Allen Gwinn  2008-05-08 17:20  DISD (Schools)   

UPDATE: Fox 4 News video on hall monitor's arrest here

UPDATE: Jordan posted bond in the assault case only to find he had warrant in Irving--so he's still in jail!

Dallas.Org has learned that two serious, but unrelated, events have happened this week at Robert T. Hill Middle School. The first (and most serious) involved several students manufacturing and passing counterfeit $10 bills at the school. The second involved an altercation between a DISD hall monitor and a student that resulted in the arrest of the 40-year old employee.

The counterfeit $10 bills began turning up Tuesday in the lunchroom of the school. By Wednesday, several more had been passed in the school.

Allen Gwinn  2008-05-14 08:55  DISD (Schools)   

Last weekend's bond vote shows that Dallas residents may be paying closer attention to DISD these days. Support for the 2008 bond eroded from 78% down to 54%.

Read Lori Stahl's story in The Dallas Morning News

Allen Gwinn  2008-05-12 15:56  City of Dallas   

In addition to a conviction for DUI, 50-year-old Austin resident Joe David Jones can add disorderly conduct to his dossier.

Jones, a passenger on Southwest Airlines from Austin to Dallas, told a flight attendant to kiss his backside when the flight attendant repeatedly asked him to hang up his cell phone.

According to Southwest Airlines, the pilot radioed ahead and Dallas Police met Jones when he got on the ground where he was cited.

Allen Gwinn  2008-05-09 05:59  DISD (Schools)   

By KENT FISCHER / The Dallas Morning News

Dallas public school trustees and teacher representatives want to amend the district's student code of conduct to allow schools to punish students who falsely accuse teachers of inappropriate behavior.

Read Kent Fischer's story in the Dallas Morning News

Allen Gwinn  2008-05-07 14:32  DISD (Schools)   

We received reports that some faculty were having problems with a "motivational" speaker, a third party, invited by Spence Principal Mary Davies to address faculty at a recent meeting.

Cheryl Jackson was the speaker, and she has written a response to some of the issues brought up on this blog.

Allen Gwinn  2008-05-01 19:26  DISD (Schools)   

This was forwarded to us. It's author is, simply, "Paul." Thought we'd share it:

The Dallas Independent School District (DISD) and an Oklaholma school system decided to have a canoe race on the Trinity River. Both teams practiced long and hard to reach their peak performance before the race. On the big day, the Oklaholmans won by a mile.

Very discouraged and depressed, DISD decided to investigate the reason for the crushing defeat, forming a team of school principals to investigate. Their conclusion was the Oklaholmans had 8 teachers rowing and 1 administrator steering, while the DISD team had 8 administrators steering and 1 teacher rowing.

Allen Gwinn  2008-05-01 14:07  City of Dallas   

UPDATE: White Rock lighting project placed on hold by Sheffie Kadane! Meeting scheduled May 22, 7:30, Winfrey Point

For neighbors living around White Rock Lake, their nighttime view of the lake (as well as a quiet moonlit evening) may soon be history.

Dallas has begun installing security lights in parking lots and on the East side of the lake.

So, who pushed the new security lights to soon ring White Rock Lake? Turns out, it may be a slick sales job by a lighting contractor and may cost millions after new wiring is run to power the 90-100 lights planned for installation in the next couple of years.

According to Chip Northrup, this is basically "a case of a consultant to Parks writing themselves into a bond issue - as a vendor."

Allen Gwinn  2008-04-29 08:02  DISD (Schools)   

by Kelsey Gwinn, 5th grade, Hexter Elementary

[Background: Alex W. Spence is one of two Talented-And-Gifted (TAG) academies in the Dallas Independent School District. It has historically been very competitive, and consistently ranks high in TAKS scoring. This posting is from an 11-year-old who visited the school this Spring.]

