Lakewooder

Stop the teacher lay-offs. They are going to cut 10-12 core teachers at each high school and who knows how many more at each feeder school. These teachers are responsible for almost half of DISD schools now being ranked exemplary and recognized.


Email AND CALL this minute if you care about Dallas!



Edwin Flores
District 1
Term Expires 2009
3700 Ross Avenue, Box 1
Dallas, TX 75204
edwinsflores@yahoo.com
Delisa Proctor/Board Specialist
(972) 925-3722

Jack Lowe
District 2
Term Expires 2011
3700 Ross Avenue, Box 1
Dallas, TX 75204
jlowe@dallasisd.org
Gina Castillo/Board Specialist
(972) 925-3721

Leigh Ann Ellis
District 3
Term Expires 2009
3700 Ross Avenue, Box 1
Dallas, TX 75204
laellis@dallasisd.org
Delisa Proctor/Board Specialist
(972) 925-3722

Nancy Bingham
District 4
Term Expires 2010
3700 Ross Avenue, Box 1
Dallas, TX 75204
nbingham@dallasisd.org
Evelyn Rivera/Board Specialist
(972) 925-3717

Lew Blackburn
District 5
Term Expires 2010
3700 Ross Avenue, Box 1
Dallas, TX 75204
lblackburn@dallasisd.org
Evelyn Rivera/Board Specialist
(972) 925-3717

Carla Ranger
District 6
Term Expires 2011
3700 Ross Avenue, Box 1
Dallas, TX 75204
cranger@dallasisd.org
Delisa Proctor/Board Specialist
(972) 925-3722

Jerome Garza
District 7
Term Expires 2010
3700 Ross Avenue, Box 1
Dallas, TX 75204
jgarza@dallasisd.org
Evelyn Rivera/Board Specialist
(972) 925-3717



Adam Medrano
District 8
Term Expires 2011
3700 Ross Avenue, Box 1
Dallas, TX. 75204
amedrano@dallasisd.org
Gina Castillo/Board Specialist
(972) 925-3721

Ron Price
District 9
Term Expires 2009
3700 Ross Avenue, Box 1
Dallas, TX 75204
rprice@dallasisd.org
Gina Castillo/Board Specialist
(972) 925-3721

Mballar

Done! Thanks for the information.

__________________
The world is run by those who show up!

mjblazin

What if they ask where do we get the money not saved by the cuts?

JohnMcKee

Do you have another suggestion for fixing this massive budget crisis besides layoffs? If DISD was a private corporation and not a government entity there would be lawsuits all over the place and likely charges filed against directors for such negligence.

It's absolutely sickening to see how much I am paying in DISD property taxes and the gross negligence of how it is handled.

Random Traffic Guy

Yep, thanks for the numbers. Need to call to support the cuts and general cleanup. Sounds like they had a good roster made up for easy cutting in the list of credit card thieves!!

__________________
Public transit's usefulness is determined by land use planning more than by transit planning. Jarrett Walker - Human Transit Blog

Lakewooder

Cut at 3700 Ross, not in the classroom. They are talking about firing core subject 'master teachers'.

jimbone

All the schools will have to make cuts in ways they wouldn’t want and you should check those rankings TEA gave exceptions so those “exemplary” may not be Google it.

RobertB

I'm not in DISD -- and that's on purpose -- but I can't help but think someone should go to jail.

The voters just approved a massive bond issue on the word of these bastards, even though an audit was still in progress. You think they would have approved it if they'd seen this coming?

I think someone cooked the books to ensure passage of the bond election. If that's the case, it's fraud, and someone should go to jail. Perhaps several someones. Heck, at this point I think the Wilmer-Hutchins school board should be brought in to run the show.

There are four reasons I didn't stay in Dallas when I got custody of my kids, and they are the letters D, I, S, and D. (Or would that be three reasons?)

__________________
As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals... Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake. - B. Obama 1/20/09

Hannibal Lecter

The only thing surprising about this is that anyone is surprised.

Lakewooder

If some of you want to give up, that's fine but please refrain from making comments that condemn fine students and teachers.

This administration will be gone and we will still be here with our good schools if we can stop this layoff. We have survived at least a dozen superintendents.

