Dallas ISD Trustees should rescind the 45 minute daily teacher extension passed on January 26, 2012

Friday, November 23, 2012

Dallas ISD Trustees should rescind the 45 minute daily teacher extension passed on January 26, 2012

The Dallas ISD policy on teacher hours was extended by an additional 45 minutes daily on January 26, 2012. The Board policy was changed by Trustees (voting "Yes"- Blackburn-Flores-Bingham-Morath-Cowan) in a 5-3 vote on the same night eleven (11) schools were closed.

Former Trustee Edwin Flores promoted the change in these words:
"We're going to pay for eight hours, we're going to get eight hours." (Unfair Park-Mon.1-30-12 - If Nothing Else, They Won't Run Out of Things to Ask DISD Trustee Edwin Flores Tonight)

Like Dallas ISD before the Board policy was changed on January 26, 2012, some school districts such as San Antonio ISD have a specific time limit stated in Board policy that is also less than eight hours.
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San Antonio ISD Board Policy on Assignment and Schedules (DK-Local) - Employee Work Schedules - states: "Teachers shall be on duty seven and one-half hours each day, between 7:15 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. ..."
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What is now being suggested by Board President Lew Blackburn will delegate the Board police-making authority to the Superintendent at a time when teachers are already feeling violated.

Rescinding the Board action will restore the policy as it existed prior to the change. What is now being proposed will not do so.

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Dallas ISD Board Policy DK (Local) before January 26, 2012 - "... Time schedules may be arranged to suit the needs of individual schools, taking travel schedules into consideration, but must contain a minimum of seven hours and 45 minutes."
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Trustees made the change. Trustees should correct the mistake by rescinding the action taken on January 26, 2012.

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

Friday, November 23, 2012

Dallas ISD Trustees should rescind the 45 minute daily teacher extension passed on January 26, 2012

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