Time For Hinojosa to Go?

Mark Smith

"Dr. Hinojosa is a bright, talented and gifted educator."
RESPONSE: Really. Has Hinojosa ever been a head principal? Has he ever been a district-wide teacher of the year? Have you read his poorly written and thoughtless dissertation? How bright, talented, and gifted an educator could he be when he totally ignored simple school and district operations? A bright, talented, and gifted and highly paid educator must be multi-faceted. Hinojosa simply is not.

"He's a great dad, and he cares deeply about the education of each-and-every kid in DISD."
RESPONSE: He may be a great dad; however, he is being paid handsomely for being a superintendent, not a dad. Where is it in his job description that he must be a great dad? How do you know that he cares about the education of each and every kid in the DISD. When he ran into me with my children, he never once acknowledged their presence. Where do you get the facts to support your unsubstantiated OPINION?

"Though the money is nice, Michael isn't in this for the money."
RESPONSE: How much money did he pony up to deal with his fiscal mistake that will place hundreds of staff members (parents) on unemployment lines? 5% of 400K. Please.

"He is in it for the kids. If you believe otherwise, you're wrong. Period."
RESPONSE: Wow, your assessments are so fact driven, and your open-mindeness is unbelievable.

"Each time a child does well, he's proud. Failures and achievement problems disappoint him to his core."
RESPONSE: How do you know?

"All in all, Michael Hinojosa is a very caring individual."
RESPONSE: Yes, Michael cares about himself; he is self-serving. He is a master in identifying scapegoats. Yes, he cares for scapegoats; he ensures that they receive attention.

"That being said, Michael also has some very pronounced weaknesses."
RESPONSE: Yes, his interpersonal skills, temper, ethics/morality, and patience are lacking, to say the least. Get an assessment of his interpersonal skills, ethics/morality, patience, and temper from his immediate subordinates, worker bees, and his flings.

"But Michael's biggest problem is his lack of administrative skills. They've been lacking from the start."
RESPONSE: Certainly, Hinojosa has no administrative or management skills, but these two character flaws are not his biggest problems. His biggest problems stem from his uncaring, self-serving, scapegoating behaviors.

"While he's a great educator with a huge heart for kids, he seems to lack the skills to manage and watch over the day-to-day business operations of a $1.6 billion dollar school district."
RESPONSE: He can not manage or oversee the daily business operations of any school district. Furthermore, he does not have the capacity to pick employees to complement his weaknesses, much less the capacity to develop and maintain a winning team. Who hired Celso Martinez? Who hired Eric Anderson? Who hired Viramontes? Who hired Steve Flores? Who hired Donna Micheaux? Who hired Kim Oson? Yes, who hired the "foot in his mouth" communicator, the "clueless business" savant, the "two-employee" nepotistic business entrepreneur, a "question behind the question", not so quick ex-coach, and two clueless "Broads"?

"Aggravating the situation is Michael's inability to surround himself with top quality administrators."
RESPONSE: See previous response.

"He and his staff have been dogged with everything from "questions" to high-profile "scandals" virtually from day one and it doesn't seem to be getting any better."
RESPONSE: Correct.

"Michael inherited many of these problems," some might say.
RESPONSE: Come on. Give us a break.

"This is a great excuse for the first year. But what about after that? Is it a good excuse after two years? Three years? How long should it reasonably take for someone to correct a system that allows these kinds of problems to develop and flourish?"
RESPONSE: Excuses for an employee who is receiving .4M annually.

Fast forward to the present predicament. Today's "scandal."

"Enough of this. What's the bottom line? Should Michael resign or shouldn't he? Should he be fired or not? That, folks, is the question of the day. On one hand, some argue that we are starting to see some positive academic trends thanks to Michael."
RESPONSE: Academic progress please. You have been duped. We simply have more recognized schools because the state has waived its standards.

THE REAL MEASURES OF ACADEMIC PROGRESS SHOULD NOT BE BASED ON SCHOOL PERFORMANCE; THEY SHOULD BE BASED ON STUDENTS.

Hinojosa, his broad toads, Jack Lowe, Edwin Flores, Jerome Garza, Ellis, Adam Medrano, and others including the Dallas Morning News may either unintentionally or intentionally mislead or misrepresent the true state of academic progress in the DISD. You, the Dallas Morning News, the Dallas Observer, and others could provide a more accurate representation of the district's state of academic progress by reporting and tracking student level statistics.

