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DISD Elections Could Shift Board Power From Superintendent

By Bill Zeeble, KERA News

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-900799.mp3

Dallas, TX – After this weekends' elections, the ride could get rougher for Dallas School Superintendent Hinojosa. Two incumbents easily won, but so did a candidate wary of the administration. KERA's Bill Zeeble reports board power could shift, and so could scrutiny of Hinojosa.

Incumbent Dallas School Trustees Nancy Bingham and Lew Blackburn easily won re-election. Bingham sides with Superintendent Michael Hinojosa more often than Blackburn. Trustee-elect Eric Cowan will fill the slot previously held by Jerome Garza, who also often sided with the administration. But Dale Kaiser, who heads the NEA Dallas teacher organization, expects Cowan may not back the Superintendent as often as Garza.

Kaiser: And if you look at the numbers, it could be 6-3 in favor of employees & students or 5-4 in favor of employees & students, and so we should see some things start to change, finally, after 6 years.

Newly elected trustee Eric Cowan says he first started paying attention to the board after the district laid off hundreds of workers, following an unexpected deficit.

Cowan: As director of revenue for the two hotels of Rosewood in Dallas, I deal with budgets every day and forecasting revenues and I saw it as a skill that will hopefully be helpful to the board and to the district.

Dale Kaiser welcomes Cowan's financial expertise, and believes his presence on the board will add a note of fiscal caution the board needs.

Kaiser: And we're not going to continue to see this administration just do whatever it wants when it wants because they think they have the 5 votes. Now they're going to have to be very, very careful.

Trustees get a look at next years budget this June. Cowan says he hopes to be ready. Bill Zeeble KERA news.