We were taught to take pride in our school and remain loyal through thick and thin. We were also taught to fight for our school, undaunted.

Mballar

Amen, brother. The legal definition of fraud is whether someone "knew, or should have known." In this instance some people definetly knew or should have known that this was coming, and it should have been reported prior to the bond measure (which barely passed).

__________________
The world is run by those who show up!

jimbone

Give up nobody has given up on DISD many people want the district to succeed, but they are tired of the incompetence of the district. This city gave DISD a billion dollars that doesn’t seem like a city that has given up that’s a city willing to give their hard earn tax money so that children in Dallas can get an education to help them succeed in life. The chickens have come home to roost and DISD will have to make tough choices, but don’t act like you’re the only one that gives a damn.

Lakewooder

OK then can we agree that the campuses and the administration are two separate items? You can condemn the administration but acknowledge that many of the schools are doing a great job in spite of them..

Just saying I'm glad I'm not in DISD or DISD is bad is not helpful...

RobertB

Really? Knowing that there's a reason I moved to Mesquite instead of staying in Dallas isn't helpful?

Consider these facts: I loved living in Oak Cliff, near restaurants and groceries and transportation. I loved the trees and the neighborhood. I loved the parks and the people. I would have been happy to contribute to DISD's property tax rolls, join the PTA, and send extra supplies to the school whenever the teacher runs out of Kleenex or Ziploc bags.

I'm doing all of those things in Mesquite because of DISD incompetence.

Sure, that information doesn't do a hill o' beans to help the teachers who have been strung along and then thrown under the bus. But it's critical information for anyone who wants the DISD to survive in the long term. It means that anyone who can leave DISD will do so. And that should be a wake-up call to everyone.

__________________
As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals... Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake. - B. Obama 1/20/09

JohnMcKee

I'm not condemning fine students and teachers, my sister, brother and sister-in-law are all teachers (Although not in DISD) and my mother is a former teacher.

The situation is awful, its sad that DISD put themselves in a position where they have to make choices like this but at the end of the day it's give them more money or make tough choices on their end. I am tired of giving them more money and maybe when us tax payers stop bailing them out and giving them more money every time they screw up like this and they learn the tough choices that result from their financial irresponsibly maybe they will try and do something about it.

We absolutely should be outraged that these teachers have to be let go. DISD is given plenty of money to pay them all but piss it away and I'm tired of giving them another chance, they need to suffer the consequences of their financial malfeasance.

It's awful that the teachers and students get caught in this but such is life sometimes.

Lakewooder

Yes but Rosemont and Griener are better than many of the schools in Mesquite.

Mballar

I'm really eager to see an honest debate about DISD come about. It's easy for many who don't have a vested interest in the district to talk down on DISD. But, now, with this week's events, is the time for us to come up with solutions to the problems facing the Metroplexe's main entity charged with educating Dallas' future. The administrators . . .no matter who they are, seem totally inept.

__________________
The world is run by those who show up!

tamtagon

What's the ratio of teachers to administrators being laid off? If DISD cannot afford 5% (e.g.) of the positions directly involved in teaching, then at least that many indirect functions should go as well. What's the goal here? educate kids or staff a educational management entity? The same thing is happening to school districts in Georgia. Teaching positions being eliminated, the most experienced and highest paid teachers asked to retire. It's a total mess, and it seems like a lot of the people managing a school district are forgetting the goal is to teach kids stuff, not to staff a manage system. I wonder what would happen if DISD dramatically shaved the number of district administrative functions and deligated those district admin tasks to the people in the schools - you know, the folks teaching kids how to do it.

AeroD

Did somebody say vouchers?

__________________
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEQpp2xvWY0

lpepping

Do you really believe that? Or is this just an overstatement to make a point?

