DISD wins $1.3 billion bond issue; good luck to Michael Hinojosa in cleaning up the rest of the mess

Well, it's all over but the hollering, which will probably never end when it comes to DISD and educating children and spending money. But despite a spate of "bad news" stories right before the election, and despite an unfinished and delayed audit and continuing difficulty getting student test scores up to state and national levels, DISD has another $1.3 billion to spend on improving schools. That's how much money voters approved, by roughly a 55-45 vote Saturday, in the latest bond package. Lots of new schools, improvements to existing schools, are what we voted for, and presumably that's what we'll get over the next five to 10 years. That, along with what we can only hope will be another five to 10 years of Michael Hinojosa, assuming he continues to do his best to clean up the mess that has been building at DISD for the past 30 years. Because that's about how long it will take to completely remake the school district and hopefully win back the public confidence — and corporate financial support — the district is going to need to turn things around. The DMN's story quoted neighborhood resident and bond supporter Craig Reynolds appropriately summing up the past six months of discussion: "Even as we went out to the various town halls, we had a lot of people venting, but they were venting about a lot of stuff that wasn't about the bond."

Comments

[Alex]

The vote passed because of massive support in old east Dallas (Woodrow) and north Oak Cliff (Adamson), clearly if DISD wants bond elections to sail through in the future they just need to do extensive renovations at every high school.

[Robert]

Massive support?

When I voted on Saturday (at the Samuell Grand Rec Center), the vote total was 11 at approxiately 11.00 am.

And if East Dallas carried the day, I suspect it was the Hispanic vote that really factored in favor of passage.

[wWw '76]

If it had been the Hispanic vote in East Dallas, that's probably where many would have voted (at Samuell-Grand). I believe it serves the Mount Auburn area.

At my precinct in Lakewood the ballot counting machine had 200 as of 4 pm.

I went to the election watch party with a "Choose Woodrow" sign and Woodrow shirt to make sure the powers that be knew we had influenced the vote.

I think our large Woodrow alumni email list and chain made a big difference.

[Alex]

http://dallasisdblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2008/05/i-swear-this-is-the-last-thing.html

told you. 12% of the margin from Lakewood alone