16 Aug 2002
Superintendent Cites Financial Concerns, Student Achievement As Primary Reasons
DALLAS—Superintendent Mike Moses on Friday said he will recommend non-renewal of the $39 million annual contract with Edison Schools, Inc. when the Dallas Independent School District's trustees convene next week for their August board meeting, and cited impending financial concerns and a continued lack of student achievement as the primary reasons for his recommendations.
The superintendent said he had talked with Edison Schools CEO Chris Whittle of Knoxville, Tenn. on Thursday and told him he would be recommending early termination of Edison's five-year contract at the completion of the 2002-03 school year.
"The issue involving Edison Schools in the Dallas ISD focuses on student performance and the district's ability to continue paying for educational services that cost about $39 million a year," Moses said.
"Academic performance from Edison Schools in our district has not been at the level we desire. The economy, and state and local funding issues have led us to the conclusion that terminating our contract with Edison Schools is the most feasible and prudent measure the district can take at this time," Moses said.
On Wednesday, Moses told the district's board members that a decision would be coming "very shortly." During the board's August 22 meeting, the superintendent said he will formally make a final recommendation to the board.
During a Friday morning news conference, the superintendent said Edison's schools have had certain successes in DISD over the past two years, but said they were not significant enough to merit a recommendation to continue the program beyond the new school year that begins August 26.
"We're on the verge of beginning the new school year and we want to work with Edison during this year to ensure that our students in these schools get the best education we can provide them," Moses said. "At the end of this school year, however, we believe it would be best to return the operation of these seven schools back to DISD."
Edison Schools began the operation of seven DISD schools during the 2000-01 school year. The seven schools under the purview of Edison include: W.A. Blair, Margaret B. Henderson, Onesimo Hernandez, Maple Law, Esperanza "Hope" Medrano, John W. Runyon, and Edward Titche. All seven schools are Pre-K thru sixth grade.
Almost 7,000 of DISD's 164,000 students attend Edison Schools, and the company employs about 350 teachers in cooperation with the district.
The superintendent said he wanted to convey a special message of comfort to the teachers who are employed through the Edison program.
"Make no doubt about it, we appreciate and want to support and nurture the teachers of our Edison schools just as much as we're diligently working to support and nurture the other 10,000 teachers in the district," Moses said. "We know all our teachers have academic achievement of our students as their primary concern and we will continue to work to support that concern."
Moses said Edison's performance record does not appear to exceed that of the district's other schools. In 2000-01 Edison had two low performing schools (Henderson and Titche) and five acceptable schools, and in 2001-02, the number of low performing had increased to three (Blair, Henderson and Hernandez) and acceptable schools had dropped to four.
Regarding academic achievement, Edison Schools have exceeded the performance expectations on the TAAS writing tests. Students at Edison Medrano have met the achievement expectations of students attending comparable DISD schools. However, overall, Edison students have not met or exceeded the performance of students attending comparable schools.
"Dallas ISD is not likely to have considerable property value growth in the next few years, and we are not likely to see new state funding," Moses said. "We remain dedicated to helping our employees meet rising health care costs and finding ways to provide them with competitive salary adjustments. With few additional dollars on their way, we must find ways to be more flexible when it comes to meeting the needs of our district."