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There's Always Hope…with OneTexFan
Pete Seeger for The Byrds adapted & had written a song from words in The Bible to create a hit record.
The following lines are from that song.
"To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn)
There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn)
And a time to every purpose, under Heaven
A time to be born, a time to die
A time to plant, a time to reap
A time to kill, a time to heal
A time to laugh, a time to weep
To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn)
There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn)
And a time to every purpose, under Heaven
A time to build up,a time to break down
A time to dance, a time to mourn
A time to cast away stones, a time to gather stones together"
There is always hope.
With this in mind we all understand that there's a time to win, and as well a time to lose. We've seen enough of losing, but with the loss of three out of the four games played while collapsing last year along with two late come from behind victories at the start of this season there could have very well have been only one (regular season) win out of their last seventeen games. The last convincing (regular season) win was on December 16, 2012 when the Texans outscored the Colts 29 to 17.
There is always hope.
"I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can't accept not trying."
~ Michael Jordan
"It's fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure."
~ Bill Gates
There is always hope.
On that day in Reliant Stadium Houston had a well balanced diet of Offense with Arian Foster running for 165 yards, and Andre Johnson collecting 151 yards through the air. Defensively, J. J. Watt had an outstanding afternoon with 3 sacks, and a forced fumble. That was on a day when there was fight in the dog, the dog was hungry, and when the dog had teeth. During this stretch of angst and consternation the dog has more fleas than hair, no teeth, and has been resting by the fireplace all cozy, fat and lazy. (That is not a pretty picture.)
There is always hope.
"My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure."
~ Abraham Lincoln
"If you learn from defeat, you haven't really lost."
~ Zig Ziglar
This year's Houston Texans as a unit are the type of football team that keeps on giving in every single game. They are giving constant aggravation, indigestion, consternation, frustration, humiliation, as well as causing hypertension. (Ay caramba!)
There is always hope.
The remaining games start with one on the road against the Indianapolis Colts, and the two remaining games are at home for the Texans against the Denver Broncos followed by the Tennessee Titans. There doesn't seem to be any victory in sight at this point. It's all coming down to just show us a bit more progress, a little more zest, more zip and less zag.
There is always hope.
"Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be."
~ John Wooden
"Failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. You don't fail overnight. Instead, failure is a few errors in judgement, repeated every day."
~ Jim Rohn
There is always hope.
The last loss was certainly no Super Bowl by the widest possible stretch of the imagination, and looked to be more porcelain than not.
For the remainder of 2013 Texans' fans will have to be content with improvement. Case Keenum has a decent shot at making a name for himself as an NFL Quarterback, and with a very suspect Offensive Line in front of him he'll have his hands very full of nothing but trouble. It isn't the same thing as playing the game when he was the standout QB at the University of Houston. He needs to develop patience while making reads as he checks down his options. Those decisions need to be immediate and are not to be second guessed. The bad decisions he makes will need to be forgotten quickly.
There is always hope.
It's not all on CK7 though. The Texans' strength of having a running game appears to be turning the tide now that Ben Tate is healing. It also looks as if RB Dennis Johnson is capable of gaining a spot on next years roster. As fans let's watch his play on the field as he's gaining experience.
There is always hope.
There's talent on both sides of the ball. The squad of Receivers are growing more experienced, and not counting Andre Johnson they're very young.
Next season I'm sure that Brian Cushing will return as strong as ever while pairing up with Justin James Watt to once more being a dominating Defensive duo. Danieal Manning will be back to showcase his 'A-game' once again as they join a healthy Kareem Jackson and Johnathan Joseph. DJ Swearinger is a very good Defensive Back, and continues to show excellent ability every game. The youngster just needs to settle down, get his head on straight and learn how not to allow his emotions to take away from his positives.
There is always hope.
There are quite a few more things to look for in the Houston Texans before this season runs it course. There might be another victory for them in these last few games and there might not. This is not the time to be looking for more wins or to count losses. The future of the Texans is being built upon the shoulders of this season. All is not lost.
There is always hope.
"When you've got something to prove, there's nothing greater than a challenge."
~ Terry Bradshaw
"The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary."
~ Vince Lombardi
"There is always hope."
~ OneTexFan
I am OneTexFan, I am OneTexFan,
I am the Walrus! Coo-coo-cachoo.


