Live Blog: December 17 Board Meeting
Submitted by Allen Gwinn on Thu, 12/17/2009 - 17:40.
Adam Medrano unanimously elected President!
Bruce Parrott, newcomer, elected Board Secretary!
It's 5:41 and Ron Price is speaking as an outgoing trustee. He's thanking his fellow board members and the staff.
Lots of elected officials are in the audience tonight. Several former board members, including Lois Parrott, Haryette Ehrhardt, and Robert Price along with other high profile folks: John Wiley Price, Ken Molberg, and numerous others.
Refresh your browser often and forgive the typos (hey, live blogging is gramatically hazardous).
"To my replacement, Bernadette (Nutall), ... I appreciate you and honor you for [agreeing to serve on the school board]," Price is continuing.
Price challenged Nutall to "take the high schools to another level."
5:48 - It's time for the swearing in ceremony for new school board members Bruce Parrott and Bernadette Nutall.
Performing the ceremony is Board President Adam Medrano.
Bruce is being administered the oath of office by Ken Molberg.
John Wiley Price is swearing in Bernadette Nutall. She's being joined by her husband and the pastor of her church.
It's a done deal! We have 2 new board members!
The new trustees are giving speeches.
Coming up: Board officer elections. Will they be contentious? Let's see.
Adam Medrano is the only nominee for President! Nominated by Carla Ranger and unanimously elected!
Lew Blackburn is unanimously elected first vice president!
Carla Ranger is unanimously elected second vice president!
Bernadette nominated Bruce Parrott for secretary! There's a challenger: Edwin Flores.
It's a 4-to-4 split.
Again: Lew Blackburn is nominated along with Flores. Another 4-4 split!
Nancy Bingham gets nominated in this round along with Parrott!
Parrott wins! A newcomer elected Board Secretary!
6:12 - We're deep into the committee report.
One interesting thing: Edwin Flores notes that there has been a "first reading" of a policy that would, in essence, create a "public information" portal where public information requests can be delivered along with items that are frequently requested.
6:14 - On to the speakers on agenda items. Joyce Foreman is up first.
Foreman is expressing disappointment that Kyle Renard wasn't elected. She takes a swipe at Jerome Garza (who is absent tonight) noting that there are several board members who have said they would not seek re-election.
Next up is Bill Betzen. Bill has emerged as an authority on student achievement. He has taken quite a bit of data available regarding student dropouts and created a spreadsheet and several interesting graphs.
He notes that the graduation rates have steadily increased.
"We have a lot to be proud of," said Betzen.
Last up is Ola Allen. She is bringing up the heating/cooling issues at Skyline and the problems over the years. "How to you expect our schools to ... progress when one side of the building is cool, and the other side is hot?"
She's also talking about the security cameras that appear to be out of service at Skyline too.
Coming up next will be the consent agenda followed by the "items pulled for separate vote."
Voting against the consent agenda: Carla Ranger. Abstaining: Bernadette Nutall. Everybody else votes for it.
Now we're on to the individual items.
First up: approving the minutes from the last few board meetings. Both of the new board members abstained.
Carla Ranger is noting that she has, as is her trademark, pulled the minutes (the written summary of the previous board meetings) from the consent agenda. She is saying that to have the minutes on the consent agenda violates policy and Roberts Rules of Order.
She asks that they be pulled for separate vote each time.
Now on to other items in which board members may have to recuse themselves because of conflict of interest. When a trustee recuses him/herself, he or she must leave the room while the item is discussed and voted on.
One item dealing with financial issues was pulled by Carla Ranger. She was very opposed to pulling the District's "check register" from the District's website.
"This is a part of the transparency...that we should be sharing with the community," said Ranger.
Much of the focus of the new board is going to
be "transparency." It was a cornerstone of both Bernadette Nutall's campaign as well as Bruce Parrott's.
The new board members are abstaining from voting on the individual items.
6:40 - They elected Lew Blackburn as representative to TASB (Texas Association of School Boards).
Next up is a Board Policy that sets things like meeting times and deals with informing the board members as to what is on the agenda.
Carla Ranger is insisting that this item be delayed for a month so the new board members can "get up to speed" on this policy. She calls it a matter of "high public interest."
