We have gone through half of the 2008-09 school year. Now, let’s take time to review and reflect, while looking towards the horizon of hope. Tell me what you think of Dallas ISD’s past and present. Also, tell me what you think we should do, as trustees, to make schools better for parents, students, teachers and staff, and the greater Dallas community.
What’s On Your Mind About Dallas ISD?
– January 24, 2009Posted in: Dallas ISD
I was just wondering what code of conduct/ethics, DISD teachers and faculty follow. If a parent feels that the code of conduct is being violated by a teacher, what are the repercussions, and how should a complaint be filed? Thank you for your help.
All Dallas ISD employees are required to follow our code of ethics policies. Click here to view the policy. http://www.tasb.org/policy/pol/private/057905/pol.cfm?DisplayPage=DH(LEGAL).pdf&QueryText=CODE%20OF%20ETHICS
Teachers have an additional code of ethics required by the State of Texas. Click here to view the code. http://www.tasb.org/policy/pol/private/057905/pol.cfm?DisplayPage=DH(XHIBIT).pdf&QueryText=CODE%20OF%20ETHICS
If you to report one of our employees, contact the Board Services office at 972-925-3720 to begin the process.
Dr. Blackburn,
I attended the Dallas Achieves Community Conversation meeting last Thursday at Sunset High School, the school in my feeder pattern. Dr. Hinojosa was present and gave a good presentation to the large crowd present.
During the Q &A I asked if he would approve the posting of a multi-year enrollment by grade spreadsheet, with annual graduation numbers, on the http://www.dallasisd.org web site. He immediately said yes!
This will be the greatest step forward possible for greater transparency. One large enrollment by grade spreadsheet for all of Dallas ISD will be great. Then, if we can have similar spreadsheets included in the scorecards for each school, DISD will have moved ahead of the rest of the nation in the area of transparency. It will be a very positive change for all of DISD, but initially it will be painful as people realize how many students are missing at graduation. On the positive side it will identify the issue and give concerned citizens a place to follow progress more objectively and publicly! It will give more people the motivation needed to really fight the dropout trends doing more damage to life in our city than any other single factor.
Hopefully we have made another step forward on our way to being the best school district in the nation! Now to actually get the spreadsheets onto the DISD web site.
On the other side, what is the policy regarding students assaulting (both verbally and physically) the teachers and staff? Specifically, the Village Fair Alternative School where this is happening every day and nothing is being done about it (even after a class action grievance was filed). Why are teachers being supsended, and their certificate’s threatened when they simply try to defend themselves from an aggresive student? Why are the principals and people in charge of discipline not being held accountable for their LACK of action against these students?
I am sorry to hear of your circumstance. As you know, we do not condone such behavior. Of course, we have a policy against students attacking employees. See policy FNCH-Legal; Students are prohibited from assaulting anyone on school property or at any school-related event. Education Code 37.006; Penal Code 22.01.
We expect students and employees to abide by the policies and guidelines. If you have reported this to the appropriate administrators, and no relief was found, contact me through the Board office; 972-925-3722.
I appreciate you contacting me with this report.
Thanks for your reply. This situation has actually escalated and is being appealed due to a student putting a fist in my mothers face, calling her the most obscene names, and my mother being suspended for raising her arms in front of her face in a defensive position. The student of course claims my mom hit him. This happens all the time at this school, but apparently a student with a history of violence is more apt to tell the truth than a 20 year teaching veteran with a clean record. If you would like details and documentation of the horrible things happening at this school, you can contact me by email (nawnreh@yahoo.com) and I will provide them to you. I believe Dr. Ryan has already been somewhat informed on the issue, but do not believe any inquiry was made.
Hinojosa Must Go!!!!
Given all that has happened in the past two years, I suggest that you and your sorry board member and administrative friends take a hike and let the grunts run DISD. No better way than for the grunts to make thing work correctly.
