DISD Board Officially Approves Buyout Offer For At-Will Employees, Beginning This Saturday

By Robert Wilonsky Thu., Mar. 31 2011 at 2:29 PM

Categories: Edumication News

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Last week we asked: Will the Dallas Independent School District's board of trustees extend to at-will employees the same buyout deal given teachers a few weeks back in order to trim its budget in the way of the $86-million to $150-million budget shortfall expected over the next two years? To which the board just said: Absolutely.

This is who's allowed to take the early cash-out, per the district's announcement following today's called board meeting: "Eligible employees include maintenance staff, custodial staff, food services staff, teacher assistants, front office staff, central staff, and other support staff."

Those wishing to take the so-called "early resignation incentive" can begin lining up at 6 a.m. Saturday outside of 3700 Ross, with the cutoff right now scheduled for April 8. Those who take the deal will receive 15 percent of their salary -- up to $10,000. But the board has only allocated $2 million this go-round. From the district:

Hourly/biweekly employees may receive 15 percent of their base salary, which would be calculated as their required daily working hours multiplied by the number of required workdays multiplied by their hourly rate.

Employees who take advantage of the offer are being given the opportunity to work through Aug. 31, 2011, enabling them to maximize their retirement benefits. Employees who already may have used all of their sick leave/annual leave and who choose to leave the district prior to Aug. 31, 2011, may owe the district money.

Part-time and temporary employees, as well as alternative certification interns and probationary contract employees are excluded from this offer. Contract employees also are excluded.

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Here's my suggestion: Use all the money to bribe Hiney, Flores, and a couple other BoT members to go away and never come back. It would be money well spent.
Why take a buyout when you can wait for them to lay you off and you can mooch off of unemployment checks for what 3 years? Hopefully, DISD gets some takers, but at-will employees in an at-will state should expect that they can get a layoff notice any day of the week.
Perhaps some DISD Board Members, or their political supporters, have relatives who work for DISD without contracts and are vulnerable. Nah.....that couldn't be it.....
Seeing as the offer is for 15% OF SALARY, that guy in the mailroom would have to be making $66K / year to get a $10k payout ... not blood likely. Two suggestions for you before you post in the future: 1. READ the article. 2. THINK. Also, Ed. D - spot on!!
I guarantee you that after the board uses your money to pay these people to leave, they will replace 90% of them.
...and cashing in a $200 million golden parachute.
Look no further than the over-paid, recently promoted, no prior experience, HR Director. And, just December, in preparation for this budget crisis, the Board gave that idiot another 30% raise. Putting her up there to the point of the highest HR director in school district in Texas. Never worked a day in HR, and no HR education. Wonder who's back she's scratching.
DISD is feeding us a line of crap--claiming the reason for this is to avoid having some administrative clerk sue the district. Could you just imagine if some major corporation was in dire financial situation, offering the guy in the mailroom $10k to quit. Their stockholders would scream bloody murder and the CEO, President, etc would be out the door.
Other nearby ISD's offer $2,000 buyout and only to the teachers and principals who have a contract. That's why they should offer a buyout to get them to leave. Why in the world DISD wants to pay $10,000 to get rid of the lazy administration personnel who, in my opinion, have been pretty lucky to have their jobs these past years---their HIGH paying jobs. Just pink slip them and be done. Use all the buyout money you don't pay administrative employees to keep teachers. Backwards, stupid-thinking DISD board!
I can certainly understand it as a severance concept. Funny - everyone keeps harping about "running DISD/government like a business", but when they do things like a business does them (buyouts, severance, employee training, retreats, bonuses, etc.) everyone freaks out as if the whole thing is some kind of cushy slush fund operation. As I've said before, every single person who works in an office environment needs to keep their trap shut about how "easy" teachers have it until they spend a day in a school and deal with what teachers have to deal with. Working in a corporate environment is literally a breeze compared to teaching.
I would add that while I think they might be able to get away with paying a little less because non-contract employees are less of a litigation threat than the teachers, I'm not sure the plan is bad. As Titus Groan suggests, giving what is effectively two months severance isn't all that generous and it seems like a small price to pay to be humane.
How about Been Nice Se ya ... That is what at will means isn't it ?
Not only are they not contracted employees, but I assume they also aren't entitled to the hearing and notice requirements of Chapter 21 of the Education Code. In other words, it is much more difficult and expensive to fire a teacher. That's why I think the DISD might be overpaying based on the precedent set by the teacher buyouts, at least as far as litigation risk is concerned.
I don't think it has anything to do with obligations or fairness to non-teachers...it's just about getting employees off the payroll wherever they can, as fast as they can, in the most humane way possible.
I believe Edwin Flores's comments concerning the teacher buyout would also apply here. http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2011/02/disd_trustee_flores_on_why_pay.php Though there is the one caveat: These aren't contracted employees.
Probably a little bit of both. The DISD will almost certainly be sued by some of the people it lays off, whether or not it is "obligated" to do anything. It isn't that uncommon to offer a small severance in exchange for a release that would prevent a lawsuit. Whether or not the DISD is overpaying is another question, and this is where I suspect the precedent with the teachers probably is pushing the number higher than it otherwise might be.
Can someone with a bit more knowledge of the ins and outs of DISD explain this to me? Is the district obligated to offer this deal to non-contract employees? I know they aren't "obligated" to do anything, but is this deal supposedly going to save money like the teacher deal, or is it just a "we need to be fair to the non-teachers" ploy?