On Nov. 3, parents, teachers and concerned citizens of DISD District 9, encompassing South Dallas and parts of downtown, will be electing a new trustee to replace the outgoing Ron Price. For Price, it’s the end of a long and at times controversial tenure representing a challenging district. For the board as a whole, the election comes at the end of a tumultuous year of budget crises, mass layoffs, and a controversial attempt—ultimately aborted—to extend the terms of three of the Trustees (including Price).
The campaign, a spirited contest among four would-be newcomers to elected office, has succeeded at bringing to the forefront issues of transparency and accountability (for Trustees as much as teachers, parents and students) that weigh heavily on the minds of those with a stake in the city’s schools. The candidates, financial consultant Rossi Walter, educator and consultant Sally Cain, longtime school community liaison Bernadette Nutall, and retired DISD administrator Juanita Wallace, differ dramatically in terms of their styles and backgrounds, yet each of them pitch their candidacies as offering voters a chance to return to the basics of leadership and attending to the needs of Dallas’ schoolchildren.
“The thing that’s most important to me is community involvement,” says Rossi Walter. “As a district, we have to take advantage of the resources that our communities represent—that is, the individuals, the businesses, [and] people who would donate their time and expertise, number one, if they believe that public education works and, number two, if we ask them to.”
Walter says that his campaign has been hobbled by his failure to win the endorsement of Alliance/AFT, who endorsed his previous bid in 2003. As a result, Walter must struggle to get his message across with a campaign that’s understaffed and underfunded. “I had endorsements last time,” says Walter. “Alliance/AFT was a big supporter, [but] they endorsed someone else (Nutall) this time around. A lot of things that they tackled before now depend upon me and the few volunteers that I have.”
Though realistic about his chances, Walter enjoys campaigning. “It’s great, the political process, meeting people, examining issues, it’s wonderful.” His affinity for examining issues reflects his overall approach, a contemplative style to his campaign that a recent Dallas Morning News editorial criticized for being short on specific proposals.
“When we’re at a candidates' forum and we’re asked a question, the expectation is to respond in as much detail as possible on the spot, and I can appreciate that,” Walter says in response to the criticism. “But the reality is that none of us has ever been a trustee, we don’t know how the system really works, and when we’re presented with a problem, our response in a given situation is going to be somewhat different than what we give in the middle of an editorial board or in front of a panel. It’s sort of like being asked to answer a question before you have all of the information.”
For Sally Cain, accused by some of lacking authentic ties to South Dallas, a willingness to acknowledge not having all the answers is key. “We’re playing catch-up,” she admits. “But I am getting tremendous response and meeting amazing people. I’m learning more about the district just walking and talking to people. I’m meeting a lot of people that I’d like to follow up with, and work with down the road. It’s been great.”
Despite formidable educational credentials—former classroom teacher, DISD administrator, U.S. Department of Education official and mother of a son with special needs—Cain expects to have to overcome her relative lack of first-hand knowledge of District 9. “The major challenge is that I’m trying to get my name out there and meet people,” she says. “I’ve tried to respect the integrity of the schools and not spend a lot of time going into schools meeting with principals because I think it’s wrong as a candidate to do that. I think it’s inappropriate to go into the schools and interrupt class.”
“I think the biggest challenge has been getting good information about the school district,” she adds. “Getting information about what each school is using, for example, in curriculum around reading. There’s a variation among types of campuses as well as curriculum selection at the local level. There are some different options.”
Cain sees her outsider status as a minor factor given the breadth of her experience. “I’ve been to probably 1,000 schools in my lifetime,” she says. “I’ve worked outside of the school district. I’ve worked at the State of Texas level. I understand all of the school finance [issues] and public policies around school accountability. I worked for the Department of Education. I understand strong leadership.”
“And now that I’m a dyslexic therapist,” she adds, “I think I really have some good ideas about what we might be missing for students in Dallas.”
Failing to receive the Alliance/AFT endorsement, Cain says that she’s “disappointed that I haven’t gotten the teacher union because my platform has always been always the classroom and helping the teachers get their be able to get them the tools they need to help teachers because as a language therapist I know that on any given day you need a lot of different options to help kids be engaged and that’s the most important thing you do.”