For example, the dropout rate has increased since Hinojosa came on board. The graduation rate has decreased. Student discipline rates have increased. Student attendance rates have decreased. ETCETERA.

Statistics don't lie; statisticians or unknowledgeable people lie either intentionally or unintentionally.

Hinojosa is an unskilled, tempermental, impatient, ethically questionable, and self-serving dim, untalented, and ungifted person who, besides these few shortcomings, is a great educator.

Why don't you conduct a survey of a random sample of parents, teachers, students, and taxpayers assessing Hinojosa's skills, performance, and credibility? Ask them if he should fire employees because he failed. Ask students to write and submit essays on the topic, "Why Hinojosa should stay although his shortcomings have led to the firing of innocent employees including some of their parents".

Gwinn,
We can understand your position since you have not been on the receiving end. Try for the moment however to place yourself in our position. We are being sacrificed at the expense of an incompetent, uncaring, self-serving, tempermental, impatient, and unethical individual who serves as the poorest example of a human being that I have ever witnessed. We may lose our homes and possessions, and our children will go without, not because of our fault, but because of Hinojosa's. I just don't understand you or maybe I do.

I've been told that birds of feather, fly together. There may be some truth to this saying.

I do not personally know Michael. All I know about his personal character is what I have read, have observed in the news, or heard from others.

I do know DISD is in a financial crisis. It is in the newspaper, on TV, and information is even sent to teachers via e-mail from Michael and the teachers' groups. This "crisis" may have had its roots prior to his tenure but the "CRISIS" is taking place under his watch.

Hinojosa needs to fix the mess. If he can't come up with more budget cuts to reduce the amount of employees for the Reduction in Force by 1/2 of current projections, he needs to go too!

I say 1/2 of current projections because there are many unnecessary employees in my perception.

pencilsuppencilsdown

We, the willing, led by the unqualified, have been doing the unbelievable for so long with so little, we now attempt the impossible with nothing.

Hinojosa is a disgrace to the University of Texas and his mentor, Nolan Estes.

Both his leadership and management skills are dismal at best.

He should have listened to staff when they informed him that he needed a knowledgeable, experienced, and skilled operations executive to handle the daily operations of the district.

But oh know, arrogrant Hinojosa wouldn't have any part of this idea. He repeatedly stated he didn't need any help. Besides, he asked what do operations executive do? They keep you from making multi-million dollars for one.

What an arrogrant fool!

I just got a phone call from an administrator at TEA in regards to the email I sent the Commissioner. After I came out of being in total shock that I got any response, let alone a phone call from a human being, I heard the following: TEA is aware that the district,"is not being run well". TEA is unable to intervene until they become aware of a violation of Texas Education Code. In the meantime, all interested parties are STRONGLY engouraged to write their STate Senator and Representatives. Further, please copy TEA on those letters. If you are someone with personal, evidentiary knowledge of a violation of T.E.C., please contact TEA immediately. I find all of this encouraging and really hope that each of you (myself included) will take the opportunity to appeal to elected officials. Those of you who can document abuse, please call TEA. Students need to see us fighting for them. Teachers need our help. We can blog? Then we can write and call those who are responsible for helping us in a time of need.

Volunteering a 5% paycut is a good start. That's 15-20K for Mr. Hinojosa. Even better would be a cut equal to one teacher's salary. That would be one less person to lose their job. The Board should give Mr. Hinojosa that paycut and a mandate to fix the budget shortfall as far away from the district's classrooms as possible. Cutting teachers might stop the financial bleeding for a moment but it would have the greatest negative impact on students and would not do anything to deal with the source of the shortfall. The answers to "what caused the shortfall?" and "whose fault is it?" have been vague up to this point. It is certain that the problem was not created by classroom teachers. Any cuts that must be made should be made at the farthest point away from the classroom to minimize the impact on students and learning. Michael has done a good job of leading the district's employees to be student and mission focused. It will take a lot of backbone to make the necessary cuts in central administration and central services that are notoriously inefficient. Let's hope Mr. Hinojosa can stayed focused on student acheivement.

The Board should RIF Hinojosa, Collier, Berry, Ray and all of those Adm. that live outside of the district and got wavers. Get rid of the Grievance Office (out source it – to a non-bias organization), because no one ever wins a grievance in the district.

I think voters should really think about who they vote for in the next school board election!