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Destroyed cropped sweater: Romwe || Skater Skirt: H&M || Studded boots: Zara
This look is simpler than my usual ones, but perfectly comfortable! Especially when being in school I just cover it up with one of my coats and it still looks good. That cute cropped jumper keeps me SO warm and the shredded/destroyed front makes it different to others. For me a black skater skirt has become one of my essential basics, because it really goes with everything and every time.
The weather randomly matched perfectly to my look = grey clouds, no sun and my grey jumper haha. However, as you can see I'm pretty much obsessing over my dark burgundy lipstick at the moment, it's so amazing haha. :-)

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Boston's star chef, Dante de Magistris, presents classic Italian cuisine with a twist at his eponymous hot spot. Named "Best Italian" by Boston Magazine and nationally recognized by Bon Appetit, dante has something for everyone. With a selection of plates evoking the serenity of the Mediterranean and the magnificent views of the Charles River and Boston skyline, dante is the perfect spot to refresh your mind, restore your spirit, and reinvigorate your taste buds. Join us for dinner and enjoy a broad selection of tastes at every price point.
Visit www.restaurantdante.com for more information.
From 2:30 PM daily
Reservations are recommended: www.restaurantdante.com/


text:
Is there any existing Ext-JS spell checker component? I want to have a simple checker on plain text area.
Is there any existing Ext-JS spell checker component? I want to have a simple checker on plain text area.
It's hard enough to find a good JavaScript spell checker at all, not to mention one specifically in ExtJS.
The jquery-spellchecker looks pretty decent to me. Have you considered it?
I've written an on-the-fly spellchecker for IE 6 (http://www.sencha.com/forum/showthre...lEditor.JSpell)
Yaron Yogev
IT Software Developer
Spellchecking is a nice to have for me, so since nearly all the latest browsers are supporting the HTML5 spellcheck attribute, I'm going with that. No plugins, no heavy ajax-ing.
@dr-dan: Does ExtJS add this HTML5 attribute to its form fields automatically, or does something else need to be done or set?
Anybody who likes to use IE and is still working on Windows XP (there are many of those among my users) will not have this capability. You'd be amazed how many times I still see people using IE 6!
Yaron Yogev
IT Software Developer


text:
Search Results
There are 56 item(s) tagged with the keyword "Illegal Aliens".
- Displaying: 1 - 10 of 56
- 1. Gila County Republican Party Votes to Censure Senator McCain
Contact:Gary P. Morris, Chairman, Gila County Republican Party 602-803-7366
For the second time since 2013, the Gila County Republican Party has censured Senator John McCain for his lack of adherence to Republican principles and the desires of his Republican constituents in Gila County. The censure from the May 14 Precinct Committeemen meeting states the Gila County Republican Party cannot, and will not, support Senator McCain in the upcoming elections.
In early fall of 2013, The Gila County Republican Party first censured Senator McCain for abandoning Republican principles as well as his participation and leadership in the "Gang of Eight" along with the Senator's conscious and arrogant abandonment of the desires of his Republican constituents. Those eight senators drafted a poorly designed, ill thought out, "Comprehensive Immigration Reform" bill. Ultimately, Congress rejected the bill following substantial opposition from the public.Click here to read more
- 2. John McCain rips Tea Party, Fox News, calls Hillary Clinton a 'rock star'
Remember this article from 2013?
When asked about Hillary Clinton, John McCain stated:
"I think she did a fine job," he said of Clinton's performance as Secretary of State despite the scandal surrounding the Benghazi terror attack.
"She's a rock star. She has, maybe not glamour, but certainly the aura of someone widely regarded throughout the world. I do think it is interesting that the issues where John Kerry is engaging is where Hillary Clinton did not engage in, that those decisions were left to the White House and the National Security Council," he added.
What if Hillary ran against Rand Paul in 2016:
"It's gonna be a tough choice," he said, laughing.
He clarified his remark, saying Paul "represents a segment of the GOP, just like his father. And I think he is trying to expand that, intelligently, to make it larger."
He called Rand Paul and Ted Cruz "wacko birds."
He said Obama has "grown" in office, especially since the president has reached out to him and Sen. Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Republican who is often at McCain's side on issues like immigration. McCain praised Graham, saying he "is like a son to me."