Lakewooder

http://backtalkeastdallas.typepad.c...update-are.html



DISD update: Are things as bad as they seem?
I spent my Friday afternoon at DISD's special board meeting to discuss the $64 million (or more) budgeting shortfall. There are plenty of places to obtain the short-hand version of what happened at the meeting (the place was crawling with TV people; outside the admin building on Ross looked like the White House lawn with the cameras and talking heads spread all over the grounds), but if you want an accurate blow-by-blow of the meeting with minimal accompanying editorial commentary, check out Allen Gwinn's blog post here. Allen presents a running summary of the information as it happened, and other than a few comments along the way, what he reports is essentially accurate from my perspective at the meeting. He also has a link on his site to a post called "Time for Hinojosa to go?" Sometimes, Gwinn seems a little over-the-top with his posts, but this one is a thoughtful commentary discussing the DISD superintendent's job qualifications and accomplishments and whether Hinojosa's empathy as a parent/educator outweigh some of the problems that have occurred on his watch.

Be forewarned, though: You're probably looking at about 30 minutes of reading to take in everything Gwinn's presenting.

Here's a more interpretive and somewhat shorter version, based on what I saw today.

First, the board acted reasonably and professionally, and that's a pleasant surprise. There are still those of us who remember the televised "armed conflict" of board meetings during the New Black Panther phase of DISD. The current board members didn't point fingers, didn't do too much grandstanding and seemed motivated to move forward and find the least painful solutions rather than grind around and rehash the mistakes while posturing for the cameras. The board members were clear about wanting to solve the problems so they don't happen again, but the task at hand is addressing the shortfall, and that's what they focused on.

In one particularly shrewd but controversial move, the board voted to keep the meeting in a small boardroom (capacity of about 60) rather than its auditorium-sized boardroom — I'm sure the rationale was to keep the crowd size manageable and keep the crowd quiet. It may not have been the most democratic way to proceed, but it definitely kept the TV people from being able to show pictures of people yelling at the board and calling them incompetent, and that's exactly what would have happened. There was enough murmuring in the small room to get a sense for the circus that was avoided by the board's decision to take the crowd out of the meeting. Some of you will no doubt be offended by this deliberate move to be exclusionary, but the alternative was to have a televised riot during the board meeting, which would not have contributed to the solution and would have made parents and taxpayers feel even less secure about the district's prospects.

There have been lots of public, blog-fueled calls for Hinojosa's firing, and a fair number of people have also called on some or all of the board members to resign. Without commenting further on Hinojosa's status (I think he should stay, at this point, based on what I've heard so far), I think it's a horrible idea to pin the blame for this on the board of trustees.

It was clear from just this one meeting that the bureaucracy at DISD is massive, and it's unreasonable to expect a volunteer board to provide hands-on micro-management. It's clear that a few members of the board are probably overmatched somewhat with the challenges, but most of them — particularly Lew Blackburn and Jerome Garza — asked informed and pointed questions, and when the answer was incomplete, they said so and demanded more. I expect the board members, as a whole, will be more involved going forward — they clearly recognize their role in this mess, and they want to clear ther names. I don't think there's anything they could have done to prevent the current problem. Talking about getting rid of them now is ludicrous.

Lots of cost-cutting ideas were discussed, and some have merit. Unfortunately, with the exception of reducing the amount of money spent annually on the district's specialized learning centers (estimated savings of about $17 million annually), most of the ideas will save mere pennies on the dollar that must be slashed from the budget.

After standing through the entire three-hour meeting, one thing is crystal-clear to me: There will be teachers layoffs, the number of teachers laid off will be significant, and there is no amount of creativity that will prevent that. Period. You can plead all you want with individual board members to save a teacher at this school or that school, but from what I can tell, it's not going to make a difference — teachers will be eliminated based on board-approved student-teacher-class ratios at each school.

Some of the reports I've read indicate that thanks to the board's insistence today on protecting teachers at all costs, no teachers were fired today (Friday). That is incorrect. It was clearly stated during the meeting that no teachers were going to be officially RIFed (Reduction in Force, or fired) until around Sept. 29. The plan was, and still is, for each school principal to compile a list of affected teachers, have the list vetted by DISD administrators to make sure everything is being done legally and by the book, and then consolidate the list and move forward. Even though the board didn't vote to fire anyone today, it is just a matter of time before they do. In the meantime, DISD is spending approximately $1 million more than it's taking in each week no significant reductions are made.

