4-25-19 Testimony: Conflict of Interest Complaint against Dallas ISD Trustees

(Testimony given at 4-25-19 Dallas ISD Board Meeting addressing item 6.02: "Board Members Ethics Agreement.")

This testimony is also online at www.Dallasisd.us.

Almost a month ago an ethics complaint was filed against the DISD Board for allowing conflict of interest situations to continue unchallenged and undocumented on the DISD Board.  The complaint was sent to every board member and Dr. Hinojosa. It included 5 pages with the following wording and 6 signatures on each of these 5 pages.

Each signed page reads as follows:

"We, the undersigned, hereby file a complaint against the Dallas ISD Board of Trustees for allowing conflicts of interest to continue existing, undocumented, on the DISD Board of Trustees.  On page 5 of the Dallas ISD Handbook on Ethics and Integrity the first item is:

1. Avoid conflicts of interest.

A conflict of interest exists when a person has a position of trust that requires him to make decisions for the district and also has interests or obligations with another person, company, or group that may interfere with his exercise of good judgement and which the person is morally obligated to either avoid or openly acknowledge.

How is being a DISD Trustee while also in a board or administrative position in another ISD or charter, and actively competing with Dallas ISD for the same students in today’s open enrollment environment, not a conflict of interest demanding, at a minimum, transparency?

We ask you to resolve these conflicts and advise the public of your actions taken."


This complaint, along with the first 30 signatures, was emailed to all Trustees and Dr. Hinojosa on Friday, March 29th, last month. Nothing has been heard from anyone in an official capacity from Dallas ISD about this complaint since.  

Today, 4-25-19, these 30 signatures have again been sent in an email to all trustees and Dr. Hinojosa along with an additional 62 signatures.

We are now asking that this item be placed on the Board meeting agenda for May and be discussed in public so the public can know how you plan to handle these obvious ongoing conflicts of interest.

If any Trustee thinks they should be held to a lower standard than DISD employees, it is requested that they so state in public in a recorded board meeting.

Again, this testimony with links to additional documentation is at www.dallasisd.us.

(End of planned testimony.)

Here is a link to more details about this ongoing issue with DISD Trustees that goes back 6 years and longer.  It includes documentation of a current Trustee who, while serving as DISD trustee, also signed papers as the President of a charter board to begin work toward 8 more charter schools in the Southside of Dallas ISD.