DALLAS ISD

Dallas ISD has revamped summer school this year, with later starting dates and other changes.

The biggest difference will be in the calendar: In the past, DISD grade school and junior high students have started summer school in early June. This summer they'll have a July starting date.

Elementary and middle school kids will go from July 6 to July 29. High school students will go from June 16 to July 22.

For the younger students, "this is a sea change," DISD Supt. Michael Hinojosa said at yesterday's Board of Trustees briefing meeting. It is important to get the word out, he said, because a lot of parents are in the mindset of summer school in June and vacation in July.

In the past, summer school ended in early July, and kids didn't report back to school until mid to late August, a gap that exacerbated learning losses that can occur in the summer. Under the new schedule, students will leave summer school closer to when the new school year begins.

Other changes include a longer summer school day for elementary students - 8 a.m. to 5 p.m - to allow for more enrichment subjects such as music, art and drama that go beyond core academic classes.

Students who have repeatedly flunked TAKS tests in Grades 5 and 8 will get tutoring between June 21 and July 1. Then they can use time in regular summer school to retake classes they have failed or improve their skills.

Hinojosa said it is important to focus not only passing the TAKS but making sure students are prepared for the next grade.

For calendars and other information, go to DISD's summer school web site at: http://www.dallasisd.org/parents/summerschool.htm

At least two high-ranking DISD administrators have told District 5 trustee Lew Blackburn that he can't hold a budget development meeting, which he says will give the public a chance to weigh in on next school year's budget.

Blackburn said he decided to have such a meeting, complete with DISD budget and finance folks, after last year's complaints from the public that they had not been part of the budget process.

But Blackburn said he has been told "no" to holding such a meeting by DISD because it could violate election ethics codes as he is up for re-election on May 8.

Blackburn said he has told DISD that district finance and budget employees would be doing most of the talking and that it would include more than just District 5 constituents. He also said that the meeting wouldn't have to be in District 5 and could be held at a community recreation center.

"I want to show them [the public] how we develop the budget, who is involved, and also give them a chance to say what they'd like," Blackburn said. "Here's an opportunity to attend to something people complained about last year."

It's that time of year for candidates to begin rolling out campaign websites and handing out literature. If you know of any campaign websites (Facebook, etc)., send the information to thobbs@dallasnews.com, and I'll get it posted on the blog.

To start us off, District 7 candidate Eric Cowan has rolled out his campaign Facebook page. Check it out here.

(Click here to see the candidate lineup for the May 8 election).

Today's tray of hot district morsels ...

***The debate over teachers, bonuses and absences. See my story today about long-awaited performance bonuses for teachers who met all requirements for the awards except a 95 percent attendance rate. Teachers will receive full or partial bonuses depending on how many school days they missed -- up to 37 days of a school year of 187 working days. The comments are coming in about teacher absences. What do you think?

***Inequities persist at school. A reader alerted us to the full text of a speech by U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, about inequalities that persist in our nation's schools and what his agency plans to do about enforcing anti-discrimination laws. "We are going to reinvigorate civil rights enforcement. With a strict adherence to statutory and case law, and working with schools and post-secondary institutions, we are going to strive to make Dr. King's dream of a colorblind society a reality," Duncan said. This full speech is worth reading.

***Social studies saga continues. See our story about the continued, volatile debate over Texas social studies standards. It impacts what your child will learn in U.S. History, government and other classes, so stay tuned.

***Woodrow Wilson choir on TV! If you want to watch, here's the info we got about the performance: Woodrow Wilson's award-winning choir performs on the public television program Celebrate America: North Texas on Monday, March 15, 2010, at 7:00 p.m. The program runs on KERA Television, Channel 13. The show features Composer and musician Tim Janis and 14 extraordinary high school choral groups as they come together from across North Texas in the KERA. More information can be found on KERA's website at http://www.kera.org/celebrateamerica.

***Kudos to our own Katherine Leal Unmuth! She won a 2nd place award for education beat reporting in large media markets from the National Education Writers Association. This is a very tough contest, so Katherine's award is all the more impressive. She covers Irving schools.

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Nathan Adams Elementary School is one of 13 schools in the nation to receive the National Excellence in Urban Education Award.

The award, given by the National Center for Urban School Transformation, requires that schools meet certain criteria, including having a high number of students demonstrating proficiency on state assessments and meeting certain graduation and attendance requirements.

"This is a very exciting and inspiring news," said DISD Superintendent Michael Hinojosa. "I thank Principal Jean McGill and the staff at Nathan Adams Elementary for their efforts, commitment and dedication to improve student academic achievement."

According to DISD, Nathan Adams is the second school in the district to receive he national award. James Bonham Elementary School received it in 2009.