Back to the Learning Centers — they've long been a bone of contention in Dallas, because the district spends more to each educate each Learning Center student than it does to educate each student at standard schools (about $17 million more per year, district administrators said during the meeting). The Learning Centers were court-ordered back in the day that everything at DISD was court-supervised in an effort to provide better learning environments for particularly disadvantaged students; that supervision is gone now, and the Learning Centers could well be stripped of their cash advantages shortly, too. As I recall from past meetings, the extra money spent on Learning Center students doesn't translate to correspondingly higher student achievement. Eliminating the funding disparity could reduce by 25-30 percent the number of teachers who are ultimately let go.

For what it's worth, I stood next to Jim Schutze with the Dallas Observer for an hour or so, and I was near Brett Shipp (Channel 8 investigative reporter) for most of the afternoon. I saw Shipp's report on the 6 p.m. news, and Shipp acted like the board had said Hinojosa's job was safe FOR NOW. Honestly, no board member said anything bad about Hinojosa in the public meeting — nothing — nor did any board members say or imply that Hinojosa's job is on the line. I don't know what they said in the closed-door meeting afterwards (nor does Shipp), but I didn't get the sense Hinojosa is a goner unless some other horrible thing happens soon. Shipp's reporting was technically correct, but his inflection and wording — while adding some nice drama to his news segment — seemed to imply a sense of discord and head-hunting that wasn't evident to me. That type of reporting is part of the reason so many parents and taxpayers are particularly inflamed about this mess.

So if you want to save teachers from being fired from your neighborhood school, take my advice and save your breath. If the school, relative to enrollment, has a higher teacher-to-student ratio than the board of trustees has approved — and it sounds like most schools are in this position — teachers are going to be laid off, period. No amount of public appeals or reasoning or pulling in chips from buddies on the board will make any difference — it looks as if the solution will be applied equally and across most schools.

Having spent the afternoon thinking, talking and writing about all of this, I have to tell you that as a parent with two sons attending a DISD school, I am not more concerned in any way about the future of our sons' education. The teachers will keep coming to work and doing their best until told otherwise, and like most businesses these days, restructuring due to economic woes is the rule rather than the exception.

There are those of you out there who no doubt are wringing your hands and worrying about your children; I can understand your concern. But for the past few years, I've seen definite and measurable improvements in the schools and learning environment at DISD, and I believe the board will do its best to solve this problem and the administration will do its best to implement that solution. I believes our kids are in good hands, and for those of you shaking your heads in disagreement right now, we'll just have to agree to disagree.

The next DISD board meeting to discuss the problem is Thursday, Sept. 25, at 3 p.m. at DISD headquarters, 3700 Ross. If you have the time, attend the meeting. If you don't, we'll do our best to keep you informed, too.

Lakewooder

From an email I just received:

Thanks to all of those who have contacted the DISD board members regarding the ridiculous proposal to lay-off teachers because of the mistakes of the administration. Please contact all of them again and make sure they get the message that this is unacceptable: http://www.dallasisd.org/about/boardcontact.htm

On your emails please copy our mayor tom@tomleppert.com , your city councilperson angela@angelahunt.com or sheffie@sheffiekadane.com Sheffie is a Wildcat ' 63 (if you are not in East Dallas area see) http://www.dallascityhall.com/gover...ontact_mcc.html, your state representative http://www.house.state.tx.us/resources/faq.htm#who_rep , your state senator http://www.senate.state.tx.us/75r/senate/Members.htm , the lt. governor http://www.ltgov.state.tx.us/contact.php and the governor http://www.governor.state.tx.us/contact/ . Also the TEA commissioner: commissioner@tea.state.tx.us Our Geraldine 'Tincy' Erwin Miller '52 serves on the TEA board and her information is:



Geraldine "Tincy" Miller
1100 Providence Tower West
5001 Spring Valley Road
Dallas, TX 75244-3910
972 419-4000
214 522-8560 (FAX)
sboesupport@tea.state.tx.us

January 1, 2007 - January 1, 2011
District 12 - Dallas

The School Board Meets Thursday September 25th at 5 pm (go before Art Party - see below)

eirin

If they want to fire teachers, then they will do so. I know this is an effort to try and stop it but in the end, their decision will prevail, regardless of the concerns of tax-payers who live in district.