Fox News is "schizophrenic."
About the TEA Party: "Many in this group didn't come to power to get things done. They came to power to keep things from getting done," he said.
John McCain also stated: Kelly Ayotte, I am very close to. Chuck Schumer (Democrat). Carl Levin (Democrat) and I are as close as two people can be.
Help Kelli Ward Fight the McCain Machine. Please DONATE today.Click here to read more
- 3. Alert! Please Help Itasca Small Defeat Bob Worsley for Senate in LD25!
Itasca Small, a long-time supporter and activist for states rights; local control over education and stopping Common Core; and defending our State Superintendent's constitutional powers over education in our state; is running for State Senator against Bob Worsley (R-LD25 Mesa). Ms. Small has spent countless hours at our State Capitol educating our legislators on the proper role of government and on restoring local control over education in our public schools. Please click HERE to see her pledge and HERE to read her background on why she would like to serve her constituents in LD25.Click here to read more
This is our opportunity to rid LD25 of Bob Worsley who has long been a supporter of more federal involvement in our schools and Obamacare, and who continues to fight against all of our efforts to rid our state of Common Core! He does not understand states rights and the importance of pushing back against the continual overreach from the federal government. (See below.)
- 4. WE MUST UNIFY IF YOU LOVE THIS REPUBLIC, by Russell Pearce
Russell Pearce has taken a stand to support Donald Trump, and I agree with him. Please read what he has to say:
As former President of the Arizona Senate, as former Chief Deputy to Sheriff Joe, as former 1st Vice Chair of the Arizona Republican Party and as a consistent Constitutional defender of our Founders Constitution, as Tea Party Patriot, I stand with the majority of Arizona Republicans and America in standing with Donald Trump.Click here to read more
- 6. Please Make Phone Calls to Stop Obama's Unconstitutional Amnesty! Don't Stop Making those Phone Calls!
Please call Congress, your Arizona legislators, the Governor, and the Governor-Elect on Friday, November 21 and every day thereafter, until the following message sinks in:
"The Constitution gives Congress the power of the purse. I expect the Republicans in Congress to use it and defund anything connected with executive orders Obama issues regarding immigration. What action will you be taking on this issue?"
Arizona Legislators, Governor Brewer, and Governor-Elect Ducey:
"On Nov. 4, Arizonans approved Prop 122 , an amendment to the Arizona Constitution to reject unconstitutional federal actions. On Nov. 20, Barack Obama illegally granted amnesty to millions of illegal aliens. Not only is this an unconstitutional federal action, but it will also cost Arizona citizens incalculable taxpayer dollars. You are the firewall between Arizona citizens and a lording Obama. What actions do you intend to take?"
Follows is a list of those you should call. Be polite and be brief. You might be talking to a 20- year old intern who will only be answering the phone and keeping track of the calls.Click here to read more
- 7. Will Governors Use their Powers to Stop Obama?
The November election favored Republicans for only one reason: STOP OBAMA! Governorships were won by Republicans, often in Democratic states, for one reason: STOP OBAMA! "Governors and state legislatures have the ability to tell Obama and the Feds: not in my backyard"!Click here to read more
- Displaying: 1 - 10 of 56


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New York, November 22, 2011--Iranian authorities have engaged in a series of attacks against the press in the past two weeks, including raiding a news office, banning an independent newspaper, and arresting at least five journalists.
"The Iranian regime has maintained a policy of silencing any type of dissenting opinions by arresting critical journalists, banning reformist newspapers, and politicizing the convictions of journalists," said Mohamed Abdel Dayem, CPJ's Middle East and North Africa program coordinator. "With each passing day, the regime continues to add to its growing list of press violations, placing it among the world's leading violators of media freedoms."
On Sunday, a Tehran court sentenced Ali Akbar Javanfekr, director of the official Iranian News Agency and its print affiliate Iran, to one year in prison and a three-year ban on practicing journalism on charges of publishing material contrary to Islamic law, according to news reports. The next day, judiciary officials aligned with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei stormed the offices of Iran and arrested Javanfekr, news outlets reported. Javanfekr, who is also President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's media adviser, was handcuffed and detained, but freed an hour later when the president threatened to personally come and release him from the prosecutor's office, news reports said.
