Back Talk Oak Cliff

DISD news roundup: No election, new CFO and another investigation

Lots of DISD action this week ... here's a brief summary of some of what went down, along with (of course) a little commentary:

• After its embarrassing financial crisis, DISD is spending $258,000 annually to hire a new chief financial officer. Larry Throm comes via Austin and Lubbock, where he is credited with being a tough watchdog on district finances there. "Dallas is absolutely fixable," Throm told the DMN. "I would not have taken the job if I didn't think I could be successful. They need to install some internal controls, generally accepted accounting principals and some safeguards."

DISD board vote may extend trustee terms and delay May election

When Carla Ranger starts looking like the reasonable one on the DISD board, we might have a big problem. But that seems to be the case on the board's possible vote today to delay the currently scheduled spring elections for trustee seats currently held by Edwin Flores, Leigh Ann Ellis and Ron Price.

In a nod to stability, the board is considering extending board terms, which would mean the three trustees wouldn't face re-election until 2010 as opposed to May 2009. The board is relying on a state law that allows school boards to extend trustee terms; DISD's lawyers apparently are giving the board the go-ahead even as Ranger cites other legal opinions saying such a move would be illegal.

Jim Schutze weighs in on the idea in this week's Dallas Observer, and most of his points are dead-on.

Extending trustee terms is a good idea, giving the volunteers we elect a longer period of time to learn the ropes and at least try to keep everything honest on Ross Avenue.

But voting to extend the terms to get around having an election, as opposed to making the term extension effective after the next election cycle, essentially trumps our right as voters to have a say on DISD's ongoing issues. It could very well be in DISD's best interests — and it certainly is in Supt. Michael Hinojosa's best interest — to keep these three supportive board members on the job. But that's just not the way things should be done in a democracy. An election to vote in new board members, if that occurred, might make things even more messy at DISD, while re-electing these three board members would send a message that stability is what voters want.

But that's a decision for voters to make, and it shouldn't be taken away from us by the very people whose actions many are questioning.

DISD whittles budget deficit to $28 million

Lots of DISD news Thursday, most of it positive, as the board met to discuss budget deficit progress, extending trustee terms, reviewing academic progress and evaluating how improvements to the accounting program are going. Here's a brief summary:

• The biggest news: Last year's DISD budget deficit, originally estimated at $64 million for this year, has been lowered to about $52 million as a result of additional state and local revenues. And this year's deficit, originally estimated at $84 million, has been reduced to about $75 million, prior to the recent teacher layoffs (which are projected to reduce the deficit by about $26 million) and program cuts (which reduce the projected deficit by about $28.2 million, leaving the district still about $28 million over budget for this year.

DISD 'ghosts' on the comeback trail?

Jim Schutze has a thoughtful column in this week's Dallas Observer about the state of DISD and what needs to be done. Rather than try to paraphrase what he's saying, since he covers a couple of topics, I'll let you read it. There is an interesting trip down memory lane for those of us who have been in Dallas for awhile, though, as Jim discusses past superintendents Yvonne Gonazalez and Waldemar Rojas, neither of whom lasted 12 months in the top job. The good times just keep rolling ...

How about an extra year for DISD trustees?

With many parents and teachers eager to blow up the entire DISD school board, word comes today in a DMN article that some board members not only aren't eager to leave — they're considering plans to extend their terms.

The board will consider a proposal Thursday to extend individual trustees' terms from three years to four, giving Leigh Ann Ellis, Edwin Flores and Ron Price an extra year before facing election (currently, their terms end May 2009). The rationale is that a trustee new to the board could use an additional year to do the job more effectively. Ellis told the DMN it takes a couple of years to understand the district well enough to have an impact.

Predictably, the same people who are calling for board members to resign as a result of the budget problems aren't in favor of the board extending members' terms. From a practical standpoint, the proposal makes sense — a four-year term (already implemented in Austin and Houston) would provide more time to do the job right and, theoretically, more board continuity since terms would be staggered with four members up for election at one time and the remaining five up for election two years later — as opposed to electing three board members every year.

Unfortunately, from a PR standpoint, this proposal might be a little harder to defend, since it does give the appearance of board members extending their own terms, much like Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently lobbied for in New York (he said given the troubling economic times, it would be too risky for New Yorkers to have an untested mayor on the job; Bloomberg wanted to run again, but couldn't because of term limits unless the city's charter was changed, so it was). Personally, I don't have a problem with the DISD proposal, but it probably would be better to carry out the May 2009 elections, as planned, and extend the terms of those elected then for four years, similarly adjusting the terms of the other trustees as they come up for election until the rotation is correct.

