DISD's latest budget shortfall: $64 million

Lots of press for DISD's latest announcement — due to some faulty budgeting, the district overspent by $64 million last year, resulting in a big drain on its reserves, an immediate freeze on hiring and a lot of red faces. The Observer and the DMN both weighed in, but the bottom line to the district's reputation is about the same, as the News so succinctly put it: "Wednesday's announcement is another blow to a district battered by years of headlines about problems related to district credit card use, car allowances, overtime expenditures and cozy relationships between vendors and district workers."

And now for the really bad news, also in the DMN story: "Trustee Ron Price also laid part of the blame on the board. 'It is time for the board to hold our employees accountable,' he said. 'The board has been asleep at the wheel. The days of passing the bucks are over.' "

You know what that means, don't you? A few of the board members who have always preferred to strut their stuff in public are about ready to start mouthing off again, and that type of showboating is one of the reasons DISD truly was a joke a few years ago.

There's no question that blowing your budget by $64 million is bad news, and it seems like the kind of error that should cost someone his or her job since this is public money. But it's not the kind of problem that should have people wringing their hands about the district's educational quality (check out these Observer blog commenters at the end of the post), nor is it the kind of problem that should cause the DMN to open up their treasure chest of past DISD screwups and start trotting those out again, either. People make mistakes, in big businesses and small ones, and all we can do is find out who was responsible, deal with that, and then solve the problem.

In this case, DISD board chair Jack Lowe immediately took partial blame and said he would work on a solution. Supt. Michael Hinojosa didn't dodge blame, either. The problem appears to have been caused by overhiring teachers in an attempt to improve classroom instruction — no allegations of misappropriation, theft, bad administrative decisions, credit card abuse, fishing trips. The fact that the mistake occurred as the district tried to improve instruction is already a positive, in my opinion. I'm not saying it's not a serious problem; I'm saying that for once, the screwups at DISD appear to have been incurred with the best of intentions.

Comments

[JKR]

I seem to remember something about Belo having too many people on staff and not enough income to support them.

Does anyone really take a Dallas News story on DISD seriously? There may be some truth in there but they are so biased and out of touch with anything beyond 3700 Ross (namely 220 schools and 20,000 employees) that most DISD constituents tune them out.

[Rick Wamre]

Looks like the fur is already flying at DISD headquarters: the DMN's blog has a sort-of breathless running summary of the day's events, along with a few pointed comments (not necessarily backed up by facts yet) that Hinojosa coulda/shoulda known something was up awhile ago...

http://dallasisdblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2008/09/budget-deficit-update.html

[jkr]

Breathless running summary, a.k.a. "feeding frenzy"?

I also heard Plano is $25 million in the hole. Gee they would have to drive up there and check that out. Much easier to pop over to 3700 Ross.

[james]

Typical East Dallas always ready to spin anything negative DISD into a positive you are the problem. Nobody really looks at DISD critically it’s always too negative for you people, but you will always have a mediocre school district and the whole city will suffer. You should check on those school ratings they are bogus TEA gave exceptions again, but you spun that too.

[Rick C.]

Can I take my "yes" vote back from the bond election?