http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mp ... an/3131800April 12, 2005, 9:51PM
County may help troubled program
Schools for young offenders stay open despite contractor's bankruptcy
By BILL MURPHY
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
A Harris County program that provides schools for 1,200 juvenile offenders and youths expelled from their home schools will continue to operate despite the bankruptcy of the company that runs it, a county official said Tuesday.
Harvey Hetzel, director of the county's Juvenile Probation Department, told Commissioners Court that the county can temporarily take over management of the program if necessary.
Brown Schools Inc. teaches about 600 youths in schools at the county's six detention facilities.
It also runs a two-campus, state-mandated program for about 600 students expelled by local school districts.
The Austin-based company filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy March 25.
Its assets, including its contract with the county, will be sold.
"We got no warning. At 8 o'clock on Good Friday, they filed," Hetzel said. "We aren't in a panic mode. We've got it under control."
Brown Schools runs boarding schools and educational facilities for youths in Texas, California, Florida, Idaho and Vermont.
Brown officials didn't return calls.
Brown has managed the two county programs since 1998.
Required education
The juvenile probation department is required by state law to provide alternative education for students facing mandatory expulsion for committing crimes, such as bringing guns to school, and others expelled at a school district's discretion.
Brown was paid $3.8 million to run the two-campus school for such students and another $4.3 million to run schools at detention facilities, Hetzel said.
State and federal money was used to pay for the programs' costs, Hetzel said.
The court-appointed trustee overseeing the bankruptcy has said Brown Schools will continue running its schools until April 22.
That period could be extended, but if it is not, the county is working to keep Brown's staff intact and pay them with money that the county would have paid to Brown, Hetzel said.
It is too late for the county to put out a bid to provide school services starting in August.
The county may end up managing the schools for the 2005-2006 school year, and then seek bids for the 2006-2007 year, Hetzel said.
No local operation links
Brown Schools' methods have drawn criticism from state regulators and resulted in lawsuits against it, the Austin-American Statesman reported.
Hetzel said he did not believe that any of the six legal settlements that led to $425,000 in unsecured claims listed in the bankruptcy filing stemmed from Brown School's operations in Harris County.
Most of the lawsuits were brought by former residents of the company's residential treatment programs, not their school operations, Hetzel said.
bill.murphy@chron.com