I am an former employee of DISD and this is a mess. I voluntered to leave the district proceeding another career overseas. In working with diversity of culture and nationalities I found that it is not so much as the Hispanic children requiring billigual teachers it was the parents that refused to learn English. I work with many foreigners and I have had the oppuntunity to travel other countries though I still fail to understand how in another country if you don't speak their native language then maybe there will be someone to interpert, Other than that I am not required to force my English speaking on them. Here it is so. So why are we required as American to hire 700 billigual teachers to aid parents into a cultural setting they refused to learn. Please explain how Mr. Hinajosa step out forcing or should I say encouraging the DISD too see the difference it would make which this move required money in certifying or aiding a degree with traveling expense charged to whom account? Grant you I am for change in betterment for our children so tell me how many Hispanic are graduating and staying in school? Have the ratio changed in statistic of more graduates and drop outs? Please Mr. Hinajosa when you say this move have made a difference do you have the statictis in justifying such a cost? Someone said after a year Mr. Hinajosa should know the budget or have a clue to his position by now. I keep reading how good of a father,educator,and concerned for the children though where is his work ethic of budgeting our DISD? Come on Mr. Hinajosa stop hiding under your adminstrators and tell the truth in a world where i am now it all boil down to taking from teachers and aides that have worked in a system that did not need fixing in terms of them losing there positions to save face, I totally disagree in every sense of the letter you didn't know. It is proven a slap on the hand is not enough for such a overly spent budget when so many before you paid dues to mistake they made how is it you are any different? I am concern that my Grand-children will not be given that, that they need with all this concentration on Spanish speaking. This is America and when do we stop and realize it is not about the students we have fixed an education around speaking other lanuages not by choice but by demand what has happen to America? Hinajosa face up and admit the mistake you've made and move on to another job that will alleviate your inexperience of causing great teachers and others into losing their jobs to save yours.

The DISD has been a slowly sinking ship for three decades. Changing superintendents has never been the answer. Financial audits only contribute to the stack of books that adorn the Board's office. Rallying public support renders only superficial and transient value.

This is what needs to be done: The district needs to be split up into at least three smaller districts. Long term debt could continue to be serviced by the Dallas ISD until it, and the DISD, is liquidated. This is the only way that there will ever be financial accountability and significant advances in educational results.

Let's face it. Repetitive personnel changes, high profile financial audits, public support campaigns, bond elections, etc. - we have done it all time and time again and yet we continue to find ourselves in the same, if not worse, condition.

It is time for the district to be split up. Only splitting the district will result in manageable and poltically responsible educational agencies.

The question is: Is Dallas committed to the future of its children or to the future the status quo. History has shown us that the two are antithetical.

Don Venable
Former DISD Trustee

When sitting outside waiting for the board meeting to begin, I had the pleasure of listening to Kim Olson's staff meeting. Her staff takes up 3/4 of the board room, and spent part of their staff meeting watching the video of the young man on "believe in me," for the upteenth time. Olson assured her staff that there would be no cuts in HR, because they were already, "a lean, mean fighting machine."

As Kim said, "We don't have any excess in our department."

Right, Kim, like you've done such a great job overhiring 600+ teachers just to screw the schools?

Olson told her staff she had to attend the board meeting, but she warned her folks to be careful leaving the board room!! "Protect yourself. People get kind of emotional. We've asked for extra armed police."

WHATTTTTT???????????

Then she said, "Don't worry, this isn't Iraq."

This total waste of taxpayer money continued with all the hordes in HR congratulating themselves on their various and sundry little achievements. After all, they certified 455 interns this summer in Alternative Certification.

(That's just great. Do these people not understand all those potential teachers might be fired?)

They congratulated themselves on renaming Alternative Certification to blah, blah, blah.

One stood up and congratulated himself on losing weight.

Another did a cheerleading yell for gathering up 300 student teachers.

DOES THE PUBLIC WANT TO KNOW WHO NEEDS TO BE RIFFED?

Try the majority of people working in HR, and the executive director herself.

1. The public is not dangerous. This district belongs to the taxpayers, not Kim Olson and armed police.
2. Her folks wasted at least an hour x 200 people (200 man hours) yakking about a bunch of nothing while teachers wait to hear how many will be fired.

Well, Allen, the Kim Olson thing is definitely NOT working out. If she had walked in the door with any experience in a school district, maybe she would have inquired about hiring so many teachers in such a short amount of time.

But experience wasn't necessary because Olson was a Broad grad.

After hearing that Oracle overhired teachers, that HR didn't know what they were doing, that the deficit might rise $24M more because "people got raises," that Hinojosa needs to "right size" the district (would someone PLEASE keep him away from self-help books, PLEASE), we saw a board attempt, for the first time, to raise questions of Emperor Hirojoska.

