Dallas ISD Superintendent Mike Miles use of school police to remove an elected Trustee from a public middle school violates the Texas Education Code

Texas Education Code

Section 11.151(c)

"All rights and titles to the school property of the district, whether real or personal, shall be vested in the trustees and their successors in office..."

Under the Texas Education Code, elected Trustees are the owners of all school property, not Superintendent Mike Miles. 

The Superintendent is an employee of the Board of Trustees and has no superior right to remove any Trustee from any public school property.

It does not matter what the Superintendent was doing in the facility. 

An elected Trustee has a right to access all school property and cannot be removed from the school property by Superintendent Miles, the school police or any school employee if the facility is being used for any school meeting or activity.

The police removal of a Trustee violates the property ownership rights of Trustees clearly stated in the Texas Education Code (Section 11.151(c) and Board Policy BAA (LEGAL). 

This is a very serious abuse of the Superintendent's authority as an employee of the democratically elected Board of Trustees and provides  "good cause" for termination.

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Dallas Independent School District

Superintendent's Employment Contract

V. Termination of Employment Contract: The Board may dismiss the Superintendent for good cause as that term is applied to term contract employees under Texas Law...Examples of  "good cause" include, but are not limited to: c. Insubordination... t. failure to take steps to maintain an effective working relationship, or maintain good rapport with parents, the community, staff, or the Board.

W. Any other reason constituting "good cause" under Texas law as it applies to term contract employees, as determined by the Board.

Dallas ISD

Board Policy

BAA(LEGAL)

"District Property - The Board may acquire and hold real and personal property in the name of the district. All rights and titles to the school property of the District, whether real or personal, shall be vested in the trustees and their successors in office. education Code 11.151(a),(c) [See CHG]"

V. Termination of Employment Contract: The Board may dismiss the Superintendent for good cause as that term is applied to term contract employees under Texas Law...Examples of  "good cause" include, but are not limited to: c. Insubordination... t. failure to take steps to maintain and effective working relationship, or maintain good rapport with parents, the community, staff, or the Board

http://www.dallasisd.org/cms/lib/TX01001475/Centricity/Domain/1/MMiles_Contract.pdf

V. Termination of Employment Contract: The Board may dismiss the Superintendent for good cause as that term is applied to term contract employees under Texas Law...Examples of  "good cause" include, but are not limited to: c. Insubordination... t. failure to take steps to maintain and effective working relationship, or maintain good rapport with parents, the community, staff, or the Board

http://www.dallasisd.org/cms/lib/TX01001475/Centricity/Domain/1/MMiles_Contract.pdf

Dallas ISD did not vote last year to close "11 underperforming schools"

Editorial: Dallas ISD trustee's outrageous outburst

• "Dallas ISD trustee Bernadette Nutall has often impressed us. She brings valuable experience as a community outreach educator to the board, has supported several important reform efforts and courageously voted last year to close 11 under performing district schools, including five in her southern Dallas district. We’ve admired her composure and professionalism."

The above statement from a recent Dallas Morning News Editorial is incorrect. Dallas ISD did not vote to close 11 under performing district schools. Test score performance played no part in the decision.. On January 26, 2012, Trustees voted to close the 11 schools in order to save money - $11.5 million dollars.
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The crowd reacts as DISD trustee Lew Blackburn, center, called for the removal of Joyce Foreman, not pictured, prior to a vote on a proposal to close 11 schools. Trustees approved the $11.5 million cost-cutting plan in a 6-2 vote... Dallas ISD trustees vote to close 11 schools
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The money saved was a mere drop in the billion dollar budget.

At the end of the 2011-2012 school year - four months after voting to close the schools - Dallas ISD ended the 2011-2012 school year with a budget surplus. Another surplus is expected at the end of this school year.

Within five months after closing the schools, the Dallas Morning News Editorial Board and Todd Williams, who had become Chair of the Dallas ISD Citizens Budget Review Commission wanted the schools to be turned over to private charter school operators.

City Park Elementary, Frazier Elementary, Wheatley Elementary, Harllee Elementary, Arlington Park Elementary, Fannin Elementary, Bonham Elementary, O.M. Roberts Elementary, H.S. Thompson Elementary, D. A. Hulcy Middle School, Pearl C. Anderson Middle School
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Editorial: Opportunity for DISD, charters in closed campuses-June 17, 2012

"Todd Williams, a former Uplift Education board member who chairs DISD’s citizens budget review commission, sees it, too. His idea to require charter tenants to maintain at least state-recognized standing makes sense for quality control.

  

"Those eight elementary schools and one middle school are closed, perhaps forever. Shifting school-age populations left these buildings too empty to keep open. DISD trustees were right to make the wrenching decision to shutter them and save about $11.5 million in operating expenses.