Good luck, though. Maybe you can get lucky.

__________________
Socialism - bringing a greater good to a greater many, one golden parachute at a time.

Lakewooder

Then we will fire the board.

Mballar

Your right to complain as a taxpayer is really diminished, though, if you have an opportunity to do something, yet choose to sit by and do nothing. Let your voice be heard, and then let the chips fall where they may. Laying off teachers is not go to be the end of it for these administrators. This thing is far from over.

__________________
The world is run by those who show up!

Mballar

Please cut and past this sample email and send it, if you like. Make any additions or deletions necessary. I know sometimes the hardest part about sending these types of correspondence is figuring out what to say. So, I hope this helps anyone interested in this issue.
__________________________________________________ _

Greetings DISD Board Members,

My name is _______________________. I am a concerned citizen (taxpayer) with regard to DISD’s endeavors. I send this email out of concern that certain board members may be willing to vote to lay off as many as 800 core teachers at schools throughout DISD. Please accept this email as my official request that you NOT vote to lay off teachers.

I believe those core instructors have played a large role in the recent ranking of many DISD schools as “exemplary” or “recognized.” And in a time when DISD’s academic achievements are being closely scrutinized, we can ill-afford to take steps that will diminish the recent progress made.

Additionally, it my concern that teachers are the ones being penalized for the mistakes, and misjudgments, of administrators who brought about the most recent budget deficit. I am of the opinion that the cuts needed to balance DISD’s budget should start in the ranks of administrators who are responsible for creating this crisis. It is an insult to those teachers, as well as the taxpaying public, for the District to now label the budget crisis as being as result of “over staffing.”

Finally, I’d like to see an independent audit and investigation of the actions taken at the administrative level that brought about the budget shortfall. I believe only an independent investigation can provide the taxpayers with the information needed to hold the proper individuals accountable, as well as put measures in place so that these events don’t ever happen again. After all, DISD’s credibility is on the line.

Again, please keep DISD moving forward by NOT voting to lay-off those very important core teachers.

Thank you in advance for your time and attention.

__________________
The world is run by those who show up!

trolleygirl

I have to say that this is the first time in my life that I am officially tired of fighting this crap. I have so much respect for those who keep on tilting at windmills, year after year, decade after decade, heck I even considered myself one of those tireless fighters of the "good fight". But I mean, I can do math and I can count probability. And I choose not to fight any more. I didn't even go to Ron Price's District 9 Advisory Council meeting earlier this month, a council on which I am still a member and a council that hadn't met in a year previous. I didn't even bat an eye at not going. I think I stayed home and watched a Law and Order mini-marathon instead.

The bond election is, I think, what did it for me. That election was the absolute lowest turnout of any election in the history of the city pf Dallas. We were talking about over one billion dollars. And less than 5% of the registered voters in Dallas (a city of over a million people) cared enough to vote. I'm thinking, if these are my neighbors, the people I am stuck in traffic with, the people I work with, the people who have kids, if these are the people who only get outraged at a "scandal" when it breaks news, then I just don't know if I really want to care too much about this particular community.

JohnMcKee

I personally think a lot of people didn't vote because it was an incredibly awful choice to have to make either way, on one hand DISD admittedly needs the money, on the other hand their current handling of the money they have now is at best completely inept, at worst, criminal. I don't don't blame people for not wanting to have to choose between the two. Honestly I really didn't decide how I was going to vote until I had the pen in my hand.

eirin

My right can't be diminished from nothing, seeing as I don't own property in DISD, and never attended there.

__________________
Socialism - bringing a greater good to a greater many, one golden parachute at a time.

Hannibal Lecter

Some people have all the luck...but there's no need to gloat.

trolleygirl

And that made the choice a very simple one for me. I made numerous comparisons and analogies on this board and others. The city council and Mayor stuck their heads in the sand. DISD won't even listen to the advice of the business community. DISD did not produce its audit before the election. We are now $64million to $84 million short. This is not the result of hiring too many teachers. We have never hired "too many" teachers in this district.

Sometimes it has to get really bad before it can get any better. This should be DISD's darkest day and it should be a time to make a clean sweep. The children won't suffer any more than they already have. Had the bond election not passed, they still would have been $64 million short.

