They looked like normals. They spoke like normals. But did anyone check the Dallas ISD parking lot Monday night for strange glowing orbs sprouting antenna? Because obviously Jeronimo Valdez and Louisa Meyer are LOOPERS! Time travelers amongst us!
Jeronimo Valdez, Louisa Meyer, and Stephen Jones, together with Wilton Hollins and Gary Griffith are the public faces of Support Our Public Schools, the organization seeking to reorganize Dallas ISD as a charter school district under a little known and never before used provision of a 20 year old law.
The Dallas Home Rule Commission invited SOPS to present Monday night. The commission has held nine meetings within the community and has devoted several board sessions to gathering input on the charter proposal.
Jeronimo Valdez was SOPS’ spokesman Monday night and surprised commissioners by handing them a 23 page home rule charter. All that was missing from this early holiday gift was the curly red bow.
Copies of this pre-written charter were not available at press time, so all we know about the charter SOPS wrote for the commissioners are the highlights presented.
Which is where we find the time travelers.
While SOPS has backed away from their original call for an appointed board, whether as a reaction to public outcry or in acknowledgement of the fact such a change is illegal, the SOPS charter calls for November elections for trustees.
Can Dallas, home rule or not, change trustee elections to November? Only if they are Loopers!
A quick copy and paste exercise utilizing Texas Election Code gives us this:
Sec. 41.0052. CHANGING GENERAL ELECTION DATE. (a) The governing body of a political subdivision, other than a county, that holds its general election for officers on a date other than the November uniform election date may, not later than December 31, 2012, change the date on which it holds its general election for officers to the November uniform election date.
So, unless Jeronimo and Louisa have a Looper style time machine big enough for all of us, November elections are not possible under current law. School districts, home rule or not, are subject to Election Code.
The rest of the charter appeared to be the same old assortment of recommendations SOPS has presented before; some (recall, trustee eligibility) with dubious legal standing; some (STAAR retesting and buying calculators) nitpicking; and some of dubious merit (school start dates and seat time requirements).
Some are puzzling and contradictory. There are measures that make it more difficult to remove the superintendent, including contract and qualification exceptions and a super majority vote needed to terminate, (because, as Louisa Meyer stated, superintendent turnover is bad); yet, on the other hand, the charter specifies that trustees should be recalled in a special election if performance metrics aren’t met.
Unfortunately, the charter apparently bans trustees from any involvement in campus business, giving them as their only option to increasing achievement -you guessed it- firing the superintendent!
The home rule commissioners had some pointed questions for Valdez, prompting him to emphasize that, despite the details presented in the 23 page document, the charter is a framework “you all can change … as you see fit.” Some of the answers Valdez gave prompted Meyer to leave her seat in the audience and join Valdez at the horseshoe because, apparently, Momma knows best.
In the end, the charter was a tired reiteration of adult issues with little promise of reinventing or reinvigorating the community and classroom culture which holds the key to student achievement.
Maybe SOPS should take another spin in their time machine, in the hope their next landing spot finds them far far away.
We can only hope.