It should be Hino-liar…we must fire !!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
I get this response often. Give your thougts on why Dr. Hinojosa should not be our superintendent. Don’t be shy with specific details.
After having attended only one School Board meeting, I was so disheartened that I am unable to drag myself to any more. The way the Board treated each other was rude and inconsiderate. It was appalling to see people who are elected to set the model for the school system treat each other so poorly. The disrespect and lack of common courtesy was obvious, even when I *think* there was no disagreement over the issue before the Board. Until this Board can even “appear” to work together – whether it is actually happening or not, I’m not sure that we can plan to have good things happen. There was an amazing lack of respect to the speakers – but it came as no surprise as the Members showed that they can not respect one another.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the trustees’ interactions.
Respect for citizens and taxpayers. Respect for democracy. Transparency. Remember that you all are public servants. The superintendent is your employee, not the other way around. Hiring, maintaining, and developing Veteran teachers. Bring back nationally normed tests. Tell Eli Broad”No Thank you!” Consequences for breaking laws and not following policies. Expecting the Superintendent to keep his promises. (Remember P-Card?) Bring back ethics and professionalism. Be welcoming toward parents and students. Expect the superintendent to do his job and not outsource everything to consultants. Make our schools safe places to be. Rescind 4 year terms until after redistricting. Pass recall policy.
So much to consider. I will pass this on to my colleagues for possible consideration. Thanks for sharing your thougts.
I would like to start by Thanking you for your support. I also want to compliment you for asking me what I think, using a Blog. I hope the District takes your lead incorporating Blogging at the classroom level. Class blogs are also a great way to show off student work, share assignments, announcements and reference material. Parents at our school have created numerous websites and blogs to great success. To ask the Principal a question, I have to make an appointment during work hours. I would like to be able to ask the principal questions via e-mail. I know language and economics may make this difficult for some, but it can be done. On a different note, Give them a RAISE. The teachers need basic supplies like paper and markers. Give them a bigger budget to support necessities like copiers and computers. Finance the re-education of teachers, that are still teaching with yesterdays criteria and tools. And last, Stop mowing and watering the grass so much, it seems every time the grass gets a half inch tall, it gets mowed, thus creating mud that gets tracked into the schools. Imagine how much money you would save cutting back mowing every third time for each campus, especially during the summer when the schools are empty. I have: seen them mow, and the sprinklers run, during the rain.
The Board has asked the Dallas ISD administration to consider revamping the websites for each of the schools, to include email addresses for teachers and staff, and additional information about the school, such as the AEIS report card. A Principal’s Blog is a great idea. I pass this along as well.
I agree that teachers need higher pay. I think they will appreciate you saying so. With such a tight budget right now, it will be difficult to give them a large raise for next school year. However, I’ll work get them as much as, we can afford, in light of the current economy.
If you could let me know which schools have too much lawn watering, I can be sure to address the problem directly. Either respond to this blog message, or contact the Board Services office with the information. The number is 972-925-3720.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, and for supporting the Dallas ISD.
It is really surprising to me, that in this day and time….a public school system such as DISD is denying the rights of children to expand their education and access to a better future by denying them something as simple as a school bus. Those parents in those areas have always paid a Dallas County tax. Why no buses for these kids to attend magnet schools? The Hutch ordeal is a very complicated one. Their Home schools are considered to be those in which the W-H neighborhoods were divided by DISD. You guys divided those kids like slaves being sent to plantations. There are no public trasportation systems in Wilmer or Hutchins. Therefore DISD must devise a new “Home School” system to accomodate these children. Every child has a right to an education …so stop short changing them and treat them equally as the others. If a child gets accepted to Skyline or Law Magnet….DISD is supposed to provide the means to get them there and back to their neighborhoods in which they live…legally speaking…so live up to you motto and treat them as “World Class Citizens”
I have contacted the Dallas ISD administration about this concern. They are working on a solution that I am expecting to be more considerate of the students in the Wilmer-Hutchins area. I have suggested pick up locations in Wilmer, Hutchins, near the Tommie Allen Recreation Center, and near the Paul Quinn area. If you have other sugge stions, let me know.