Now, those campuses represent something different: opportunity."

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Todd Williams - Williams Preparatory Charter School - Uplift Charter Education

Todd Williams - appointed by Trustee Bernadette Nutall to represent District 9 on Dallas ISD Citizens Budget Review Commission

Todd Williams - former Uplift board member

Todd Williams - head of Committ

Todd Williams - former chair - Dallas ISD Citizens Budget Review Commission

Todd Williams - Education Advisor - Mayor Mike Rawlings

Phillip Montgomery - first Chair - Dallas ISD Citizens Budget Review Commission

Phillip Montgomery - founding Chairman - Uplift Charter Education - 2003-2011

Proposed budget cuts, mid-year grade level changes and school closings on Thursday’s agenda
DISD Trustees Don't Want to Close Campuses. But They're Told:They Have No Other Choice
Pressure mounts to pull school closure plan from tomorrow’s Dallas ISD school board meeting
Mayor Rawlings and Dallas ISD Board President Blackburn agree on: the need for more charter school
Dallas ISD says it won’t sell school buildings that were closed this month
What should DISD do with the closed schools?
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 DISD Trustees Don't Want to Close Campuses. But They're Told:They Have No Other Choice

" Later, Carla Ranger would characterize that number as "arbitrary..."

 "Ranger, who spent most of Thursday trying to put off the inevitable by delaying several items on the January 26 voting agenda, once again requested the trustees to put off voting on consolidation. But she wasn't asking for a mere month.

"I think we ought to take the opportunity to look at this for another year," she said. "There's a lot to be considered." Yes, she said, these campuses are small, "but there's a lot to be said for smaller schools. They have been and are being touted and promoted as being very successful schools, and many of these are high-performing schools. It was an arbitrary decision: 'Let's go below this number.' ... I am not ready or convinced this is what we ought to do."

Betty Culbreath email to Trustees on Internal Audit Report and Superintendent Mike Miles

The email below was sent by Betty Culbreath to all Dallas ISD Trustees on December 23, 2012.  

I found this statement puzzling:

"I knew we were headed for trouble when Ms. Ranger my district rep. did not vote for new Super."

What does this statement mean and what is it intended to imply?

The Texas Education Code states that it is the exclusive responsibility of elected Trustees to hire and to fire a Superintendent but it appears some believe a Trustee does not have a right to an independent opinion. 

In Dallas ISD, we have a lot of meddling and hidden agendas of people who were not elected to oversee the district but want to control it for their personal agendas.

My decisions will be independent as long as I serve as a Dallas ISD Trustee. And when I leave I will know those decisions - good and bad - were my own.
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From: Betty Culbreath
Sent: Sunday, December 23, 2012 12:07 AM
To: Blackburn, Lew
Cc: Morath, Mike; Dan Micciche; Bingham, Nancy; Ranger, Carla; Cowan, Eric; Medrano, Adam; Nutall, Bernadette; Elizabeth Jones
Subject: DISD negative tone pass 5 months of school year.

Thanks for your time and Happy Holiday Season. I attached my background for new members who do not know my background and experience.  

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President Lew Blackburn, I am calling upon you to stop certain 

members of the DISD Board, and disgruntle staff, and former staff 

members from sabotaging Superintendent Mike Miles and the 

direction his agenda was proceeding. If I am wrong in my analyses

 I stand to be corrected. 

• Your Board gave the new Superintendent full authority to hire his staff and use his discretionary account.

•  Superintendent started on job one month prior to school year startdate, New Super. Was at disadvantage No fault of his he did not control hire date.

• The process of hiring Administrative salaried staff is different from hourly and monthly also no compensation is based on prior salary of applicant. Demographics and cost of living dictate salary range also Professional consultants establish ranges for the value of a position. 

• Every organization has Job description that includes the words and “any other duties assign” that covers any work ask of the employee so that statement” some job description were not written prior to hiring” is covered when it comes to salaried employees.

• Everyone familiar with internal audits know that the draft Audit is never released to a Board or management until it has been shared with Staff involved ,and are given opportunity to answer findings the combined findings and answers are forwarded to Board committee. I can tell by the question on this So Called Audit Ms. LA Nita Ray was ask by a Board member to audit Mr. Miles on his new hires, that was wrong of said Board members Mr. Miles should have been ask the question.

• There were no two requests for payment for moving expense. Because a person does not hire a company in an effort to save money does not mean the expense was fraudulent, it means  you have a policy that does not state what or how you submit if you move yourself. This matter should be over, money paid back and staff member gone and life disrupted by Dallas ISD.