In the mail I got a flyer for an Open House at Alex W. Spence TAG Academy at Spence Middle School. My dad really wanted to go there and see what it was like. He thought the magnet schools would be higher quality than private schools. We went to the Open House and first went to an orientation in the auditorium. They were telling how great their school was and showing off all their high test scores. They also bragged about the free breakfast that everyone got to have every day. They said they had very nice meals and it was a chance for the students to be with their friends.

AimeeBolender  2008-04-23 18:37  DISD (Schools)   

Alliance/AFT is on the record as having reported and been present when individuals reported serious concerns with Spence Principal Davies. We have also been present during discussions with Principal Mary Davies where some of the complaints were laid out for her. We have been clear in communicating our claims with central administrators.Our reporting history spans two school years.

While the principal can not touch me, the folks who work in her building know she can make their lives miserable. Hence, no one else is on the record.

Allen Gwinn  2008-04-22 20:09  DISD (Schools)   

Ranger calls Lowe on carpet over ethics! Bingham is trying to shut her up!!

It's 5:34 and we're ready to go! It has been a rather eventful week, and we have a bond election coming up. There are several speakers registered to speak regarding the bond--indirectly.

Right now, we're listening to the Superintendent's report. "Best urban district in America" stuff...

While we're listening, let's take a look at this article from the Dallas Morning News.

What happened here is that DISD's auditors handed out what they're calling a "working draft" of the Deloitte audit to board members at a public meeting. At the end of the meeting, they took them up.

But they wouldn't show the document to the public. Besides the obvious question: "what have they got to hide," according to the Texas Attorney General's office, this was illegal and violated the Texas Public Information Act.

You can bet we'll be looking into this, along with our friends at other local publications.

There is also, of course, the controversy surrounding (among others) Board President Jack Lowe's company and the amount of money paid to it and other DISD officials.

Now, back to the meeting... Dr. Hinojosa is still talking.

Allen Gwinn  2008-04-21 06:08  DISD (Schools)   

DISD Trustee Edwin Flores sent the following letter in response to the Dallas Morning News expose of potential conflicts of interest at the board level--and it's inability to obtain financial disclosure forms from board members.

April 20, 2008

A letter from Trustee Edwin Flores

Allen Gwinn  2008-04-17 17:41  DISD (Schools)   

The topics of this evening's DISD Finance Committee were: "the audit is being delayed 2 more months" but the good news is "there is no money missing."

Superintendent Michael Hinojosa made it clear that the reason the audit is being delayed is that District employees are having trouble with the District's Oracle-based accounting system. This, in turn, is causing problems providing the information to Deloitte and Touche--resulting in (now) 5 months of delays.

Our question would be: if the District can't run its own accounting system, and the claim is being made that there's no money missing, how can you tell?

Check out Jason Whitely's story at Channel 8

Allen Gwinn  2008-04-17 06:01  DISD (Schools)   

Channel 8's Jason Whitely, in 2 parts, exposes a $52 million dollar budget deficit that may impact teachers' salaries. District officials make all sorts of claims that the mistake may actually turn into a surplus (watch part 1, watch part 2).

And Brad Hawkins reports on boxes of confidential materials placed in a DISD recycling bin (view it here). This is reminiscent of an event where a file cabinet containing student records was previously found sitting outside a portable building behind Robert T. Hill Junior High school in 2006.

Today, trustees will get a sneak peek of the District audit--now several months overdue.

Allen Gwinn  2008-04-12 21:36  DISD (Schools)   

The widely-acclaimed Dallas Independent School District audit will not be made public until after the bond election. According to sources, the audit will show the District to be in "less-than-stellar" shape with the same senior managers making the same mistakes--repeatedly.

It is also reportedly critical of several departments and how these departments use district funds.

"If it were made public [now], [officials] are worried that it might impact the bond," said one person who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

So how did the District respond?

A little over a week ago, DISD called a press conference to introduce two new "co-chief financial officers" Steve Korby and Carolyn Jones. The two will be paid approximately $500,000.

Thanks to a meeting caught on tape, we can meet new "CFO" Carolyn Jones.