Dallas ISD Facilities/Bond Date Meeting Adjourned Without Official Board Decision

Dallas ISD Board Meeting JackLowed …

The local news headline was “DISD postpones vote on school construction bonds”…

This is not a factually accurate statement.

The same news account states: “Trustees did not vote Tuesday…”

If Trustees did not vote, what official Board action postponed the vote?

What actually happened is the full Board took no action at all – to postpone or not postpone a vote.

Jack Lowe, Board President of Dallas ISD, in effect postponed the potential bond election date on Tuesday without an official decision or proper deliberation by the full Board.

Eric Anderson, COO-Business Services Division, first indicated that Craig Reynolds, local architect, was appointed by Jack Lowe to the Facilities Task Force. He further indicated that Craig Reynolds was appointed Committee Chairman by Supt. Michael Hinojosa, a position he also previously held during the same process conducted before the 2002 Bond Program.

After the Facilities Task Force update report was completed by the Chairman Craig Reynolds, Jack Lowe abruptly adjourned the Board meeting.

There was no motion to adjourn made or requested from Board members sitting as a quorum.

The Board was not asked what action it wished to take on the Facilities Task Force update report – if anything.

Instead, there was just a quick and unexpected adjournment by the Board President.

Trustee Lowe, acting as Board President, has no authority to arbitrarily end a called Board meeting without allowing full Board decision-making regarding the agenda item.

The rights of each Board member to represent the citizens who elected each of them (even those who might not care about making Board decisions properly) were violated by this unexpected adjournment with no clear Board decision.

Decisions of the Dallas ISD Board require formal action (not assumptions or private belief) – even if the decision is not to decide.

The public interest in democratic decision-making was not well served by this arbitrary action by the Board President.

Dallas ISD Bond Election At Risk Due To November Trinity River Vote and Growing African American Dissatisfaction

The Dallas ISD Facilties Task Force will soon make a recommendation to the Board of Trustees on a possible date for the next school bond election.

The Facilities Task Force is currently considering either November 2007 or May 2008.

The primary concern is the possible effect of the likely Trinity River Vote in November of 2007.

The controversy expected to be generated by the Trinity River campaigns could have a negative impact on the outcome of the Dallas ISD bond election – if scheduled for the same election date in November 2007.

Apparently, past Dallas ISD Bond Programs have never failed to obtain voter approval.

The Trinity River Vote might place that record at serious risk.

There is also a “silent but potentially deadly question” emerging on the horizon of an unknown level of opposition to the bond program in the African American community due to substantial dissatisfaction with the current racial Anglo/Hispanic Board governance that disrespects the African American community.

One example:

Jack Lowe and the Board supported the rip-off of Trustee District 6 (Carla Ranger) during the Wilmer Hutchins Redistricting by Trustee Jerome Garza. Garza used the Wilmer-Hutchins redistricting to place one of his main former Hispanic political opponents – Ramiro Lopez – into Trustee Carla Ranger’s district. Ramiro Lopez believes this was a part of a scheme by Jerome Garza to set another political plan in motion. The redistricting attorney hired by the full Board, Rolando Rios, tried to hide Jerome Garza’s treachery by first denying then claiming attorney client privilege when directly questioned about who requested the switch.

A more recent example:

Board President Jack Lowe’s recent personal vendetta against African American Trustee Carla Ranger – he used the power of his office to campaign against Carla Ranger during Board elections. Lowe had no objection to the election of a first year Hispanic Trustee to First Vice President. Lowe appointed a first year Anglo Trustee to Policy Chair. But he was determined to deny first year African American Trustee and 30-year Educator Carla Ranger any official Board role and to “punish” her for whatever he and other Anglo and Hispanic Trustees disliked. Jack Lowe and others pursued a very petty, vindictive agenda.

Another recent example:

The arbitrary removal of Honorable Kathlyn Gilliam’s name from a scheduled Board agenda by the Board President Jack Lowe. Mrs. Gilliam was the second longest serving Trustee in Dallas ISD history and received more nominations for consideration than any name submitted for a facility – in this case renaming the Dallas ISD Administration Building.

Yet, the current Board President, Jack Lowe, refused to allow the nomination of Mrs. Gilliam to even appear on the official Board Agenda for a vote.

That was but another racially callous act against the African American community that will not be forgotten.

The seed of the first defeat of a Dallas ISD Bond Program might be found in the growing African American dissatisfaction with all things Dallas ISD – regardless of the bond election date.

And so it is …

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