• There are members on this Board that remembers  Dr. Hinojosa hiring Ms. Olsen from Weatherford Texas. A Board member Weatherford School District ,had  no experience in HR., and no job at time of hire was paid $182,000.00 per year in 2008 and Given an out of Countywaiver to work in Dallas. Not oneperson question Olsen’s salary and no citizen complaints mainly becauseBoardmembers wanted Hinojosa happy. You have talked aboutthe salaries for past three months, DMN editorial Board has gotten Mr. Miles to say he was wrong and now he’s second guessing himself. This Board has damage their new Superintendent and hurt the Students of the very District you were elected to serve. The damage has been done by a few Board members playing games for a few disgruntle employees and people who are jealous that they were not considered for jobs, and don’t make as much money. If they could do the job, why haven’t they been doing it?

•  AMR American Airlines parent company lost $25 million dollars in 12 month because of Disgruntle employees you might not think it cost but it does, you come to meetings and leave all the hell behind. Everyone in that ADM. Building is connected to everyone in the District, lies and rumors are running rampant thru your Organization.  Ison-Newsom and other keep it going daily and are destroying the moral of staff and when Board members interfere with staff and gossip with staff and tell Staff “they will fix their problems” it undercuts Superintendent and his staff.  You knew there would be Staff upset with the reorganization who could have known Board members would help defeat the Super.

•  I knew we were headed for trouble when Ms. Ranger my district rep. did not vote for new Super. My fears were confirmed when Ms. Nutall reacted to a statement of Mr. Miles made with  “if he does not want to be here”.

DISD has become the laughing stock among Educator groups and 

ISD Board around the Country. People cannot understand how a 

school Board can treat a new employee as Mr. Miles is being 

treated and over nothing that impacts Student achievement in his 

first five months. Mr. Miles hired who he felt were workers with 

new IDEA’S to move the Students of DISD. Mr. Miles came 

highly recommended by the US Secretary of Education and he 

visited Dallas with praise and a promise of help. The Mayor has 

pledged help and this is the time a few Board members decide 

that they and their agenda to ruin and run off Mr. Miles is more 

important than the 150,000 students and 10,000 teachers and 

principals of DISD?

I am asking you for the Students to table discussion on that so 

called audit or discuss it in closed session since it all pertain to 

personal issues. Please table the discussion on salaries they are 

done and Taxpayers have moved on from that no one is talking 

about it but DISD Board members. It is illegal to tender a salary 

and without cause reduce said salary based on unidentified 

people complaints, that’s why we have a labor department, and you

 know any lawyer will take the case in as much as DISD has had 

other people employed in comparable positions making the same 

or larger salaries than the people Super. Miles hired.

Dallas ISD Superintendent Mike Miles evaluation instruments approved 8-1

 'We can teach our way to the top, but we cannot test our way to the top..." 
Heath Morrison - Superintendent of Charlotte-Mecklenburg

Tuesday, December 18, 2012 - Called Board Meeting - 5:30 P.M.

Discussion, Consideration and Take Possible Action to Approve Superintendent of Schools Evaluation Instruments

Dallas Morning News - December 25, 2012- Click Here

"Trustee Mike Morath, who was part of a board committee that created the evaluation criteria, said he believes it’s a more rigorous assessment than used for the past superintendent. 

“We wanted to raise the bar in terms of performance expectations, and we wanted explicit ties to student achievement,” he said. (Translation - "we wanted explicit ties to student test scores")

Trustees approved the Superintendent of Schools evaluation instruments by an 8-1 vote.

Voting Yes to tying Superintendent pay to student test results
Lew Blackburn
Mike Morath
Bernadette Nutall
Nancy Bingham
Eric Cowan
Elizabeth Jones
Dan Micciche
Adam Medrano

Voting No
Carla Ranger

Paul Thomas of Furman University (Ed.D) in South Carolina states:

Tests Fail South's Legacy of Inequity - Click Here 

"The essential flaws with high-stakes standardized tests are magnified in states shackled by social inequity and poverty because tests function as gatekeepers (for example, the SAT) and mechanisms for educational inequity: Children born into poverty are tested, labeled, and then sorted into a educational system that reflects and perpetuates that inequity. 

For decades now, ample evidence shows that test-based accountability labels high-poverty schools as failures and affluent schools as successful. Any deviations from these patterns are rare and outliers.

Continuing to focusing on tests and seeking new and better tests are commitments to distracting society and education from addressing the real and systemic problems facing both. America's test-mania is a test we are failing. 

Especially in the South, investing in new and more high-stakes standardized testing is a failure we can no longer afford."

Dallas ISD Trustees have now monetized tests as never before in the history of the district. 

Trustees have now imposed additional test related pressure on the teachers and students of Dallas ISD by connecting standard test results to huge monetary awards for the Superintendent.

