Dallas ISD Board President Lew Blackburn refuses to put DK (LOCAL) on December Board Briefing agenda for clarification of board vote (7-0) on teacher workday

The interpretation and communications from the administration to staff  after the Board voted 7-0 to remove the 45 minute extension of the teacher workday are not consistent with the intent of the vote.

Therefore, I requested that DK (LOCAL) be placed on the Thursday, December 13, 2012 Board Briefing Agenda for clarification. 

I sent two requests to Board President Lew Blackburn - shown below. 

Trustee Blackburn refused to place board policy DK (LOCAL) on the December 13, 2012 Board Briefing Agenda.
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-------- Original Message --------

Subject:	RE: DK (lOCAL) - Board Briefing
Date:	Fri, 7 Dec 2012 19:40:53 +0000
From:	Blackburn, Lew <lblackburn@dallasisd.org>
To:	Carla Ranger <Carla@CarlaRanger.com>, "Miles, Mike" <MILESFM@dallasisd.org>, "
CC:

Trustee Ranger,
The Board of Trustees addressed policy DK(Local) last month during 

the Board Briefing November 8, and adopted your recommended language 

change during the Board Meeting November 29.  Thus, I am not inclined 

to revisit the policy at this time.  However, in accordance with board 

policy BE(Local), if you are able to solicite two additional trustees 

who want to revisit this policy, I will add it to the Board Briefing 

agenda in January.

With Regards for Children,


Lew Blackburn, Ph.D.
President, Board of Trustees
Dallas ISD
972-925-3720


Vision: Dallas ISD seeks to be a premier urban school district.

Mission: Educating all students for success

Mission: Educating all students for success

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-------- Original Message --------

Subject:	Follow-Up on DK (LOCAL) - Board Briefing Request
Date:	Thu, 06 Dec 2012 17:03:05 -0600
From:	Carla Ranger <carlaranger@tx.rr.com>
To:	Lew Blackburn (lblackburn@texanscan.org) (lblackburn@texanscan.org) <lblackburn@texanscan.org>, Miles, Mike <MILESFM@dallasisd.org>
CC:

Good afternoon,

Please confirm whether DK (LOCALl will be placed on the December 13, 2012
Board Briefing Agenda as requested below.

In light of administrative interpretation, the intent of the Board Action
regarding DK (LOCAL) last Thursday, November 29, 2012, needs to be clarified.

Thank you.

CR

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-------- Original Message --------

Subject:	DK (lOCAL) - Board Briefing
Date:	Wed, 05 Dec 2012 16:35:33 -0600
From:	Carla Ranger <Carla@CarlaRanger.com>
To:	Lew Blackburn <LBlackburn@dallasisd.org>, Mike Miles <MILESFM@dallasisd.org>
CC:

Good afternoon,

Please place DK (LOCAL) on the December Board Briefing agenda for 
discussion and possible action.

In light of administrative interpretation, the intent of the Board 
Action regarding DK (LOCAL) last Thursday, November 29, 2012, needs to be clarified.

Thank you.

CR

Dallas ISD board policy DK-Local - Teacher Schedule

AMENDMENT NUMBER 1 TO LOCAL POLICY DK BY RANGER

Proposed amendment to Board Agenda revision of board policy DK (Local) - Thursday, January 29, 2012 - Agenda Item 9-A-3:

On page two, under the heading “SCHEDULES,” remove the strikes of the second sentence from the proposed revision.  The entire paragraph then will continue to read:

Schedules shall be determined and approved by the Superintendent of Schools or designee and shall conform to TEA requirements.  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.

This is the identical policy language that existed before the current language below was adopted by the board on January 26, 2012.

*********************************************************************************

The revision currently on the Board Agenda

Schedules shall be determined and approved by the Superintendent of Schools or designee and shall conform to TEA requirements. Time schedules may be arranged to suit the needs of individual schools, taking travel schedules into consideration, but must contain a minimum of eight hours and 30 minutes 

Teacher Hours extended 45 minutes - no pay, no questions asked

On Thursday, January 26, 2012 Dallas ISD Trustees extended teacher hours 45 minutes without pay. No questions were asked.  This is the change to Board policy DK (Local) protested by formerly suspended elementary teacher Joseph Drake in his email to Trustee Edwin Flores.

The second change to Board Policy DK (Local) states:

"In the event two or more schools are consolidated or any schools are closed, staff assigned to the closed schools shall be released into the excess pool."

The vote to extend the teacher day by 45 minutes and to automatically release teachers into the excess pool (some to be later released from employment) was as follows:

Meeting in the Small Board Room - citizens and taxpayers excluded

Voting For extending teacher hours and releasing teachers/staff into the excess pool (some to be later released from employment):

Lew Blackburn

Nancy Bingham
Edwin Flores
Mike Morath
Eric Cowan

Voting Against extending teacher hours and releasing teachers/staff into the excess pool (some to be later released from employment):

Adam Medrano
Bruce Parrott
Bernadette Nutall

Not Voting - Carla Ranger
(remained in the regular Board meeting auditorium with the abandoned public taxpayers)

My comment about DK (Local) at the Board briefing on Thursday, January 12, 2012:  This is an anti-teacher policy change. I also suggested that the vote not be taken on this policy change at the January Board meeting.