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

An entire school district may elect to convert to charter status by establishing a home‐rule charter

  Just Say, "NO."

Texas Association of School Boards (TASB)

• "Home Rule Charter Schools (Texas Education Code §§12.014‐12.023):  An entire school district may elect to convert to charter status by establishing a home‐rule charter. This conversion requires multiple steps including: the board of trustees establishing a commission  to frame the charter, obtaining preclearance of the charter by the U.S. Department of Justice (if it would  change the governance of the district), obtaining approval of the charter by the commissioner of education, adoption of the charter by a majority of the qualified voters in an election in  which at least 25 percent of the district’s registered voters participate, and certification of the adopted charter to the secretary of state.  At this time, no Texas school district has sought home‐rule conversion."                                                                                         
• Texas Association of School Boards (TASB)
• Click Here http://www.tasb.org/legislative/resources/documents/charters.pdf

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Adopting a home rule school district will convert a Texas Education Code Chapter 11 Independent School District to a Texas Education Code Chapter 12 Home Rule School District Charter status. 

Dallas ISD will no longer be an Independent District.
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Louisiana's Recovery School District, a special state-run district that focuses on remedying the damage Hurricane Katrina wrought on the schools in its path. (a Charter School District)

"One of those who saw opportunity in the floodwaters of New Orleans was the late Milton Friedman, grand guru of unfettered capitalism and credited with writing the rulebook for the contemporary, hyper-mobile global economy. Ninety-three years old and in failing health, "Uncle Miltie", as he was known to his followers, found the strength to write an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal three months after the levees broke. "Most New Orleans schools are in ruins," Friedman observed, "as are the homes of the children who have attended them. The children are now scattered all over the country. This is a tragedy. It is also an opportunity." (Milton Friedman, Wall Street Journal, December 5, 2005)

Friedman's radical idea was that instead of spending a portion of the billions of dollars in reconstruction money on rebuilding and improving New Orleans' existing public school system, the government should provide families with vouchers, which they could spend at private institutions.

In sharp contrast to the glacial pace with which the levees were repaired and the electricity grid brought back online, the auctioning-off of New Orleans' school system took place with military speed and precision. Within 19 months, with most of the city's poor residents still in exile, New Orleans' public school system had been almost completely replaced by privately run charter schools." (The Shock Doctrine - Naoimi Klein - Click Here)

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Arnie Duncan the U.S. Secretary of Education openly advocates mayoral control of urban school districts.

"Speaking at a forum with mayors and superintendents, Duncan promised to help more mayors take over.

"At the end of my tenue, if only seven mayors are in control, I think I will have failed, Duncan said.

 He offered to do whatever he can to make the case. "I'll come to your cities," Duncan said. "I'll meet with your editorial boards. I'll talk with your business communities. I will be there."

(Arne Duncan: Mayors Should Run Schools - NBC Chicago - 3-31-09) - Click Here

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Texas Education Code - Chapter 12 - Charters

Section 12.002: Classes Of Charter

The classes of charter under this chapter are:

(1) a home-rule school district charter as provided by Subchapter B;

(2) a campus or campus program charter as provided by Subchapter C; or

(3) an open-enrollment charter as provided by Subchapter D.

Added by Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 260, Sec. 1, eff. May 30, 1995.

Mayor Mike Rawlings audio tape advocates the removal of elected Dallas ISD Trustees

At a meeting on March 13, 2014 with Hispanic citizens at Agape Memorial United Methodist Church, Mayor Mike Rawlings made his case for taking over Dallas ISD.

Mayor Rawlings specifically mentioned that Dallas ISD Trustee Mike Morath suggested to him that the takeover happen this election year or they would have to wait another two years for the next November election.

On the tape obtained by the Dallas Morning News below, Mayor Rawlings advocates the removal of Dallas ISD Trustees - the same Trustees who have allowed him to unethically meddle into the affairs of Dallas ISD and interfere during the hiring of Superintendent Mike Miles.

Audio: Mayor Mike Rawlings discusses home rule with Hispanic leaders, leaves meeting early-DMN
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'3 Blind Mikes' Song Lyrics - Mayor Mike Rawlings - Trustee Mike Morath - Superintendent Mike Miles and Home-Rule School District Charter

"3 Blind Mikes"

(Mayor Mike Rawlings - Trustee Mike Morath - Supt. Mike Miles)

Lyrics by Carla Ranger

Sunday, March 9, 2014

Set to the tune of

"3 Blind Mice"

a popular children's rhyme

written by John Thompson

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Lyrics by Carla Ranger

3 Blind Mikes

3 Blind Mikes

Watch what they say.

They change what they say.

It's one word by day

But another by night.

They're trying to take away

Voting rights.

Now we must fight it 

With all our might.

3 Blind Mikes
3 Blind Mikes
3 ...     Blind ...     Mikes ...

Click Here

3 Blind Mikes - Mayor Mike Rawlings - Trustee Mike Morath - Superintendent Mike Miles support the radical takeover of Dallas ISD 
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3 Blind Mikes - Mayor Mike Rawlings - Trustee Mike Morath - Superintendent Mike Miles support the radical takeover of Dallas ISD financed by secret rich backers

Citizens of Dallas!