I wish there was a law that would render bond votes dead if less than a certain percentage of registered voters came out to vote. Is that legal? I mean, really, less than 15,000 people had the power to vote on a bond worth over a billion dollars. That's like, less than the entire population of Lake Highlands.

PuddinHead

But whatever happens to the schools we still have the money to rebuild Love Field put in a people mover to Love Field and build a convention center hotel downtown. All three projects the city can do without.

You just have to remember what is important right!

trolleygirl

Um, yeah let's compare apples to oranges here.

First of all, the money for Love Field is not spent (or mismanaged) by DISD. That's the City Council's doing. None of these used money from passing a bond election. The CC Hotel also was not the result of a bond election. And there is a group collecting signatures to put it on a ballot, so that the people can vote on it.

But, companies don't decide not to relocate to Dallas because of these things... it's because of our school district, which is not controlled by the City Council. All DISD is supposed to do is to educate children, not manage a bureaucracy, but it seems that's their first priority and looks like they can't even do that right. They aren't letting go of administrators, they're firing teachers. Pencil pushers down at 3700 Ross Avenue don't educate students, teachers do. As I said, it's all very simple to me.

tamtagon

It's so entirely exasperating. What the pencil pushers should be doing right now is figuring out which teachers in each school will be assuming which "pencil pusher duty" before permanently eliminating the pencil pusher job function. Hire one additional teacher for each (+/-) 10 admin positions being eliminated, and deligate the admin functions across the teaching staff. Something like that, whatever. There are probably hundreds of school district management employees which are entirely redundant to the fundamental characteristics and abilities of a teacher. Broaden the scope of 1,000 math teachers' duties by 5%(ish?) and eliminate 90% of the need for managers of the system's financial stewartship. Let the teacher do some real accounting while teaching accounting. Let a computer program teacher administer a school's computers while teaching computer programing [stuff]. To think that a school district would hire a company to fix it's computers while there are existing district staff who do exactly that kind of thing is about as stupid as stupid can get. Whatever. exasperating, exhausting, embarassing, and so totally slapstick punchdrunk ignorant inbred existance.

Lakewooder

An example of our email campaign (with permission):


Sent: Thursday, September 25, 2008
To: 'jlowe@dallasisd.org'; 'rprice@dallasisd.org'; 'edwinsflores@yahoo.com'; 'laellis@dallasisd.org'; 'nbingham@dallasisd.org'; 'cranger@dallasisd.org'; 'jgarza@dallasisd.org'; 'amedrano@dallasisd.org'
Cc: 'tom@tomleppert.com'; 'bmong@dallasnews.com'; 'angela@angelahunt.com'; 'sheffie@sheffiekadane.com'; 'commissioner@tea.state.tx.us'

Members of the Board of Trustees:

Before addressing the real topic, I want to bring to your attention that, while each of your e-mail addresses is easily located on the DISD website (under "Contact the Board"), the Superintendent's e-mail address is not. In 2008, this is totally unacceptable. Please immediately direct that the the website page http://www.dallasisd.org/about/super2.htm be updated to include his e-mail address under the existing heading of "Contact Dr. Hinojosa."

Clearly, you have a budget problem that must be promptly addressed. From all that I have read and heard, that problem was caused by central administrative misfeasance, not by local campus administrators or faculty. Yet, the most-discussed actions are to cut faculty at the local campus levels, apparently because that is what the Superintendent is recommending.

Stop! Be a Board of Trustees - not a Rubber Stamp. Step back and put this all into a proper Perspective.

There are at least TWO issues here:

The first is how to make the budget work. In that regard, you have emergency funds that should be applied FIRST to reduce this deficit before you make any personnel cuts. The consequence of this misfeasance is every bit as much of an emergency to DISD as would have been a tornado, an earthquake, or a terrorist act. So first reduce that $64 million by most, if not all, of the Emergency Fund. You have the ability to replenish those funds over time; you do not have the ability to go back and correct the damage you will be doing to students by dismissing teachers.

