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.
15 Nov 2001
DALLAS—DISD Deputy Superintendent—Business Services, Dr. Larry Groppel, and Craig Reynolds, a Dallas-area architect who has helped put together the district's $1.366 billion bond election proposal are the guests on the district's Thursday evening Dallas Schools Roundtable television show on AT&T cable channels 5-B and 65 digital.
The program will be hosted by DISD's Communication Services Executive Manager Donald J. Claxton. Viewers who wish to call in to the program and ask Groppel or Reynolds a question may dial 972-925-3213.
Dallas Schools Roundtable, a 30-minute live television show, airs two nights each week on DSTV and on Saturdays on local television station KPXD-PAX. The program is broadcast Tuesday and Thursday evenings at 6:30 p.m. on AT&T Cable Channel 5-B and on Channel 65 on digital cable. On Saturdays, both shows will air back-to-back on PAX at 5 a.m. on Channel 26.
The topic for tonight's show was selected because the district's board of trustees are slated to vote on a call for a Jan. 19, 2002 election during a specially-called board meeting on Monday, Nov. 19.
With the passage of the $1.366 billion bond election, the district would build one new high school, 16 elementary schools and three new middle schools. The district also would construct a centralized kitchen to better serve the school breakfast and lunch programs and add one major sports facility.
Contents of the school bond election pages were recommended by a 21-member task force that has worked for almost five years. In addition, consultants from Heery International, Inc. provided the district with an objective assessment of the district's facilities needs.
In September, Moses pointed out that more than half of DISD's school buildings were built before 1953. He also noted that as many as 40,000 of the district's 164,000 students attend classes in portable buildings. Seventy-four DISD portables are between 40 and 50 years old.
Moses said the need for renovations and improvements increases each year. Already this school year, the roofs of two schools have become highly dangerous, including Urban Park Elementary's, which nearly collapsed during a rainstorm on the third day of school.