Please do not sign a petition today or any other day that is clearly intended to undermine citizen control of Dallas ISD.

You will end up with an appointed corporate controlled board financed by secret backers and no voice in electing future Trustees.

A power grabbing Mayor Mike Rawlings
An arrogant Dallas ISD Trustee - Mike Morath
A self-serving Superintendent Mike Miles

The 3 blind Mikes all support the most radical power grab in the history of Dallas ISD.

A meddling Mayor Mike Rawlings who doesn't care about unethically interfering in the affairs of a major independent urban (code word) school district.

There is no Mayor in the Texas Education Code. 

Mayor Rawlings has no right and no authority to impose his political agenda on Dallas ISD.

Mike Morath is an arrogant Dallas ISD Trustee who is acting to undermine the governance of the independent school district he was elected to serve, protect and defend.

The self-serving Superintendent Mike Miles never should have been hired. He was assisted by the political interference in Dallas ISD by Mayor Mike Rawlings and others.

Superintendent Mike Miles is the first Superintendent in recent history who is being allowed to openly undermine the Board of Trustees that has the authority to hire and fire the Superintendent.

Superintendent Mike Miles supports this latest effort to replace the elected school Trustees with an appointed Board that will likely be accountable only to the Mayor - not the citizens and taxpayers.

Superintendent Miles should be fired, and he would be if I could vote five times.

The secret group of financial backers is now publicly supported by Mayor Mike Rawlings.

The so-called Support Our Public Schools is an innocent sounding name covering up a nasty reality.

They will take advantage of uninformed citizens who have no understanding of what the paper they sign really means.

It was all to start today (election day) without public awareness

Mayor Mike Rawlings and others should not be allowed to buy the school district and use our students as pawns to create more wrongheaded reform myths.

Corporate school reform has failed over and over again.  Mayor controlled public education invites the worst form of political corruption.

There is no magic bullet in education. There never was.  There never will be. That is clear.

I would support teachers and educators any day over money and power driven corporate reformers who are seeking to make a dollar on the backs of our poor and needy children by privatizing public education and turning it into a profit-making business.
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Do Not Sign or Support the following Petition:

Support Our Public Schools (Petition Language) - No!
"I know the purpose of this petition is to request that the Board of Trustees of the Dallas Independent School District appoint a Charter Commission to frame a home-rule school district charter for Dallas ISD. I understand that by signing more than one petition to request the appointment of a Charter Commission for Dallas ISD is prohibited."

What this is really intended to do is to destroy your right to elect Dallas ISD Trustees.
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Jim Schutze of the Dallas Observer again makes false accusations about the investigations of Superintendent Mike Miles

Jim Schutze of the Dallas Observer recently, Wednesday, October 30, 2013, posted the following false statements:
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Mike Miles and the Bad Annual Review Issue: More Bullshit from The Dallas Morning News 

http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2013/10/mike_miles_and_the_bad_annual.php

“Nothing in Smith's investigative report or Coggins' first review of it gave Miles' enemies on the board the red meat they needed to take him down. They didn't even get a cold hot dog. So the board members most involved in persuading Smith to do the initial investigation, Carla Ranger, Bernadette Nutall and Elizabeth Jones, goaded Coggins to give it another try.”

"Yeah, well please allow me to present a very different take on that whole process. Coggins, who was paid 50 grand for his work, combed over the investigative report produced by Don Smith, head of the school district's Office or Professional Responsibility or OPR, and found it was a jumble of bullshit allegations, not one of which would stick, ginned up with heavy participation by school board members out to get Miles over school reform and teacher pay and tenure issues."

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These statements are false.

Actually, I knew nothing about the complaint filed by Communications Chief Rebecca Rodriquez against Superintendent Mike Miles until it was accidently revealed to Dallas ISD board members in a closed board session. 

I had no involvement at all in persuading Don Smith to do the initial investigation.  The board was never even informed that an investigation of Superintendent Mike Miles was being conducted.

And I certainly did not ‘goad’ Attorney Paul Coggins.  

Attorney Coggins reported information discovered during the investigation and asked if Trustees wanted him to look further into it. He never reported that Trustees ‘ginned up’ anything.

The complaint against Superintendent Mike Miles was filed with the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) by former Dallas ISD Communications Chief Rebecca Rodriquez. 

Notice in the Jim Shutze article there is no mention of the fact that the complaint was brought against the superintendent by an employee in his own "cabinet." 

No, Jim Schutz  wants readers of his article to think that it was a Trustee problem. 

It was not. 

It was a problem between Superintendent Mike Miles and the Communications Chief he hired - Rebecca Rodriguez.

Jim Shutze admits to having become an "apoplectic apologist" for a public official.

Spreading disinformation and distorting the truth is even worse and blatantly dishonest.

"Good journalism always seeks the truth, and the truth is not a lie."

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Disinformation is intentional false or inaccurate information that is spread deliberately. It is an act of deception and false statements to convince someone of untruth. (Wikipedia)

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Jim Schutze stated:

"Right away let me say: No one is more troubled than I am by my own knee-jerkism concerning Dallas superintendent of schools Mike Miles. How the hell did I ever find myself in the role of predictably apoplectic apologist for a public official? Please, somebody free me from my own alliteration!"