As the nation's eleventh largest school district, Dallas Independent School District serves more than 164,500 students who come from homes where 58 different languages are spoken. Operating with a $1 billion dollar budget, DISD employs 19,234 employees including 10,500 teachers in 218 schools.
25 Sep 2001
Superintendent Describes Most Serious Areas As Facilities, Overcrowding And Dropout Rate, But Says Efforts Are Underway To Make DISD Better
DALLAS?Dallas Independent School District General Superintendent Mike Moses on Tuesday presented members of the Greater Dallas Chamber with an informal report card looking at the situation in the district; and while he identified some areas for concern, he said greater measures are underway to make the district better.
During his address to the chamber, which he described as an informal state of the district address, Moses said the most pressing issues facing the district include overcrowding, facilities and the dropout rate. In the area of student assignment, he gave the district a grade of "critical." He said the district's dropout rate is a "crisis underway," and said when it comes to facilities in the DISD, "we are hemorrhaging."
In the areas of instruction and policies, Moses gave the district a grade of "improving," while he scored the district's financial situation as "fair."
INSTRUCTION
When describing the instructional situation in the district, Moses said that DISD had the best overall test scores in the district's history this year. He also said that the district's bilingual program showed a number of very positive trends.
"Sixty-one percent of the $981 million budget for 2001-2002 is targeted for instruction, compared to 3.8 per cent for general administration," Moses said.
In the area of instruction, Moses said the district "has a long way to go," citing that the district is below the state average on TAAS testing in reading and math in grades three through eight and grade 10, that the district ranks below all other large urban Texas schools in TAAS scores for reading, and that the district also rates last of the eight largest school districts in TAAS math rates.
FINANCE
Moses said that the district's financial health is fair, but is looking up. The district's bond ratings remain at Aa3 for Moody's and AA for Standard & Poor?s and Fitch. He also said total grants received by the district were up to $133 million in 2000, compared to $121 million in 1999. Moses said this marks a $12 million increase in one year, and a $32 million increase over grant funds of five years ago.
The superintendent said the district has saved $2.3 million from the elimination of almost 60 positions. He also said the cost of compensation and benefits will increase by an estimated $38 million in 2001-2002, compared to an increase of $57.2 million last year.
As a bright spot, Moses said the district's volunteer and Partners in Education program is the largest in Texas, with contributions valued at $5 million annually in donations and $10 million in volunteer hours spent helping schools and students.
He also highlighted the fact that the district has not called for a tax increase.
PERSONNEL
The total number of employees in the district is more than 19,000, including almost 6,500 support personnel and almost 13,000 administrative and professional personnel, which includes 10,500 teachers.
The superintendent said there are 469 teachers who have been certified under the Alternative Certification Program, 1,312 teaching with emergency permits, and more than 8,700 who are fully certified. He said that almost 1,400 new teachers were hired this year.
Moses said that the district is trying to become more competitive when it comes to attracting new teachers, and said this is a difficulty being faced nationwide. Recent statistics show that there were 2.9 million teachers nationally in 1999-2000, but the need will grow to 3.3 million by 2007. On top of that, Moses said that 40 percent of the nation's public school teachers will either retire or leave the profession by 2004.
He said in Texas, the number of teachers is up this year, but the turnover rate for teachers in Texas in 2000 was almost 15 percent, meaning, 40,000 teachers left the profession.
DISTRICT POLICIES
Moses said that the administration's work with the Board of Trustees to pass better policies leads to a grade of "improving." He included examples of the updated dress code and the student code of conduct as proof. He said overall, students are beginning to understand there are higher expectations of them and that is having an impact.
