Dallas ISD Board Continuing Conflict of Interest

Six years ago, 4-25-2013, the complaint copied below was filed with the Dallas ISD Board.  It was never resolved. Now Dallas ISD can find no record of it. Sadly such conflict of interest situations continue to exist unacknowledged on the Dallas ISD Board. 

Such a conflict of interest situation probably allowed information to be collected by the current DISD Board President, on the DISD board since 2015, to encourage him as Board President of International Leadership of Texas Charter Schools (ILT) in 2016, to lead the application process for ILT to develop 8 schools in South Dallas.  A 102 page document shows his ILT work in 2016. He continues serving on the ILT Board today while also serving as Dallas ISD Board President.

A new complaint is in process using the form below.  The first 5 pages fully signed with 30 signatures on the same form dated 3-28-19, was emailed to all DISD Board members on 3-29-19.  The new form below will be filed at the April 25, 2019 Board Meeting, the exact 6-year anniversary of the last such complaint, above, that somehow DISD appears to have lost.  The DISD Trustee conflict of interest situations demand a public resolution.

Currently the board member, Dr. Blackburn, who was the subject of the 4-25-13 complaint copied above, is not going for re-election in May.  However the Board President, Dr. Edwin Flores, and a trustee candidate now running for office, are both either continuing in conflict of interest situations or are planning to serve, if elected trustee, in a conflict of interest situation.  The conflict would be serving as a DISD Trustee while also working full time as "Chief of Research, Evaluation and Design", a member of the administrative team in DeSoto ISD.  DeSoto ISD actively competes with Dallas ISD for students.

Repeat, both of these conflict situations involve school systems that actively compete in today's open enrollment environment for students with Dallas ISD.

Here is the 4-25-19 dated form to continue to sign for the April Board meeting.  The depth of public concern must be shown.

Anyone who agrees with these issues can print out the form above and collect signatures for the 4-25-19 meeting.  You are encouraged to turn those in you collect yourself at that 4-25-19 meeting, or at the earlier Board Briefing on 4-11-19, if you want. The more who voice their concerns the better!  I will collect the ones not so submitted so they can be included in the complaints filed on 4-25-19.

You can either use the above copy to make the petitions you will collect signatures on, or you can email me, bbetzen@aol.com, and I will send you a pdf copy for printing.

Below is a one page compilation of critical points from 102 pages of documents, wherein DISD Board President Edwin Flores authorized ILT charter schools in Dallas to apply to TEA to establish 8 new charter schools on the southside of  Dallas.  It is an example of the work Edwin Flores is doing with International Leadership of Texas, planning schools to compete with DISD while also sitting on the DISD Board securing vital information to use in his work with ILT.  Here is the one page summary:

           To see all 102 pages summarized into the above page, please email bbetzen@aol.com.

To emphasize the impossibility of such conflicts being allowed to continue, here is a possible agreement that any trustee working with or for a competing school system should be required to sign:

Carefully read the above form,  The impossibility of allowing such conflicts to continue is made very clear.  Why have they been allowed to continue on the Dallas ISD Board?