After you have applied the Emergency Funds, if a shortfall remains, then the second issue is this: Where to cut current expenses. Though it surely is the simplest response, discharging teachers -- the only people at DISD who are essential to performing DISD's mission of educating students -- would be the most foolish step you could possibly take.

Do you think for a minute that the teachers you propose to fire are not needed or that they will not help DISD reach its academic goals? All of those teachers were hired after careful assessment of academic needs at each local campus and proper requests to DISD. Those judgments were reviewed -- sliced, diced, kicked back for revision -- and finally were approved as being correct for the education of students in this community . . . by the very people at Ross Avenue who now seem to be saying "cut faculty first."

Ladies and gentlemen, one of two things is happening here: Either all of the administrators at Ross Avenue are wholly incompetent and should be summarily discharged before even the first teacher is fired; or YOU -- the members of the DISD Board of Trustees -- have seriously erred in forcing DISD administrators to make our schools try to perform their mission with inadequate resources for many years and this "crisis" has simply illuminated that fact.

I am no fan of many of the "career" administrators at DISD. To the contrary, I long ago became convinced that if anyone wants to find pure examples of the "The Peter Principle," they need only look among former teachers and former campus administrators who have "advanced" to a wide variety of positions in DISD where they no longer must deal with students on a daily basis. Admittedly, some of these people are effective. However, an unfortunate and common characteristic possessed by too many is that they have lost the ability to think independently and, instead, will do what they are told rather than think about what really needs to be done and then "speak to power" to get it done. These "career Ross Avenites" have stifled local campus innovation and creativity for decades and have contributed greatly to many of the problems you and Dr. Hinojosa continue to find in DISD. As far as I am concerned, that alone makes those people the most expendable of all DISD employees.

Better no middle management at all than unthinking middle management.

Nevertheless, in this particular case, I believe their original assessments of the faculty needs at DISD campuses probably not only were correct, but also that even those evaluations probably still understate the genuine teacher staffing needs of our schools. For decades, YOU -- the Board of Trustees -- have emphasized to them to be parsimonious, let student/teacher levels rise, don't cause problems that might lead to lawsuits (such as firing incompetent teachers -- just move them around, instead), etc. And all of that has become part of their culture because YOU either dictated or tolerated it.

, If truth serum could be administered, I imagine you would learn that -- when they approved those teacher staffing recommendations -- they still thought they were leaving the schools understaffed. Actually, they finally were being more intellectually honest with you than they had in the past because they thought you finally made available the resources that would be required.

YOUR responsibility has been to give them the money they need to properly educate Dallas children and -- for decades -- YOU have withheld those resources from them. Now, because of accounting errors, they finally began staffing schools to get to -- but still not achieve -- appropriate faculty levels. Take a look at what that means: It's not that DISD hired too many teachers; it's that -- all these years -- YOU have not been giving the schools sufficient resources to be able to hire the number of teachers that are actually needed.

Getting the money needed to make these schools work and then making sure the money is spent wisely is your primary job. The regular practice of telling administrators how much money they can have before asking them how many teachers they really need has been and continues to be a prescription for academic disaster. Find the money to hire enough teachers to properly educate the children. If you have to raise taxes, do it. Stop being so afraid that you are going to lose your own high-profile unpaid elected positions and do the right thing! In the long run, giving students the quality of education they need will more than pay back this community in economic activity.

But what about right now? Well, as I said, start with the Emergency Fund. Then, postpone capital expenditures, reduce maintenance intervals and -- most importantly -- drastically reduce the number of people employed by DISD who do not work full time within a school campus. DISD has way too much redundant and/or ineffective bureaucracy; so, if you find it unavoidable that you must fire the newest-hired teachers, then -- at the very least -- replace each of them on those campuses with a person from Ross Avenue and cut that person's salary down to standard teacher pay. If it turns out that those "administrative" people really can't teach -- as I strongly suspect -- well, they shouldn't be employed at DISD anyway, so fire them and rehire some real teachers for our students.

Your mission is education of students within the geographic boundaries of DISD, not preservation of jobs at Ross Avenue and certainly not trying to preserve your own political futures by failing to provide all the teachers reasonably needed to every local campus. The teachers MUST be the very last to go.

