When the Delcom Group struck a $40 million deal with the Dallas Independent School District, the district put into motion plans to equip nearly 6,000 classrooms with cutting-edge audio visual tools.

After those plans took an odd left turn, a Dallas TV station and the Dallas Observer began digging a little deeper into why the school district pulled that contract from Delcom.

WFAA reporter Brett Shipp recently visited the Houston location of the company that ended up with the audio-visual contract, and he came away with some pretty interesting audio-visuals of his own. Included in his reporting is the allegation that former DISD Trustee Ron Price contacted the school district with a tip that a Delcom employee was convicted of a felony – information that the district used to cancel its contract. However, as Delcom has pointed out, the 15-year-old conviction of a non-managerial employee is hardly grounds for severing a contract.

The Dallas Observer has also picked up on the story, noting the peculiarities of the businesses that operate at the street address of Delcom’s Houston competitor, Prime Systems:

See, Shipp actually went down to Houston to see Prime's facilities for himself. No wonder Doug Busey, director of AV services for Delcom, told trustees to take their own peek when he spoke to them in early November. Guess they never did, or else they might have wondered how the district wound up handing $40 million to a company that sells refurbished computers and remote-control cars out of a tattered storefront done up in Star Trek font.

While a copy of Delcom’s initial complaint is online, the Lewisville, Texas-based firm says it expects that further discovery and depositions will shed more light on what appears to be a conspiracy to undercut Delcom’s bid and to invalidate a legitimate contract.