Dallas School District Fires 375 Teachers

Budget deficits and mismanagement led the Dallas Independent School District (ISD) to fire 375 teachers after a slew of position cuts. School officials hoped the reduction in force (RIF) would help the district save enough to make up an estimated $84 million budget deficit carried from the 2007-08 year.

The teacher firings on Oct. 16 came after nearly 40 administrators, 150 non-contractual workers and 62 central office members were laid-off beginning late September. Some 200 vacant positions were also eliminated.

School principals found out who got axed on Oct. 14. After many raised questions about the plan details, the district delayed the layoffs one day, according to an Associated Press article. Some teachers learned of their job statuses early the next day.

The number of firings was significantly smaller than initial projections said NEA-Dallas President Dale Kaiser. NEA-Dallas, as well as other employee associations, met with trustee board members and negotiated a plan decreasing the number of teachers who would be forced to leave the school district.

Kaiser said the board was able to make some $38 million in cuts to other programs to save more teachers from getting a pink slip. NEA-Dallas also led the effort to lengthen teacher severance packages and allow people, like Chemistry teacher Melody Shivers of Woodrow Wilson High School, to volunteer to be “RIF’d.”

Shivers was one of about 200 who voluntarily left their positions to help reduce the number of teachers who would lose their jobs.

“I felt like it was the right time for me to leave and hopefully one of my colleagues would save their job,” said Shivers, a 30-year veteran. “It’s distressing and very emotional to see people lose their jobs.”

Dallas ISD revealed a $64 million deficit on Sept. 10 that stemmed from mismanagement of funds. The district miscalculated teacher salaries and hired more positions than the budget allowed. Superintendent of the Dallas ISD Michael Hinojosa warned that continued spending in these areas could push the deficit to nearly $84 million. District officials declared a possible reduction in force nearly a week after the deficit announcement.

The district is projected to save $68 million according to The Dallas Morning News reports. Yet, another RIF could still be on the horizon, Kaiser said. The board has not revealed how the remainder of the deficit will be cleared.

For now, Dallas ISD is trying to handle the stress caused by this one. Many area schools are grappling with the loss of teachers. Some students were in tears along with their teachers.
“All children bond with their teachers and it is very difficult to change teachers,” former principal of L.L. Hotchkiss Elementary School Lea Beach said. Beach, also the supervisor-at-large for the Texas State Teachers Association, volunteered to leave. “[The RIF] will be hard for everyone, [because] this is a human industry.”

Despite the high emotions, Beach, who hopes to return to education, was most impressed by the overall professionalism of many teachers during the ordeal. She said, “While we have a right to be angry with the administration, most people remembered that we’re not there for the administration, we’re there for the children.”

Fired teachers who accepted the district’s severance package by Oct. 21 evening will be placed on administrative leave and paid through Jan. 16. In conjunction with the Chamber of Commerce, the Dallas ISD hosted a job fair featuring some 110 employers, including other school districts.

By Nina Sears

NEA Foundation Launches Green Grant Application

If you’ve never applied for a NEA Foundation grant, you should. Not only is the money good (up to $5,000), but the application process just got easier and greener.

In a move it says will make applying for grants easier, more convenient, and less prone to user error, the NEA Foundation has launching a web-based application process for its popular $2,000 and $5,000 Student Achievement and Learning & Leadership grants that support public school educators’ ideas to improve teaching and learning.

“In an increasingly technologically savvy world, we want to encourage educators to use all the resources they have at their fingertips, many of which can be found online,” says Harriet Sanford, President and CEO of the NEA Foundation. “Our new process is green, easier and more convenient to complete, and requires less time: all attributes that we know busy educators will appreciate.”

Applicants can link directly to the application from the NEA Foundation’s web site at www.neafoundation.org. After responding to three questions that determine eligibility, applicants complete the process in five simple steps. They are prompted when they’ve left out any required information, and they are allowed to save their application if they need more time. The process also allows repeat applicants the opportunity to save personal and school information, cutting down on time spent on the administrative portion of the application and allowing more time for the narrative section.

Sanford added that the Foundation will accept both paper and online applications for its Student Achievement Grants and its Learning and Leadership Grants through June 1, 2009, when it will convert to the web-based system. The next deadline for applications is Feb. 1, 2009.
“We have designated a staff person to answer any questions applicants may have as we make this transition,” she said. “The bottom line is that we want educators to apply for these grants and to fully understand and to feel comfortable with the new process. By phasing it in slowly over time, we hope to accomplish this.”

Over the past decade, the NEA Foundation has awarded more than $4.1 million in grants to public school educators. “Our goal is to fund and share successful strategies to improve public education and to enrich our students’ learning experience by supporting their teachers’ best ideas,” Sanford said. “Through these grants, we are improving the quality of teaching and learning for everyone.”

