Dallas Independent School District – Page 9

August 6, 2021August 6, 2021

TEA COVID19 Guidance

TEA COVID19 guidance to local school districts is out and it is flies in the face of Centers for Disease Control guidance. The Texas Education Agency has issued the following information.

The new guidance from TEA comes shortly after Governor Abbott denied emergency healthcare staffing for area hospitals experiencing a four fold increase in COVID19 hospitalizations in just a month’s time.

TEA COVID19 Guidance: COVID19 Vaccines

The coronavirus vaccine is not available for children younger than twelve, but for those students twelve or older, the vaccine will not be required despite other vaccines being necessary.

Statewide, Texas students in kindergarten-12th grade are required to be vaccinated against:

Diphtheria/Tetanus/Pertussis
Polio
Measles/mMumps/Rubella (MMR)
Hepatitis A and B and
Varicella
After a student turns eleven, they are required to be vaccinated against meningococcal meningitis.

TEA COVID19 Guidance: Parent Information

TEA guidance also says local ISDs do not have to inform parents of positive cases at their children’s school. They are required to report that information to state and local health departments.

Schools also don’t have to contact trace, but if they choose to do so, parents can still choose to send their kid to school if they are a “close contact” of a positive coronavirus case.

July 29, 2021July 29, 2021

DISD Welcome Back 2021

DISD Welcome Back 2021 will happen Saturday, August 7, 2021 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Yvonne A. Ewell Townview Center, located at 1201 E. Eighth Street at their We’re Ready Back to School Enrollment Fair.

Dallas Independent School District says it is ready for in-person instruction and to serve our families in a safe learning environment. Thousands of cases of COVID19 did hit staff and students across DISD last school year, including the Townview Magnet campus.

COVID19 numbers were manageable when school started in October 2020, but quickly shot up. Last year Dallas was considered a COVID19 medical hot zone and despite recent CDC guidance that all school staff and students should mask up regardless of vaccination status, Governor Abbott has denied localities the ability to mandate masks.

DISD Welcome Back 2021 Details

As DISD welcomes back staff and students, it is important to remember several standards that will be in place.

Currently, Dallas ISD will be back to in-person learning, districtwide, with the exception of hybird learners at the Dallas Hybrid Preparatory at Stephen J. Hay.

Additionally, the ISD will keep the nine-week grading periods this school year 2021-2022, the same as last. It is not clear if this will promote better learning or not.

Finally, there are three different school calendars which are campus specific. The base calendar is below.

Dallas ISD Calendar - DISD Welcome Back 2021

There are three different Dallas ISD 2021-2022 school year calendars.

A large majority of school campuses will have the base calendar. Forty-one schools will have an Intersession calendar, and five schools will have a School Day Redesign Calendar.

The alternative calendars are one part of a comprehensive effort the district is taking to help ensure the pandemic doesn’t have a long-lasting negative impact on student learning.

July 28, 2021July 28, 2021

K-12 CDC Mask Recommendation Ignored By Greg Abbott

The recent K-12 CDC Mask recommendation is being ignored by Governor Greg Abbott per statements reinforcing his May Executive Order.

The CDC has recommended everyone in the K-12 setting wear a mask indoors, regardless of vaccination status. Children under 12 are not yet eligible for FDA authorized vaccinations.

When asked by a KXAN reporter about whether Texas would be allowed to enforce mask wearing his press secretary responded: “the time for government mandating of masks is over…”

The spokesperson goes on, “vaccines are the most effective defense against contracting COVID and becoming seriously ill, and we continue to urge all eligible Texans to get the vaccine. The COVID vaccine will always remain voluntary and never forced in Texas.”

K-12 CDC Mask Recommendation or Donald Trump?

It is not clear if the current course of action is due to the election calendar.

Governor Abbott is in a fierce primary contest for the Republican nomination for Governor. One of his opponents, Don Huffines, has already hit out at Abbott over the rolling blackouts and freezeout earlier in the year.

Abbott has soought the support of former President Donald Trump – despite a clear move away from Trump in many suburbs, including Dallas – over the infiltration of the Republican Party by QAnon.

December 20, 2020December 20, 2020

TEA Interferes In COVID19 Response Again

TEA COVID19 response at cross roads again.

Per a local school site, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) is interfering in local direction again. COVID19 response plans have been shot down by Commissioner Mike Morath. He has rejected a proposal submitted by dozens of South Texas superintendents earlier this week that would have given districts the ability to continue a mostly remote instruction curriculum should COVID19 numbers surge over the winter break. While this decision does not impact Dallas now, it could if COVID19 numbers continue to rise.

