Who Should We Reconstitute?

There seems to be a lot of discussion about reconstituting schools and the Board of Trustees. How about reconstituting the public as well?

As the last two DISD Trustee meetings have pitifully shown, the "public" is more concerned over the naming of the Administration Building and BTW High School than they are in how over one billion of their tax dollars is going to be spent! Yes folks, that's BILLION with a "B".

Just take a look at how many speakers showed up to speak about the naming of these two facilities. Not only how many, but who those speakers were! Some very respected and noteworthy names showed up to speak about naming a building. Our question, why aren't these same people, and many others, speaking up about how the District is spending THEIR tax money? Why aren't they speaking out and showing up at these schools BEFORE reconsitution is announced?

As President of NEA-Dallas, I have been showing up and speaking out about issues that are really important to our children and employees. The National Education Association has given over $100,000 in grants to work in the Spruce cluster over the last four years. We have had trainings for the faculty and staff, provided computers and other incentives for students/parents to come to study sessions and meetings, and sponsored several community outreach activities. When this Superintendent first announced his "team" to work with these schools, I personally spoke to them and informed them of our efforts and coninuing financial support for helping our students succeed. Guess what THEY decided to do with our help? NOTHING... They seemed to think they could fix it all on their own.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, our "reconstituted" schools or those close to reconstitution, cannot be fixed by one group or another on their own. It takes the administration, faculty and staff, employee organizations, civic groups, the students themselves, and most importantly -- parents and community leaders around those schools to show up and get involved!

Get involved on a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly basis. Yes it takes time, but our children only have one shot at this in life. If we continue to allow the wrong things to happen, because we're too busy or don't think we can make a difference, then we continue to doom our children to a subpar education and a tougher life.

So the next time we want to talk about "reconstitution" we might want to look in the mirror. Are we doing everything WE can for our children? Or, are we content doing things for ourselves and our "buddies"?