Javanfekr had given an interview to the reformist daily Etemad, published on Saturday, in which he harshly criticized the Iranian prosecutor general and other conservatives, news reports said. Etemad was banned on Sunday for two months for "disseminating lies and insults to officials in the establishment," news reports said. The newspaper was informed of the ban by a phone call from the Tehran prosecutor's office, according to the opposition website Iran Green Voice.
Javanfekr was holding a press conference about his sentence when officials tried to detain him, news reports said. After staff members gathered in the journalist's office and tried to prevent officials from arresting him, security forces broke down the door, sprayed the staff with pepper spray, threw tear gas, and started a fire. News outlets reported that security forces also arrested the newspaper's chief editor, Mossayeb Naeimi, and at least 30 reporters and staff from IRNA, Iran newspaper, and other press offices in the building. CPJ could not immediately corroborate those reports.
In an unrelated episode, security forces arrested Hassan Fathi, editor of the Iranian daily Ettelaat, at his home in Tehran on November 13, the BBC Persian service reported. His wife told the BBC that she was initially unaware of her husband's arrest and heard about it first on the Internet. She said security forces confiscated his laptop and their satellite receiver.
News reports said that Fathi was arrested after granting an interview to the BBC Persian service on an explosion at an ammunition depot that killed 17 soldiers from the Revolutionary Guards. The semi-official news agency Fars claimed he was a reporter for the banned BBC Persian service and accused him of "spreading lies and disrupting public minds." Iran bans any cooperation with foreign news agencies. In a statement, the BBC Persian service denied that Fathi was working for them and said they were interviewing him as an independent analyst. The BBC said they have no office or journalists working for them in Iran.
Security forces also arrested Davood Khodakarami, a journalist with the Azari-language Bayram Monthly, in the northwestern province of Zanjan, on Friday, according to news reports. The journalist had gone to the Zanjan bus terminal to ship copies of the just-published edition of Bayram Monthly to the city of Tabriz. His family initially reported him missing, but then received a phone call from Khodakarami at 10 p.m. on Saturday confirming his arrest. Bayram Monthly is the only publication in the city of Zanjan that covers cultural and social issues. According to opposition website Iran Global, security forces had gone to Khodakarami's home several times since August, threatening his family and searching the premises and confiscating his computer and personal items.
Two Kuwaiti journalists, reporter Adel al-Yahya and cameraman Raed al-Majed, were arrested on November 11 in the southern city of Abadan on charges of espionage and entering the country illegally, news reports said. Several Kuwaiti newspapers said the journalists, who work for the private Kuwaiti television station Al-Adalah, intended to produce a program titled "Kuwaiti Citizens Abroad" about children of Kuwaiti nationals who have married Iranian citizens.
Another detention, which occurred in March, was disclosed this month for the first time. Fereydoun Seydi Rad, an online journalist, was arrested on March 2 and spent 43 days in solitary confinement, according to news reports. His sister, Faranak Seydi Rad, said their family had maintained silence for eight months because they had been threatened and did not want to worsen the journalist's situation. In August, a Tehran Revolutionary Court sentenced Seydi Rad to one year in prison for "propagating against the regime" in writings on his blog, Arak Green Revolution, and two years for "participating in Ayatollah Montazeri's funeral" and "participating in an Ashura Day protest," in December 2010, which Seydi Rad denied.


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994 members27 Likes
481 members13 Likes
Noah Shapiro has not received any gifts yet
Hey Noah - I guess we had a slight miscommunication yesterday. My bad if I erred on the time. I haven't listened to your voicemail yet, but I was at Reichmuth by 5:45pm. Hopefully we can hit this weekend or next week.
Hey Noah, the lights at Reichmuth courts may still be offline in case you planned on showing up. I was out there yesterday and they didn't come on.
© 2020 Created by Mark / The Mayor. Powered by


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Read from the beginning here. **Click on the images below for larger versions**
Friend No. 34 looks pretty severe, but she has on a beautiful dress:
Check out this close-up of the beading on her dress:
Unfortunately, the back of her photo doesn't reveal much:
The imprint on the front shows that the photo was taken by the Canfield & Bro. on Bank Street in New Milford, Conn. We encountered photographer James E. Canfield previously. He took Fred Young's (Friend No. 8's) photo. Now there is a brother indicated in the studio name. In the 1880 U.S. census, James is listed with a son, 20, who also has 'photographer' listed as his profession. Could Ward be the 'brother' indicated in the studio name?