DROPOUT RATE
The superintendent said he is greatly concerned about the number of students dropping out of school and described the situation as "a crisis under way." He said the total district dropout rate is 31.4 percent, when voluntary withdrawals are counted as dropouts. Using this basis, ethnic dropout rates are:
White-- 25.4 percent
Black-- 32.1 percent
Hispanic-- 32.7 percent
Amer. Indian-- 45.5 percent
Asian-- 17.7 percent
The superintendent said that the attrition rate for 1999-2000 (one year) is 13.7 percent, meaning that 8,975 high school students out of 65,290 dropped out of school. Moses said the district's official longitudinal dropout rate (from grades 9 through 12) is 8.4 percent (for class of 2000). This includes ethnic dropout rates of:
White-- 6.4 percent
Black-- 6.6 percent
Hispanic-- 11.0 percent
Amer. Indian 12.1 percent
Asian-- 5.4 percent
The superintendent said the district's longitudinal graduation rate is 61.1 percent for four years and 64.4 percent for five years. Graduation rates by ethnicity are:
Ethnicity---- Four Year---- Five Year
White-------- 71.6 percent--- 72.9 percent
Black-------- 61.4 percent--- 67.1 percent
Hispanic----- 57.6 percent--- 58.0 percent
Amer. Indian- 48.5 percent--- 45.5 percent
Asian-------- 76.2 percent--- 81.9 percent
Moses said the district has a mobility rate of 29.5 percent, which is down from 32.5 percent in 1999-2000. He said that to combat the mobility rate, the district introduced individual student profiles with individual academic histories for each student. These profiles are in the schools now and will be regenerated after leveling.
He also said programs like the Youth Mentoring Initiative, which was announced last week, should help focus attention on this issue and reduce the number of dropouts from the district.
STUDENT ASSIGNMENT
The superintendent said that when it comes to student assignment, or the number of students in the district's schools, the situation is "critical"--particularly as the district's enrollment continues to grow. Enrollment has recently topped 165,000 students.
Enrollment in the district last year was 161,670 and was down to 137,530 a decade ago. Moses said that due to inadequate facilities, student re-assignments are a necessity. He cited examples of the roof caving in at Urban Park Elementary, and the fact that a lack of space in neighborhoods where the overcrowding is occurring, as problems the district will continue to face.
FACILITIES
When describing the situation regarding facilities in the district, Moses said DISD is "hemorrhaging" because it does not have sufficient facilities to house its students. There are 1,733 portable buildings with 1,913 rooms now in use, with 1,819 of the rooms used as classrooms. The remainder are used as restrooms, satellite cafeterias, and office space.
The superintendent said about 40,000 students attend classes in portable buildings, which are unsafe in inclement weather.
Moses said the district began use of portables in 1915, and said that presently, 255 portable buildings are 0-5 years old, 504 portables are 5-10 years old, 500 portables are 10-30 years old, and 400 portable buildings are 30-40 years old. Moses said an additional 74 portables in use are 40-50 years old.
He said that the district pays about $60,000 for each new 768-square-foot portable building, and pays an additional $5,200 to move a single building. Double-sized or quad-sized buildings cost as much as $21,000 to move.
Moses said the district has been building an average of 100 portables per year, and relocates another 125 annually. He said there were only 733 portables in use in 1991, compared to the 1,733 in use today.
Moses also pointed out that:
- Seven campuses have as many portable buildings as regular classrooms.
- More than half of the students attend classes in portable buildings at five schools (Field, Foster, Rogers, Silberstein, and Urban Park @ over 200 percent utilized).
- Sunset High School, Edward H. Cary Middle School and Lida Hooe Elementary School have the most portable buildings per campus.
?Harrell Budd, Lorenzo DeZavala, and Ignacio Zaragoza elementary schools have the least number of portable buildings.
- Five elementary schools are at 200 percent capacity? Field, Urban Park, Rogers, Silberstein and Foster.
Moses said that of 21 high schools, 15 have students attending classes in portable buildings. In the district's 25 middle schools, 19 have students attending classes in portable buildings, and in the district's 156 elementary schools, 121 have students attending classes in portable buildings.
He also said that the mean age of school buildings in the district is 42.5 years, while the median is 48. This means that half of the buildings in use in the DISD were built before 1953.
Moses said the three oldest schools that are still operating are Sam Houston, Ben Milam and O.M. Roberts, all built in 1909.
He said that 32 schools are using buildings that are more than 70 years old.
The total value of DISD school buildings is $1.5 billion. He said they are insured at $1.5 billion, but their replacement value is $3.5 billion.
CONCLUSION
Overall, Moses outlined efforts the administration is making to combat the issues it is facing, and is working hard daily to make the district better for its 165,000 students and more than 19,000 employees.