22 Aug 2002
Superintendent Cites Financial Concerns, Student Achievement As Primary Reasons
DALLAS—All eight members of the Dallas Independent School District's Board of Trustees Thursday, Aug. 22, voted in support of a recommendation from Superintendent Mike Moses to terminate the $39 million annual contract with Edison Schools, Inc. at the end of the 2002-03 school year.
The superintendent held a news conference Aug. 16 to announce he would recommend non-renewal to the board. All eight present members of the board voted in favor of the superintendent's recommendation. The superintendent cited impending financial concerns and a continued lack of student achievement as the primary reasons for his recommendations.
"There definitely is a crisis in school funding in Texas," Moses said. "We will likely receive no new state funding next year. We will likely receive little property value growth. We will see an increase in expenses. Health insurance for our teachers continues to go up. Salary increases will cost additional money for our employees if we're able to approve those and recommend those to the board. Accordingly, the finances and whether we can pay for the program does enter into the equation."
The superintendent has had recent discussions with Edison Schools CEO Chris Whittle of Knoxville, Tenn. and has informed Whittle he would be recommending early termination of Edison's five-year contract.
"There is obviously a great deal of passion for the program. I appreciate deeply and sincerely the efforts of the parents, the teachers, and the students in these schools. In no way is this recommendation meant to diminish those efforts," Moses said.
During the Aug. 16 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 Aug. 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 Aug. 26. "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.
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.