I submitted a open records request on DISD’s response to Cheese Heroin and they sent me a nice letter charging me $58,000, they should have been transaprent then, after all only 27 DISD students died from Cheese Heroin and thousands more were addicted under Hinojosa’s watch.

With the financial disaster, it is neccessary to “watchdog” the “too cozy” relationship between Jack Lowe related companies and DISD. If DISD could purchase diamonds Zale Corp would had made a profit instead of losing money.

Dallas Independent School District
Called Board Meeting Agenda and Notice
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Board Room, 3700 Ross Ave., Dallas, TX 75204, 4:00 PM

1.
Notice and Return
2.
Moment of Silence and Pledge of Allegiance
3.
CLOSED SESSION – The Board will retire to closed session pursuant to Texas Government Code Section 551 concerning the following sections:

551.074 to deliberate the appointment, employment, evaluation, reassignment, duties, discipline, or dismissal of a public officer or employee; including evaluation of the performance of the Superintendent of Schools.
4.
AdjournmentIf, during the course of the meeting covered by this Notice, the Board of Trustees should determine that a closed meeting or session of the Board of Trustees is required, then such closed executive meeting or session as authorized by the Texas Open Meetings Act, Texas Government Code Section 551.001 et seq., will be held by the School Board at the date, hour, and place given in this Notice or as soon after the commencement of the meeting covered by this Notice as the School Board may conveniently meet in such closed or executive meeting or session concerning any and all purposes permitted by the Act, including, but not limited to the following sections and purposes: Texas Government Code Section:

551.071
Private consultation with Board’s attorney.

551.072
Discussing purchase, exchange, lease, or value of real property.

551.073
Discussing negotiated contracts for prospective gifts or donations.

551.074
Discussing personnel or to hear complaints against personnel.

551.076
Considering the deployment, specific occasions for, or implementation of, security personnel or devices.

551.082
Considering discipline of a public school child, or complaint or charge against personnel.

551.083
Considering the standards, guidelines, terms, or conditions the Board will follow, or will instruct its representatives to follow, in consultation with representatives of employee groups.

551.084
Excluding witnesses from a hearing. Should any final action, final decision, or final vote be required in the opinion of the School Board with regard to any matter considered in such closed or executive meeting or session, then the final action, final decision, or final vote shall be either: (a) in the open meeting covered by the Notice upon the reconvening of the public meeting; or(b) at a subsequent public meeting of the School Board upon notice thereof, as the School Board shall determine. SIGN LANGUAGE INTERPRETERS In keeping with the Americans with Disabilities Act, Sign language interpreters are available for this meeting upon twenty-four hour notice to the Board Services Office, (972) 925-3720. The Board of Trustees of the Dallas Independent School District reserves the right to waive any of its policies and/or a part of this agenda, pursuant to policy BF (Local). Meetings are televised live on cable channels 7B, 9B and 12B.Como lo requiere el Acta de Derechos Para los Americanos con Minusvalias, el districto escolar asignará interpretes del lenguaje por señas a personas que asistan a las reuniones de la junta del Consejo Directivo del Distrito Escolar Independiente de Dallas, si llaman a la oficina del secretario de la mesa directiva al (972) 749-2300 con 24 horas de anticipación. El Consejo Directivo del Distrito Escolar Independiente de Dallas se reserva el derecho de renunciar cualquiera de sus normas como parte de su orden del dia, de conformidad con la norma BF (Local). Las juntas serán televisadas en vivo en el sistema de cable por los canales 7B, 9B and 12B.

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You and he have the right to inspect public records. If you are against that right, you have the right to join forces with school administrators’ associations, who also don’t want the public looking into what they have done with the public’s money.

You do not have the right to ask the motivations or purposes of the searches under Texas law. If the request is of the federal government, they may legally ask the purpose.

You seem to regard any actual investigative reporting done in this school district, whether by traditional media or citizen journalism, as a personal attack on your fiefdom.

Democracy cannot exist without transparency. Even shades of transparency have not brought accountability to this school district.

Open Records requests are not half as expensive as the continual corruption that laps up millions of dollars that should have gone to classroom resources.

As it stands, no citizens have to report their motives to you or anyone else for looking at the documents produced with their tax monies.

Wylie makes a good point that there are intangibles, on both sides, that can’t really be quantified.

I would also like to say that what I do is, for the most part, thankless. I, like you, can’t figure out why I even keep doing it.

The only thing wrong with what Allen Gwinn is doing for DISD taxpayers is that there’s only one of him. He shouldn’t have to do any of this tedious investigating. The State should have sent people in long before now to CLEAN UP the DISD and divide it into at least 9 smaller districts.

Allen, don’t quit. DISD taxpayers desperately need you on the job.

Think about the all-in cost of dealing with a small time thief (say, under $1,000) — it can easily cost the criminal justice system over $30,000 all-in— cost of arrest, transport, holding cell, investigation, prosecution, court administration, etc. I guess you might say, “why bother?” The point is that this creates a huge disincentive to others contemplated taking the same illegal actions.

If we were to allow a closed environment at DISD, the total costs (in terms of additional graft, corruption, etc.) would be enormous. As it stands, DISD’s current annual budget exceeds $1.6 billion, much of it wasted. If the district is forced to spend $1 million to facilitate transparency and public accountability, that works out to well under 1/10 of 1% of the total budget.

I’m guessing that $1 million public records cost goes along way in preventing theft, waste, etc. that would be an additional $20 – $50 million per annum. Sounds like money well spent to me.