Carla Ranger definitely needs to put herself through law school after she leaves the board. She has got the soft approach toward cross-examination down to a fine art. Hinojoksa squirmed and wiggled, but if they had been before a jury, he definitely would have been found guilty.

Jack Lowe once again proved that he needs to be removed immediately. Ranger attempted to move the meeting to the board room and was ignored by Lowe, who is still Hinojoksa' favorite valentine (and vice versa).

The board decided they needed to discuss the budget with their constituents. What a notion! Remember this summer, when citizens asked to have town hall meetings (not the Spruce kind) in their communities so they could participate in the budget process, and Emperor Hinojoksa vetoed the idea?

It's apparent there is quite a bit of money still stashed in hidden places. It's apparent the Emperor doesn't want 3700 Ross touched. It's apparent 3700 Ross needs a slash and burn week.

No teacher needs to be moved until central administration takes a 50% hit in numbers employed. Very apparently, Olson's department could be a starting point.

Get rid of the Office of Transformation, all staff development, curriculum writing, Alternative Certification (however they've renamed it),Parent Training and Choice, consultants, and hordes of others who could retire from downtown on near full salary.

Email board members and make them ask many, many more questions.

People have committed to the vision of DallasISD and made a commitment to teach and change the lives of some of the most underserved students and now have been told that they may loose their jobs. What are teachers and other staff that may loose their jobs suppose to tell their creditors, how will these effect the economy and the children that we serve. All the while Hinojosa and other high paid non essential workers will keep their six figure salaries and students and staff will be the ones to feel the impact. It saddens me that someone that has been entrusted to be stewards of our children and money have dropped the ball!!! The only positive in this is that I did not allow my children to attend DISD....

You are so full of crap that you don't even know what you are saying. While I am not sure that Hinojosa should go, there should be accountability at DISD and we do not have that and never have the entire time I have been with the district. Right now the board president wants to run the district like a buisness and is even receiving perks from his position. Have you really seen the mess the nation is in due to greed in banking, mortgages and other areas of the eeconomy? We need to run DISD like a school and NOT like a buisiness.
As for Hinojosa, yes give him another chance but have someone work with him to get advisors and helpers that will give hime sound advise and not the bull sugar he has been getting that got him and DISD into this problem. If this can be done and he work on that skill he needs along with his other shortfalls he will definately make one GREAT superintendent. We only fault him for bringing in the advisors that caused this mess and not keep tabs on them. If he had, we would not be where we are now, forced firings.

NEA-Dallas Calls for Citizens to Support Academic Achievement:
http://dallasisdblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2008/09/disd-trustees-have-...

NEA-Dallas feels that the Superintendent and Board of Trustees should scrub the 2008-2009 budget with a "fine toothed comb" and make all of those cuts before removing our students' teachers.

We urge the public to join us at our offices at 3816 San Jacinto Street, just across Washington from the Administration Building, at 1:15. From there we will proceed to the called Board meeting to let everyone know that we will not support requiring the District's students to bear the brunt of this $64 million mistake.

PLEASE COME AND LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD!!! WE ARE THE TAXPAYERS PAYING THESE GUY'S SALARIES. IT'S TIME FOR THEM TO LISTEN TO US...

But based upon what has happened since Dr. H has been at DISD, how can we think things will change for the better? His last attempt to "reform" the financial area brought in alot of consultants that are highly paid, including two co-CFO's but apparently no one was keeping an eye on the $. Also what documentation has been provided to support the $64 million shortfall? Do you really trust what is being said by the administration or is this just what they want us to believe? Based on the past few years I tend to not trust much of what is said. Until someone really takes responsibility and is held accountable, such as Dr. H, nothing is going to change for the district.

Please help!! I love Dallas.org. My question is this. We as parents/community leaders/taxpayers need to know what to do about DISD's HUGE deficit. Who do we contact? Who do we call to show our "dissatisfaction with the leadership in the DISD?" I have always, as a parent with 3 children in the DISD, tried to be a proponent of the DISD and its leadership. I have been let down and lied to. I truly believe Dr. Hinojosa knew about this deficit blunder and elected to handle it this way. He is not the kind of leader I want my kids emulating. Thank you.

