News Chat Moderator: Hey, everyone. Welcome to today's chat. Dr. Hinojosa is available to answer your questions, so feel free to start asking!

From E-mail: From ava stearns: When will the new departmental organizational charts be on-line. Do you think the Broad/Gates "ED in 08" campaign will bring about some of the changes needed in education today, i.e. smaller classrooms, etc.?

Dr. Michael Hinojosa: The reorganization will be complete September 1 but we'll need time to properly execute the charts. We hope to have them up on-line within ten days after that. The Ed 08 campaign will be very helpful but true reform has to happen at the local school district level. Many of those ideas are very sound, such as the smaller class size that you mentioned.

From E-mail: From Kelly Fagan: With all the principal vacancies, campuses have been assigned interim principals. How are they selected and what authority do they have with regard to changing campus operations and schoolwide goals that were set by campus SBDM and CILT during the spring and summer preceding this school year? In other words, should the interim principal be concerned with and implement changes to the long term campus goals/objectives?

Dr. Michael Hinojosa: The short answer is that the interim is there to hold the place until a permanent principal is selected. Major changes should not occur unless there is an academic crisis on campus, which, in that case, the changes should be approved by a senior-level administrator, such as the executive director of one of the learning communities.

Puzzled: I don't understand how you say you can save billions of dollars in reorganization when people that have been demoted or positions changed seem to keep their same salary because of some law. Is this incorrect?

Dr. Michael Hinojosa: The goal of the reorganization is to properly align the system to support teaching and learning in the classroom. Savings in the reorganization will come from a reduced number of positions. Additional savings may come from positions that are redesigned at a lower pay grade. We are still evaluating pay bands and there may be some adjustments within the limits of the law. The estimated savings at this point is in the millions but the process is not yet complete.

From E-mail: From Mr. Williams: Thank you for your exemplary vision, high expectations, and leadership of the Dallas Independent School District. A plethora of parent-teacher organizations (PTA) are experiencing devastating declines in membership and a subsequent decrease in effective parental involvement in students' educational experiences in both rural and urban school communities. What can, or are, the Dallas I.S.D. learning communities doing to help parents become "full partners" in their childrens' education?

Dr. Michael Hinojosa: Each campus has a campus improvement plan in which a required component deals with parental involvement. Therefore, every campus is required to have parental involvement strategies. At the district level, there have been successful ventures in the past, such as parent academies, which have been held on Saturdays. Transportation has been offered to these events due to the constraints of many of our families. One of the significant recommendations of the Dallas Achieves initiative is parental involvement. The recommendations are being outlined in workstreams and very specific work plans will be developed to accomplish these specific recommendations. If parents cannot be involved, for instance if students are homeless or being raised by their grandparents or another family member, we cannot accept that as an excuse. We, as in the school district, are still responsible for helping students achieve.

From E-mail: From Chris: I have been a Dallas resident all my life, went to a private elementary school and then to a public high school. Things have changed and not for the better in Dallas. My wife and I have a serious decision to make, do we sell the house we love and worked so hard to build to move to an area with better schools and lower taxes? Do we make a financial sacrifice and put our five year old in a private school?! 60; Do we through our hands up and just send him to a public school where now a days they are tied up with teaching English as a second language, not diversified in core subjects and teach only to pass the TASK to make the school and teachers look good? It is really hard to buy what DISD is selling when the compositeness to get into a good college is so high. What is DISD doing to prepare our kids for the future?

Dr. Michael Hinojosa: The goal of the Dallas Achieves initiative is to make students college or workforce ready. Some of the issues you've raised have held the district back in the past. There are significant pockets of excellence in the school system producing graduates who attend Ivy League schools. However, there is not a system of excellence and that's what we are trying to accomplish with Dallas Achieves. Please give us a chance. My wife and I feel that our sons who attend district schools will be prepared to attend any college or university of their choice. Finally, public schools belong to the public and we are all responsible for their success or failure. I would strongly urge you to visit your local school before you make your decision, meet with the principal and go into some classrooms, then make your decisions based upon the best interest of your child.

From E-mail: From Norton Rosenthal: Tom Leppert ran for Mayor saying he ! wanted to partner with DISD, at the least, be a bully pulpit, if nothing else, for DISD; to support and helpDISD in your goal to become the best urban school district in the country.My question is: since he was elected, have you talked to the Mayor, haveyou and Tom Leppert met? Any plans to get together on a regular basis? Howcan the city government help DISD? What help would you like to get from thecity and its government?

Dr. Michael Hinojosa: I have met with Mayor Leppert three times since he got elected and none of those meetings were media events, which I appreciate. Mayor Leppert spent two hours on a Sunday evening at my executive leadership team retreat outlining specific ideas how we could collaborate. More details will be available in the coming months but I am excited about continuing to partner with the city. It should be pointed out that there have been numerous meetings over the course of the last two years with city officials at the executive level and elected leaders as well.

PEARLS: How tied is the reorganization to the Credit Card misuse? How does Dallas ISD plan to prevent this from happening in the future? and what steps do you plan to take to ensure the people involved are monitored? Also, some of the access to Credit Cards were for use in schools to help with Parent programs, etch.

Dr. Michael Hinojosa: The two issues are not related at all and, as you may know, the credit card program has been discontinued. Other methods of procurement are available which provide more oversight into how district funds are spent.