6:45 - We're on to the speakers to non-agenda items. I don't recognize any names.
All the elected officials are gone. It's amazing. After the swearing in and the, rather surprising, officer elections, they all hit the road.
Several of the speakers are former teachers expressing concern that they've been removed and had their "record" stamped "do not hire." They're asking that this be expunged. Several appear to have been terminated (or they resigned pending non-renewal of their teaching contract) based on the metrics used by the District.
The metrics, of course, are the Classroom Effectiveness Index (CEI) that the administration swore up-and-down wouldn't be used to fire teachers. Maybe Nutall and Parrott will take this issue on and resolve it?
Others are complaining about the grievance process.
They have an advocate. Lew Blackburn. He is asking for a list of all former employees marked "do not hire" as well as other information dealing with how grievances are handled.
One final observation: there is a notable absence. Arnold Viramontes, the superintendent's chief-of-staff, isn't here. Arnold's wife, Patricia, was fired earlier in the month from her job as Director of Information Technology.
Rena Honea wraps it up asking that the policy on pay-for-performance be reviewed.
[Ed Note: We reported earlier that a contract with Boy Scouts had failed for lack of 5 votes because that is what was said at the time. The District actually corrected themselves and said that the item actually passed. So it will not be on the agenda next month because it is a done deal!]
Hi! I wish to you good
Hi! I wish to you good continuation and long life to your blog )
Steps
Now were at the first step; complete transparency (easy accessability). Easy accessability should act as effective pest control; keep this superintendent but watch his every move closely for he has a tendency to use unorthodox manners to complete his work; clean-up the A/C & Heating department with a full audit; draft a pro-business philosophy within the district (rapid accessibility of services, trust but monitor, learning orientated) toward the business of teaching not administering or philosophing.
Ron Price
Ron Price is only out for Ron Price.he will not be missed and it is sad that it took him that long as a matter of fact more need to leave rigth behind him because DISD is going down!!!!!
Ron Price?@?!
I'm afraid Mr. Blackburn has had some kind of senility suddenly set in, or someone is impersonating him on here. SURELY he doesn't honestly believe that Mr. Price has done much of anything positive for DISD. I think the majority of students, parents and the general public are #1 glad he is no longer a DISD board member, and #2 glad he didn't win a seat on the Dallas City Council. Maybe he will now have to go out and get a real job. Maybe as a Spanish-to-English translator or cell phone salesperson?
[Ed Note: I've probably been one of Ron's biggest critics over the years--from the cell phone/expense thing to the Spanish speaking issue. Ron hasn't always done the right thing--and I think even Ron wouldn't debate that.
But the one thing Ron did was he stuck it out. For no pay. Let me say that again: "volunteer." Say what we may, but I firmly believe Ron, with all his past blunders, really does care about the kids--and he may care more than the rest of the board combined. You could always find Ron in the schools day-after-day listening to them, and trying to find out what he could do to help make their lives a little easier.
Ron donated more than a decade of his life to this job. Again, he didn't always do the right thing. But he did the job. And he stuck it out as a volunteer elected official.
Which is more than I can say for you and me, right?]
Ron Price
Well, to respond to the comment, and rebuttal by editor, I, too, felt disdain for Price over the period of time he was in the media over bad choices. But I do truly believe he was out for the kids, and precious few in this district are, from top to bottom. So 'here, here' Mr. Editor. He did stick it out for some ten years and he was present. I had friends attend meetings that most of us skip, at high schools and various locales. Apparently Ron was always visible, outspoken and present for the kids of DISD. Let's face it: sadly, few are.
Viramontes Absent With Good Reason
Mr. Viramontes had a family emergency completed unrelated to his wife's employment situation. Please don't read or speculate too much as to why he wasn't in attendance at the Board meeting. I would even bring down the "bold" reference on the article summary to him missing the meeting because it is completely irrelevant.
[Ed Note: Done. Thanks for the clarification.]
Ron Price, Former Dallas ISD Trustee
I will miss Ron Price on the Dallas ISD Board of Trustees. His wit has been enlightening. He determination and commitment to District 9 and the Dallas ISD was appreciated.
You've got to be kidding
You've got to be kidding me!! Wit? Enlightening? That's a joke, right? And yes, I live in District 9.
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