We will never know just exactly how badly Andre Ponder managed to catfish the Mineral County School District. There are so many inconsistencies in his stories the only thing we know is he is not who he claims to be. From what I have found searching the web, Mineral County is not the only place that has been catfished.

Of course, he may have been less successful at catfishing if Hope Blinco had done her job as a Human Resource Manager. What became clear during the recent Board meeting was she does zero background checking on Superintendents, or none that she discloses. I still believe she had information from the very first day he arrived in town.

It is also clear he has been in bankruptcy court up to 7 times. Most of them appear to have been dismissed, likely because he didn’t do what he was supposed to. I am no expert, but 7 times to go through that process says something about his financial management at a minimum. His inability to complete the process shows lack of commitment to serious things.

It is also clear that he has almost certainly lied to another organization about his education. He recently spoke at a conference as PHD, but he doesn’t seem to have completed that program. When look at various data, the date of graduation has been ever evolving, and doesn’t appear he even declares the same program consistently. I believe he is in a program only because I know someone that saw his thesis.

I can only only hope this blog would encourage future employers to do their due diligence.