Regarding public transportation,I am willing to work with you in partitioning the city councils in Wilmer and Hutchins to get DART routes in those areas. This would help not only the students, but others as well.
Thank you for sharing your concerns.
The DISD has taken advantage of some of the excellent athletes and students of the defunct Wilmer-Hutchins ISD. They have helped put people in the stands at games, and have helped raised some TAKS scores. Yet this part of your new district is still being grossly ignored. No adequate bussing, no actual school openings in this district and it has been 4 years now. I have seen new schools open up all over the district, but NOT ONE school has been opened in the Wilmer Hutchins District. The light has not been shown on this problem, but I will assure you that the people of the Wilmer Hutchins district, the Alumni of Wilmer Hutchins, and the city of Dallas of that matter will not stand still for this. This issue will have to be put on the front burner soon or the whole world will know how this “World Class” school district actually treats its kids.
Dr. Blackburn,
Transparency is the first issue to address. Lack of such transparency within DISD is the only way the Dallas Morning news could have written about educational reforms for 2009 and not even mentioned the ongoing dropout crisis. The majority of Dallas 9th graders never graduate with their class! Is there anything that has more to do with causing the Dallas crime & poverty rates than the ongoing 50+% Dallas high school dropout rate?
First we must know the dropout problem. A simple multi-year enrollment by grade spreadsheet for each school available on their school district’s page on the http://www.dallasisd.org web site would provide the transparency needed to motivate change. Such annually updated spreadsheets for all high schools should include the number of diplomas given out each year. These spreadsheets should go back 10+ years. Such spreadsheets would show that you have freshman classes that are cut more than in half by senior year for almost all DISD high schools!
Why does DISD avoid such transparency?
If schools, or the Dallas School District, think that the resulting spreadsheets give misleading dropout rates, they can place footnotes on the web page to correct and explain such perceived errors. Such more objective counts being visible, and in a spreadsheet format with excel copies of the spreadsheets available for download, would certainly be a monumental step forward for transparency. It would make the news!
Such spreadsheets can now be created from school enrollment and graduation information available from the Texas Education Web site, http://www.tea.state.tx.us/adhocrpt/Standard_Reports.html. However, it takes several hours to make such spreadsheets. To have them on the DISD web site would help lessen the misunderstanding and apathy about dropout rates. Initially there may be great anger in Dallas as the truth is known. But in the long run it would help solutions happen that could then be followed and verified on the same annually updated spreadsheets that now would document the ongoing crisis.
Second, DISD staff could be directed to study the School Archive Project that appears to have been a contributor to the 40% drop in 9th to 10th grade attrition at Pinkston and Sunset High Schools, formerly some of the highest dropout rate high schools in DISD. This 4 year old project costs less than $2 per 8th grader and needs to be explored for improvement. It involves 8th graders writing a letter to themselves that they then place into a 350-pound vault bolted to the floor in their middle school lobby knowing they will get them back at their class 10 year reunion. At that reunion they also know they will be invited to speak with then current 8th grade students about their recommendations for success. They are warned to prepare for questions such as “Would you do anything differently if you were 13 again?”
The current improvements from the Archive Project are documented at http://www.studentmotivation.org.
We must begin motivating our children much more successfully to stay in school! Focusing them onto their own futures is the best and most efficient way to achieve that motivation!
What do you think of these relatively simple ideas: spreadsheets documenting the problem and a time-capsule project to help focus our students onto their own futures and solve the same problem?
It is not too late this school year to get School Archive Projects started at every middle school that is interested in motivating their students. Finding donors was easy for the Archive Project. Our students also love the project! If we move fast, most of the 8th graders in DISD could be able to write letters to themselves to be placed into an archive this year! We must decide that focusing our students onto their own futures is important. Such a change in focus this year could send a ripple of students forward through DISD high schools to being the biggest graduation class in DISD history!
