Linus Spiller
Gehrig Saldaņa
Suzanne Warner
Tim Dickey
Chip Northrup
                             

5/5/8  - DISD Trustees and Management do not deserve our trust.

Without too much effort, here are some reasons to VOTE NO on another DISD job fair for Dallas contractors:

1.  Although we are not the 7th largest city in the country, Dallas ISD ranks 7th in dropout rates among its students.  That means most 1st graders who look so cute in their little khaki's and white shirts will not graduate from high school.  Most of them will not make it through junior high.

2.  The audit report of the state of affairs in the DISD which was due last Fall will not be complete until AFTER the Bond election.  Things are such a mess on Ross Avenue that it takes almost a year to do an audit? 

3.  Teachers are changing grades for all kinds of lame reasons from keeping jocks eligible for games to fudging a school's pass/fail status. 

4.  Trustees and/or their businesses are not prohibited from bidding on school building contracts, which explains why the school board is so anxious to have another construction fund approved.

5.  Trustees granted residency waivers to almost a dozen high dollar/high level DISD employees.  They don't want their kids in the DISD, and who can blame them?

Make no mistake about this bond election.  It is not about education or our children's future.  It is about construction contracts - over a billion dollars worth of construction contracts.  It is a redistribution of wealth shell game.  Unfortunately for most of us, it's taking tax dollars from the average taxpayer and redistributing it to connected construction companies. 

There was a lot of posturing and huff and puffing in defense of School Board President Jack Lowe when it was reported that his company had/has huge contracts on DISD construction projects.  Granted, Texas Industries is a respected company and does good work, but that's not the issue.  Mr. Lowe defended his company's working on DISD construction projects and said volunteers (school board members) shouldn't be expected to have to take a hit financially just to serve on the school board. 

I don't know about you, but this DISD taxpayer does not expect any school board member or their family to be contracting with the DISD in any capacity.  If you have a conflict of interest (your company does millions in business with the DISD annually), you should not run for a position on the school board.  Not really complicated.  During this embarrassing disclosure, we learned that only Houston ISD is addressing this issue.  State law (written by school district lobbyists) allows school board members to do business with their own school districts. 

It doesn't matter if state law allows it or DISD rules and ethics regulations don't prohibit it, no school board member or a member of their immediate family should be contracting with the school district at any level. 

When faced with the news that we are the 7th worst performing school district in the country regarding students dropping out before their high school graduation, the trustees went around to town hall meetings touting the scholarships SOME seniors are receiving this year.  That's great, but there are more kids dropping out than graduating, much less earning a college scholarship.

As a child, I attended several DISD schools, including Mt Auburn Elementary in East Dallas.  The buildings were old then, but we had excellent teachers, kids learned and most kids graduated from high school.  The classrooms were large with windows.  The auditoriums were special gathering places.  We even had 2nd floors.  Education is not about buildings.  Education is about teaching students how to read, how to add and subtract, how to learn.

My neighborhood school, which Joe May carved out of our neighborhood, is a 1950's era building with numerous disposable/portable buildings cluttering the school grounds and causing problems for nearby homeowners.  There is no money in this school bond to improve that school or replace those outhouses, most of which have been on the grounds since at least 2001.  The new school at Walnut Hill & Webb Chapel did not relieve the crowded conditions at our school. 

There are schools throughout the district that are closed because of population shifts.  Children are bused all over town, but not to better utilize our current building/classroom stock.  No, the kids are bused for social engineering purposes.

You tell me.  Do you really think the money you already pay in property taxes to the DISD is being well spent?  Are you satisfied with the resolution of the DISD credit card abuse scandal?

No?  Then, why would you vote to tax yourself more and give more of your limited resources to a bunch of crooks and incompetents to waste?  Maybe, you don't realize that your taxes will increase with this bond election.  It's not free money.

The Dallas Managed News is up to its old tricks.  DMN reporters are doing a great job exposing DISD incompetence, but the DMN editorial board recommends you disregard their own stories and trust the DISD school board and management to do better in the future.  That's like opening the hen house to that old fox after he's already eaten half your chickens.  Who in their right mind would trust that chicken-killing fox or the DISD school board and management?

If nothing bad is going to come out in the audit report whenever it eventually gets released, then what's the hold up?  The DMN claims the auditors are not finding corruption or theft.  I don't believe it for a minute, and neither should you.

What burns me most is the school board waiving residency requirements for all those bureaucrats drawing high salaries.  The woman over personnel lives in Weatherford and serves on the Weatherford ISD school board.  Weatherford?  Do you know how far that is from Dallas?  She lived in Weatherford when she was hired.  She was interviewing for the DISD position and running for the WISD school board simultaneously.  She lied to someone when she was stating her commitments to either the DISD or Weatherford. 

When I expressed my outrage about non-DISD residents in decision-making positions over my tax dollars, one trustee suggested school teachers be required to live in the district, too.  That's not even an apples and oranges comparison.  Most teachers don't make half the pay these 11 bureaucrats bring down.  The City of Dallas requires upper level management at City Hall live in the city limits.  State law prohibits imposing residency requirements on non-management personnel.

There are many more reasons why we should turn down this 2008 DISD bond election.  One other important reason is to send these arrogant jerks on the school board and in DISD management a message -- that we are watching them and we are not happy with them.

If you stay home and don't vote, you aren't just being apathetic.  You are being stupid, and you aren't considering the impact of your non-vote on your neighbor or even the future of education in Dallas.

If you want things to continue as they are in the DISD with our kids not graduating, with school board members making big bucks on DISD construction contracts, with new schools being built while other structures stand vacant and unused, then stay home.

Contrary to the pro-DISD propaganda and yard signs (the few that are around), a NO vote on Saturday will do more for ensuring better education for DISD students than anything you will ever do.  It will send a signal to the school board and DISD management that we want results.  We want our kids to graduate from high school with skills that can be applied in the real world.  We want teachers to take a higher priority than construction contracts.

If you want things to improve in the DISD and better accountability, then VOTE NO!

sb