I have discovered a New Milford city directory showing that both of them had removed to New Haven by 1888-89.
We've definitely seen Friend No. 35 before:
This shot looks so familiar, I'm willing to bet it's either a copy of Photo No. 22 or a copy of a photo from the same shoot. The fact that she's wearing the same dress gives it away:
There is a beautiful imprint on the back of Photo No. 35:
Photographer Charles R. Bronson is listed at 407 Main Street in Bridgeport in 1885-86 and 1890-91 city directories. That timeframe is definitely after the period in which I think the original shot was taken (in the 1860s or 1870s), reinforcing the idea that Photo No. 35 is a copy. Bronson is found in an 1874 city directory as well, but at a different address.
1880 U.S. Census, Litchfield County, Connecticut, population schedule, New Milford, page 30, dwelling 268, family 336, Ward B. Canfield; Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 9 March 2011); Roll: 101; Family History Film 1254101; Page: 566B; Enumeration District: 31; Image: 0833.
Bridgeport, Connecticut 1874 directory, Charles R. Bronson, p. 24; Ancestry.com (accessed : 25 March 2011).
Bridgeport, Connecticut Directories, 1885-1893, Charles R. Bronson; Ancestry.com (accessed : 25 March 2011).
New Milford Directory, 1888-89 and 1891-92, Ward B. Canfield; Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 25 March 2011).


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Yup, the man in the rainbow brite car's moved up from 42nd place to 20th, and somehow Boris Said found a way to disappoint his legions of Said-heads by taking himself out of the race.
3:53:32 PM: Yes, thank you Darrell Waltrip — we do tend to take things out on our friends, don't we?
4:03:22 PM: Wait, did we just hear that a driver tried to turn "right?" What is this "right" they speak of?
4:06:39 PM: Gilliland led for 18 laps, and Kurt Busch's now the leader, and has been for around 19 laps.
4:11:51 PM: Although Jeff Gordon's done a great job moving up from 42nd to 20th, the biggest mover has got to be Kevin Harvick's moved up to 6th from all the way back in 34th.
4:15:42 PM: Tony Stewart's now taken the lead. Oh, wow. It's the third lead change of the race. We're going to go and get a new beer.
4:18:15 PM: And we're 53 laps in...jeez...how long's this supposed to last? Oh wait, 2.5 miles per lap — It's called the "500" — we're guessing like 200. Jeez...
4:18:39 PM: I swear, there's more Chevy signage, graphics and commercials than I've seen since...umm...ever.
4:20:23 PM: Montoya's doing great — he's in second-to-last place.
4:26:29 PM: Montoya has a talent for going slow...even into pit-row. But apparently he's saying his "car's running really tight...can't even run it on the apron without losing control." Sucks to be Juan Pablo.
4:29:55 PM: Oh wait, what's this? His name is Juan Pablo Montoya — he's moved up to 35th place, prepare to die.
4:30:44 PM: The Dale Earnahrdt Jr. DirecTV commercial with Dale Jr. doing smokey burnouts is kinda weird. Dunno why, just is.
4:32:15 PM: Wait a second, did a Model T almost pass a Ford Fusion in that FoMoCo commercial? Hmm. That could make sense come to think of it. Oh wait, that'd be a Toyota Camry commercial.
4:33:19 PM: 70 laps down.
4:37:18 PM: Harvick's just on fire — the man who won the race yesterday is now in 3rd place.
4:37:37 PM: Gilliland's just dropped into 6th place.
4:41:44 PM: There's a problem with the rear of Kyle Petty...err...the rear of Kyle Petty's CAR. Got it.
4:41:55 PM: Tony Stewart's just stalled in pit row.
4:42:00 PM: Oh wait, now he's out.
4:43:05 PM: Tony Stewart said the oil pressure's dropping to 20 psi in the slow speed of caution.
4:43:55 PM: Petty's got a shredded tire attached to the wheel housing. That's what caused the problems of the past few minutes. Also, Gilliland's a tool for causing some in-pit-row accidents. But hey, no harm — and he'll probably lose some points.
4:48:30 PM: Hey, Kurt Busch is in the numero uno position now.