Also Thursday, the board will be hearing from Supt. Michael Hnojosa, who is scheduled to lay out a plan to make sure DISD doesn't face another budget crisis anytime soon. Who knows? Maybe public interest in what's going on in Washington will allow Hinojosa and DISD to get back on top of education here out of the limelight. Relatively.

DISD's Hinojosa could face a 'no confidence' vote by trustees Monday

DISD school board trustee Ron Price submitted a letter, co-signed by trustees Carla Ranger and Lew Blackburn, at last night's board meeting calling on the board to meet in emergency session Monday to consider a vote of "no confidence" in DISD Supt. Michael Hinojosa. The information was reported on WFAA-TV last night, along with video of people attending the school board meeting chanting "Jack Lowe must go" and yelling out all kinds of things after the board meeting ended.

A "no confidence" vote, as I understand it, doesn't have any legal status, but it would continue eroding the public's support of district leadership, as well as serve to keep the big budget scandal in the news, further eroding the public's support of district leadership. In fact, further evidence of the continuing drumbeat seeking to get rid of Hinojosa showed up on the DMN's education blog yesterday. The NEA-Dallas, a teacher's organization, attempted to survey its membership concerning Hinojosa and the school board; 428 teachers and DISD employees responded, according to the poll, which was sent to teachers and also linked on the DMN blog so other DISD employees could respond. (I'm just reading this in the introduction to the survey, which you can read by clicking here: Download neadallas_confidence_survey.pdf)

Good news from DISD: 57 RIFed teachers have been rehired

You might recall the recent news that right after DISD laid off 350 or so teachers, about 60 jobs were posted online, causing a mini-furor among some of those who were laid off. Well, good news: DISD just reported that 57 of the released teachers have been rehired, and the district's Human Development office "will continue to contct teachers who were released to notify them of additional positions as they become available." Here's the DMN's take on the issue.

DISD layoffs overlap new job postings. It sure doesn't look good.

In the too-strange-to-be-true category, DISD is advertising on its website for 60 new teachers — right after laying off 350 teachers, according to the DMN. Talk about a PR nightmare, huh?

Now, there could be a logical reason for this; DISD's take on it is that more teachers voluntarily left the district than expected, and that deadline was later than the RIF deadline, so in effect, too many teachers were laid off. All fine and good, so far.

DISD update: When is an apology no better than hari kiri?

There was a time in Japanese society where suicide was thought to be noble, something a samurai warrior considered heroic (hari kiri) and something a Japanese businessman did to take responsibility for failures at his company. Outwardly, Japanese society publicly celebrated the heroic nature of the personal sacrifice; behind the scenes, however, friends and family of the fallen man weren't so sure that death was the only way for society to gain its measure of revenge — I mean, how many business mistakes are really worth taking anyone's life over?

I thought about this while reading Jacquielynn Floyd's columns in last week's DMN; the columns (links here and here) suggested that DISD Supt. Michael Hinojosa should consider sitting down with the district's remaining teachers to directly apologize to them and to clear the air after budget problems resulted in firing and transferring several hundred teachers and other district employees.

DISD roundup: An apology and bilingual 'protection'

You know things are bad for DISD when Supt. Michael Hinojosa clearly and directly apologizes to teachers — and then people start whining that the apology isn't good enough. That was the case Wednesday, when Hinojosa spoke to a symposium of business and education "leaders" (this is according to the DMN story), and he said: "I want to apologize to all the teachers that left and the teachers that stayed. Everyone was affected." LIke the guy or not, that's a pretty clear statement of contrition. And then the complaints started. A teachers association president complained that the apology didn't really count since few if any teachers could be there to hear the apology, since it happened during the school day. And complainers on the DMN education blog continued to thirst for blood, one saying that an apology without a resignation was meaningless.

Meanwhile, Hinojosa also used the word "protected" to talk about why only two bilingual teachers (among about 2,000 total in the district) were let go during the recent layoffs, saying that student needs demand that bilingual teachers stay. Hispanics make up 66 percent of DISD's student body (105,075), with limited English proficiency students comprising 34 percent of enrollment; both are compelling numbers when it comes to assessing DISD's need for bilingual educators. Hinojosa said that not serving the district's limited English students would be "academic malpractice", according to the DMN story. (Note to readers: Thoughtful comments on this issue are welcome, but please DO NOT go off an a racist rant, or we will remove your post. Thanks.)