South Texas and the Rio Grande Valley has faced a disproportionate number of COVID19 numbers. The Rio Grande Valley is just 4.7% of the entire Texas population, but accounts for 17% of deaths throughout Texas.

At a press conference Tuesday, Cortez and McAllen Superintendent J.A. Gonzalez outlined the plan, which would have included a waiver allowing districts to continue online instruction for 100% of families in areas with a hospitalization rate greater than 15% without having district funding affected. It also requested rapid COVID-19 tests be made available for priority students who do choose to attend on campus, with Cortez and Gonzalez citing potential superspreader events over the holidays as a chief motivator for the proposal.

TEA COVID19 Response and Funding

TEA has a long standing problem on the COVID19 question.

TEA has kept federal dollars meant for local school districts while demanding local schools be open despite the innovation shown, including here in Dallas.

Dallas ISD Trustees Mackey and Michiche have previously both publicly stated it is better if students stay home and learn virtually. COVID19 continues to hit school after school including shutting down two campuses and numerous classrooms.

December 8, 2020December 8, 2020

Laura Bush – First Lady of Dallas?

The Laura Bush Foundation gave Dallas ISD families a little more to be thankful for. The foundation granted $500,000 to the school district for library materials.

The pre-Thanksgiving break grant allows Dallas ISD to both serve schools hit hard by last year’s tornado and also support schools in South Dallas also.

The donation is meant to help respond to last year’s major disaster. Meanwhile Dallas County and Dallas ISD are still responding to this year’s COVID19 pandemic. The most recent numbers show almost 1700 cases across Dallas ISD.

Laura Bush – Continuing To Lead At Home

The former First Lady has been a regular supporter of Dallas ISD, despite former colleagues at the Texas Education Agency withholding dollars from federal CARES Act funds for local school districts.

December 7, 2020December 7, 2020

School Board Election Gaslighting

This weekend there was more school board election gaslighting. Jim Schutze who is writing for D Magazine disclosed a website: www.choosedisd.org is directing to his D Magazine author page.

This would be innocuous enough, but earlier in the week Schutze had accused Nancy Rodriguez of hurting black and brown children’s ability to find equity because another website (www.choosedallasisd.com) redirected to her page. He said at that time that Rodriguez would not return his messages, but Rodroguez offers different facts.

From her Facebook page: “I cannot tell you on what date I acquired it because I never acquired it. You had your facts wrong on the story about my party affiliation and you appear to have your facts wrong here as well.”

Schutze who has made known his affinity for Rodriguez’s opponent appearsa to be working not as opinion writer, but PR person for the pro-reform movement. Like, the Dallas Morning News, which launched its own attacks againsts against Rodriguez following Schutze’s lead has done scant coverage of the auditor report issues from February or why Marshall avoids responding to questions about his federal referral on the matter.

School Board Election

The school board runoff election is Tuesday, December 8, 2020. The race pits Dustin Marshall – the incumbent – behind Rodriguez who only raised $27000 going into the general election, but who took nearly 28,000 votes to marshall’s 24,775.

While the races are officially nonpartisan, Marshall has received large support from Empower Texans and other hard right interests. The campaign season has been noticably bereft of any serious discussion as to why students are failing in Dallas despite a decade of pro-business reform movement policies.

November 12, 2020November 15, 2020

Students in Dallas ISD Failing

Dallas ISD failing to educate black and brown students is the headline in new reports showing students can not read on grade level. At the upcoming Dallas ISD Board of Trustees meeting staff plans to ask trustees to lower goal standards for students in the district.

Administrators recommended that trustees reduce goals to be “more realistic” for the current academic year after new testing data showed significant drops.

Tests results from Dallas ISD’s Measurement of Academic Progress, or MAP, test, have had all the hallmarks of a district failing its students.

Current goals for the 2020-2021 school year expected four out of every nine third grade students would meet standards for third grade math. That is less than fifty percent of third graders would meet third grade math standards.

Currently just over ten percent of third graders could meet standards for third grade math. The staff requested goal is to double that number by end of year to roughly one in four students meeting minimum math standards.

On the reading side, the benchmark was for 42% of third grade students to be able to read at level. Only one third of students are able to hit this goal currently.

Dallas ISD Administration wants to revise both of these goal numbers down while simultaneously talking about the need for an educated workforce to attact international companies ot bring jobs to Dallas.

Additionally, it is unclear what the real assessment is as several students never returned to campus so it is unclear what the level would be if full attendance had been achieved.

