Dallas ISD Budget Short fall (Houston, Richardson: 2011, apartment complexes, house)

[HockeyDadof2]

I did a search and was a little surprised to see know one is talking about this. I guarantee it would be front and center here if it was one of the northern suburbs.

[txgolfer45]

Originally Posted by HockeyDadof2

I did a search and was a little surprised to see know one is talking about this. I guarantee it would be front and center here if it was one of the northern suburbs.

It's been talked about quite a bit on KLIF 570 AM radio. I don't live within the DISD boundaries. But, I do understand school district budgets. How did the budget get approved with a projected shortfall this large?

[billdfw]

It has been all over the news. But it is not suprising since DISD is run by incompetent people.

[Lakewooder]

I just got this from the alumni email chain:

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 (if you live in the area or see or Welcome to the City of Dallas, Texas - City Council Office, your state representative Texas House of Representatives , your state senator The Texas State Senate: Current Membersof the Texas Senate , the lt. governor Lieutenant Governor of Texas :: David Dewhurst :: CONTACT and the governor Office of the Governor - Rick Perry - 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 3700 Ross.

"We will FIGHT for the gray and crimson and the glory of our high school. Never daunted, we shall not falter, in the battle, we're tried and true"

[Big G]

Originally Posted by billdfw

It has been all over the news. But it is not suprising since DISD is run by incompetent people.

+1. No one on this board expects anything better from DISD. That's why so many of us advise against DISD to newcomers.

You're right that it it would be all over this board if it were one of the northern suburbs. But that would only be from our resident expert in schadenfreude for all things suburb-related.

[Lakewooder]

And my counterparts in the northern suburbs. If you think nobody is talking about this, you know very little about DALLAS. If you will notice, I have not been on this board much in the last week or so...

But if you want to get on here and gloat, go ahead.

We already have two jumping in to say how bad DISD is -- does that include the students and teachers? Please advise....

[Big G]

Since you asked...

Yeah, I think the students in DISD aren't as good as in most suburban districts. More behavior problems, more student-on-student violence, less interest in graduating and doing well in school, etc. In the entire school district, there's maybe a dozen Nat'l Merit Scholars. Highland Park had that many at a fraction of the size.

I see a lot of DISD teachers bailing for the suburban districts, and very little of the reverse. Now, maybe those districts choose to hire the worst DISD teachers and leave the best ones in Dallas. Somehow, I doubt it. So I think the teachers aren't as good, either.

Feel free to come back with your Newsweek ranking. One of thse days, I may get around to pointing out the flaws in their methodology.

[Lakewooder]

The last few times I posted National Merit info, most of you suburbanites said that wasn't important!

Damned either way -- I guess. But I am thinking you enjoy damning them...schadenfreude, indeed!

[Big G]

No, actually, it makes me very sad that we have such a messed-up school district here in Dallas. It doesn't have to be that way. Other big cities - even New York - manage to have decent schools as a whole. Why not Big D?

Much like one of billdfw's maps, there are large parts of Dallas that are "unacceptable" to me because, while I have no interest in sending my kid to a private school, I also have no interest in subjecting my son to the Keystone Kops of the DISD. There are nice neighborhoods in my price range with beautiful homes, but I can't live there because the DISD is a deal-breaker.

There's a reason those apartment complexes along Coit by 635 have great big signs screaming, "Richardson ISD".

[loves2read]

the sad part is that DISD'sa stituation just gives people who think that minorities can't do anything right a perfect example to justify that point of view...not because everyone responsible is monority but because of people's stereotypical thinking...

I know there are people of any ethnic background can be capable or totally incapable--I have worked with the good and the bad--I am sure that there are plenty of teachers and admins in DISD that are as sick over this as any Dallas tax payer or parent or student
or as any person NOT in Dallas who is seeing this district disintegrate right on the front page...

but facts are facts---Dallas ISD has horrible oversight and bad administration --has for years--where the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing...where graft is the name of the game...where the fix in in...
the district is TOO BIG--it is too easy to hide mistakes when you have a district as large as this, with as big a budget, as large a land mass, as many personnel...
Maybe it could be broken up into smaller areas administratively with locally elected boards for oeversight and all share equally on per student basis in the tax base now.

The state needs to do an audit to assess what the true financial situation is--I would not trust DISD to do that...

I taught in Houston ISD when I first graduated from college right on the ship-channel side, 5th ward--Wheatley HS--the OLD Wheatley--we had a teacher assaulted on campus, stoned kids in school many times--had a hopped up boy wandering the halls --one of my students--come in my room and stick his knife in my desk and threaten me while I was teaching--had a teacher who carried a pistol to school and told his classes at the start of the year about his five little brothers...
and yet there were great students in that school and great teachers--some of them are still teaching but not at Wheatley...

tere are schools with problems similar to that now--maybe more control on the guns and drugs...maybe...but there is still a great apathy and animosity towards education..
the problem is that creating a positive learning environment in a depressed urban school is such an uphill climb that most people cannot comprehend how it sucks the enthusiasm, good intentions, rational thought out of your brain/heart---it is like trench warfare--

I have see how a large urban ISD can be deaf, dumb, and blind to the realities of inner city schools and education can be compromised when every other person sees the district money as a teat to suck from...all take, no give...

not saying everyone is like that---but this would not have happened if there was a true hand at the tiller, and a capable crew---and that includes the board as well...