It started with a high-profile football coach and allegations of sexual assault.
The story made headlines for weeks in the Fort Worth area, as a local school district investigated the allegations against a popular high school coach.
The coach eventually resigned from the district after officials agreed to pay him $100,000 and drop the investigation. He was never charged with assaulting a female coach, but was charged a few months later with harassing another co-worker and her boyfriend.
It wasn't until Star-Telegram education reporter Mart Frazier called the state teacher licensing board, however, that the bigger story began to emerge.
The agency, the State Board for Educator Certification in Austin, Texas, acknowledged it was investigating the coach's teaching credentials. But beleaguered investigators also acknowledged that their workload was so high they had a backlog of cases that could take years to resolve.