EXTENDED TERM LIMITS

Jason Whitely reports

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DALLAS – The Dallas Independent School District School Board meeting Thursday night spiraled into chaos from the beginning, with the crowd yelling at trustees and police threatening to remove some of them - though officers never did.

Much of the anger was over the board wanting to extend its terms in office from three to four years. DISD says a 2003 state law allows it.

But, Trustee Carla Ranger pointed to a more recent law, created in 2007, that says the district missed its chance to do so by December 31, 2007. She pointed out when two laws conflict, the Texas Code Construction Act lets the latest law prevail.

In response, the school district's attorneys told her that specific law isn't so black and white. Still, term extensions passed in a vote of seven to two. Ranger and Adam Medrano were the only two to oppose it.

Extending terms mean fewer elections, which will perhaps save the district hundreds of thousands of dollars.

But why now push this forward now? The district has had this option since 2003.

"I don't know,” said Board President Jack Lowe when asked that question. “We've sort of messed with it. We thought we would try to work the math ourselves. We finally turned it over to the attorney and he said here's how you do it; so we did it."

"It upset a lot of people and people should be upset,” said Carlos Quintanilla, a DISD critic and local Hispanic activist. “People should be getting on the phone and calling DISD and say you have now taken away my constitutional right to participate in an election."

Considering the district's recent troubles, few disagree that the timing is terrible.

NEA Dallas, one of two local teachers unions, said it will file a complaints with the Texas Attorney General and the U.S. Department of Justice, believing the district voted illegally.

Quintanilla said his group is considering a lawsuit in the coming days to prevent board members from extending their term limits at a time when critics believe the district needs better oversight.

E-mail jwhitely@wfaa.com