

Investigators at the Pentagon found that she was using her position as a member of the reconstruction staff in Iraq to establish a U.S. branch of a South African security firm called Meteoric by helping it win more than $3 million in contracts.

The investigators found that she took advantage of her position for personal gain and that Olson’s actions were “fraudulent” and “seriously improper.” Olson opened an office out of her home in Vienna, Va., for Meteoric, which was based in Pretoria, South Africa. Four months later, she filed formal incorporation papers that made her director of the new American entity.

Olson began helping Meteoric win contracts and investigators also estimated that she spent approximately 70% of her time working on Meteoric matters. Let’s see, she spent 70% of her time working on an illegal enterprise while collecting an active duty Colonel’s paycheck (with over 22 years of service) that in 2004 was approximately $133,000. This does not include flight pay, hazardous duty pay, per diem and most of the $133,000 was not taxable since it was an allowance for housing and food.

BTW, Meteoric employees were arrested in 2004 on suspicion of participating in an attempted coup in Guinea and had ties to a mercenary group involved in fighting civil wars in Sierra Leone and Angola.

In October 2005 Olson and Meteoric from receiving any government contracts for three years. Great, she was banned as a government contractor and was brought on to run the Human Resources department for a billion dollar organization funded with taxpayer dollars that educates over 155,000 kids.

She eventually resigned from the Air Force admitting to lesser charges (unknown) related to conflict of interest.

She breached public trust by simultaneously filling a position of responsibility in the government as a highly ranked commissioned officer while creating a private company that entered into contracts with the military office she worked in.

And this is the person we want in an already flawed ISD administration to run the department with the greatest assets the district has after our kids, OUR TEACHERS.

This is the person we want to keep getting paid $182,000 while teachers are being laid off and our kids suffering?

She needs to go NOW. Even before we talk about changing the Superintendent, she needs to go!!!

[Ed Note: Keep in mind that Col. Olson was cleared by a series of military hearings on these matters. Officially she has been cleared of wrongdoing. But be that as it may, her position as a board member of a "foreign" school board, and her conduct while here would certainly be worthy of consideration.]