Appointments to Citizens Budget Review Committee create potential conflicts of interest

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Appointments to Citizens Budget Review Committee create potential conflicts of interest

I attended the first meeting of the newly appointed Citizens Budget Review Committee on Monday evening.

Are these meetings open? Yes.

In light of the fact that 9 of the appointments to this advisory committee were made by elected trustees, all of the meetings should meet the notice requirements of the Texas Open Meetings Act (TOMA) and be announced to the public in the same manner as all school board meetings.

The Board appointments are as follows:

District 1 - Edwin Flores - Louisa Meyer
District 2 - Jack Lowe - Debbie Sherrington
District 3 - Bruce Parrott - Michael MacNaughton
District 4 - Nancy Bingham - Jose Hernandez
District 5 - Lew Blackburn - Jim Kipp
District 6 - Carla Ranger - Kenneth E.Walker
District 7 - Eric Cowan - Andrew Newman
District 8 - Adam Medrano - Warren Westmoreland
District 9 - Bernadette Nutall - Todd Williams
Superintendent Michael Hinojosa - Phil Montgomery - Chair

There appear to be several potential conflicts of interest which are troubling.

Persons who formerly served on Dallas Achieves should not be on this committee. This committee should be a fresh start without citizen input being primarily influenced by previous recommendations.

Persons connected to charter schools have a potential conflict in light of the current push to expand charter schools in Dallas ISD (Charter School Ad Hoc Committee).

Uplift Charter has a potential conflict in light of the Superintendent's intention to partner with them on federal grants and charter school initiatives.

Final decisions about the budget remain the responsibility of the elected Trustees.

A Teacher's Creed

"In the classroom on the first day of a new school year, I am eager to meet my students. I have rehearsed my greeting and first day’s remarks, but no matter how many years I’ve prepared for this procedure, it’s always new. My heart pumps a bit harder, faster; I feel adrenaline like an athlete, or like an actor, or maybe like a novice public speaker. It’s a marvelous feeling, this first day, because I know that something special is going to happen, and I know it because I’ve experienced it before and I know that I will experience it every time I meet a new class throughout my venerable career. And then they’re seated before me and I smile at this special feeling. This is an assembly of students, yes. But there’s so much more, because each of these young persons is more than just a student entrusted to me. Each of these students has a story to tell, a lifetime, however brief, of experiences, a history in volumes whose richness and depth I can barely begin to fathom. And so as I absorb the first glimpse of these young charges, I must appreciate the extent of my responsibility, of the privilege I’ve accepted in presenting these young souls my special knowledge. In offering them my talent and passion, I am adding an enormous array of new bright stars to the vast firmament of their minds, stars that will never have time to fade in their lifetimes. I will be part of their story. And I know that each of them will always be part of mine. And that’s a good feeling, a feeling that is perpetually renewed, revisited, and rewritten in A Teacher’s Creed."

Carla Ranger - Dallas ISD Education Blog

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Appointments to Citizens Budget Review Committee create potential conflicts of interest

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