In what I think is an excellent sign for the future health of DISD, the Morning News reports that the district has decided to move three magnet programs from Skyline High School to the new Conrad High School just down the street from the infamous Five Points corner in Vickery Meadows.
The decision is interesting from two perspectives:
1) A rowdy bunch of parents rallied angrily against the original plan to move six magnets from Skyline, threatening all sorts of mayhem; even Dallas councilman Dwaine Caraway jumped into the fray, threatening to withhold his support from DISD’s May $1.3 billion bond election unless the district backed down. In past years, this would have been enough to send DISD politicos scurrying for cover and begging for forgiveness rather than pressing forward with something they originally believed was best for the kids.
2) The fact that the decision was announced before the bond election means that someone at DISD (presumably Supt. Hinojosa) has the backbone to stand up and do what’s he thinks is right, regardless of the threatened impact on the bond issue, which is important for DISD to simply keep pace with school maintenance and growth.
I like the fact that DISD made a decision that appears sound from the outside (Skyline has 4,800 students, and that is causing overcrowding and safety issues); weathered the initial and inevitable political firestorm that invariably happens when you mix kids, administrators, parents and change; and stuck to its guns.
One of the big reasons we’ve had so many problems with public education since I’ve been in Dallas (28 years now) is that the people running the schools have invariably managed the district as if they have to look over their shoulders all of the time for fear of being fired. And while that might have been true in the past, hopefully the board has moved beyond that type of punitive meddling and has settled back to let the people we’re paying run the district.
Guess we’ll see …
