Dallas ISD Superintendent Mike Miles addresses an audience at a community meeting in South Dallas Thursday to talk about problems at Dade Middle School. Some audience members demanded that he apologize for ousting trustee Bernadette Nutall from the school. He did not. (Tawnell D. Hobbs/Dallas Morning News)
Dallas ISD Superintendent Mike Miles was harshly criticized during a community meeting Thursday in South Dallas, with some attendees demanding that he apologize for having trustee Bernadette Nutall thrown out of Dade Middle School earlier this week.
Miles spent the first minutes of a speech explaining what he called “a crisis” at Dade Middle School in South Dallas that led to his removal last week of the principal, two assistant principals and 10 teachers.
He said while visiting the school, he observed poor instruction and leadership and low expectations for students. He described an atmosphere of chaos, inattentiveness by some staff members and students who were not learning.
“There was very little teaching going on,” Miles said. “We needed to do something urgent, so we did.”
The school has had four principals in two years — three of them placed there by Miles.
After Miles spent about 20 minutes explaining the situation at Dade, some in the audience could wait no longer to speak. Several in the group of about 70 at CitySquare Opportunity Center wanted to know why Miles had police remove Nutall from the campus Monday.
“People want to get to the point,” one man stood and said. “Everybody wants you to get to the point.”
“We want an apology,” another woman yelled.
Miles said he had planned a 6:30 a.m. meeting Monday at Dade with the new staff. It was the first meeting for the group, he said.
“That was not a time for a trustee, or anybody else to want to be at a staff meeting,” he said.
But Nutall, who attended Thursday’s community meeting, hosted by Revitalize South Dallas Coalition, took exception. She headed to the front of the room where Miles was standing and gave her version of events. She said that she did not interfere with a staff meeting but went to the school to see what was going on.
She described being humiliated by being removed from the school by police officers.
“They proceeded to lift me up and take me out the door,” she said. “They picked me up and took me out of the school.”
Nutall explained to Miles how hurtful it was for her to be taken out by police. “I’m a mother of two,” she told him.
Some audience members yelled at Miles, demanding an apology. He did not.
Miles cited board operating procedures to justify his decision to have Nutall removed from the Dade campus.
Nutall asked Miles if he stands by his decision to have her removed. He said that he did and that Nutall should apologize to him for interrupting the staff meeting. She said she did no such thing.
Thursday’s community meeting ended with one woman saying that Miles should not have treated a woman that way.
“What you did to this woman, until you apologize, we will not stand by you,” she said.
Some of those at Thursday’s meeting also attended a later gathering hosted by former Dallas ISD Trustee Ron Price at the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center in South Dallas. Audience members there voiced similar frustration.
“We shouldn’t allow this as a community,” Price said.
Dallas ISD trustees will discuss their roles and limitations and those of the superintendent at a called meeting for 5 p.m. Monday.
A Dallas ISD student has started an online petition urging Superintendent Mike Miles to give teachers a raise and to reverse the teaching requirements that have zapped classrooms of creativity.
