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Oct 1, 2008 10:00 pm US/Central
Officials Expect Board To Approve Layoffs In DISD
Compiled From Staff Reports
DALLAS (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ―
Decision day for the Dallas Board of Education is less than 24-hours away. Trustees must decide whether to cut hundreds of jobs to save millions of dollars.
Thursday's board meeting begins at 3 p.m. and is expected to last well into the night. CBS 11 News will be blogging live from the meeting with constant updates.
DISD School Board Trustee Ron Price gathered his constituents one last time before the meeting. "I am really angry about the last six months," said Price, referring to the school districts $84 million budget deficit.
At the town hall meeting at Woodrow Wilson High in East Dallas, angry teachers and parents raised questions and concerns about layoffs of nearly 1,200 district employees.
A meeting was also held at Friendship West Baptist Church. Nearly 150 DISD teachers and parents gathered to raise the same questions and concerns.
"There is too much stuff going on in the district and the last people that should be cut are teachers, because teachers are the ones who work with the kids," said Andrea Wolek, a former teacher.
At Woodrow Wilson, 11 teachers are on the chopping block. If the cuts are approved, virtually every school in the district could see teacher reductions.
In all, 675 teachers will likely lose their jobs. The layoffs are to fix the $84 million budget blunder.
"I have never seen the district in the shape that it's in right now," said Alliance AFT member Rena Honea. "Financially, it's the worst that it's ever been in my 30 years experience with the district."
Honea says she expects the board to approve the cuts and says it will negatively affect a district that already has problems. "As for as morale, for the employees, it's the lowest that I've ever seen," she said. "We're scraping the bottom of the barrel right now."
Monday, the district laid off 63 staffers from the central office and eliminated about another 100 unfilled positions. DISD spokesman Jon Dahlander said Monday's cuts are effective immediately and came from several departments, including technology, business services and dropout prevention.
So far, the board of education has delayed job cuts twice. If it pushes the layoffs back a third time, the Texas Education Agency could very well step in and take over.
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