It's been a busy summer!

Just briefly: we are in the process of retooling Dallas.Org to allow more rapid posting of comments--as well as adding threaded discussions.

We'll also have some new databases to put online.

The new site will be up in beta test in the coming weeks. Until then, we apologize for the delay in getting comments up. Thanks for bearing with us.

Yes, we will be blogging the Board meeting live tomorrow!

Anonymous

This week there was a news story on Channel 11 regarding parents from Maynard Jackson filing suit against DISD. I have not seen anything else about it since then. Does anyone have any more information about this?

There are at least two pay issues on the June 26 agenda of the Dallas ISD Board-- Alliance/AFT has received some questions regarding:

-Longevity Pay Held Harmless for teachers and other professionals; and
-A one time bonus for groups of employees.

Longevity Pay will be paid as SALARY, not a one-time bonus.

A one-time bonus is on the table for a vote by the board. Which employees receive the one-time bonus is dependent on the AMOUNT of surplus that the district has in December 2008.

The bonus, said Kim Olson, will be paid first to the “lowest” paid employees. She said the plan is to pay it in January 2009. She has also said the details are open for negotiations. The highest paid administrators will NOT be considered for the bonus.

The bonus amount is dependent on SURPLUS—or savings from such things as electricity, etc, which employees can impact in part.

A bonus is not salary. It MOST likely will NOT count for TRS purposes.

Longevity pay is salary, and does count for TRS purposes.

[Ed Note: Thanks Aimee!]