DALLAS ISD

We're taking a four-day break from this blog.

I'll leave the Comments portion of this thread turned on. Feel free to use it to discuss, amongst yourselves, district matters, or to suggest topics we should tackle in the coming months.

Everybody have a safe and fun July 4. See you back here Monday.

I'm only now getting a chance to blog on an interesting turn of events from Thursday's crazy trustee meeting regarding the dismantling of Spruce High School, and the reassignment of kids to Lincoln and Madison.

The plan went through almost exactly as the administration wanted it -- with one tweak foisted on Superintendent Hinojosa that I found remarkable, not only in how it came to be, but also in its potential consequences for kids and schools.

Click the jump to read about what I'm calling "Ron Price's Spruce High Stiff Arm ..."

What the media, blogs and others are saying today.

** Let's not forget the Boatgate trial that's ongoing.

** Our follow-up on the audit. Question: Which is worse, corruption or incompetence?

** This strikes me as social promotion for schools: Didn't make the standard? Get the grade anyway.

** A UNT prof plans on using the audit report as a class case study.

** DISD Press boils down the audit into readable nuggets. Part One. Part Two. Part Three.

** Budgets everywhere are tight.

Got a link we missed or an item for the Daily Dish? Send it our way.

Teachers at now-blown-up Spruce High School got a call this morning, from a computer, telling them that they're no longer welcome at the school.

This wasn't unexpected as the district said Spruce teachers would have to find new homes under the reorg plan, but the manner in which the teachers were notified was a first, according to the teacher's group Alliance/AFT.

"Normally teachers will get a certified letter when they're released from a school -- this is the first time they've done it by automated phone call," said Alliance/AFT officer Jeff Sherels.

Some teachers interpreted the call to mean they'd been fired from the district, but that's not the case, Sherels said. What it does mean, apparently, is that those teachers are now free to find jobs elsewhere around DISD, or in other school districts.

That, though, might be tough for some of the veteran teachers, who will command relatively high salaries due to long tenure with the district, and because of the negative publicity surrounding Spruce's recent woes.

UPDATED 3:00 P.M.: Alliance/AFT official Jeff Sherels called back to say he has heard the message sent out to Spruce teachers, and it says teacher have been released from their contracts."

Which is different from being reassigned from Spruce. Reassigned from Spruce means you still have a job, just not at Spruce. Released from your contract means you no longer have a job with DISD.

UPDATED: 3:30 P.M.: Now, Aimee Bolender says she talked to HR boss Kim Olson who guaranteed her that all Spruce teachers have jobs, somewhere in the district. No teachers were having their contracts terminated, Bolender says Olsen told her.

What the media, blogs and others are saying today.

** Link o' Rama to coverage of yesterday's board festivities. DISD.org gives us the play-by-play. DISD Press weighs in with two posts. FrontBurner, Unfair Park, BackTalk, our stories (one and two), Channel 11, Channel 5, Channel 8, Channel 4. Whew.

** Just passing the TAKs (or any other test) doesn't guarantee that you're super-duper smart.

** Crap. Is this a battle we can win?

** TEA falls down on the job again.

** In case anyone forgot, there's a DISD public corruption trial going on.

Got a link we missed or an item for the Daily Dish? Send it our way.

When interesting or important news explodes after your deadline has come and gone -- well that's pretty much a reporter's nightmare. Last night's vote shooting down the renaming 3700 Ross Ave for Kathyn Gilliam was my Freddie Kruger.

Today's story doesn't adequately capture the tension and hostility that erupted when the renaming proposal went down in flames, 5-3 (Medrano abstained. Question: Why didn't he vote?)

Doing some last-minute research as we prepare for today's audit release. Found something interesting in our clips I thought I'd pass along.

I'm told that one of the auditor's findings will be problems with payroll verifications. Another issue is that problems discovered by past audits were never fixed.

I call your attention to a nearly 10-year-old report, detailed in a story after the jump:

What the media, blogs and others are saying today.

** It's going to be one heckuva nutty day (and night) over at Ross Avenue. You know it's crazy when the least controversial item on your board's agenda seems to be a $1.2 billion budget.

** Among the items to be decided tonight, the fate of Spruce High School. I told you it was going to be nutty.

** That GPS truancy project gets more love, this time from the Observer. Which prompts some other folks to ask if the project violates kids' rights.

** Want to kill education reform? Call it a voucher.

** A district art teacher sounds off on changes in the district's curriculum plans and questions if some of the images included are appropriate for children.

** Our editorial board likes Hinojosa's plan for in "International High School."

Got a link we missed or an item for the Daily Dish? Send it our way.

No indication yet that tomorrow's meeting to unveil the long-delayed 2006-07 financial audit won't go off as planned at 2 p.m. Frontburner posted a little tidbit about the report, to which I'll add a comment I got today from somebody who's seen a draft of the audit.

"Trustees are going to blow a gasket about 2:15 tomorrow."

The audit also reportedly doesn't attempt to estimate how much money may have been lost due to the "loosey goosey" way the finance shop has been run, according to the person who saw the draft. (And this person did use the term "loosey goosey.")

One early highlite: Auditors found district department heads rarely verified their monthly payroll sheets, meaning nobody was making sure that departing employees stopped getting paid after they left the district.

Payroll problems, readers may recall, was something we reported on extensively last fall.

UPDATED: During a discussion late yesterday with Steve Korby and Carolyn Jones about the how they'll use the over-due audit findings to shore up the district's finance shop, the two let drop that another as-of-yet unnamed administrative department will be eliminated. This comes after 50 jobs were cut two weeks ago.

