Uproar follows Dallas ISD Trustee Carla Ranger’s job loss

by Gordon Jackson of of Dallas Weekly

Carla Ranger, Dallas Independent School District’s District 6 board trustee, said it felt like “the most piercing kind of pain that I’ve ever felt,” when she found out on May 18 that her director’s position at the Dallas County Community College District, where she had worked for 20 years, had been eliminated, along with the circumstances that followed.

“It was a dagger, and then you turn it,” Ranger exclusively told The Dallas Weekly.

Many, mostly including the DISD watchdog community, also felt the pain and have strongly reacted, starting with an emergency community meeting that was held May 23 at St. Luke Community United Methodist Church. Several of the 70 people who attended staunchly refused to believe that Ranger’s job loss was a totally separate situation from bold actions she has taken as a DISD trustee.

“We’re here because we’re not confused,” Rev. L. Charles Stovall said at the meeting organized by businesswoman Joyce Foreman, the Dallas NAACP and others. “It’s not coincidental that she received the news about her job the day after she represented the need for DISD to keep the learning centers open when they were trying to close them.”

“And now she’s being attacked,” said Levar “L.D.” Thomas. “It is an intimidation tactic toward the entire community. I’m personally disappointed at some of the African American men that sit around the horseshoe with Carla and let [the rest of the board] do it. They’re trying to steal our progression and we can’t let them do it.”

DCCCD Chancellor Dr. Wright Lassiter insisted, in a May 22 telephone interview, that Ranger’s job elimination was part of an anticipated $6.4 million budget shortfall the district would suffer.

“All organizations are going through some rather significant financial challenges,” Lassiter told The Weekly. “Like all of the other entities, we have to make some adjustments to try to accommodate for a tighter resource base. Mrs. Ranger just happens to be in a position that was eliminated; it had nothing to do with her as an individual. Her position was eliminated as one piece in our effort to balance the budget.

“This was purely a business decision. Any efforts to try to link this with her role in the school board is baseless.”

Ranger’s job being dissolved tacked on another volatile chapter to the many controversies surrounding DISD, being added on to recovering from an error-plagued $84 million budget shortfall, the threat of significant cuts to the district’s learning centers, charges of conflict of interest against board president Jack Lowe and a special election needed for three board seats after Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott ruled that the district illegally attempted to extend their terms.

Ranger has long taken strong stances with such issues, calling for the budget report when it was months late and for a revamp of the district’s ethics policy. She was among the first to call Lowe’s construction company attaining a multi-million dollar DISD contract a blatant conflict of interest and spoke out against the manner of how the board pushed through extending the terms for Districts 1, 3 and 9.

At the May 13 board meeting, with the trustees only a step away from voting for sharp cuts against the 31 DISD learning centers - in spite of their high success records - Ranger initiated a motion to postpone the vote, reading a statement by congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson and her concerns, that was released just hours earlier, then citing that more last-minute updated information needed to be reviewed.

The board decided unanimously to postpone the vote.

“She takes stands and voices things that others are afraid to do,” Stovall said. “Dr. Ranger has been consistent in challenging the board, time after time, of doing what’s right on behalf of our community.”

“Carla Ranger has repeatedly been the conscious for the DISD board; she has striven for this,” said Juanita Wallace, Dallas NAACP President, who called Ranger a woman of courage and integrity. “For these qualities she’s being despised, isolated, crucified and now fired.”

According to Ranger, on May 18, she received a hand-delivered letter from her supervisor, Associate Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs, W.G. Garland.

“He said that it was not his decision that he was instructed and directed to give this to me,” Ranger said. Upon further inquiry, she was told to see the next level supervisor.

The letter stated that Ranger’s position of Director of Educational Partnership was eliminated due to “budget constraints” and a “reorganization of the Educational Affairs Division.” Further, Ranger’s contract would not be renewed, effective August 31.

Ranger said she was stunned and “did not understand,” especially about the “budget constraints.” She stated that, a few weeks before, Andrew Jones, Executive Vice Chancellor of Executive Affairs, informed the entire department that, despite concerns surrounding the nation’s economic crisis, there would be no job losses in the education affairs department. Ranger had also just completed developing next year’s budget and was told no additional cuts or adjustments needed to be made.