4:49:32 PM: Denny Hamlin wants to know "who's your daddy?" We're not sure — but hey, with the Busch brothers in 1st and 2nd, they each know who their brothers are.
4:53:13 PM: Dale Jr.'s rolling loose and now he's moving his hands all over the place to keep his Chevy on the race track — and now he's moved down to 21st place from 4th. Not sure what the problem is, but he's dropped completely out of the lead pack.
5:00:02 PM: Kurt Busch has now been in the lead for 44 laps — and you know what? This shit's getting real boring. Can someone please crash soon?
5:08:02 PM: Oh sorry there — I just nodded off a bit. Did I just hear the boys on the boob tube comparing Harvick's helmet to the Sistine Chapel?!
5:15:23 PM: There may be no black NASCAR drivers, but I did just see rapper TI in the Chevy Impala SS commercial...and yes, it was a black SS.
5:20:47 PM: Kurt's brother just dropped down to 7th place from 2nd. Tony Stewart's jumped back up to 15th place, but the Kurt Busch versus Denny Hamlin thing's getting a bit interesting...
5:23:21 PM: Holy shoot, everyone and their brother's pitting right now.
5:26:48 PM: Jeff Burton's #31 Cingular Chevy car looks like it's got a confederate flag on the top. Maybe that's why they're changing over to ATT...
5:34:50 PM: Ricky Rudd's moved up to 2nd place, and the two big movers are Tony Stewart who's moved back up to 8th place, and Kevin Harvick who's lapping at 186.706 mph, more than a second faster than Kurt Busch, the leader. But Busch has now been leading for 85 laps with only 60 more to go.
5:35:08 PM: Oof, and Stewart's now moved up to 5th, passing Edwards and Sauter.
5:39:54 PM: Fuck Rudd, here comes Busch-brother Kyle back into 2nd place right up Kurt's ass.
5:40:09 PM: And Tony Stewart's now right on Kyle's ass!
5:40:23 PM: And we know Tony knows ass — usually because he's one himself.
5:41:12 PM: Mike Joy thinks Rudd's the fastest in the pit, but he, like us, was wrong. It was actually Jeff Gordon. He may not be driving fast, but he's certainly pitting fast.
5:44:07 PM: Tony Stewart's now in first place. And the FoxPromo want's to be clear that Tony wants you to "look for him in the final laps."
5:44:19 PM: Someone's got to get TI out of Dale Jr.'s car. Fucking A, that's why he's crawlin' on the track today!
5:45:50 PM: CRASH IN TURN FOUR! Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch went into each other!
5:45:52 PM: Smash it up!
5:46:25 PM: Kurt Busch is out! Tony Stewart's out! Took 'em long enough to have a big crash.
Daytona 500 Live-Blog: It's All About The Pre-Race [internal]


text:
"Discover Amazing Secret to $1,000 Per Month In 60 Days With New Video"
Don't kid yourself... You Already Know If
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text:
Archeologický kroužek pri ZS Všestary
Author(s): Anna Tichá; Et Al; Radomír Tichý
Year: 2000
This resource is a citation record only, the Center for Digital Antiquity does not have a copy of this document. The information in this record has been migrated into tDAR from the EXARC Bibliography, originally compiled by Roeland Paardekooper, and updated. Most of these records consist of a document citation and other metadata but do not have the documents themselves uploaded.
If you have a digital copy of the document and would like to have it curated in tDAR, please contact us using the "Submit Correction, Comment" link to the right.
Cite this Record
Archeologický kroužek pri ZS Všestary. Anna Tichá, Et Al, Radomír Tichý. Rekonstrukce a Experiment v Archeologii (REA). 1. 2000 ( tDAR id: 418760)
This Resource is Part of the Following Collections
Geographic Keywords
Czech Republic
Spatial Coverage
min long: 12.094; min lat: 48.581 ; max long: 18.851; max lat: 51.052 ;
Individual & Institutional Roles
Contact(s): EXARC Experimental Archaeology Collection Manager
Record Identifiers
ExArc Id(s): 5018
Rights & Attribution: The information in this record was originally compiled by Dr. Roeland Paardekooper, EXARC Director.