This new round of cuts was noted rather matter-of-factly in response to a question I asked about longevity pay. Seems that the administration has had a change of heart about that, and some veteran teachers will be getting that money. Cost: somewhere in the neighborhood of $6 million.

I wanted to know what was cut in order to restore longevity to the budget.

Click the jump to read the response ...

What the media, blogs and others are saying today.

** This morn's story about the audit's probable release tomorrow.

** The new auditorium where the board meets may be named for Kathlyn Gilliam.

** Seems another big-city school board also doesn't like being asked to approve a budget when they don't know what's in it.

Got a link we missed or an item for the Daily Dish? Send it our way.

A meeting of the Board of Trustees' Audit Committee is scheduled for 2 p.m. Thursday, with this lone agenda item: "Presentation by Deloitte & Touche, LLP on External Audit for Fiscal Year 2006-2007."

However, school officials are hedging on whether the audit will be definitely be presented at that meeting.

"It is very much a possibility that it will happen," said district spokesman Jon Dahlander.

That's as much of a committal as I could wrangle out of the guy.

The district's current fiscal year ends June 30. But this audit is from last fiscal year. The audit of the current fiscal year will commence shortly.

If I need to tell you all what this audit is going to say, then you haven't been keeping up with this here blog.

Here's advice for all planning to attend tomorrow's 5:30 p.m. board meeting: Show early! The parking lot and board auditorium will be packed.

Aliance AFT is planning a demonstration at 4:15 p.m. Thursday before trustees hold a public hearing on the proposed budget. (see the jump below for details). And students from Spruce High School plan to show up to oppose a plan to drastically reorganize their campus.

The teachers are protesting a salary freeze for veteran teachers and the lack of raises for support employees. I expect hundreds of teachers to participate if a protest earlier this month at district headquarters is any indication -- at least 300 teachers showed up in opposition to the budget.

But the students are hoping that teens will fill the board auditorium.

Don't expect many boring moments.

Anybody watch the HBO documentary last night chronicling one year in the life of an inner-city Baltimore high school?

The parallels to what's going in Dallas high schools like Spruce and Samuell are striking: state "accountability" rules mandate big-time changes. But why would those changes improve things when the real culprits seem to be apathy, indifference and a school system that is, from top to bottom, unable to deal with the reality from which these kids come?

Click the jump for some thoughts I scribbled down while watching the 2-hour film that was, in a word, depressing.

What the media, blogs and others are saying today.

** Mr. Teacher is in a reflective mood.

** DISD Press talks to Pedro Alvarez.

Got a link we missed or an item for the Daily Dish? Send it our way.

Lennard Pierson, an editor and writer in the district's Publications, Design, and Web Services department, was one of several dozen Dallas ISD staffers let go recently in a budget-induced round of cost-cutting.

Lennard wrote in while I was on vacation last week. Click the jump to read one soon-to-be Ex-DISD staffer's reaction to something too many Americans are having to confront.

Those who've been around Dallas for at least six years will remember CEP (Community Education Partners), a for-profit company that ran a big alternative center for DISD.

DISD officials had all kinds of concerns with CEP, including that students were not being educated in the alternative center and that it was costing way too much. Mike Moses managed to get rid of the company in 2002.

Atlanta is now dealing with CEP, which is being sued by the ACLU. Read about it here.

Hey there Timberwolves, the dreaded "Option A" that you most disliked to reform your campus is the one DISD administrators will recommend to trustees for approval at Thursday's meeting. Read the recommendation here.

Option A would only open Spruce to 9th graders who would be offered magnet-like programs. Spruce's 10th- and 11th-graders would go to Lincoln or Madison. Seniors would have the option of graduating from Spruce or moving to another campus. A grade level would be added every year until the school reaches 12th grade.

The change would take effect in the 2008-09 school year, if trustees approve the recommendation. (Note to school board: this won't be easy. Expect many Spruce kids to show up at Thursday's meeting to oppose Option A.)

What the media, blogs and others are saying today.

** Janet Morrison asks some common sense questions about DISD, its facilities and community input.

** A teachers group says it found $57 million in fat in the district's budget that can be -- naturally -- reallocated for teacher raises. My take: I do not doubt there's fat in the budget, but most of their big-ticket suggestions (like No. 2 and 3) would just create more problems next year because none of that money is recurring.

** Steve Flores heads south July 1.

** These merit pay stories sure are starting to sound alike.

** Tougher rules for A/C teachers? Cripes. How would DISD fill its vacancies?

** What I'll be watching tonight on HBO.

Got a link we missed or an item for the Daily Dish? Send it our way.

I know some of you skeptics out there think DISD is trying to buy its way to the Broad Prize, by hiring Broad graduates, taking Broad training money, adopting their reform beliefs, etc.

Well, here's another piece to the puzzle for those of you connecting the Broad dots: DISD is committing $100,000 over the next two years to pay half of the salary of a Broad "intern," who will work in the district. The Broad Foundation will pony up $100,000 of its own, to pay the other half of this person's salary. The intern will work under Kim Olson in HR -- herself a Broad product.

Of course, the other way to look at this is that DISD is getting two years out of an up-and-coming administrator for half price.

Colleague Tawnell Hobbs riled up some of you faithful readers earlier this week with a post about the district's planned back-to-school rally at the American Airlines Center.

Many of you asked what it'll cost. The answer: $50,000.

Yes, it's being paid for with donated money. You can see for yourself by reading these here legal documents.

What the media, blogs and others are saying today.