Ranger said that she was not given a chance to inform her staff about the district’s decision on her own. Stepping out of the office briefly, she returned to find out that her staff was already informed by other supervisors about her contract not being extended and that the reorganization process had already begun, including reassigning projects that Ranger herself had founded, such as the popular African American Read-In, held annually in honor of Black History Month in February.

Ranger stated she further discovered that her position was the only one eliminated. “I was told that my position was eliminated and that my department was saved. All others in Education Affairs were preserved,” Ranger said. “Many of my peers have expressed their shock and puzzlement. I have more seniority than many of the people there.”

Ranger further said she did not receive “even a thank-you for your service and for the many projects you had done. However, my understanding was there was an attempt to comfort others. I did not hear one thing from anyone.”

At the St Luke community meeting, Wallace called the actions taken against Ranger a “mafia tactic with a sprinkling of Willie Lynch on top.”

Lassiter, along with Ed DesPlas, Executive Vice Chancellor of Business Affairs, said it was because of Ranger’s long-standing service with DCCCD that they called her in to offer her another position, which took place on May 22, four days after her formal notice. It was also on the afternoon after The Dallas Weekly contacted DCCCD and less than an hour before they responded to The Weekly.

“We have met with her and offered her another opportunity in the district. She’s been here 20 years and, again, the reorganization that’s going to take place with her position, it has nothing to do with her as an individual,” Lassiter said about offering Ranger a position as Coordinator of Business Diversity Programs. “When we talked with Mrs. Ranger, we indicated that this was an opportunity that in many ways paralleled the work she was doing in the position that’s being eliminated. Her work did involve being involved in the community.”

DesPlas stated: “I am one person down so I have a vacancy, an administrative position. Our goal is to increase women’s and minority owned business participation within DCCCD purchasing and contracting cycles. We’ve been making some headway in this area in the last five years. I felt I could probably take advantage of her stature in the community and use her to further my diversity efforts.”

When asked if Ranger had accepted the position, Lassiter said: “She’s considering it.” When further asked how the new position compares to Ranger’s current job, in terms of status and salary, Lassiter said:

“It is neither lateral nor is it a promotion. It’s not a demotion. We have a very structured payroll system here. This one is not at the same band level. It’s a different level of responsibility.”

“I think she will find some parallel experiences in the business community,” Lassiter continued. “We’re saying to a person who has served for a long time, here is another opportunity since your position was eliminated through reorganization. What is being offered is not a demotion, just a new opportunity.”

DesPlas stated: “It is a different band. There would be some variance. I don’t want to get into that until she tells us ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ Hopefully, it’s ‘yes.’”

DCCCD’s offer would have served as a “radical demotion,” according to Ranger, who added that she never said she would consider the position, which would knock her down at least two pay scales or “bands.”

“It is not an opportunity, it’s a punishment. It reduces me from director’s level status to a coordinator status,” she said. “It does not present any opportunities for me to be associated with the program that I dreamed, developed and presented for 10 years for this district with a core of volunteers.”

More critically, Ranger said: “It is a job that I would have to learn all over, and, in fact, it does not present an opportunity for me to serve on the Dallas ISD board. It would make it very difficult to be a school trustee.”

“If this had been a Black man, he would have been put in a representative position equal to his salary and position,” Ester Davis said at the community meeting, where it was also revealed that a DCCCD school board trustee is very closely associated with DISD president Lowe’s company.

“It’s not coincidental that, after Carla Ranger stands up to this board president and this board, she gets retaliation,” Stovall said. Even though this is about Carla Ranger, it’s not just about Carla Ranger. If they can silence the one who stands for righteous and justice and say this is what happens if you speak out, then nobody can be safe.”

Other recommendations included attending DISD’s next board meeting on May 28 and DCCCD’s next board meeting on June 2 to express concerns about Ranger’s plight, along with filing a formal class-action complaint with the U.S. Labor Department. Claude Watson called for some form of legal action, citing possible actions of collusion.

“From what we’ve heard, there has been a conspiracy between the DCCCD and DISD board to carry this illegal action out,” Watson speculated.

“This is a form of American apartheid. It can happen to any one of us,” said Robert Pitre. “Carla has been an example of a strong sister.”

St. Luke Pastor Tyrone Gordon stated: “When you stand for principles, sometimes you stand regardless of the consequences and that will get you in the fire.

“If they want to pick a fight, we’re ready to fight.”

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