I became intersted in this program when you presented it to me after the Community Conversation at South Oak Cliff High School recently. I will ask Dr. Hinojosa to review the program to see if it may be implemented at other schools.
Thanks for sharing this with me. I appreciate your support of the students in Dalls ISD.
Don’t forget about the Joppa …Fruitdale (behind the W-H Admin. Building) and the Cherry Valley area Near Lancaster. I will inform the Alumni. I think three routes could cover it. The overall concern is the students who didn’t try or feel the need to apply to these schools because of transportation issues. I don’t want this to be placed on a back burner. This is a Right Now issue. I will get with some of the others to determine the best routes and e-mail you Monday.
Thanks for your continued efforts to help make education beneficial for the students in the Wilmer-Hutchins area. I look forward to receiving your suggestions.
I have received confirmation that we will have at least three pick up points for the Wilmer-Hutchins area students; Wilmer Elementary, Hutchins, Elementary Ervin Elementary and A.Maceo Sith Hih School.
I am happy with the improvements made for our students.
I passed through the Highland Hills community and saw busses everywhere….I was very happy until I went through and saw that young lady that I’ve spoken to you about ….still walking…..I’m going to find out what her real situation is…..Either the buses at A. Maceo are leaving too early before she arrives from Skyline….or she didn’t get the information that was supposed to be dispatched to the schools that extra routes would be provided….Please see to it that these Home Schools are making sure the students of Wilmer and Hutchins are informed because this may due to a communication issue …..especially at A. Maceo…..Thank You!
When you get the student’s name, and other information, call my office; 972-925-3722.
You are certainly welcome Dr. Blackburn. At this time there are two high schools, Sunset and Spruce, who are considering getting high school versions of the School Archive Project started this year. There is also one middle school, Comstock, who already has a teacher located by the principal who wants to get the project started this year. All it takes to get it going is one dedicated teacher to run the Archive Project and the principals support. Money is not an issue since donors and grants are available to support dropout programs that can demonstrate a change in students plans to stay in school, and increased promotion rates from one grade to the next. The Archive Project has all that. What is most urgently needed is one enthusiastic volunteer teacher who understands and volunteers to manage the project. They must be people who enthusiastically look forward to seeing their students again in 10 years. I am certain we can find many such teachers in every secondary school.
For Dr. Hinojosa to let his principals and administrators know that Archive Projects have his blessing for implimentation will be fantastic! If he could also authorize the Archive Projects to be researched by local universities, to verify that they are having a positive effect on our students, that would also be priceless. This project must be verified as truly beneficial for our students. Several Universities in the area are certain to be interested. I am certain at least one could go out and secure grant moneys for the needed research. Solving the dropout issue in the US is our major challenge. Money is available for any program that looks this promising.
Thank you VERY much Dr. Blackburn for your hard work.
We teachers have the more rewarding side of this work as we get to see the excitment of our students, and the progress, as they are learning. We simply must get our raw 9th grade graduation rate (those who will get a diploma with their 9th grade classmates within 4 years) above 50%! That has not happened in over 12 years for all of DISD. If it does not happen this year at Sunset, it will certainly happen there in 2010, with the Archive Project having been a factor in that progress. The same progress needs to happen at more DISD high schools.
I look forward to hearing how things go with Dr. Hinojosa.
Why aren’y we backing up to what’s happening or not happening in the junior highs. We are in our 2nd year of a new principal. Badges aren’t reinforced. If you don’t know who they are, it’s easier to get away with things. We recently had our PTA president take her daughter out due to sexual harrasssment from a student. Code of Conduct booklet given in late Oct. or early Nov. Should of been first week of school. Breaking the Code of Silence…dealing with bullying, etc. and who to go to. Done near Christmas break is a joke. You teach your children what to do and to make good choices, but in Junior High, do they know who to really go to and that something will be addressed. There are tons of programs and parents and then in Junior High, you are left without parents and to figure it out on your own. I am Sick and Tired of fighting for DISD and have my sons friends attending magnets or moving to other districts. Do more for Junior Highs.
