Late Night with Shelly Berman

Being on-the-road in a hotel with network problems, I'm just now getting "out." But I wanted to pass along some mail I got the other day from a professional colleague who earned my trust and respect ... years ago. It followed the story about late night conversations between Lousiville Superintendent Sheldon Berman and a close associate of the now greatly dishonored former Dean of CEHD at U of L, Robert Felner. Her name is Natalie Stiglitz.

My colleague writes:

In the zone of benevolent gossip, I will mention that half of my interactions with Jefferson County’s superintendent have occurred after 10 pm and involved [education programs.] I’ve been on the phone with parents, teachers, principals, after midnight over the years (usually brought on by an e-mail they thought I wouldn’t see before dawn) and exchanged e-mails with quite a few civic activists in the wee hours as well. I close those interactions with the mantra “KERA never sleeps!”

In the meantime, Shelly apparently returned Jake's phone call and explained the circumstances. He too, seemed to distance himself from Felner, who described Berman to U of L President James Ramsey as a friend. Berman says - not so much. ...met the guy a few times. ...can't say a lot about him.

Berman defends Stiglitz as having a national reputation, integrity and laments possible damage to her reputation by way of Felner. But as my grandmother said, If you lie down with dogs; you wake up with fleas.

The U of Hell victim class, commenting regularly and heavily at Page One, aren't buying it. They are biting.

Typical is a comment from "Lucky," saying

National leader???!! Of what?!

Integrity? What does THAT mean?

Google her and all you get is her UofL work–all set up by boyfriend Felner. What is national about that? All her personal information and vitae have been pulled from sites (no surprise). But we have seen her vitae–full of grants other people wrote and directed. She claimed them if they were managed out of the Nystrand center when she was the director. That shows a major LACK of integrity.

They point out U of L damage control, purging the university website of old references, vitaes...etc. Last night at 10:25, "Flag" wrote "Natalie is listed for Office of Civic Education and Engagement http://louisville.edu/education/civics/facilitators.html" This morning by 8:25, it was gone.

In Today's Installment of our ongoing Soap Opera - Felner Aide Phone Records

Well the hits just keep on coming, and today, Jake's got phone records. That means he's got a puzzle to work with.

So where did Felner's tentacles reach? The phone records of Felner confidant, Natalie Siglitz, director of the Office of Civic Education and Engagement at CEHD, produces some interesting names and times, including:

• Glenn Manns with the Ohio Valley Education Cooperative, one of the organizations involved with Anne Northup’s No Child Left Behind Center grant.
• Quite possibly the most interesting piece of this puzzle is that Stiglitz communicated with Superintendent of Jefferson County Schools Sheldon H. Berman as regularly as she spoke with her alleged boyfriend, Robert Felner. At late night hours. A 20+ minute conversation after 1:00 A.M. on a Friday night?
• Interesting - Stiglitz would call her family in Kansas City, then a number from Providence, RI that identified “Robert” on the voicemail greeting, then she’d get calls from Sheldon Berman shortly after. A call requesting comment from JCPS has not been returned.
• Felner’s attorney, Scott Cox
• According to [Secretary of State Trey]Grayson, one message was to alert him that there was a federal investigation at UofL. Stiglitz is involved with the Civic Literacy Initiative of Kentucky which Grayson chairs.
• ...the main number of Governor Steve Beshear’s office. This call took place on a Saturday afternoon, the day after the UofL raid.