DISD Delays Vote on Magnet School Cuts
Thursday, May 14, 2009 | Updated 10:21 PM CDT
Parents expected to crowd school board meeting Thursday night.
Angry parents packed a Dallas school board meeting Thursday night -- upset over threats to cut teachers at some of the districts 16 magnet schools.
The board decided not to vote until more research was done.
Dallas' magnet schools have a focus on business, science and the performing arts. Booker T. Washington School for the Arts could lose more than a dozen teachers under the proposed cuts.
District officials said they don't want to make the cuts, but claim they are stuck due to a federal mandate. In order to receive $100 million in federal funds, the Dallas Independent School District has to show that all schools are getting equal funding.
Federal rules governing the money, known as Title I funds, require school districts to show that all schools are being funded equally. Because of that, district officials say, the magnet schools may have to give up some staff, and teachers would be reassigned to other schools.
Magnet teachers would not lose their jobs under the plan, but would be relocated to other schools in the DISD.