D. Paul Dalton

Woodrow Wilson High School 1968
B.S. Pharmacy, University of Houston, 1973
J.D., SMU School of Law, 1979

Parent of 1998 and 2002 Woodrow Wilson High School graduates.

Vicman

In my high school I remembered teachers asking me, a student, for help with computer stuff - One time the school staff asked me to help set up the new computers in the counselor's room (they were already configured with the network configurations, etc - I just needed to assemble and connect the parts). I carried the PC parts up the stairs and assembled them in the counselor's room. I also ran Windows Update on many of the school computers.

School districts should count on trustworthy students to do repairs - they get the job done for free AND the school district can say "See, we have good students here!"

UrbanHope

Does anyone think that this is the "event" that raises DISD election turnout above the embarrassingly low numbers we've seen in recent years' past?

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Lakewooder

If a politician *were* to propose breaking up the DISD and got it into motion, he would go far!!!!!

Vicman

One idea I have is to redraw DISD so that it covers all of the city of Dallas, and then have "outsiders" COMPLETELY replace the old DISD with a new DISD - The outsiders draw the power structure and constitution to avoid abuse. It would be like the founding fathers replacing the Articles of Confederation with the U.S. Constitution. All of the central administration (but not the teachers and custodians) will have to go through elections and rehiring.

TheMapman

^^I'd argue the opposite, they should split DISD into 3-4 smaller districts (think four quadrants around downtown) - smaller bureaucracy will create more accountability and give greater local control to neighborhoods.

prspective

Let me see if I got this information correctly: Is Mr. Hinojosa's salary really over $379,000 a year?

If that information is accurate, that is insane in itself! Keep that in mind, when you are out running errands or shopping, or eating out at a restaurant in the evenings or on Saturdays and Sundays. More than likely, the employee behind the counter or your waitress/waiter is a DISD teacher! Folks, these DISD teachers work at least 2 jobs to keep food on their table for their own families.

TheMapman

How is it outrageous (assuming he's competent)? If he were in the private sector, running a company of the size and complexity of DISD would earn 5x that much. If he was doing a good job it'd be very fair IMO.

Vicman

Hmm, the possible issue is that some could accuse the planners of trying to re-segregate populations, especially if the smaller districts are drawn a certain way.

I've seen other proposals for splitting DISD that show neighboring districts taking large chunks of what was DISD; I'm not sure how that would work in reality.

I think that with a really large district we could write a "constitution" that forbids hiring of administrators beyond a certain point to avoid a bloated administration and to ensure that the administrators are working hard and not having easy lives.

Lakewooder

Segregation was black and white. The hispanics were counted as white. Check out the demographics and you will find that nearly every school is majority hispanic (which can be any race). There are a handful elementary schools that are majority white - none of the middle or high schools are. There are more schools which are majority (and in some cases almost exclusively) black. Unfortunately many of them have been losing enrollment and probably should be closed, combined or their boundaries expanded. However there has been resistance to this...

Spjz

That's what has been done down here in SA. If you're hoping for better overall schools, I would'nt hold your breath. But it would create a fire wall between the regions within the district; helping regions with a healthy tax base and more desirable student body (less single parent homes, higher employment rates, ect.), but it would hurt the poorer areas that have lower property values and the above listed social ailments.

Lakewooder

Yes but when this was floated before, the idea was that there would be tax revenue sharing from the entire erstwhile DISD.

jimbone

PuddinHead

I was only making a point as to how messed up our Dallas Governental priorities are in this fair city of ours. Both for the ISD and the City Government.

Lakewooder

From http://backtalkeastdallas.typepad.com/

Woodrow town hall meeting at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 1

If you want to deliver your personal opinion about the DISD budget deficit directly to school board trustee Ron Price, here's your chance: Price is holding a town hall meeting in Woodrow Wilson High School's auditorium Wednesday, Oct. 1, at 6:30 p.m. At the Woodrow SBDM meeting Tuesday night, it was said that Price had been receiving so much "advice" from neighborhood parents that he decided to hold the meeting prior to Thursday's next school board meeting.



PLEASE FORWARD THIS MESSAGE TO ALL CONCERNED ABOUT THE SCHOOL CHILDREN OF DALLAS.