9/16/08  Where Does the Buck Stop at DISD?
Gherig Salda?

Did We Get a $64 Million Dollar Improvement?
 

If you ask most DISD taxpayers if they feel they got a $64 million improvement in the performance of students in DISD schools, probably you will get a resounding NO!!!

There were minimal improvements at some schools, but those schools on notice that they have to improve or be reconstituted were certainly not moved off the danger list.  In fact, Spruce High School is now in reconstituted mode, with several other schools to follow if they do not show significant improvement this year.  All schools on the danger list have not improved enough to be at acceptable status under Superintendent Hinojosa?s watch. If he were the wonder man that DISD Trustees and the business community believe him to be, schools would receive an unacceptable rating only once before he instituted measures to move them to the acceptable column in the next year.  However, it has not worked that way under his watch. He is going on four years on the job ? trustees approved his contract up to 2011. 

What have the school children and taxpayers gotten under his leadership? We?ve gotten $64 million in the hole and a passing of the buck.  That?s what we?ve gotten.

Hinojosa?s Leadership Team ? Measure of His Leadership Acumen or Lack Thereof
 

I?ve written before about the leadership team brought in by Hinojosa.  Looks like the critical analysis of his top picks is proving to hold true.  Anyone who believes we got into this fiasco solely on the ineptitude of the financial side of the house does not completely know of what they speak. Hinojosa laying blame on the financial people is another example of his incompetence or, worse, his disingenuousness.  Before the $64 million showed up on budget reports, someone had to make the decision to spend that $64 million.

In addition to the superintendent and the school board, here?s the totality of the picture that should be looked at and where the totality of the blame should lie:

• Eric Anderson ? Chief Executive Officer of the Business Services Division: Hinojosa hired someone who led his company into bankruptcy and then into extinction ? he hired him as the chief financial officer for DISD. Why should he act surprised? Then about the $64 million dollar hole that was dug by a CFO with the above experience of failure? He and the DISD Trustees should have gotten a clue when there was a $54 million shortfall last year but was explained away. But the fault does not solely lie with Anderson?
   
• Kimberly Olson ? Chief Human Development Officer of the Human Development Division: Hinojosa hired this individual who had no HR experience and whose main qualification (in his eyes) was that she was a participant in the Road to Broad leadership program. She was a former military person who left the military under an ethics cloud regarding Iraq contracts. Eric Anderson is the fall guy for this $64 million bungle, but he?s not the only one responsible. Wouldn?t it stand to reason that before your chief HR person lets anyone hire another employee, you make sure that you have the funds to hire that person? Looks like Olson was more than asleep at the wheel on this one ? she doesn?t even know what the wheel should look like! She should also share blame for this debacle.
   
• Donna Micheaux ? Chief Administrative Officer for School Leadership & Administrative Services Division:  Donna Micheaux is responsible for the administration of the schools. She also was asleep at the wheel, allowing schools to add, add, add more personnel without checking if the money was there to pay their salaries. She should not escape part of the blame for this fiasco.
   
• Arnold Viramontes ? It?s Not What You Know/It?s Who You Know: Mr. Nepotism is being put in charge of the financial side of the house. Remember that he?s Hinojosa?s buddy who the superintendent brought in and has kept promoting, even though up to this point, all that he?s been known for is being Mr. Nepotism. However, since he was over the superintendent?s transformation efforts, it also fell to him to make decisions about who was being placed where and who was given the okay to hire/fire. So he also helped create this mess and now he?s supposed to clean it up?
   
• Summary of Hinojosa?s Leadership Acumen:  In an article that appeared in The Dallas Morning News last year, Hinojosa said that he prides himself in picking the right people. With what?s detailed above as just a sampling of the people he?s brought in, many would say he?s out of touch with reality. If you pick the right people, they won?t get you in a $64 million hole. If you?re the right person for the job, you won?t get your institution in a $64 million hole.

Michael Hinojosa ? In His Own Words:

Not only is the superintendent incompetent, he has now shown himself to be arrogant by proclaiming to The Dallas Morning News, ?I?m not planning on walking out of here. If people want me to walk out, it will take five of them.? [He?s referring to the number of trustees required to vote ?no confidence? in him.] ?It would be bad for somebody else to try and come in. They?d have to start all over to try and fix this. Ultimately I am responsible and I?m not going anywhere.?

Taxpayers should be afraid, very afraid of the superintendent?s mindset and of the spinelessness of DISD Trustees who still support him.

On one hand Hinojosa is the one who got DISD finances in this mess but on the other hand, he says he's  the only one who can get DISD out of it!  How can we trust someone who didn?t have enough wherewithal to keep us out of this mess to be the only one who can get us out of it?  

In the whole of the United States, there is not one person competent enough and capable enough to clean up the mess this superintendent created?  Where will the delusions end? When we?re in total bankruptcy?

10% Cuts

The superintendent is going to begin trying to fix the mess by mandating DISD schools cut 10% of their budgets ? as if the schools have an overflow of money to begin with!  They should recoup the money by cutting the ream-thick org chart by 50% -- cut 50% of central staff beginning with the upper echelon, Hinojosa included! Of those left who are making $100,000 and above, cut their salaries and their budgets by 10%. That?s where the cuts need to be made, not from the schools.  

$1.3 Billion Bond Election for New Schools

Voters approved a $1.3 billion bond to build new schools by the narrowest margin ever for a DISD bond. Voters were already wary of this superintendent and the DISD Trustees, as revealed by this vote.  The question now has to be: If you can?t even provide for the schools we currently have and your leadership got us into a $64 million hole, where are the funds for the additional operating costs and teacher salaries that come with those new schools?  Why are new schools even necessary since the DISD has approximately 12,000 less students this year than last year?

Where Does the Buck Stop?

The buck stops with the superintendent.  However, Hinojosa has revealed he deals more in delusion than in reality.  Therefore, it is up to the DISD Board of Trustees to do the job they were elected to do ? make sure the school district is run in a way to deliver excellent education for all school children and to be good stewards of the taxpayers' dollar. They have failed on both fronts!

Jack Lowe says he is ?totally confident? in the superintendent.

Dr. Edwin Flores continues to support him.

Jerome Garza has a question mark.

Ron Price says he?s not ready to pull the plug.

Dr. Lew Blackburn, Leigh Ann Ellis, Nancy Bingham and Adam Medrano have not been heard from publicly.

Carla Ranger says not only the superintendent, but all 9 board members should resign. She's the only one who is courageous enough to call it as it is! The only one who is not in group think. So, yes, the agreement is with Carla Ranger.

The buck stops with the superintendent and the school board. The time is now, before more valuable time and resources are lost on the continuation of mediocrity on many of our schools, the incompetence of the superintendent and the spinelessness of eight of the board members. The buck stops with you!

Gherig Salda?