DISD trustees will be briefed on proposed changes for the 2010-2011 Student Code of Conduct tomorrow. They will consider approving the changes later this month. Please weigh in on the recommendations to help us determine their impact, if any, especially you teachers on the frontline.

The links to the proposed changes are below. Thanks in advance, Tawnell.

Click here for an overview of the proposed changes. You can access the complete document with proposed changes by clicking here.

Today's tray of hot district morsels ...

** Several DISD students are among 22 that have been selected to be part of the Young Masters program for their artistic abilities. The students will receive grants up to $2,500 per year to pursue advance studies in their craft. Here are the DISD participants: Maddie Bueter, a freshman student in voice at Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing & Visual Arts in Dallas; McKinley Willis, a junior at Booker T.; Alysia Johnson, an 8th grader at the Greiner Exploratory Arts Academy; and Ida Saki, a senior in dance at Booker T.

** Know a "good kid" who lives in Oak Cliff or South Dallas? The Dallas Morning News would like to consider them for the newspaper's Good Kid column. Click here for the details.

** As if school superintendents aren't busy enough. Now comes this story of a mayor in a Chicago suburb who is poised to become a school superintendent while keeping his mayoral duties.

** The DMN editorial board says that DISD must act now to fix or close 10 of its failing high schools.

** Interesting poll on our Park Cities blog. The SMU police department is refusing to turn over police reports concerning Bill McNutt, the SMU alumnus who stepped down from his deacon position after being arrested last month for trespassing. He also gave up a gubernatorial appointment over the incident. There appears to be more here than a simple trespass charge. Take the poll on whether the SMU campus police should release the police reports.

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The Dallas Morning News is looking for Teacher Voices and Student Voices for the 2010-2011 school year.

A little bit about the position: "Voices volunteers contribute a few full-length columns per semester and are the stars of our weekly Sounding Off feature on Sundays. They also participate in writing workshops and other special events with the editorial staff."

Click here for the details.

The mock trial team at Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts is the winner of the Texas High School Mock Trial Competition. It's the second straight year that a DISD team has won the annual competition — Skyline won it last year.

The contest was held last weekend at the Earle Cabell Federal Building in Dallas. The students will move onto to the national competition held in Philadelphia in May.

According to DISD, the Booker T. mock trial team includes: Christopher Clark, Toni Campbell, Richmond Greene, Omar Jimenez, Ben Nguyen, Victor Nguyen, Wolf Ozarow, Cristina Vega and Madison Wald. The team's coach is Patricia Woods, a teacher at Booker T. Washington. In addition to the team title, team member Christopher Clark was selected as Outstanding Advocate. Richmond Greene and Wolf Ozarow were nominated for the Best Witness category.

The Dallas Bar Association sponsors and coordinates the event.

And we're off ... the filing period has ended! Here's a list of candidates for the May 8 Dallas school board election:

District 4 (Pleasant Grove, Seagoville, Balch Springs):
Nancy Bingham, incumbent, retired teacher
Camile D. White, public relations
Jesse Diaz, real estate broker

District 5 (Portions of East Oak Cliff, Oak Lawn, West Dallas, Wilmer and Hutchins):
Lew Blackburn, incumbent, school administrator
Claudia Fowler, case manager for a nonprofit
Daphene Edmond, travel agent

District 7 (North Central Oak Cliff and parts of West Dallas):
Eric Cowan, hotel management executive
Olegario Estrada, attorney
Louis Trujillo, tax accountant

(P.S.: Farewell District 7 trustee Jerome Garza. I'll miss our discussions on school district issues).

Update, 5:30 p.m.: A third challenger has filed for the District 7 seat being vacated by trustee Jerome Garza. Tax accountant Louis Trujillo has filed for the post. He will contest attorney Olegario Estrada and Eric Cowan, who works in hotel managment.

Update, 4:20 p.m.: DISD trustee Nancy Bingham has picked up a second challenger for the District 4 seat. Jesse Diaz, a real estate broker, has filed for the post. Bingham also faces Camile White, who works in public relations.

Update: 3:15 p.m.: DISD trustee Lew Blackburn has picked up a second challenger for the District 5 seat. Daphene Edmond, a travel agent, has filed for the post. Blackburn also faces Claudia Fowler, a case manager for the Urban League.

Update, 1:15 p.m.: DISD trustee Lew Blackburn has picked up a challenger for the District 5 seat. Claudia Fowler, a case manager, filed for the post this afternoon.

Original blog entry:

It's the last day to file to run in the Dallas school board elections on May 8. I'll be posting updates as I get them on this post. Click on the candidate's name to read his/her application.

