Amidst Talk of "New Reality" at Dallas ISD, An Invite to a New School Groundbreaking

• What happens in Allen is up to Allen. If the people in Allen want to be outraged, let them. I'm sure our worthless school board wishes we would pay attention to Allen instead of their incompetence, but no such luck.

• The bond elections are bought and paid for by area construction companies, design firms, architecture firms, etc. Just like the city bond elections, the Dallas citizens are somehow convinced that bond money is "free" or something like that. So they will easily vote "FOR" bond elections to build stuff we don't need, yet totally freak out and lose their collective North Dallas 55+ minds when they are asked to pay an extra $27 bucks a year in property taxes (money that actually goes to PAY for teachers, books in the library, park clean-up, street repairs, etc.)

• We did Allen Football Stadium outrage last week.

• Question posed to DISD CFO Larry Throm at the Budget Presentation of 06/07/2010 at the A.S. Johnston Elementary School. (Beginning at time marker 49:30 http://www.dfpe.org/podcasts.asp) Mike MacNaughton: "At that meeting [budget presentation at the Walnut Hill Elementary School on May 20, 2010] you mentioned that there are no funds to staff or operate these 12 schools. I wondered if you could address that for the audience." Larry Throm: "Right. We are building some new elementary schools, some new schools and in 10, in 11-12, excuse me, in 11-12 we are opening those 3 elementary's [SIC], 2 middle and a high school and the high school is a replacement high school. So it's really 5 that we have to re-staff but at that high school we can move those people over. But we are not going to have any children...We are not going to have any more children in 2011-12 than we do today. So were gonna have still about 157,000 children and were going to open up another school, well 3 elementary's [SIC] and 2 middle schools so are we gonna decrease any staff at our other schools because our children are gonna move over? The principal still needs to stay there - we gotta hire a new principal; the counselor stays we hire another counselor; the nurse stays we hire another nurse; the clerical stay over there we hire another clerical; all of the custodians are gonna stay over there and we have to hire some custodians over here. Now, that's all new staff. I didn't say teachers, though, because teachers are gonna follow. There will be some decrease in teachers over there. They won't have as many children in first grade, second grade, third, fourth, fifth, sixth. But if we hire 12 new teachers over here probably in the transfer deal there will only be 8, 9 or 10 positions decrease because it isn't purely efficient when you do that. So there's this small inefficiency so you're gonna pick up an extra 3 or 4 teachers at each one of these, if not more, maybe one per grade level or whatever. So that's what I was alluding to, the extra cost, and [unintelligible] uh, some other districts have addressed that one of two ways: Don't build the new school, you can't afford to staff it, you got your utility costs that are going up also, I didn't mention utilities did I? Transportation costs - maybe there's some bussing that's gonna have to be done there too. But you got a lot of additional costs when you don't have new students. Now if you're a district that's growing a lot of new students you gotta continue building new buildings to stay ahead of that but when you're not growing students you're just adding to your cost and that's what I was alluding to there. So don't build it is another really decent option. Another option like a local district did, not more than 30-40 miles from here, is they built a school and then they just let it stand there and say we can't afford to move in. OK. And that's an option too. And there could be a rational for that because if you build it now the cost of that school to build it is not gonna go up. There's some inflationary cost, the cement and some steel and all the stuff it takes to build the schools, so you know the owner, the school district, the trustees, at some point and time may have that conversation, I don't know. But it certainly is a concern because, [audience cough] you know, there's not any new students. You need to...I'm not arguing, I'm not even stating that we don't need the schools because we all know about the large number of portables we have and the overcrowding we have at many of our schools albeit whether it's an elementary or a middle school. And then there are some schools that are ancient, you know, they are very old and so it doesn't behoove the owner, the district, to rebuild that school anymore or just to remodel or sometimes you raze the school and you build a totally new one out there. But those are difficult questions and the answers are also difficult."

• What, no outrage over Allen's $60 million football stadium?

• Teachers are getting pink slips and Schools will be closing while DISD wastes $22 million to demolish and destroy a historical school and neighborhood! Our children deserve a better education! ~ Our teachers deserve better compensation! ~ Our schools and neighborhoods deserve consideration for preservation not destruction! ~Note~ DISD has already spent $2.6 million of our tax dollars when it remodeled O.M. Roberts just a few short years ago, and they STILL want to tear the school down completely and rebuild - only to bill its taxpayers again! That doesn't make economic sense! In addition to the reckless demolition of the remodeled school, DISD has already succeeded in seizing some of the property in Jubilee Park community. Now DISD is saying that it will keep those properties only to demolish to make room for a parking lots - right in between the remaining homes! THERE IS AN ALTERNATE PLAN that would save our tax dollars, but DISD refuses to seriously discuss the issue of an alternate solution or alternate site. DISD's current plan for O.M. Roberts is wasting our tax dollars! Again!! It must not continue! We need your calls, letters, and/or emails to DISD’s representatives telling them that you do NOT want to keep paying for unnecessary new schools and renovations when the state of DISD’s education system is still in dire need of its own repair. We want their focus on improving the quality of education for our students and work on increasing the compensation for our teachers! Contact your elected DISD Board Member at 972-925-3700, or by visiting DISD’s website at www.Dallasisd.org. Learn More at www.StopDISD.org Click on the link below to view Satire Video on DISD's Land Grab http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ms3yWn-BkI

• Who's gonna teach those 1,250 students with teachers being laid off?

• Golly gee, look at how proud the DISD is of all its building projects. It’s Facebook invite links to this: http://www.dallasisd2008bond.org/ It talks about ALL the wonderful new schools they are building and ALL the wonderful renovations that are going on. Gee, I wonder who owns and operates the construction companies that are doing all of this work – work that the DISD characterizes as going “full tilt.” I hope they have designed all of these new schools to have classrooms that seat at least 60 kids. We don’t need a “New Reality.” We need a New Superintendant, a New Administration, and a New Board of Trustees. Is it any wonder that Las Vegas didn’t hire Hiney? Meanwhile, our Board gives him a contract extension for being the lead rat trying to jump off a sinking ship. The media needs to ask Hiney: 1. Were you aware of this problem when you were interviewing in Las Vegas? 2. Are there any schools in nation, let alone Texas, that have 60 students per classroom? 3. What is more important for college and workforce preparation: band and football, or math and science?

• This is disgusting. The "New Reality" is 50-60 kids in a classroom because of lack of funds for teachers. But there is no lack of funds to build new buildings? Wanna know why? Because awarding construction contracts to cronies allows the Board of Trustees to win elections. And, again, why is Hiney still in his job? The guy cannot manage. Who in their right mind would have let this story break right after annoucing that thousands of teachers will be laid off? This is the guy that got awarded a contract extension after trying to jump ship. Wake up Dallas. You had the chance to do something about this with RIF a couple years ago. Instead, you voted the Uber-smirker Edwin Flores back in. And now you get this crud. If you don't get out the pitch forks and torches THIS time, you deserve this.

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