DISD- District 9 Seat

If Sally Cain is so interested in the children of DISD, where has she been all these years that we have been trying to insure that all children are educated? I am not sure that she has attend a board meeting or board briefing?

She is probably a nice lady but when the Dallas Citizens Council,Jack Lowe and Jerome Garza put their stamps of approval on her,that makes me think that she will be part of the "SLAM DUNK" at DISD. If she had been aware of what was going on at DISD she would have known that.

Jerome Garza IS NOT trustworthy. Garza has undermined the black trustees since he has been on the board. He did not only try to get someone to run against Ranger,he took a school out of her district without her knowledge (Molena) when Wilmer Hutchins became part of DISD and please do not forget that he was also instrumental in leading the board to gut the funding for Learning Center,pushed for more BiLingual (Spanish) programs that exceed the State mandate (more jobs),and he was the mastermind behind getting a school named for (hateful towards blacks) Adelpha Callejo. Garza should be asked if he believe that he represent all races of children or only Hispanics? We who follow the politics of DISD know the answer. That is why you now have black flight just as you had white flight. Look at the demographics in school districts like Lancaster, DeSoto, Cedar Hill and Duncanville most are majority blacks.

It is unfortunate that Garza and Flores believe that because the majority of students in DISD are Hispanic that the others do not matter. The politics of inclusion should be taught to these board members. All children are important and should be educated. I do believe that Adam Medrano gets it and I appreciate him being the board president because under Jack Lowe's leadership it was "My Way Or The Highway".

Hang in there Carla Ranger.

The U.S. Department of Education has turned down Dallas ISD's request to move about $15 million in salaries to the Title 1 federal grant program. These salaries are primarily associated with paying coaches for teachers in the district and to reduce class sizes in middle and high schools, which is a part of Superintendent Hinojosa's Dallas Achieves initiative.

When the district's budget came up short last fall (84 million), administrators proposed paying those salaries with Title 1 money which the district receives to improve the educations of low-income kids. There is a process for using those funds and the district did not follow it. Federal money comes through the state to local school districts and can only be used to "supplement" local efforts.

While the district says it is done with the fight, I do not believe them. They will come back another ways as they always do. They seem to be baffled that they were turned down by the feds. They say that they consulted several experts on Title I who advised them that the move was allowable.

I guess now they will just take that money out of the fund balance and leave the district crippled with about 30 million left in that fund. When Hinojosa got here there was about 120 million. I hope nothing bad happens because the district will be in a pickle.

We Love You Carla Ranger

This board has been so busy trying to muzzle Trustee Carla Ranger that they have now stifled their own oppotunity to speak at the meetings. With their actions,they have only sent her from her board seat to open forums that address the problems at the board level and the administraton. She clearly understands that the leadership of Dallas ISD (the board) is in trouble. How can you lead when you are worried about your own personal gains? You can't.



Thank you Adam Medrano for being brave enough to second some of Mrs. Rangers motions.

Dallas ISD's Rush to Cancel May,2009 Elections

DISD is rushing to vote tonight to preserve the "Slam Dunk" gang which votes together to keep the status quo. It is so unfortunate that there is only one trustee who is speaking up against the extended terms and the cancellation of elections in May, 2009. This board does not seem to have any interest in the education of the children, but the interest of keeping themselves in office to spread the money around to the usual suspects.

Trustee Ron Price continues to talk about not being payed to serve and how much work they are doing as trustee. Since he is the longest tenured board member, you would think that he knows the job description and compensation. If it is such a burden, do not run again in May, 2009.

Trustee Carla Ranger makes excellent points on her blog asking the question, why this rush to vote? http://carlaranger.blogspot.com/2008/11/ruthless-board-politics-is-behind-rush.html

Lets see how this " Slam Dunk" gang will handle this vote.

Dallas Achieves/DISD/Tom Leppert

On Wednesday July 16, 2008 at 9:30 am-11:00 am in the Conference Center of The Greater Dallas Chamber of Commerce at Plaza of Americas-700 N. Pearl Street (12th floor of the parking garage elevators) Dallas Achieves will have a discussion about DISD Board of Trustees Ethics Policy. Please join me and others at the meeting who are concerned about DISD. This meeting is not open to the public, but 3 DISD Trustees will be there and it is about our tax dollars.

While there are people who are apart of this group that I have great respect for, I am concerned that a non-elected group is in the position to direct the policies and people who have been elected by the citizens to run the public schools. In my opinion this is the beginning of an effort by the business community ( Mayor Tom Leppert and others) to takeover the schools for the 1 billion dollar per year operating budget and 1.35 billion dollar construction budget just voted in by the people.

President of the School Board Jack Lowe made it clear that prior to moving into Dallas from Highland Park to run for the school board that it was cleared with DISD officials that he could still do business with the district. It has also been stated that by limiting board members from doing business with DISD that it would limit the pool of people running for that office.

I do not know another public entity in Dallas where that kind of policy is allowed. Is that being pushed because Mayor Leppert believes that he will have the opportunity to appoint board members and want to leave that open for his friends?

There are more important issues at DISD. Let's spend time working on the low performing schools. The H. Grady Spruce situation shows us that we had better start talking about educating the students and not about making someone rich.