So far, we have:

District 4 (Southeast Dallas, Seagoville, Balch Springs):
Nancy Bingham, incumbent, retired teacher
Camile D. White, public relations

District 5 (Portions of East Oak Cliff, Oak Lawn, West Dallas, Wilmer and Hutchins):
Lew Blackburn, incumbent, school administrator

District 7 (North Central Oak Cliff and parts of West Dallas):
Eric Cowan, hotel management executive
Olegario Estrada, attorney

Today's tray of hot district morsels ...

** Our Sunday story on 10 Dallas high schools that have the lowest federal rating.

** Those oil and gas revenues are sure paying off in the Birdville ISD. Graduating seniors will get a free year of community college if they meet certain criteria.

** Some school districts want to set their own start dates. Read the story here.

** The Dallas Observer's Unfair Park blog writes on Eric Cowan's run to fill the District 7 seat being left vacant by Jerome Garza.

Got a link we missed or an item for the Daily Dish? Send it our way.

Finally, someone besides incumbents has filed to run in the May 8 election.

Eric Cowan, a hotel management executive, has filed to run for the Dallas school board District 7 seat being vacated by Jerome Garza.

Olegario Estrada, an attorney, also has filed for the District 7 post.

In District 4, Camille D. White, who works in public relations, will challenge incumbent Nancy Bingham for the seat.

So far, trustee Lew Blackburn is uncontested for the District 5 position.

The last day to file is Monday.

Congratulations to North Dallas High School's George Clayton who managed to beat veteran State Board of Education member Geraldine Miller for the republican nomination in Tuesday's election. He won with 52 percent of the vote. Miller said she didn't see the loss coming.

Clayton, an academic coordinator at the school, has been with DISD since February 1997.

Click here to read the story on Clayton's victory that ran in today's newspaper.

Today's tray of hot district morsels ...

** The DMN editorial board says it's time for the Texas Education Agency, school districts and state legislators to tighten procedures to ensure that educators who have improper relationships with children are not allowed to continue working around children. Our Sunday story highlighted problems with the process in the Dallas school district. But in no way is this just happening in Dallas, according to education experts. Also, check out a follow-up in today's newspaper (which can be read here) of two former DISD educators who were dismissed from their most recent positions because of improper relationships they had with students in DISD.

** DMN's HS GameTime has a new forum to discuss high-school sports. Click here to join the discussion.

** Dallas schools have been invited to participate in ASIS International's School Security Funding Competition. Schools are asked to relay their security concerns and how they impact students, teachers and administrators through a series of short essays. They also are asked to describe security risks that they would attempt to reduce or eliminate. The winning school will receive $20,000 for security measures. Click here for more information.

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Today's tray of hot district morsels ...

** DISD students at Robert E. Lee Elementary School have a new "learning garden." Check out the story here.

** James Guthrie, senior fellow and director of education policy studies at the George W. Bush Institute, did a Q & A with a member of the DMN editorial board on what makes a good teacher. (Superintendent Michael Hinojosa gets a mention).

** Parent conferences are coming up next week. Click here for the schedule.

Got a link we missed or an item for the Daily Dish? Send it our way.

I just checked with DISD's Board Services office and only two people have filed to run in the May 8 election — incumbents Lew Blackburn (District 5) and Nancy Bingham (District 4).

This go round is much quieter than last year's election. I'm still waiting to see who will run for the District 7 seat held by Jerome Garza, who has said he won't seek another term.

Click here for more information on the May election.

Hey Baby - I just wanted to say hi before I go to bed. Good night baby! I'll meet you in our dreams. I miss you baby! Muaah!

The author of the e-mail was a Skyline High School teacher. The recipient: her student.

Dallas school investigators determined last spring that teacher Leslie Michel Finch behaved inappropriately with the 17-year-old boy as early as December 2008, according to district records.

Ten months after the district completed its investigation, Finch was still employed as a teacher at Skyline before she decided to resign last month. In recent weeks, she became a substitute teacher in a Central Texas school district.

The case illustrates a pattern discovered in a Dallas Morning News review of 20 cases involving sex allegations against teachers from late 2005 to 2009 in the Dallas Independent School District. In about half of the cases, criminal charges were pursued. In the other half, educators suspected of inappropriate relationships with students were allowed to quietly resign and maintain clean criminal records, paving the way for them to continue working with children.

Click here to read the rest of the story.

The Dallas Independent School District has hired a new administrator to oversee information technology following the termination of Patricia Viramontes in December.

As you may or may not recall, Viramontes had served as IT chief and is the wife of DISD Chief of Staff Arnold Viramontes. We blogged and wrote about her termination earlier, as well as some of the problems in leading that department.

Her replacement is Gray Salada, who will serve as executive director of Information and Technology at a salary of $159,500. He starts Monday.