By Edith Wooten

Getting Out the Vote in Memphis

NEA member, high school media concepts teacher, and radio host Stan Bell had folks rocking the vote at the Memphis Education Association’s “Get Out the Vote-Support Public Education” musical rally, held in historic W.C. Handy Park last Saturday afternoon. Bell, who has been involved in radio broadcast since the ‘80s, provided musical entertainment and commentary at the event.

“It takes a little more to get people who are just hanging out to come over and register,” said MEA UniServ representative Susanne Jackson, one of the event’s coordinators.
And that “little more” was Bell, according to Jackson, who spun tunes, led chants, and participated in an informal dialogue with MEA President Stephanie Fitzgerald to encourage invited guests, park regulars, and passers-by to both register to vote and turnout on Election Day.

NEA’s Education Votes traveling billboard even showed up to help the cause.
Thirteen new voters were registered, thanks to the hard work of Bell and the rally’s sponsors, the Tennessee Education Association, Shelby County Education Association, and Tipton County Education Association.

Bell said that by participating he hoped to share the same encouragement he gives to his students in the classroom, where he often discusses the importance of serving the public interest.

“I try to be a motivator and tell them this is a historic election, no matter who they vote for,” he says.

When he’s not teaching or attending rallies, Bell hosts the “Old Skool Drive @ Five” after school on weekdays as Stan “The Bell Ringer” Bell on KJMS-FM, an adult urban, contemporary station in Memphis.

By Erica Addison

Teacher Nominates Family for Extreme Makeover

Eric Kuhn was so affected by an emotional parent-teacher conference that he knew he had to do something to help.

A parent, Felicia Jackson, had a sister who had been diagnosed with cervical cancer. The doctors said she had only three months to live. Jackson promised her sister that she would not allow her children to be put back in the foster care system, but she had no idea how she'd manage the parenting of ten nieces and nephews in addition to her own four children.

Kuhn, then a special education resource teacher at Kingsview Middle School in Germantown, Md., wanted to help in any way he could. He met Felicia Jackson in 2004, and that year, after her sister passed away and she took in the children, he nominated the Jacksons for ABC’s Extreme Makeover Home Edition. He nominated the family again the following year, and every year since. They were finally chosen in 2008, and, after a whirlwind week at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fl., returned to a newly-constructed home just outside of Poolesville, Md.

Don't miss the Jackson family’s story on ABC’s Extreme Makeover Home Edition this Sunday, September 26th at 9 p.m.! And stay tuned to our blog for more of the story from Kuhn’s point-of-view.

By Erica Addison

Move Over Obama, Here Comes Dalton

While the pundits rehash the political keynotes of the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, one nonpartisan speech has taken the education community by storm. Ten-year-old Dalton Sherman delivered the keynote at the Dallas Independent School District Believe/Achieve Back to School kickoff—and he rocked the house.

“I believe in me. Do you believe in me?” Sherman asked the more than 17,000 teachers, administrators, and education support professionals attending the event. Sherman’s message and near-flawless delivery had the audience laughing, cheering, and dabbing their eyes during the nine-minute talk.

“You better not give up on us. No, you better not, because in some cases, you’re all we got…. We need you,” said Sherman, daring Dallas ISD employees to get ready for the school year.

If you haven’t been emailed the video, check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAMLOnSNwzA. It’s the perfect way to kickoff your own school year.

By Michelle Chovan

When C-SPAN Makes You Cry

While watching Caroline Kennedy pay tribute to Sen. Ted Kennedy on C-SPAN during the Democratic Convention, Sarah Vowell burst into tears.

''If your child is getting an early boost in life through Head Start or attending a better school or can go to college because a Pell Grant has made it more affordable, Teddy is your senator, too,'' Caroline told the delegates in Denver.

That's when the waterworks started, Vowell says in a recent New York Times Op-Ed (registration required). She says she was surprised by her tears, but there's no surprise here.

Without Kennedy's unwavering support of Pell Grants, Vowell wouldn't have been able to pay her way through Montana State University; take German every day at 8 a.m. just for fun; jumpstart her writing career by working for the school newspaper; pass geology; graduate magna cum laude; and "open a trap door to a bottomless pit of beauty -- to Walt Whitman and Louis Armstrong and Frank Lloyd Wright, to the old movies and old masters that have been my constant companions in my unalienable pursuit of happiness."

In other words, without Pell Grants, Vowell wouldn't have been afforded an education or any of the enriching, eye-opening, mind-expanding experiences an education brings to a person's life -- experiences that continue long after graduation.

When you think of what made your education possible, doesn't it bring tears to your eyes, too?

Magic

As the summer is about to dispose of it's humidity and heat
Our once silent hallways erupt with the sounds of excited little feet
One can only guess what some of these miniature invaders would do if dared
Yet, others seem so shy, nervous, and scared

Yes, some seem to be be treacherous and not Heaven sent,
And others are certain to be doctors or perhaps our future president
I find myself guessing what some of these little people will become before long
And, yet I pray that my estimation of others would prove to be wrong

Only a few will ever find themselves in the midst of fortune and fame
And others will fail and try to give their parents and teachers the blame
As I look upon these children, I know I am watching life in full motion
And I have only concluded that for their success education is a powerful and magical potion.

