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Sep 23, 2008 4:10 pm US/Central
DISD Boss Repeats It: Hundreds Will Lose Jobs
DALLAS (CBS 11 News) ―
Dallas Schools Superintendent Michael Hinojosa said publicly today hundreds of teachers will lose their jobs because of the district's financial problems, but he isn't leaving his.
Hinojosa gave a "State of the District" speech today before the Dallas Chamber of Commerce.
In it, he repeated what he's said recently: the district must take action; it must stop spending money it doesn't have; and 700 employees will have to lose their jobs to pay for the mistakes.
The superintendent explained how salary miscalculations and the hiring of 600 additional teachers put the district $64 million over budget.
The financial team that oversaw the district's finances has been fired, but Hinojosa says he has no plans to quit. He says he has a responsibility to fix the problem. And at least one school board member, Ron Price, has said the board has no plans to fire Hinojosa.
The superintendent earns $334,000 annually from the district, but has said he will voluntarily cut nearly $17,000 from his salary.
The problems
first came to light on September 10 when Hinojosa announced the budget shortfall.
That day, Dallas School Board president Jack Lowe said, "We don't have a highly competent staff in the budget and finance departments."
Monday, district officials said because the problem has not yet been fixed, the deficit is growing by $1 million each week. It could balloon to $84 million if they don't reduce their number of employees,
they said.
Hinojosa goes back to the school board Thursday to seek support for eliminating 600 teacher jobs and 100 other positions.
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