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Hispanic group says DISD chief should quit

12:46 PM CDT on Wednesday, October 15, 2008

WFAA-TV Staff

Video
Alexa Conomos reports
October 15, 2008
LINK: Dallas ISD
MORE: News 8 video

DALLAS — Dallas Independent School District trustees are scheduled to meet Thursday to evaluate Superintendent Michael Hinojosa's job performance.

But some Hispanic activists are already voicing their own concerns.

"Today we are calling for the resignation of Dr, Michael Hinojosa," said Carlos Quintanilla, president of Accion America at a news conference Wednesday morning.

Accion America claims Hinojosa has been a failure — showing disregard for the district's 158,000 students.

"They cannot justify the actions of him individually as a leader of our children," Quintanilla said. "As parents, we are very disturbed."

Accion America is calling for a strike against the district on October 29. They want parents to take their children out of school and have them read in the library that day to make a statement against DISD leadership.

Meanwhile, it's another day of waiting for hundreds of DISD teachers. The district wanted an extra day to review its layoff plans, so an announcement scheduled for Wednesday was put off until Thursday.

School principals voiced concerns the layoff plan will wreak havoc. Part of it calls for transferring 350 teachers to different campuses to close the gap left by employees who lose their jobs.

In all, 463 teachers are likely to be laid off. Another 87 have been spared after more than 200 teachers volunteered to retire or resign.

Alliance/AFT spokeswoman Rena Honea said the delay is agonizing for teachers, but she said it beats the alternative.

"We don't want mistakes being made, and we'd much rather see them delay the process one day to double-check and do those cross checks and make sure those mistakes don't happen, because that means additional anguish later."

District officials were meeting with principals individually on Wednesday to finalize the layoff plan.

Pink slips are expected to be issued Thursday after classes let out.