Thursday, March 28, 2024

DISD poised for voter response to $1.6 billion bond proposal

Proposed Pinkston High School changes under 2016 DISD Bond Package the voters will consider on Nov. 3.
Proposed Pinkston High School changes under 2016 DISD Bond Package the voters will consider on Nov. 3.

By Tamarind Phinisee, NDG Contributing Writer

Next Tuesday, voters will decide if the Dallas Independent School District (Dallas ISD) will get approval for the $1.6 billion bond package it says it needs to improve learning environments for students.

At the website set up by Dallas ISD to advertise the proposed bond package, the school district claims that if the proposed bond package is approved, district students will benefit from things like upgraded classrooms, improved labs and even new schools.

“It’s all about the students,” says Ken Carter, DISD consultant and President and CEO of locally based public relations company Focus Communications Inc. Among many roles, Carter formerly served as a member of the Public Information Task Force of the City of Dallas and also on its Steering Committee. He also served on the board of the Dallas Black Chamber of Commerce.

“The district’s current infrastructure is crumbling. Something needs to be done and there hasn’t been a DISD bond package since 2008,” Carter says.  “When you have things like that you think about the kids, you cannot wait. There will always be things that people want more of. … Our kids cannot wait. We need to do this now.”

“Let’s get the schools looking better. Then, let’s get the programs needed for the kids of today,” he adds.

Carter says the goal is to keep minorities within DISD boundaries, especially African Americans, so that they can benefit from these changes.

On the flip side, though, Carter says the proposed bond package includes money for land acquisitions.

“If residents’ homes are in a site proposed for a new school, they’ll offer you a very good market value for your home – if that’s the case,” Carter says.

In actuality, Carter says that more than $4 billion is needed to completely address the district’s needs, but the board of trustees only felt comfortable going to the voters to ask for $1.6 billion. When asked about cost overruns, Carter says there’s no need to worry. The district, he says, did a good job of overseeing the funds from the 2008 DISD bond package, avoiding cost overruns. In fact, Carter says, this will be a 20-year bond package and that the district hopes to pay off the bonds sooner because of current and future expected growth in the city.

According to the website, the bond package will create nine new schools, 326 new classrooms, a variety of new educational programs, and facility improvements. See chart at the end of the story for more details.

The website further states that the money to make this happen will be generated from the bonds without raising any taxes.

A separate website (www.dallasisd.org/bond2015) provides a little more info on the claim of no increase in taxes if the 2015 bond package is approved by voters. It states: “The projected tax rate is $1.282 per $100 of assessed value and is based on assumptions regarding future property values, interest rates, and other factors. The current tax rate is $1.282 per $100 of assessed value.”

 

new_WD_school
New proposed DISD high school.

The other side

Of course, this second website adds the caveat that all bond projects, project amounts, and program allocations are estimates, and could change in the future. And that, among other things, is what has bond package opponents worried.

Joyce Foreman says it was not easy for her to oppose the bond package. But her knowledge of how previous DISD bond packages were developed and implemented has raised more questions for her this time around.

Foreman serves as DISD board of trustee for District 6, which covers southwest Dallas. She also owned and operated her own company, Foreman Office Products, for 30 years until retiring in 2011. Foreman has served on a number of boards and organizations, including the Greater Dallas Chamber Executive Committee and as Vice Chair of Dallas Area Rapid Transit Board.

This latest proposed package, Foreman says, does not resemble the transparency of the previous DISD bond packages.

“In 2002 and 2008 the bond planning committee had meeting minutes and attendance records taken and specific recommendations they voted on, and that did not happen with the 2015 Future Facilities Task Force which was started under Mike Miles.” Foreman says. “This committee was allowed to operate with no minutes, no recorded affirmation of votes taken for the bond plan components, and virtually no record of the specific process and the details and sources for their recommendations.”

Foreman adds that the last meeting of the taskforce was in late July, but there are still changes being made without any oversight. Despite claims that the plan was rolled out to the community in more than 10 meetings, Foreman says virtually few changes, if any, came from those meetings.

“It was back room dealings that changed the plan to sway some voters in certain neighborhoods,” says Foreman, who complains that her own district has only been allocated $64 million for 23 schools. “That’s what we do not need.  We say we are for all of the children, then why don’t we act like it?”

Foreman says there are a lot of unanswered questions from DISD and things that don’t make sense.

“I am asking the public to vote ‘No’ to this bond and send it back to the board to develop a plan that is not a Mike Miles plan, but one that truly reflects the equity that is needed,” Foreman adds.

 

Outward facing views

To those within the supporting circle of the bond, the bottom-line seems clear: get more money to improve DISD schools. However, others in the community express similar sentiments as Foreman.

Ronald Wright, Ph.D., executive director of Justice Seeks Texas LLC and a local preacher, says he too sees the need for a bond package for the school district. However, the way the package was put together was not transparent and leaves more questions than answers.

