Dallas and Fort Worth ISD superintendents announce departures on same day

Dallas ISD trustee Carla Ranger wants Dallas ISD superintendent Michael Hinojosa removed immediately.

Photo by Laura Seewoester

Fort Worth ISD superintendent Melody Johnson

Thursday was a big day for Dallas-Fort Worth superintendents.

Fort Worth ISD superintendent Melody Johnson turned in her resignation Thursday morning, and Thursday afternoon, a Georgia school district voted unanimously to name Dallas ISD superintendent Michael Hinojosa as their new super.

Neither job transitions are final yet, but both came as a surprise. A Fort Worth ISD spokesperson said that only people close to Johnson "knew about some of the strains and pressures that she had been under." And for Hinojosa, most were under the impression that he was off the market.

Dallas ISD superintendent-for-now Michael Hinojosa

Hinojosa explained to a group Thursday evening that he's about to be a grandfather, and his son, the dad-to-be, lives in Georgia. Hinojosa is believed to have interviewed for the Cobb County ISD superintendent position last Sunday, CBS11 reports. He was chosen as the sole candidate for Cobb County Thursday night with a unamimous vote from the school board. "He’s the right leader to take us to the next level," school board member Lynnda Crowder-Eagle said Thursday night, according to a story on East Cobb Patch.

Cobb County has about 105,000 students -- making it smaller than Dallas ISD's 150,000 student body. Hinojosa's job in Cobb would also be a pay cut, according to East Cobb Patch.

Hinojosa would leave behind a Dallas ISD school district with big financial woes. Dallas ISD trustee Carla Ranger wrote on her blog Friday that he should leave "immediately for bad faith." Here is part of that blog post:

Trustees should meet in executive session and remove Superintendent Hinojosa immediately for his continuing bad faith - before even more damage is done.

There is no indispensable Superintendent. The staff can carry on - maybe better than now without the fear of a departing Superintendent.

The district can be run by a temporary Administrative Council of 3-5 senior staff members or whatever the Board determines.

The thrill is gone and so should the Superintendent be gone immediately.