Here's more bio info I just got from DISD about Mr. Salada, who worked as head of information technology for Austin ISD for 10 years, and is a West Point grad:

In his capacity in Austin ISD, Salada was responsible for the operation, maintenance, and support for the district's communications and information systems. He directed 139 staff members to operate and provide the following services: districtwide e-mail, high-speed network with more than 80,000 drops connecting more than 36,000 computers at 117 locations on 300 miles of fiber optic cable, six large enterprise information and student systems supporting 84,000 students, among other responsibilities. He also has worked with and applied for federal e-rate funds for the past 10 years.

Prior to Austin ISD, he was the director of Information Services and Technology for the U.S. Space Command. Prior to that, he was director of Network Operations for the Defense Information System Agency.

He is a West Point graduate with a Master of Science in systems management from the University of Southern California and a Master of Science in electrical engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology.

At every DISD school board meeting, members of the public get a chance to speak on topics, share concerns and point out problems.

Some subjects/problems keep coming up, month after month, and never seem to get resolved.

Truett and Kiest Elementary schools are good examples of this phenomena. In the last few months, teachers and parents have complained again and again about what they believe is bad leadership at the schools, and crowding problems at Truett.

Both schools got extremely low "organizational health" scores that measure teacher morale and working conditions. In a range from 1 to 99, Kiest got a score of 9 and Truett got a rock-bottom 1 in 2009.

At last night's DISD board meeting, parent and teachers once again showed up to complain about Truett and Kiest.

New board member Bernadette Nutall spoke up, and her frustration was apparent.

"Every month, Truett has been down here," she said. "We need to do something." Board president Adam Medrano expressed the same sentiment about Kiest.

Nutall is appealing to Dallas ISD chief of staff Arnold Viramontes to look into the situation at the schools.

"It's on my radar," Viramontes told me today. He said he met last night with parents after the DISD board meeting, and will be trying to get to the root of the problems.

I have put in calls to both principals, and hope they will call me back.
In the face of so many complaints, I would love to know what they are thinking right now.

I can tell that the parents and teachers dissatisfied with these schools are not going to give up and go away. They are expecting their elected officials to kick into gear.

Today's tray of hot district morsels ...

***More on chains/locked doors/fire violations. See my story today about eight Dallas high schools getting cited for having locked exit doors, creating a firetrap for students. Supt. Michael Hinojosa says he is "livid" about the violations.

***Boy sent to principal's office wanders off campus. A 7-year-old fearing he'd get in trouble left Casa View Elementary school and was missing for two hours. See the story.

***Laptop porn. See our story about a Mesquite board member who resigned after pornographic material was discovered on a district-issued laptop.

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DISD has decided to use Good Friday, April 2, as a bad weather makeup day for closing Feb. 12 because of icy conditions.

April 2 would have been a day off. DISD built two makeup days in its school calendar. The other day, May 21, is the Friday before Memorial Day, which falls on a Monday.
(CORRECTION: Memorial Day is May 31, so May 21 is 10 days earlier. Thanks to commenter for pointing out the mistake)

I have to say when I saw that the makeup day was scheduled on Good Friday, I cringed. We've heard from folks before who don't like Good Friday being used for a makeup day. I wonder if the district would have a better shot of getting more kids in school by having the makeup day on May 21, which isn't a holiday.

Today's tray of hot district morsels ...

***Chains on school doors and other hazards. See my story today, about how common it is for schools to have chains on their doors. What other fire hazards exist in our schools? Let me know about your schools.

***Other stories of interest. Voters: Don't miss today's excellent overview of the District 9 Texas Board of Education race, or this piece about Holocaust education in Texas.

***Up to your ears in college debt. A new study highlights how some Texas universities helped reduced student loan default rates.

Got a link we missed or an item for the Daily Dish? Send it our way.

Today's tray of hot district morsels ...

***Would you like to be a school superintendent? See this story about high turnover among school superintendents in Texas.

***The feds are pushing for higher standards. See comments by U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, who is pushing for states to adopt stronger and more uniform standards to ensure students are ready for college and careers. To date, the federal law has allowed states to create their own standards, leading to a hodgepodge of testing requirements, some weaker than others.

***College application help available. See DISD Trustee Carla Ranger's blog about a Feb. 27 (Saturday) program to help students fill out college applications and financial aid forms.

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Today's tray of hot district morsels ...

** Irving ISD named a new superintendent last night. We posted on the district's superintendent search earlier this week after former DISD administrator Oscar Rodriguez, the recent Texas Superintendent of the Year, did not get an interview for the job. Irving chose Dana T. Bedden, superintendent of the Richmond County School System in Augusta, Ga., for the post.

** Collin County Community College professor and author Michael Phillips gave a speech last night on the impact that segregation had on Dallas public schools. Read the story here.

** A Pennsylvania school district is in hot water for using web cams on students' district-issued laptops that could be activated by the district.

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