Bill Betzen, former teacher and activist, also with Justice Seeks Texas, agrees, adding that the package seems very poorly planned. When the proposed bond package was initially revealed, Betzen says DISD had announced plans to close every elementary school east of Hampton Road. Within seven days, he says, these plans were changed amid major opposition to these plans. However, Pinkston High School is still slated for closure.

“But the school district is not willing to say where the new school replacing Pinkston will be located,” Betzen says.

Both Wright and Betzen oppose the proposed DISD bond package and are running a counter-campaign called the No 2015 DISD Bond Campaign.

Interestingly, a link on the DISD website provides an interactive map that purportedly breaks down what the school district has planned for each school. Included on that map, under a black pin, are comments that a new high school – with a career and technical education component – will replace the existing L.G. Pinkston High School. Although the pin shows the school in a different location, farther away from the heavy traffic of Hampton Road and closer to Kingbridge Street, the map states that the proposed new site for the high school is yet to be determined.

The map also shows that a new relief school (possibly K-8) is being discussed with the community. If approved, it could be located at the southeast corner of Pueblo Street and Chihuahua Avenue (between Navarro and Rutz streets). Currently, there are residential homes on the property.

This lack of clarity from DISD on these and other plans only adds to the criticism from local residents and community leaders who charge that the city has also been less than transparent about its revitalization goals. To be sure, the City of Dallas has been in the middle of a revitalization project under various names over the past few years – including the Trinity River Corridor Project – that purports to increase income from property taxes in the area as well as increase income for residents. However, residents have complained that this revitalization plan – which some have dubbed ‘gentrification’ – means that the people who currently live in neighborhoods like West Dallas are not benefitting and will not benefit from these changes. And this, they feel, seems like what DISD is doing.

Wright says DISD plans to use the bond package to create choice schools and fill these schools with students the school district wants in them. Those who would be displaced by the closure of Pinkston in the meantime, he says, would not benefit from the new school.

“It feels like a move toward 21st century segregation,” he says, adding that this situation with DISD and the city’s revitalization plans remind him of the late 90s when many people in section 8 housing in the West Dallas area were relocated to parts of North Dallas, Desoto and Lancaster. Ultimately, Wright says, he feels the West Dallas area will become another University Park.

On Monday, Oct. 26, the Greater Dallas Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the Dallas Black Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Dallas Asian American Chamber of Commerce, announced their support of the bond package.

Rick Ortiz, president and CEO of the Greater Dallas Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, says this bond package is important to all of the chambers, given that Dallas ISD is a majority-minority district.

“What we do today will shape Dallas’ economy over the next 10 to 15 years. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance that we have the necessary resources and environment to educate our future workforce and entrepreneurs,” Ortiz says.

Ortiz further states that the proposed bond will provide business opportunities to the community and create a tremendous economic impact to the region.

“Therefore, we look forward to continuing to work with Dallas ISD on making sure our communities stay informed about, and are represented throughout the bond program,” he adds.

But Wright and Betzen both say that this recently announced support of these organizations doesn’t mean a positive outcome for the bond package.

“Based on multiple conversations and responses as I worked the polls outside Christ the Redeemer Lutheran Church on Park Lane I believe that this bond will fail. I am getting the same opinion from our volunteers working at the Beckley Court House. These two locations are the highest volume early voting locations in Dallas,” he says. “It may be a close race due to all the money the pro-side has, but I strongly believe the bond will be defeated.”

Repeated attempts were made via email and phone to seek comment from Dallas ISD and the Dallas Black Chamber of Commerce. Neither organizations responded by press time.

 

2015 Bond Package Includes:

  • Nine new schools ($464 million)
  • Expanded facilities and classrooms ($195 million)
  • New technologies, science labs, gym/locker room enhancements, etc. ($233 million)
  • Pre-kindergarten expansion, and career and technical programs ($92 million)
  • New roofs and heating and air conditioning units, updated plumbing, and improved interiors and exteriors ($500 million)
  • Land acquisition and demolition for new schools ($105 million)

4 COMMENTS

  1. Skipping the details, they are just not putting together a convincing case. They need to do a better job at telling me why I should allow them to take the money and run. It looks to me like just another money grab for the rich folk.

  2. Is that totally fair — at the end of the day don’t the children deserve a decent building. Are we going to not build just because white people might make money?

  3. If they want to improve the quality of education (which I seriously doubt “they” are thinking about), they need to spend more money on teachers and programs for the students. Buildings (or bricks and sticks and metal) are really incidental to what goes into the heads and hearts of our young folk. Black folk had much better educations during the separate and unequal era when we had second hand books, no air conditioning and in general always poor facilities. Decent buildings are not nearly as important as good programs for students and teachers. After all, it is supposed to be about the students…not the buildings. And I have not even started to go into the basis for other peoples’ objections to this bond. There are many other reasons to vote NO! As I have said before, let DISD convince me and I might vote yes. But they act like they really don’t care because they know everybody will believe them when they tell that “it’s for the children” lie. They need to take this dog back to the pen. As they say in the country this dog just will not hunt.

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