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Hinojosa To Unveil Cost Cut Plan DALLAS, TX (KERA) - Dallas schools superintendent Michael Hinojosa delivers his solution to a $64 million budget shortfall today when he faces the school board. The deficit was disclosed last week, and as many as 1,000 teachers now fear for their jobs. KERA's Bill Zeeble talked to the district's top two teachers union leaders for this report.


Aimee Bolender has been a teacher and union leader in the Dallas Independent School District for three decades. She remembers a lying superintendent who stole money and went to jail. She's witnessed district leaders change so fast that quality education seemed like an afterthought. But to this Alliance AFT president, this $64 million shortfall is worse.

Bolender: In my 30 years I have never seen such a debacle. If you took all the others and put them together this one supercedes all of them. It's the worst of the worst.

Because, she says, it could have been avoided. Administrators had a hint of cost overruns last spring but said all was ok. Now teachers will lose jobs in a down economy, after other schools have hired their teachers. One possible outcome is that class size will grow, hurting achievement. Dale Kaiser, head of NEA Dallas teachers union, says Hinojosa hasn't kept promises teachers believed.

Kaiser: The claim has been we'll be more open and transparent. But it's still the same smoke and mirrors game.

Neither union leader knows for certain what will happen today but have urged administrators to trim the budget without cutting teachers. Bolender's concerned about the district's future and teacher morale.

Bolender: They'll never believe another thing to come out of 3700 Ross.

The Superintendent meets with the board at 2 p.m., then is evaluated by trustees in a closed session that follows. Bill Zeeble KERA news
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