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Oprah Turns 60: Her Hilarious Birthday Gift From Ellen DeGeneres
Ellen DeGeneres is known for being generally hilarious, but her exceptional gift to celebrate Oprah's 60th birthday took things to the next level!
Oprah Winfrey has got to be the toughest person to shop for! Luckily, Ellen DeGeneres thought of the perfect gift for the billionaire mega star, who turned 60 on Jan. 29. The funny lady revealed her gift to Oprah during The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and let's just say even Oprah would probably be rendered speechless by Ellen's hilarious gesture.
Oprah's 60th Birthday: Ellen DeGeneres Gives Her A Giant Sequined Portrait
Ellen gifted the OWN Mogul and woman who has probably seen it all with a giant sequined portrait of herself! She then went on to take credit for the thoughtful and unique gift by joking, "I spent a lot of time on it. Pretty. Each one hand-done. Took me months to do that thing." Following the big reveal, Ellen then pretended to get on the phone with the big O herself.
According to E!, Oprah had plans to celebrate her milestone birthday in style by throwing a huge black tie event, but he party was canceled because the guest list got out of hand. Instead, it seems like the birthday girl celebrated a little early with friends at a SoulCycle class, according to her Instagram.
Oprah Winfrey Turns 60
We are glad to see that Ellen could still make Oprah's big day shine with the help of some sequins. However, there is a catch to this great gift. Oprah will have to collect her present in person, because "shipping is going to cost me a fortune," according to Ellen. Watch the hilarious video Here!
What do you think HollywoodLifers? Do you love this gift idea?
— Caitlin Beck


text:
Classes are currently being taught online. All physical facilities are closed to the public at this time, and employees are working remotely.Please visit
dcccd.edu/coronavirus for additional information and to
find contact information for various departments.If you need additional assistance, please visit
My Community Services and our
Community Employment Resources.
Oh come on, folks.
>> [INAUDIBLE] Good afternoon.
>> Political forum, good afternoon.
>> Good afternoon.
>> My name is Tom Chesney.
I get to work at Brookhaven College, where I am president and I will for about the next hour and 15 minutes or so, be a moderator for the second candidates forum for the Dallas County Community College District board of trustees elections in May.
I want to introduce a couple of other folks who are instrumental to pulling together today's events, and they our faculty counsel president Brookhaven, Bill
>> And president government in political science [INAUDIBLE]
Our Student Government Association President Laura was not able to be with us today.
The Student Government Association, faculty, council and the IPS have been instrumental [INAUDIBLE] today's events in getting word out.
We are so glad you could join us, let's begin.
We will open with two minutes opening statements from our panel of candidates.
I'll be the time keeper for up here, we've got a little chime that will go off.
But first I'd like to introduce the candidates and we'll go to opening statements.
To my far left, Mark.
>> Hello.
>> Dorothy Zimmerman.
>> Hello. Frank
>> Gene Robinson.
Bill Ritter and Richard Morgan.
Candidates will share with me the specific distance as they make their remarks.
This is the second in a series of campus visits to the colleges so
you may see them again with it.
If you want to watch the video after the fact you can see those on
the Dallas college's website.
With that we will begin a two opening opening statements.
The candidates have asked that we refer to them by their first names, so
I will begin with.
>> Hi, my name is Martha Jo Talbot, and I'm actually in district four.
I have a bachelor's and a Master's degree, in education.
Library science, certifications in all-level art, and also secondary English.
And I have taught for 40 years.
I am an educator and I have a passion for education.
Therefore I wanted to continue to serve in another way.
And I have taught all levels from first grade through twelfth grade, and I have served as a principal at the middle school level and at the high school level.
At both levels I was able to work with the Dallas County Community College on special projects,
moving students toward coming to the community college.
I enjoyed that immensely.
Thank you.
>> Hello my name is Monica De La Bravo and I'm also running for district four.
District four covers the area surrounding Eastfield college.
Which includes parts of East Dallas, most of Pleasant Grove, all of Mesquite, Sunnyvale.
Pretty much everything in the Southeast part of the county.
A little bit about myself, and why I'm running.
I'm a board certified immigration attorney.
I'm a business owner.
I'm an owner of my own law firm, and I have board experience, which I think is invaluable for this board.
This board decides fiscal policy for all seven community colleges I believe I'm the only candidate in my race with board experience.
