$64 million "gaffe" on his watch and the superintendent is refusing to step down.
He agreed at some point to giving himself a 5% paycut. His salary is over $379,050/year. That comes to a $19,000/yr "paycut".http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/education/stories/100708dnmetdisdrifs.2a40dfc.htmlDallas schools will hand out pink slips to noncontract workers Thursday, with teachers getting their notifications Oct. 15, according to a layoff timeline given to principals Monday.
The timeline also shows that the district plans on having workers replace some employees who are cut within 24 hours. That's because the layoffs will create some vacancies that must be filled and the district will transfer other workers to those jobs.
DISD has already laid off about 60 central office workers and cut about 100 vacant positions in an attempt to reduce a recently-disclosed $84 million budget deficit. The district plans on saving an estimated $30 million by laying off about 1,100 workers, including about 550 teachers, and will cut another $38 million in nonpersonnel expenses.
Those cuts, though, won't fill the whole gap. Even with those reductions, administrators have acknowledged that they're still headed toward a $15 million deficit. They have not said how they will make up that gap.
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http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/education/stories/100708dnmetdisdceos.293559d.htmlEarlier this year, the district's annual audit was overdue and overbudget because outside auditors had difficulty getting DISD to produce needed records. When accounting firm Deloitte and Touche concluded its work – at a cost of more than $2 million – it said DISD had an antiquated financial system with inadequate and unreliable controls.
Dr. Hinojosa then launched an $11 million financial transformation plan, to be spread over three years. Once Dr. Hinojosa hired a top financial officer from the corporate sector, the district appeared poised for reform.
But earlier this month, Dr. Hinojosa announced that DISD overspent $64 million during the last fiscal year. That deficit was covered by spending almost half the district's reserve fund, he said.
School trustees, who said they were unaware of the deficit last year, were then told the district faced a projected $84 million shortfall this year. Last week, school trustees voted to lay off 1,100 employees – including 550 teachers. But those cuts alone are not expected to close the spending gap.
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http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/091108dnmetdallasisdbudget.62f2203d.htmlThe Dallas Independent School District overspent its 2007-08 budget by $64 million, a recently discovered gaffe that will probably require deep cuts just as a new school year is getting under way.
District officials attributed the overspending, in large part, to last year's hiring of an additional 750 teachers to reduce class sizes – a cornerstone of the Dallas Achieves reform effort.
The district, though, failed to adequately budget for the new teachers, said Superintendent Michael Hinojosa. District officials projected a substantial shortfall in April – just weeks before a $1.3 billion bond election – related to the hiring of the teachers. They played down the significance of the problem and said higher-than-expected state revenue would cover unbudgeted costs.
The district remains solvent only because it had $120 million in reserve, a figure that is now down to about $56 million. That's about half of what a district the size of DISD should have in the bank.
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