Hail to the Chief: Dallas ISD Board of Trustees to Finally Vote on Order of Succession This Week

Speaking of the DISD board of trustees' meeting agenda for Thursday night ...Here's an item of interest: Consider and Take Possible Action to Approve Amendment to Board Policy BJCG (Local) Superintendent Retirement or Resignation (First Reading), which was initially on the consent agenda but has since been pulled for a...

By Robert Wilonsky

August 23, 2011

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Speaking of the DISD board of trustees' meeting agenda for Thursday night ...

Here's an item of interest: Consider and Take Possible Action to Approve Amendment to Board Policy BJCG (Local) Superintendent Retirement or Resignation (First Reading), which was initially on the consent agenda but has since been pulled for a chitchat. Why? Well, for the first time ever, the Dallas ISD board will decide what to do if the superintendent should ever quit suddenly or simply vanish into another dimension and there isn't time to name an interim superintendent. Says the proposal: "The Chief of Staff shall assume the duties of the Superintendent until the 'Interim Superintendent' is selected by a majority of the board."

Hard to believe, but the district's never had a plan of succession. Never really needed it -- because, say, when Michael Hinojosa all of the sudden said he was going to Georgia earlier this year, the board had plenty of time to interview interims, including chief of staff Claudia Rodriguez. Well, that's not true. There was this one time ...

"We did run into this in 1997, when Yvonne Gonzalez suddenly resigned on a Tuesday night," says district spokesman Jon Dahlander, who was there at the time. "Then the board was trying to figure out who was next, and they were thrown into this tailspin. In the case of Hinojosa, it doesn't apply because he gave the board plenty of time. But they may not have that luxury next time."

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