By Bill Zeeble, KERA News
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-837828.mp3
Dallas, TX – In an emotionally charged Dallas school board meeting, trustees postponed a controversial vote to cut teachers from more than 30 Learning Centers and Magnet schools. They also called for a special election November 3rd for 3 trustee slots. KERA's Bill Zeeble has more
The controversy stems from a federal Department of Education rule that says funding among district schools should largely be equal. That's so no elementary or high school gets an unfair amount of resources compared to another. Break those rules, and more than a hundred million federal dollars could be denied Dallas. The DISD's elementary-level learning centers and 16 magnet campuses, receive enough additional resources, that the district is out of compliance. So trustees considered cutting hundreds of job to comply with federal rules. Christopher Renard a Talented and Gifted Magnet school graduate, wanted none of it.
Christopher Renard: You are rushing with false urgency, threatening catastrophe if there is delay to try to pass this budget before your house of cards and arguments crumbles to the ground. You are attempting to gut and flay the only programs in the district that receives national recognition not because you must. You're doing so simply because you want to.
Initially, DISD officials said all magnet schools and learning centers would have to lose teachers. Up to 60, just from Town View magnet school. Then the Texas Education Agency stepped in, and some cuts were reduced. It left teachers, students, trustees and parents confused. That's why the overwhelming majority of the dozens who talked, urged no changes from the board. Many, like Alan Gilks, also demanded a postponed vote.
Alan Gilks: Any final decision you make today will be built on shifting sand and the community will have no confidence in it. If you make a decision today, you'll have an opportunity to explain it to Newsweek when they come to visit Townview.
Only four speakers backed administrators' moves to cut resources from learning centers and magnets, saying it was only fair. Board member Ron Price displayed the most emotion in defense of funding the learning centers. Those schools were initially created and funded in minority neighborhoods, after the district violated discrimination laws back in the 1970s.
Trustee Ron Price: Even with this discussion of how magnet schools got off the radar, there's racial injustice in this city, and sometimes social injustice, and sometimes financial injustice. And because kids in learning centers are poor, that doesn't mean they're not equivalent to the kids in those magnet schools. You just can't overlook those children.
Near the end of the meeting, the board read a letter aloud from the Department of Education suggesting the DISD had no choice but to cut programs at learning centers or magnets. But then a letter from Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson was also read out loud. And it urged trustees to hold off on the vote until more information could be gathered. Board President Jack Lowe called a vote.
DISD Board President Jack Lowe: We're acting on the amendment to postpone the decision until we get more information. Please cast your votes. The motion passes 9-0.
DISD board members will be back in two weeks to again consider cutting resources from Learning Centers and Magnet schools. By then, they expect additional information, and perhaps more legal clarification, on the issue.
Trustees also unanimously called for a special election in November of this year. It's to fill the remaining 2 and a half year terms of 3 trustees. Those elections had been scheduled for earlier this month, before board members decided to extend their terms. But an Attorney General's ruling cancelled that election. The seats up for the November vote are currently held by Leigh Ann Ellis, Edwin Flores and Ron Price.