As far as Hinojosa…I think he knew more than he let on. Personally seeing how things continue to not get to the Board Members, after asking for them is just A Game. It’s every month for however long. Jack plays stupid, Adam hasn’t talked but once in 2 years, Edwin is very unprofessional and cocky. Please tell Jack if Carlos disrupts the meeting to the extent you have to stop and let me know he’ll be removed the next time….don’t tell him 3 more times. Let him know that unless he speaks up and tell the guards to remove him, they will just stand there. Thursday night after the Board meeting, the Riffed Teacher who spoke in the end was mistreated by the guards. I personally reported it the following day. Thank Goodness, more people were not present. It was very Frightening, Unprofessional and hope it will not prevent others from coming, in fear it could happen to them. Hopefully they will be reprimanded.
Oh if your looking for more money…I looked at all Area Superintendents and excluding Castro..only because his salary has remained the same. From 06- 08 the other 7 Area Sup have increased their salaries, roughly 170,000. Robin Ryan in 06 to 07 went from 71,000 to 137,000..insane. I have dealt with Castro, going thruogh the Resolution procedure and other issues and he refuses to go by policy and put anything in writing. I have gone to Michaeux, nothing happens. I see LOTS of games with Olsen. Out to be interesting to see the new budget guy over her department, as it should be. Hinojosa should of at least given up a teacher’s salary. Don’t trust any of them that sit on the first 2 rows! I’m on several district committees and not always impressed in the quickness of decisions. No logic to look at both sides of the issue. Biggest problem..Teachers know more of the rules and policies than alot of principals, yet they have no voice and continue to be targeted. Teachers don’t do what they do for 37 plus years cause they aren’t doing it right. Many principals have too must power. There are no due process and fiarness in many cases. It has lead to the downfall of this district. Maybe Hiney thinks he’s going to save the day. Teachers will save it. Didn’t take a Rocket Scientist to figure out, if you give the teachers another period of, someone still has to teach those classes…hint more teachers, more $$. Have the flu and can’t concentrate. too many things to bring up and I’m just a parent!! Thanks for the concerns you bring up. It gives a different light on things and they have to hear it. I love the night you signed up as a speaker. You Rock!!
I’m concerned due to the fact that two African-American Superintendents were removed and fired in the districts of Lancaster and Wilmer-Hutchins. Pinnochio pops in…and makes the statement that the money was mismanaged…well even if it was…..it would still be accountable on another part of of the budget sheet.. .. Not a Hocus-Pocus act. And then has the nerve to tell everyone “I’m not going anywhere.” How Bold and what nerve. Then he states that he is going to make DISD number one in the U.S. when really what he’s doing is dividing the magnets to distort the statistics ….moving smarter kids in with lower performing kids to balance the testing scores. That’s not improvemnet….that’s a lie. My dad always told me…”An Army is only as good as it’s leader” and you guys are headed down Fool Hill.
I was looking through the DISD website under the new bond proposal to build new schools and to make renovations to existing ones. Nothing in the Wilmer-Hutchins area is listed. I’d like to know WHY? I’d also like to know how can the middle school be leased to an outside source while you guys are shipping them to schools over 10 to 15 miles from their neighborhood. The school I’m referring to is Kennedy-Curry Middle School. If it’s good enough for them, then why are our children being denied THEIR school that’s right in the neighborhood with kids living less than two miles? It’s even closer for the Wilmer and Hutchins groups. But I see all the schools YOU attended are being tended to. So I guess from a Highland Park/Highland Hills perspective….If you don’t have money and black, you don’t count. Yet they have a parking garage to park their parents Bentleys…Benz’s…and Land Rovers….while our kids foot it and are denied a place to call home in “Eagleland.”
But I have noticed the majority of Spanish areas are being taken care of with new schools. Sounds discriminatory to me.