The Day Before the DISD Meeting—LIVE BLOG (update)
October 1, 2008 at 7:28 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | 1 CommentTags: DISD, DISD Cutbacks, Ron Price, Superintedent Hinojosa
DISD school board member Ron Price is holding a teacher/parent meeting at Wilson. A fellow reporter told me and my photog to grab b-roll fast, because Price is going to ask us to leave so teachers/parents can speak freely.
Rough guess? About 3 dozen people are here to listen and ask questions.
Right now, teachers are asking questions about what’s going on with the coming cutbacks, and how did DISD lose 84 million bucks.
Let’s just say, the teachers are not happy with Superintendent Michael Hinojosa and they want Price to lean into him tomorrow.
Some of the questions popping up:
Are you satisfied with Hinojosa’s offer to take a 5% paycut? Answer by Price: I’ll answer that when the camera’s are gone.
Is DISD’s fingerprinting system working and worth the money?
Why aren’t magnate schools on the list of teachers cut? Answer by Price: I don’t know. That’s a good question. i want to know why they aren’t part of the list.
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Price says there are between 11-20 principals floating around without a school. Price says he talked to one, and told him, you’re in bad shape. Price says they should go before any teachers.
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Someone asked if the district is at it’s highest tax rate. Price says, no, it isn’t. But the only way the district can get more money is by asking the voters for more money. He says in light of the current budget crisis, he doesn’t feel good doing that.
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Price is also slinging barbs. He says he wants some stability in the CEO position for DISD. Price says he’s been through several superintedents searches, and says they are ugly, racial and politically driven.
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DISD meeting tomorrow on Ross Ave at 3pm.
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What Did Omar Say? 
Being a teacher in a neighboring district, this situation definitely sucks for DISD teachers. In the district I teach for, we’ve gotten alot of teachers in the past from DISD.
For the teachers to get cut, I find it unfair, since they are not the ones that made this huge, ugly error in accounting. I bet the person or dept that made this mega money blunder didn’t lose their job.
As it is, many of these schools are already overloaded with students in 1 class. If you cut teachers, that means that more students get put into already stuffed classrooms — which means less personal interaction between student & teacher.
I hope these teachers come out of this out on top and better than what they were treated by DISD in this situation. Teachers, such as myself, are the people who get these kids prepared for the future. It just shows that someone didn’t look out for the kids, and obviously can’t calculate.
It is going to be hard for DISD to ask for a bond package vote from residents after this humongous mistake in budgeting — residents won’t trust the district’s idiot with their money.
Comment by Jennifer— October 1, 2008 #