I have tried (maybe not the hardest) to talk to my board member, Jack Lowe. He has never once returned my call or emails. I actually considered running for his position this last go around, but was discouraged by my family because of the time commitment. That being said, I don't see that Mr. Lowe is concerned about what his constituents have to say or cares. So, therefore, contacting my board member is a mute issue. We can all blog until the cows come home, but what are we, as parents/taxpayers, going to do? It's not realistic for Dr. H to leave, but I do think a timeframe for his departure should be put into place. Cuts at the district level should begin on Ross Ave and work its way down. All the wasteful spending, which should have been highlighted in the audit needs to cease. At the end of the day, the teachers and students should not have to bear the brunt of Dr. H's and the boards mistake.

As I stated on Channel 8 yesterday, Hinojosa must go! Why? In addition to the budget shortfall,

· Nepotism- Viramontes’s
· Bending rules in favor of his top command- residency rules
· Creating a “buddy system”- placing his buddies in high paid positions regardless of qualifications.
· Outside consultants- do we not have administrators that are subject matter experts? Is expertise not a qualification for administrative jobs on Ross Ave?
· Making changes to personnel or procedures so close to the beginning of the school year that created low moral and confusion.

Jose R. Hernandez
Council Member Pl. 3
City of Seagoville
jhernandez@seagoville.us

I have to agree with jackie and others....I just don't see Michael....as he likes to be known....as a very highly intelligent creature. The guy reminds me of a high school coach...

Moses knew how to hobknob and raise both awareness and critical $$$ for our district. He brought in good curriculum. I think he raised the reputation as well. Within the past year, our current sup. has only served to lower it, both by himself and by his not-so-hot helpful sidekicks (asst. sups...et.al.)

I don't know if it is time for him to go, but it is time for some REAL hard questions to be asked. And the public and media will ask them. So he needs to at least have a wonderful plan.

And I hope within that plan is a realization by himself and the board that neither teachers nor administrators are responsible for this mess....so why are we/they asked to fix it? We need more than that and we deserve more than that from Ross. Ave and all those mega-salaried folk.

For starters, this isn't a $64M problem. It's now at least a $64M x 2 problem that the sup intends to solve by firing teachers who will have very few choices in October.

This is the same superintendent who accepted a performance bonus, I guess on behalf of the teachers who received very little this year.

That is called unbridled, self-serving greed, and it serves no purpose in public education.

Next, you may feel he is a gifted educator, but those of us who truly mastered the art and science of teaching in urban schools have seen through him since he wheeled out the Broad award as an idol to be worshipped and called in Dallas Achieves to both think for him and scapegoat.

He has been in over his head since day one, and parroting some catch phrases from the latest consultant or business slang that he doesn't even understand didn't cover up the fact that he brings little value.

His refusal to accept responsiblity for the pcard fiasco by FIRING everyone who failed to keep receipts was inexcusable. The continual hammering of whistleblowers also speaks to his lack of character.

It was rather simple to determine from the power point slides thrown together by the CFO back in April that there was no way out of the hole they had dug. If someone looking in from the outside can read their slides more fluently than the superintendent, the district is in dire shape.

None of us who has seen through him from the beginning understands why the teflon still works.

He has wrecked this school district. Not a bigger crook than Moses, Rojas, Gonzalez, or Woolery; just cut from the same exact cloth.

I could not agree more with the comments of the article, but being paid one of the highest salaries in the land of public education should have produced some results by now and all we hear is the future projections and I hardly think we have seen any positive steps in that direction. Once again, DISD is a place where you can screw up lives of children and get handsomely paid for the results of kids dropping lower and lower every year in test results and academics.

The door could not hit Hinajosa's rear fast enough to get him out of Dallas for our children. We have a major loss on our hands at the top again, when will Dallas learn?

london I am certain that Dr. Hinojosa is in it for the kids yet one has to step-up and accept full responsibility for this mess. If he decides to lay off educators then this action will have a negative impact on the students but also on the DISD reputation. How many great teachers will continue to teach or become interested in teaching at a DISD school if this action is taken? DISD needs to attract talent. Not scare them away!

Is this the best idea that Dr. Hinojosa and his team can muster up? A collection of people with master and doctorate degrees cannot brain storm a better solution then to just take this matter out on the students and teachers. How sad. Shameful.

No doubt Dr. Hinojosa is a wonderful person. I just wonder who actually hired the people that got the ball rolling on this situation. Also, who signed off on the budget? If this leads to Dr. Hinojosa then he should man up, accept responsibility and leave this district to someone that can provide the proper leadership. Look. No other district in the DFW metroplex is having this problem. Is so, then name one. I would like to know.