Students in Dallas ISD Failing…Again

The board also discussed goals for Superintendent Michael Hinojosa at Thursday’s board briefing. Part of the superintendent’s contract allows trustees to set seven performance incentive goals, with a potential reward of $20,000 for meeting each goal.

Since Hinojosa rejoined the district as its leader in 2015, he has not achieved his incentive goals, Micciche said. The board has until Nov. 30 to set these incentives, but Hinojosa said he’d be willing to waive that timeline if trustees wanted more time to deliberate on the matter.

November 11, 2020November 11, 2020

November COVID19

The November COVID19 numbers continue to be a headache for both local politicians, businesses, and residents as cases are rising quicker than expected. On Tuesday Dallas County health officials reported 1400 more COVID19 cases — all presumed new and the highest single-day total of the pandemic.

In July, Dallas was considered a “hot zone” because we were averaging more than two hundred cases per day. Dallas is now running between five and seven times that number. This may cause local hospitals to move to a surge capacity model.

Currently, the county is running out of available hospital beds. Per county data, the inventory of adult ICU beds was 52 as of Tuesday — one of its lowest points since the virus’s peak in July. The figure does not include beds that hospitals can add if needed. Each hospital has its own surge plan, which could include doubling up beds in rooms and converting surgical centers, but COVID19 is not the only user of bed space.

Every fall and winter elderly patients suffering from influenza use ICU space. Additionally, victims of car wrecks, heart attacks, and strokes all need these beds also.

“We are 7-10 days away from reaching our highest COVID hospitalization census to date if we do not immediately renew our resolve and change our behaviors,” County Judge Clay Jenkins said in a written statement.

According to Jenkins’ chief of staff, Lauren Trimble, Dallas County epidemiologists have recently spent less time sorting through which cases came from the state’s reporting system, since there have been so few older or backlogged cases.

Health officials use hospitalizations, ICU admissions, and emergency room visits as COVID19 tracking metrics to evaluate impact in Dallas. In the 24-hour period that ended Monday, 479 COVID-19 patients were in acute care in hospitals in the county. During the same period, 431 ER visits were for symptoms of the disease.

Dallas ISD November COVID19 Numbers

The cases in Dallas ISD are no better.

Between the first day back, October 5, 2020, and November 9, 2020, Dallas ISD is reporting an eighteen fold increase in COVID19 cases. This rise is occuring in all areas: central staff, school staff, and students. These numbers seem to match Dallas County at large which recently reported 1500 cases in a single day.

November 10, 2020November 11, 2020

No Air: Dallas ISD HVAC Broken

No air as HVAC systems broke down at schools in Dallas ISD less than a week after voters provided the district with $3.7B in new bond money.

School officials did not receive a response from administration on when fixes might occur, but teachers were asking parents for assistance via fan donations and other equipment. It was not clear when repairs would occur, but this is an ongoing issue at numerous campuses across Dallas ISD.

No Air By Phone Or Microphone Either

Dallas ISD did not return phone calls, but earlier this month did publish an agenda item intent on limiting future public participation. It appears some in administration want to take the air out of the opposition.

November 5, 2020November 5, 2020

Dallas ISD Moves To Limit Public Participation

Public participation is being limited per a proposal on the Dallas ISD Board of Trustees Agenda for November 17, 2020. You can see the document below.

DISD Public Participation Download

It is not clear why public participation is being proposed to be limited to two minutes from three, but it had an immediate reaction from both current trustee Joyce Foreman and trustee candidate Nancy Rodriguez who garnered the most votes for District 2 in the November 3 election.

Trustee Foreman said “DallasISD is trying to limit members of the community speaking at Board Meetings. They want to reduce the time from three minutes to two minutes with only an hour for agenda items and 40 minutes for non agenda items. If you signup for agenda item and speak on something else during that time they can cut your [mic] off. They also can remove you and keep you from speaking on an agenda item if they remove that item from the agenda.The voters just granted the District over 3 billion dollars in Bond funds and now they don’t want to hear from you. I will not be supporting this. My constituents have the right to speak.We meet twice a month which is once during the day and once in the afternoon. There is no reason for this.”

Rodriguez posted on Facebook: “If the speaker portion is taking two or three hours it’s because the public is likely dissatisfied or concerned about an issue or multiple issues. That should tell the Board and the administration something. In typical DISD fashion, rather than address the problem, they want to silence the voices of the community.”

Public Participation Changes Again

Rules for public participation in Dallas ISD Board of Trustees meetings were changed in September 2019.