By Dave Arnold

Texas School District Allows Teachers to Carry Guns in School

A small, rural school district in Texas is allowing teachers to carry guns to class and at special events beginning this fall. This could be a first in the U.S.

The board of the Harrold Independent School District unanimously approved the plan and received no objections from parents, said Superintendent David Thweatt.

"We have a lock-down situation, we have cameras, but the question we had to answer is, 'What if somebody gets in? What are we going to do?" he said, according to news reports. "It's just common sense."

The 110-student district is located near Wichita Falls. The lone campus is just off a heavily trafficked highway and about 30 minutes from the nearest sheriff's office.

Ever since Columbine, school shootings have proliferated. This has prompted some calls for school officials to allow students and teachers to carry legally concealed weapons into classrooms for protection.

"When the federal government started making schools gun-free zones, that's when all of these shootings started. Why would you put it out there that a group of people can't defend themselves? That's like saying 'sic 'em' to a dog," Thweatt said in the online edition of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry endorsed the idea at an August 18 news conference, citing that mass shootings could have been stopped if the victims had been armed. Texas law prohibits firearms on school campuses "unless pursuant to the written regulations or written authorization of the institution." There is an exception for police.

Congress once barred guns at schools nationwide, but the U.S. Supreme Court struck the law down, although state and local communities could adopt their own laws. One newspaper editorial addresses the legal liability of teachers who might accidently shoot a student.

Harrold ISD teachers wanting to carry a gun to school will have to be certified to carry a concealed handgun in Texas and get crisis training and permission from school officials, Thweatt said. They must also agree to use ammunition that is designed to minimize the risk of ricochet in school halls.

Thweatt did not reveal how many of the 50 or so teachers and designated staff will be armed when school starts.

Learning the Ropes

When I was in sixth grade, my gym teacher, Mrs. McMahon, was fond of asking us to jump rope inside the gymnasium on rainy days. Maybe she lacked imagination, or maybe she liked to listen to loud ‘70s rock music – she’d blare songs like “China Grove” by the Doobie Brothers, and for the longest time, I thought they were singing jumping rope. “Well you’re talkin’ bout jumpin’ rope. Jumpin’ rope! Oh, oh, jumpin’ rope.”

But though we were made to jump in place to rock ’n roll rhythms in gym class, we chose to jump rope during recess. The difference was that, out there, we jumped to the rhythm of two ropes hitting the blacktop in perfect time. We weren’t nearly as skilled at double dutch as the girls jumping on the streets of Philadelphia forty miles to the south, but some of us could perform footwork fancy enough to stop the boys from their kickball game and to come watch us.

It was a workout for the rope turners as well as the jumpers, and you had to time your entrance and the liftoff of your feet exactly to the twirling ropes – it required skill and concentration far beyond the mindless jumping of Mrs. McMahon’s gym class. And to us, it was every bit as much a competitive sport as kickball, only a lot more fun.

Our school district didn’t recognize this, but the New York City schools have. Double dutch will become the newest of 35 varsity sports played in New York City schools starting next spring. The hope is to get more girls involved in sports, particularly from neighborhoods where double dutch has long been practiced on sidewalks and in playgrounds outside low-income apartment buildings.

The announcement comes a week after the death of David A. Walker, a former New York City police sergeant who developed rules so that double dutch could be played competitively by girls as an intramural sport in the city schools. He also founded the National Double Dutch League.

In 1974, the first double-dutch tournament drew nearly 600 children, according to a New York Times article. Today, the Apollo Theater in Harlem hosts competitions that draw teams from around the world.

Who knows, maybe the two rope sport can someday become part of the five rings.

Spy Games

Something fishy is going on in Everett, Washington. The school district is currently investigating why a video surveillance camera was installed in teacher Kay Powers' classroom at Cascade High School. It started last Fall when superintendent Carol Whitehead fired Powers for allegedly helping students produce a non-school newspaper. Powers appealed and was rehired in April with back pay. Teachers at Cascade, meantime, had noticed a peculiar-looking object in the ceiling of Powers' classroom. After repeated denials, Whitehead admitted that for two months in the spring of 2007, a surveillance video camera had been monitoring the veteran journalism teacher.

Not taking kindly to being spied on, Everett teachers responded by filing an unfair labor practice complaint, demanding that such surveillance be prohibited. The district soon began an investigation, which so far has not produced any new information about who exactly authorized the surveillance. According to Whitehead, no laws were broken and - guess what? - the recordings in questions are missing.

“An extremely bad comedy” – that's how Kim Mead, president of the Everett Education Association, aptly described the episode. “It should never have taken place.”

Certainly not, but should we be surprised? With video surveillance of students so commonplace in schools throughout the country, it seems inevitable that the cameras' gaze will occasionally be directed toward unsuspecting staff as well.