Some call it "a more rigorous assessment" but others might call it irresponsible to put huge dollar signs on the backs of children and teachers based on "an inadequate and unreliable measure of both student learning and educator effectiveness."

National Resolution on High Stakes Testing- Click Here

Trustee Nancy Bingham "mainly criticized trustee Carla Ranger"

On yesterday Dallas Morning News reporter Tawnell Hobbs reported that Trustee Nancy Bingham "mainly criticized trustee Carla Ranger."

More Here - Education Blog - DMN

"Note, Nutall didn’t mention Bingham in the quote above. I called Bingham and she wasn’t too happy upon hearing why I was calling. She mainly criticized trustee Carla Ranger, who she said had disclosed information about the issue that was said during a closed session of the board.

“I think the bigger issue is that Ms. Ranger violated a closed-door session,” Bingham said."

Trustee Bingham's accusation is no surprise to me. It is to be expected.  

Trustee Bingham expressed no responsibility  or remorse for the allegations made by Trustee Bernadette Nutall on last Saturday. 

There has been no denial that Trustee Nutall described the recorded conversation between Trustees Nancy Bingham and Mike Morath as racial. This is a serious allegation.

For some strange reason there was no Board attorney present during any of the closed meeting - just Trustees and the Superintendent.

Regarding Trustee Bingham's accusation that I violated the closed session, former Texas Attorney General Jim Mattox issued an opinion (July 11, 1989 - Opinion No. JM-1071) that established the right of a public official to comment on the subject matter of a so-called closed session. 

I posted the entire Attorney General opinion on this blog on April 3, 2012. The link is below:

Attorney General Jim Mattox upheld right to talk about closed session in 1989

A San Antonio Investigative reporter John Tedesco (San Antonio Express-News) reported on a similar closed session issue on Tuesday, February 17, 2009.

Here is the link:

La Villita for sale: Can officials talk about closed-door meetings?

The 2009 San Antonio Express-News article concluded:

" Actually, Cisneros and other officials are perfectly free to talk about what happens in executive session. That’s according to a 1989 opinion from then-Attorney General Jim Mattox."

"So if you want answers about a topic that interests you, wave a copy of this AG opinion anytime a public official tries to tell you she can’t talk about closed-door meetings."

There was no violation of the closed session.

 Editorial: Why the Texas Open Meetings Act matters - DMN-Published: 03 August 2012 05:21 PM

Alleged racial conversation between Trustees Bingham and Morath

A few months after I joined the Dallas ISD Board in 2006, a Trustee cursed while sitting at the horseshoe during a board meeting. I was told the remark was directed at me. The Trustee said: "F.. K You."

Many years ago (1997) racist remarks were made by former Dallas ISD Board member Dan Peavy in  telephone conversations with then Board President Sandy Kress that revealed racist attitudes toward African American Board members.

The comments between Trustees Dan Peavy and Sandy Kress during a recorded telephone conversation were condemned by the community when revealed at a Board meeting.

The Board and the public were informed of Trustee Peavy's racial statements.  Sandy Kress went to federal court to block the release of his taped remarks.  The damage was done.

Trustee Dan Peavy resigned from the Board.  

Trustee Sandy Kress went on to Austin and later to Washington, D.C. to help initiate the so-called education  reform agenda that became the destructive No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act.
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On Saturday I heard information about an alleged conversation between Dallas ISD Trustees Nancy Bingham and Mike Morath.

It was alleged by Trustee Bernadette Nutall that certain racially based remarks were made in the conversation. 

Upon hearing the allegations, I decided to ask Trustee Bingham if the allegations were true, "Did you recently make  racist remarks about a Board member or participate in a conversation in which such remarks were made?"

Trustee Nancy Bingham would not answer. She would not confirm.  She did not deny.

Nancy Bingham's only response, repeatedly stated: "That was a private conversation."

I posed the same question to Trustee Mike Morath. "Did you recently make  racist remarks about a Board member or participate in a conversation in which such remarks were made?"

Mike Morath's response:  "I wouldn't know if the remarks were racist."

It is reported there is a recording of the conversation.

If the allegations are true, the Dallas ISD Board should take whatever official action is appropriate.  

I would like to hear the tape recording of the conversation. If the allegations are not true, the tape will reveal that.

A special meeting should be called to determine if inappropriate Trustee racial comments were made.

I do not know the truth of the matter.  

I do know that when I asked on Saturday, the allegations were not denied by either of the Trustees involved.

Will the Dallas ISD Board address the issue?

Probably not.  Efforts are already underway to cover it up.

Let all the Trustees hear the tape together. The allegations are either true or they are not.


Dallas Observer - Thursday, January 23, 1997
It's All A Matter of Power by Miriam Rosen