Sharon Boyd, Editor/Publisher |
DallasArena.com Your alternative to The Dallas Managed News Gehrig Saldaņa
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It is the height of arrogance
for DISD Superintendent Hinojosa to have pushed the DISD Board to approve
putting a $1.3 billion bond package before the voters without benefit of the
audit. It is fiscally irresponsible
for the DISD Board to have approved
Dr. Hinojosa's $1.3 billion recommendation before
the audit was complete and the public could be assured that
finally a sound fiscal policy was well in
place at DISD.
A couple of trustees (Ranger and Ellis) questioned the timing of the bond election -- May, 2008 -- before trustees and the taxpayers received results of the audit. In Will DISD haste to a billion dollar bond election make more waste?, I asked what was wrong with waiting for the audit before scheduling the $1.3 billion bond vote? Unfortunately, when the DISD Board voted on the bond package, it received a unanimous vote to move forward.
As the DMN editorial
(Editorial:
Stalled audit could imperil DISD bond program
DMN 4/4/8)
points out,
"Superintendent Michael Hinojosa and other administrators offered
assurances, saying repeatedly that the audit would be completed in March."
Here we are in April and no audit! As you know by now,
Dr. Hinojosa had a press conference to say the audit was not
forthcoming and would probably not be available before the May vote on the
$1.3 billion bond package. "Trust us" was his mantra. That may work with
the downtown business community, but it doesn't work for us!
We've trusted him before (P-card). He's said there would be full accountability regarding the P-card scandal, but it has yet to happen. Now, he wants us to trust him with $1.3 billion without benefit of the audit that was supposed to be completed and disclosed in December, 2007 and then March, 2008?
The Dallas
business community has given this superintendent extraordinary support to
transform the DISD, so much so it appears they ignore red flags.
Dr. Hinojosa has banked on that support to the
extent he exclude parents and other community stakeholders from having a
real say in the education of our children. While parents want an exemplary
school district, they are not as easily taken in by smoke and mirrors (Road
to Broad,
Dallas Achieves) as the business community and the DISD Board has
been. That is so because they send their children to school each and every
day and the large majority of them have not seen the "signs of improvements"
that the DMN article alludes to. Rather, they have seen:
Dallas schools chief says district won't meet all goals
(Tawnell
D. Hobbs / DallasNews.com, 12/6/7);
Dallas schools raise passing rate but fall short of many goals
(Tawnell
D. Hobbs / DallasNews.com, 12/5/7);
Report on official contradicts Dallas schools in credit card case
(Kent
Fischer / DallasNews.com, 12/6/7);
Principal on leave during grade-changing probe (News
8 WFAA.com, 11/30/7);
DISD teachers 'under pressure to change grades'
(Brett
Shipp / WFAA.com, 11/29/7);
Officials loosely monitored DISD employees' pay
(Kent
Fischer / DallasNews.com, 9/2/7)
The most recent, tragic evidence
that the DISD under Hinojosa's administration is failing to even minimally
meet expectations of meaningful transformation is the report that was
recently released showing that our dropout rate ranks us as 7th worst in the
nation!
Under Superintendent Hinojosa,
we have had three years of unfulfilled promises and three years of
distraction (Road to Broad,
Dallas Achieves).
It is time for the smoke and mirrors "trust us" approach of this superintendent and the leadership team he has put in place to come to an end. It is time for real, achievable goals and for real results. It is time for the DISD Board to show true transformation power and muscle by telling the DISD taxpayers "we were wrong" and canceling the May bond election until Dr. Hinojosa and his team can deliver.
Gehrig Saldaņa
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