Dallas Madison about to gain a lot of students....

[kaorder1999]

The end of Spruce as we know it?

Administrators briefed trustees a little while ago on their plans to blow up H. Grady Spruce High School.

While the board heard three options for reorg, really only one of those was feasible and would actually shock the system, Superintendent Hinojosa said.

In a nutshell: If you work at Spruce, start looking for a new job. And if you're a student, say hello to your new classmates at Lincoln and Madison.

Click the jump for the details.

This is all coming about because, for the fourth straight year, students at Spruce posted some pretty awful test scores. Under state law, the school has one year to boost scores or face state closure. Superintendent Hinojosa is enough of a realist to see that the types of gains needed to save the school simply aren't going to happen.

So, here's the plan that administrators appeared to be leaning toward in an attempt to preempt a state shutdown:

1. All administrative staff will be removed from the school.

2. All teachers will be removed, but they will be allowed to reapply for their old jobs. However, no more than 25 percent of them will be hired back. That would put 89 of the school's 119 teachers on the street. And the 30 slots reserved for re-hires? They wold be filled "based on performance." Now, nobody said this, but I interpreted that to mean re-hires would be based on CEI's.

3. All students in grades 10 and 11 would be bused to Lincoln and Madison high schools. Only incoming freshman and next year's senior class would remain at Spruce. (This would effectively kill the school's athletic programs, noted trustee Ron Price.)

4. Each year, as more freshman entered, Spruce would add new grades until it was once again a 9-12 high school.

5. School improvements would be built around the on-going high school reform efforts already underway at all campuses.

If implemented, I believe that this would be the most radical reorganization of a school that the district has ever undertaken. It certainly beats the recent "reconstitutions" by a mile.

"This [option] is the best chance of success if H. Grady Spruce is going to survive past the summer of 2009," Hinojosa said.

Trustees were briefed on two other options, neither of them appeared to be likely.

One would be to find a business or school management company to take over the operation of the school. Just as soon as that idea was presented, Hinojosa knocked it down, stating that time is too short to find a management company by the end of August.

The other option includes all elements of the first option, including the staff firings, but keeps all students at Spruce.

This option is, politically, the "safest" Hinojosa said, but added that it's also the least likely to result any meaningful improvements -- and the whole point of the change is do something radical.

"We have an obligation to our students to take immediate action," said administrator Donna Michaeux.

The district is holding a community meeting about the changes Tuesday night, in the school's auditorium beginning at 6:30 p.m.

[lostaussie]

DISD seems to be in a total tailspin...............and that is really sad!!!!

[GreenMonster]

Interesting. Since Madison's numbers are certain to jump what action does the UIL take? It isn't really fair to keep them in 3A if they have a large 4A or even a small 5A enrollment for the next couple of years.

[kaorder1999]

Originally posted by lostaussie
DISD seems to be in a total tailspin...............and that is really sad!!!!

Spruce....yes....not the entire DISD

There are some really good things happening at a lot of the other schools in the district

[kaorder1999]

they are sending them to Madison and Lincoln because the two schools are at like 60% compacity

[kaorder1999]

this is only going to be two classes....sophs and juniors at Spruce. That will be about 450 students total. They will go to 2 different campus' so Im guessing Madison might take in about 200-250 students. I dont know how far under the 4A mark they were already...

[lostaussie]

Originally posted by kaorder1999
Spruce....yes....not the entire DISD

There are some really good things happening at a lot of the other schools in the district

I didn't mean everyone.........but they are taking some black eyes over the last couple of years. one scholl completely shut down and now this. what is bad is everytime i see a problem i see this Hinojosa name come up. maybe its a great guy or gal IDK. but.............i see that name alot.............and it is usually not for a good situation.

[kaorder1999]

Originally posted by lostaussie
I didn't mean everyone.........but they are taking some black eyes over the last couple of years. one scholl completely shut down and now this. what is bad is everytime i see a problem i see this Hinojosa name come up. maybe its a great guy or gal IDK. but.............i see that name alot.............and it is usually not for a good situation.

what school shut down?

Hinojosa is the Superintendent so anytime there is DISD news his name is going to come up.

[kaorder1999]

Madison only turned in 523 students at realignment time so there is no way they will gain enough students for the UIL to take any action...

[LH Panther Mom]

Originally posted by kaorder1999
what school shut down?

Maybe he's thinking about WH?

[kaorder1999]

yeah...i think so. They were so close to Dallas I think a lot of people think they were a part of DISD.

[lostaussie]

Originally posted by kaorder1999
yeah...i think so. They were so close to Dallas I think a lot of people think they were a part of DISD.

my apologies because i was thinking of WH. i just knew the kids were taken in buy several of the disd schools and mispoke. certainly did not want to offend anyone.

[kaorder1999]

Originally posted by lostaussie
my apologies because i was thinking of WH. i just knew the kids were taken in bu several of the disd schools and mispoke. certainly did not want to offend anyone.

no offense taken at all. With the amount of schools in the Dallas ISD, there is always going to be something negative for the media to report.

[VWG]

There are bad educators out there... but I hate to see some teachers being blamed for what needs to be straightened out at home. Low test scores cannot be blamed on the teaching staff.
For the most part, teachers are busting their tails off trying to help kids. They don't want to see them fail, but it all begins at the home...... the heart and soul of where a kid learns how to develop his/her learning abilities.

[Old Dog]

DISD and Austin ISD need to compare notes and publish a manual on "How NOT to operate a School".

This is getting to be too regular a thing of late!!!!!