UPDATEDx3: Dallas ISD to lay off around 750 1209 staffers and teachers, but not for at least another week

by PegNews wire

Remember that $64 million shortfall the Dallas ISD had because they didn't properly budget the hiring of new teachers? Well, in a move that should surprise no one, except for maybe the people it directly affects, the district has told its schools that layoffs are coming, and soon.

Teachers are, understandably, up in arms, saying they shouldn't have to pay for the district's mistake. The district has declared a "financial exigency," allowing them to lay off even teachers that are under contract.

UPDATE: Superintendent Michael Hinojosa announced Tuesday that the district will lay off around 750 staffers and teachers in early October to help make up for the budget shortfall. However, the district may have to dip into its reserve fund again to prevent another shortfall in this year's budget.

UPDATEx2: According to the DISD Blog, the number could skyrocket to 1209 employees, 675 of which would be teachers, in addition to Campus administrators, workers in the central office, and various support staff.

UPDATEx3: The Dallas ISD School Board refused for the second week in a row to vote on Superintendent Hinojosa's request to begin layoffs.

Posted by Alex B.

Staff
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Anonymous

jvalenzuela4, says:

What are they waiting for? The $$$'s keep growing every week (at least that's what they say). The board of trustees should be called the board of stupid. they just want to be re-elected and don't want to make the move to layoff all these teachers because they approved Hinojosa's decision to hire the so-called finance director. I say they should fire all of the people directly involved in the finance department along with hinojosa and a recall of the board of trustees begin. lowe has been there waaaaay yy too long and they make decisions based on "well, I think" instead of we will research it completely and get a definite answer to you. There is so much waste happening at DISD, I see it even though I've only been with the district one year. You should see the classrooms, there are no computers and if there are, they are so outdated, it's ridiculous. I have two dell computers one with windows 98, yes windows 98 the other has XP but they never upgraded it properly so half the time it freezes up. I have a Mac the type that looks like a small TV that doesn't work. Their answer to removing this computer (I've asked since last year) it's not my job. The district insists that we teach technology, well with what technology? I attended several workshops last year so I could finally get a data projector and a new student computer. Guess what? My computer sits in my classroom unopened until someone from technology can come and sit it up so the warranty is not voided. Go figure. I was given permission to set up my data projector. That has been a great tool for technology.

DISD is so large there is no way to keep up with the daily operations of this organization. DISD needs to break into smaller districts like those in San Antonio. This doesn't mean that there wouldn't be problems but at least not of this magnitude.

I don't think Hinojosa should be fired...yet. Let him figure it out first, then fire his butt.

We had a convocation at the AA Center. That was a waste of time and $$$$$. While I know it was spearheaded by some private company, he (hinojosa) should have just asked for the money. All the schools who are low performing or just academically acceptable were placed at the nose-bleed section of the AA Center. The Recognized schools were placed in the midsection or on the floor. Talk about segregation!

There are so many problems with DISD, this is just the tip of the iceberg. For instance, what about the bilingual funds teachers are supposed to get to purchase additional supplies for their classrooms. Bilingual teachers at my school think that's just a joke and urban legend. Those funds apparently are discretionary funds that the principal can do as he/she pleases.