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DISD hires HR director: She left Air Force under cloud, but her account satisfies Hinojosa

Jack Gerson Comment:
(Eli) Broad Family Values: The Dallas public schools' new HR director, Kimberly Olson, is a recent graduate of Eli Broad's Urban Superintendents Academy who had previously been one of the top Air Force officers leading "reconstruction" in Iraq. She was forced out of the Air Force after accusations that she used her Air Force position to benefit her private security firm.

Enter "Eli Broad" under the search mechanism on the home page for an eyeful.

By Kent Fisher

The Dallas school district has hired a retired Air Force colonel to head its human resources department, five months after the previous director quit amid complaints about the department's performance.

The replacement is Kimberly Olson, who served as one of the top officers leading reconstruction in Iraq. But there's baggage: Mrs. Olson left the Air Force after she was accused of using her position to benefit a private security firm she helped operate.

Mrs. Olson, of Weatherford, declined to comment until after her contract with DISD is finalized in a few weeks. Her supporters have said the charges stemmed from overzealous regulators nitpicking the work of people in a chaotic war zone.

Mrs. Olson will come to a district that is dealing with a federal corruption investigation and accusations of conflicts of interest among administrators.

Michael Hinojosa, superintendent of the Dallas Independent School District, said Tuesday that he found Mrs. Olson honest when she was asked about the charges.

"She was extremely forthright with us, and we've done our due diligence on this," he said. "I'm satisfied that there are no integrity issues. She explained it all to my satisfaction."

Mrs. Olson spent a year fighting the charges but ultimately pleaded guilty in 2005 to less serious offenses, including creating the appearance of a conflict of interest, according to an article published in the Los Angeles Times. She was reprimanded, ordered to pay $3,500 and allowed to resign from the Air Force with an honorable discharge and no reduction in rank, according to media reports.

Mrs. Olson's military record was unblemished until the end. She served in the Pentagon as a senior investigator for the Air Force. During her 25-year career, she held several command and senior executive staff positions in the Joint Staff and Office of the Secretary of Defense, according to the Broad Foundation, a California nonprofit that promotes urban education.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts in education from Ohio State University, a Master of Business Administration from Webster University, a Master of Arts in national security and strategic studies from the Naval War College, and a Master of Arts in national security strategy from the National Defense University in Washington, D.C.

After leaving the Air Force, Mrs. Olson wrote a book about her experiences, Iraq and Back: Inside the War to Win the Peace, which includes a chapter about her dealings with the conflict of interest charges.

Later, Mrs. Olson enrolled in a training program for urban school superintendents run by the Broad (rhymes with "road") Foundation.

It was her training with the Broad Foundation that led her to DISD, Dr. Hinojosa said. Broad officials found her to be "one of the top people" to go through the training, he said.

DISD officials are attending many Broad-sponsored training events as the district competes to win the Broad Prize, a $1 million award the foundation gives each year to the highest-performing urban school system in the country.

Dr. Hinojosa said Mrs. Olson will report directly to him. Her contract has not been finalized, but she is expected to start her new job this summer, he said.

The DISD human resources department's former head, Troy Coleman, resigned in December. School board members said at the time that they had concerns about the department's operations, citing job applications that had gone missing and flaws in DISD's criminal background checks of employees and applicants that had turned up in a Dallas Morning News investigation.







— Kent Fischer
Dallas Morning News
2007-05-16
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/city/dallas/stories/DN-olson_16met.ART.State.Edition2.4320071.html

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