Dallas School District Laying Off 550 Teachers

[LaneSig]

http://www.nbc5i.com/education/17604...l?dl=mainclick

I'm surprised that I haven't seen anything about this nationally. The Dallas School District (referred to as DISD) is $84 million in debt. Their solution: fire 550 teachers to save money.

Oh, the superintendent is doing his part. He is taking a 5% pay cut from his salary. It equals to $17,000 of his 6 figure income.

[Velocity_14]

WHAT????!?!?!?!?! Thanks for the link.

[Senusret I]

DAMMMMMMN!!!!!!

[epchick]

This has been on the news (well the TXCN station) for a while. Whenever someone tells me that I should be a teacher all I can think of is this story.

I don't live in Dallas, but geez, with the crappy superintendent we have, who knows what would happen here.

[ComradesTrue]

The DISD has a long history of financial irresponsibility, a school board who could accomplish nothing, and even a former superintendent who served jail time for using tax payers' money for her own person interior decorating whims.

A scandal two years ago was that credit cards were issued to district employees to buy necessary classroom items. Of course some employees felt that iPods, bedding, and dinners at nice restaurants qualified for classroom expenditures. Despite $1.5 million in purchases per month on the cards, no one ever looked at the bills. Once the local paper began investigating it was shocking to see what was being purchased by the employees and how high some of their bills were each month.

And we wonder how they got over $80 million in debt.

I do feel sorry for the teachers. Sounds like those in the accounting office are the ones who need to be let go.

This is one of the reasons why I wanted out of Dallas before having children. There are some good teachers trying to do good work, but the administration of the DISD is an outrage and has been for over 20 years.

[LaneSig]

I taught in DISD for 4 years. My first year, I was put in charge of an award program. We awarded kids for perfect attendance, honor roll, etc. I was given a couple of catalogues and told to order prizes.

LaneSig: "What's the budget for this?"

Vice Principal: "Don't worry about it. We'll get it paid."

LaneSig: "Seriously? There's not a set figure to be worked with?" (said out of surprise, not greed)

VP: "Just buy the stuff."

That's been Dallas's opinion for a while. There was the issue 4-5 years ago where the school district was paying money for roofing repairs to portable buildings. The problem: Nobody was checking to see if the work was really being done. They paid money for jobs that weren't done, etc. In one case, they paid to have the roofs on 4 portables repaired at a school that only had 2 portables. They have no clue.

[Scandia]

Don't blame W. It's not his fault.

[KSig RC]

This isn't the only major-city public-works program with major issues - see: Boston FD or Detroit PD or etc. - do we really expect civil servants should be exempt, though?

I mean . . . whose fault is this?

[Elephant Walk]

Originally Posted by KSig RC

This isn't the only major-city public-works program with major issues - see: Boston FD or Detroit PD or etc. - do we really expect civil servants should be exempt, though?

I mean . . . whose fault is this?

Government is nearly always the problem, not the solution.

[Educatingblue]

I cannot imagine what the class sizes are going to look like after laying off that many teachers...

[ΑΓΔSquirrel10]

Well I know now to stay far away from Dallas when I'm looking for a job after graduation (I'm an education major...)

ETA: This is just going to end up hurting the students. Class sizes are going to be huge, which will result in students with learning problems not getting all of the help and support that they need. This makes me sick...

[DoubleTDG]

I was under the impression that the DISD was already having problems with overcrowding in classes (to a point where they were sending kids that were close to other districts away). What a good way to solve the problem of overcrowding fire a chunk of teachers. *sigh*

[Senusret I]

DC has 90 instructional vacancies and 17,000 or so students (just for comparison).

[AKA_Monet]

Originally Posted by KSig RC

This isn't the only major-city public-works program with major issues - see: Boston FD or Detroit PD or etc. - do we really expect civil servants should be exempt, though?

I mean . . . whose fault is this?

I think fault is multifaceted in this situation. I think Texas and especially Dallas has "school choice". If I was a parent, I'd sue for jacking my kids.

Also a nice house cleaning is in order. People will be PO'ed and most teachers and others have unions, however the issue is the education of our children, who deserve the best.

And the superintendent needs to be fired. Period. It is the job of several people to go to the State and "lobby" for funds in their district. Apparently, how that got done in DISD, did not happen. And a shortfall would have been decided long ago.

How come folks do not live within budgets--and I am not discussing crazy stuff from happening? Like Hurricane Ike.

[MeezDiscreet]

I'm a truly awesome product of DISD and I teach in Houston ISD! Just wanted to throw that in...

From what I understand, a huge factor in this was principals over-hiring teachers. I believe this is due to deregulation of school budgets. It is no longer overseen by a district office but rather each principal is in charge of their school budget based on projected school enrollment. When the new school year ends, school budgets are adjusted for actual enrollment after a certain cut-off date.

I'm sure that there is some fiscal responsibility training involved in principal programs but, essentially, you have people who may have started their education career as a kindergarten principal or an 8th grade history teacher in charge of the huge operating budget of a school. You almost have to expect irregularities.

As for those district positions, I have no theory on that.