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Time's Run Out On DISD's Resignation Deal

By Bill Zeeble, KERA News

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-992217.mp3

Dallas, TX – The midnight deadline has passed for excess Dallas teachers to take a resignation deal. KERA's Bill Zeeble reports the school district doesn't yet know how many took the offer, prompted by the state's education budget cuts.

The Dallas Independent School District says 209 excess teachers have contracts but classrooms for only half them. The rest will be used as substitutes unless they took the buyout package. Their contracts run out next year, and the positions will not be renewed. Rena Honea, who heads the Alliance AFT teacher organization, says state budget cuts have led to fewer teachers and larger classrooms.

Honea: The most hard hit were secondary campuses. We're talking middle school and high school, 6th grade through 12th. We know of classrooms with 34, 36, 38 students in those classes.

Angela Davis, President of NEA Dallas - another DISD teacher group - says qualified, competent teachers are paying the price for state budget cutting decisions. But they're not the only ones.

Davis: And that's going to cause problems in the end. I don't see how this is going to contribute to our student success when you have all of this overcrowding and less teachers in the building.

The DISD's resignation package offered some contract teachers 3 months of salary if they took the deal by November 1st. Davis says at least one of her NEA members took it.

Email Bill Zeeble