The endorsement went instead to Bernadette Nutall, the candidate with arguably the strongest grassroots support. For her campaign, Nutall sees her primary task as convincing voters that her problem-solving abilities are sorely needed on the Board.
“I believe I bring a unique mix of skills and knowledge to the Board. I worked for the school district as community liaison. I run a nonprofit organization that works with kids that deals with education. I’m a problem-solver. I think at the board level I could understand how [the decisions I would make] could affect the schools, the consequences, how they would go down to the school level.”
Nutall’s nonprofit, Circle of Support, runs a summer learning program for young girls in South Dallas. Some have recently expressed concern that Nutall’s involvement with the organization (as co-founder and executive director) would create a conflict of interest should she win the election, a charge she denies. In a post on the Dallas Morning News DISD blog, Nutall states categorically that Circle of Support receives “NO money or never have receive (sic) money from DISD.”
Unlike Rossi Walter, Nutall has received potentially game-changing endorsements from the likes of Alliance/AFT, the Dallas Morning News, Dallas Friends of Public Education, and the Dallas AFL-CIO. With these endorsements, Nutall is assured a healthy amount of the phone-banking, knocking on doors and, most crucially, financial support, that will be needed to combat the likely low voter turn-out due to the unusual circumstances of a special election.
Indeed, among Nutall’s priorities is “just letting people know it’s election time. A lot of people are like ‘Election? The election is not until May.’ So you have to explain the whole situation about the special election.”
Asked what she considers the board’s most glaring issue, Nutall responds, “I think the lack of the board members making our superintendent accountable and responsible. I think it’s the board reporting to the superintendent where it should be the superintendent reporting to the board.” Although she served for two years on Superintendent Dr. Michael Hinojosa’s Partnership Committee, she claims that she has never had a substantial conversation with him.
It is her years as a DISD community liaison that Nutall puts forth as most exemplifying the traits she would bring to the board. “It was a wonderful experience,” she says. “I had the opportunity to work with teachers, the community, support staff, as well as parents. I got an opportunity to see all sides and put those pieces together. I got to work with everybody.”
The fourth candidate, retired DISD administrator Juanita Wallace, is satisfied with her effort even if she questions the usefulness to her campaign of the numerous candidate forums in which she has taken part. “I’m spending a whole lot of time going to these forums,” she says, “a whole lot of time talking to people that can’t vote for me, and it’s wasting my time.” She makes an exception for the recent “Meet the Candidates” forum sponsored by the Dallas NAAP and Dallas Examiner, a rare occasion in which the attendees included a high enough proportion of District 9 voters to make the effort worthwhile as she sees it.
“This is the shortest campaign period I’ve ever seen,” Wallace says. “I have to spend my time getting in touch with potential voters. I don’t have time to be sitting around in a room talking to people.”
About DISD’s problems, Wallace is blunt as can be. “The entire school district needs to have a redesign. A redesign means that you’re going to pick out the very best principles that are available for each particular school. In other words, you’re going to match that principle with the personality and climate of that school.”
“Number two, you’re going to pick out teachers who are going to be concerned about teaching those students, and who have shown good performance. You are also going to make sure that the teachers themselves feel like they are a part of that actual learning process because you are going to ask their opinion in designing the program for the schools.”
Above all, Wallace is adamant in her insistence on across-the-board accountability. “Everybody’s got to follow policy. [Discipline] has to start with the Board of Trustees. They policies are laid by the board, they’re implemented by the board, so they should be monitored by the board. On down the line, everybody is emulating what the board does as far as following the policy.”
Wallace would also like to challenge what she sees as the district’s excessive emphasis on basic skills acquisition at the expense of true college readiness, citing what she feels is the unacceptably high number of students who go to college only to need remedial education once there.
But it’s Wallace’s insistence on accountability that is most strongly echoed by the other three candidates. When it comes to restoring faith in DISD in light of its most recent missteps, all three have their work cut out for them. With such a crowded field, a run-off seems all-but certain. The ironic situation—an election important enough to draw in four candidates but with a lower-than-average number of voters even aware it’s taking place—neatly symbolizes the amount of bridge-building that needs to happen, both during the campaign and on into the future.
© Dallas Examiner. All rights reserved.
© Dallas Examiner. All rights reserved.
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