The Citizens Budget Review Commission has presented its final recommendations to the Board of Trustees of Dallas ISD.

Read the final report as a PDF.

It has been a privilege to work with the DISD administration and fellow commission members to continue the process we began last year to review each department within DISD and make recommendations for current budget cuts, short-term goals and long-term strategies and projects.

What has been most revealing and rewarding is that as the Commission asked questions and made suggestions throughout the year the Dallas ISD Administration under the leadership of Alan King often began implementation of recommendations so as to have them completed before this final document was prepared. Thanks again go to Steve Korby and Dr. Jim Terry who were patient with our questions and forthcoming with our information requests.

In my personal opinion, the district is in a better financial position than it has been in many years. There are many struggles ahead, though, including:

The Dallas ISD Board of Trustees received the first budget proposal from district administration for the 2012-13 school year. The budget reflects that the district will receive $100 million less from the state due to cuts from the Legislature during the 2011 session. Key points of the budget include:

Consolidating 10 schools and opening 5 new schools. Adjusting the staffing ratio for Pre-K through 4th grade from 22:1 to 24:1. Restructuring Custodial Services to save $10 million dollars during 2012-2013. Reducing Legal Services fees by approximately $2 million dollars. Adding full day Pre-K. Assigning Pre-K Teacher Assistants were assigned at a ratio of 1 per teacher. In addition: the following programs are recommended to meet the board's priority of offering...

At the April 2, 2012 CBRC meeting, L & S Associates provided us with two very well-researched options for a complete reorganization of the Custodial Services Department.  (Begins on page 22 here, http://budgetreview.org/Portals/0/documents11-12/meeting8/CBC-DRAFT-040212.pdf).  Option One featured a reduction from 998 FTEs (Full Time Employees) to 901 and a lowering of the average wage from $15.08 to $12.50 combined with a regorganization of the management structure and a rescheduling of custodian hours especially during the night shift would yield an estimated savings of $9,026,335.  Reducing summer staffing by 25% for six weeks and lowering the starting wage from $9.25 to $8.00 per hour (there is almost NO turnover in custodial ranks) would save an additional $943,035 for a total estimated...

I attended the DISD presentation to the Information Technology Focus Group at Thomas Jefferson High School (Ed Conger, Principal) last evening from 6:00pm to 10:00pm.  There was a quick power point presentation and related handout that roughly prioritized I.T. projects; new organizational structure in the department; and a list of goals and objectives.  I have requested all of the documents and related research from both DISD and the vendors present and will post them here if and when I receive them. Here is the hand-out used in the exercises.

In general, the I.T. department under Gray Salada seems energized and excited.  They are faced with monumental problems at a time when we are not out of e-rate "jail" so cannot really count on a cost of 12 cents on the dollar for infrastructure projects yet.  DISD has no choice but....

The first meeting of the 2011-2012 DISD Citizens Budget Review Commission has been scheduled for September 6, 2011 at 5:00 pm in Room 105 of the DISD administration building at 3700 Ross Avenue, Dallas, TX.

Thursday evening, June 23, 2011, the DISD Board of Trustees adopted a budget for the 2011-2012 school year. The budget must be adopted before it can be amended. In August the Board will look at amendments that would include adding 42 Librarian positions back into the staffing formulas. According to CFO and Interim Superintendent Alan King, "It looks like we will lose $63 million in state funding this year and $100 million the next. Version 6.1 cuts $76.9 million from our budget and increases our fund balance by $13 million. This will leave us with a balance to cut in 2011-12 of around $25 million. We will be using the budget commission report for guidance on these needed cuts along with possible relief measures we still hope to get from the state."

• Budget Presendation 6.1 (PDF - 788K) - 06/23/11
• Adopted Budget 6.1 (PDF - 11.35M) - 06/23/11

Special report: Check register reveals extravagant spending at Dallas ISD

Unfortunately most of these articles are behind the DMN pay wall. However, the database of the DISD check register is located HERE

Here are the presentations, given as PowerPoints, to the Trustees at the Board Briefing on June 09, 2011.

Version 5.1 is based on $90M in reductions in state revenue and version 6.0 assumes a $60M reduction in State revenue.

Budget Presentation 5.1 (PDF - 1.74M saved from Powerpoint) - 06/09/11
Proposed Budget 5.1 (PDF - 10.18M) - 06/09/11

Budget Presentation 6.0 (PDF - 1.79M saved from Powerpoint) - 06/09/11
Proposed Budget 6.0 (PDF - 10.13M) - 06/09/11

It has been a privilege and an honor to work with the DISD administration and fellow commission members to create and present a rather remarkable document detailing recommendations for current budget cuts, short-term goals and long-term strategies and projects.  

I think you will discover a plan that thoroughly uses the public input gathered through the DISD web site, the Dallas Friends of Public Education web site, public meetings, emails and phone calls.

A few highlights...

By MATTHEW HAAG and TAWNELL D. HOBBS

Dallas ISD Superintendent Michael HinoDallas ISD Superintendent Michael Hinojosa has informed Dallas school board president Adam Medrano that he is a finalist for a Georgia school superintendent job.

The job is at the Cobb County School District, the state's second largest with 106,000 students, northwest of Atlanta. The district's board of education is expected to announce a lone superintendent finalist at tonight's board meeting that starts at 6 p.m. central time.

DISD spokesman Jon Dahlander said the district "won't release a statement at this time."

"It totally took me off guard," Medrano said. "I was surprised."

Medrano said he first heard of the possibility from a reporter Thursday morning. Hinojosa informed him at 12:30 p.m. Thursday that he was "more than likely" a finalist for the Georgia position.

Trustee Bernadette Nuttall said Hinojosa told her that the Georgia district would make the announcement Thursday night.

She said that this is an indication that Hinojosa, 55, wants to leave Dallas. If Hinojosa leaves, it would come as Dallas ISD braces for a multimillion-dollar state-funding drop the next two school years.

"By Dr. Hinojosa's actions, on two separate occasions, he has communicated to the community and the citizens and children of Dallas that he no longer wants to be superintendent of the Dallas Independent School District," Nuttall said.