The previous president of the Dallas [INAUDIBLE] bar association.
As well as serving on the Dallas [INAUDIBLE] Bar Association.
As well as serving on the Dallas Bar Association, you basically are governing bodies for the attorneys here in Dallas.
My reason for running is because I have a passion for education.
I'm a first generation college student.
My parents had no more than a second grade education.
So I can relate to the students who are going through the system.
Who have no knowledge of what it takes to go into college.
And so part of my reason for running is to help students have a voice.
On this board and have some impact on decisions that will be made on their [INAUDIBLE] Thank you.
>> Thank you.
>> I'm Dorothy Zimmerman and as far as my qualifications I've attended every board meeting.
For the Dallas County Community College district board of trustees since 2012.
I attended Eastfield College, so I understand the college system, Eastfield.
And after attending the meetings, I've been made very, very acutely aware
of the problems of increasing tuition and the problems of increased taxes.
Our spending I think is our main problem.
If quality in education is what we're going for, perhaps we're missing the mark.
Since 2010, your tuition has gone up $18 a college hour.
I'm very much aware of that.
And I want to be your representative on the board.
Because as students, another tax increase and one more tuition
increase and I'm concerned that a lot of your fellow classmates or
maybe even you yourself will not be able to afford another semester.
Books are not getting cheaper, I know that.
There are a lot of things that impact your daily life and
when you're trying to make the decision do you pay tuition,
or do you eat or make rent.
Or do the other things that are necessary with your limited funds.
I don't want you to have to make that kind of a decision.
Because I believe that education should be available to everyone.
Not just those who have the money.
We can't make education elite because the more elite we make it,
well the harder it is for those who attended Eastfield.
Thank you so much.
Frank Millsap, I have a Associate degree from junior college back in the 1960s.
I'm a graduate from the state university both bachelors and Masters and
in what we call I've been teaching in the district for over 40 years.
I came down here in 1974.
[INAUDIBLE] curriculum.
Six years later, it became the only community college with a national
accreditation, and [INAUDIBLE] became nationally recognized,
to the point that I was invited to do lots of these things.
So over the years, [INAUDIBLE] Taiwan,
[INAUDIBLE] education [INAUDIBLE] Outstanding education
year a national award for [INAUDIBLE] management.
Just two weeks ago.
Is a trophy at Dallas for education,
I wrote that program, and then I left.
And I started a hobby of building old cars,
and then a street car fabrication program,
a national accredited and national recognition.
[INAUDIBLE] more of a [INAUDIBLE]
here and there.
[INAUDIBLE] city [INAUDIBLE] But
after that, I think my success you
know in the program at the corporate level.
[INAUDIBLE] pay attention to the details painting the big picture trustees.
And keep in mind that the big picture doesn't work without details.
And I think I have the [INAUDIBLE] to do that.
Thank you. >> [APPLAUSE]
>> [CLAPPING] My name is Gene Robinson.
I'm an employee here at this college for
23 years, some of you may remember me.
My position after 23 years is that the college was terminated
in 2014 due to yet another budget crisis in the district.
I promised you my fellow PSS employees,
I promised my fellow instructors, and my fellow students,
that I'll come back in 2016 to correct this problem.
I am here to lead the presence today to fulfill that
there's been spending and.
That's hurt you as students alternative education, return morale.
I am here to make sure that the budget in this district is not announced on the back
of DSS employees, or on students education.
I am here to support education, to support PSS employees and
to support classroom education instruction [INAUDIBLE] for
purposes that really are suspicious and [INAUDIBLE] no education,
I ask for your support in helping me do that, I need you both.
District two is my district.
And I thank you for having me here today.
[APPLAUSE] >> Thank you Doctor [INAUDIBLE].
Hello [INAUDIBLE] my name is Phil Ritter
and [INAUDIBLE] district here
[INAUDIBLE] District two for about 28 years.
I grew up in Maryland, and
went to undergraduate law school at the University of Maryland.
And my ticket to Texas was to go down to Austin to the LBJ School of Public Affairs
where I worked for a couple years in the legislature while I was in school there.
My background is in business and management.
I was at Texas Instruments for 20 years,
I retired as Senior Vice President never saw the government relations and
the philanthropy of many of the education programs in the company.
I spent five years as executive vice president for
government stakeholder affairs.
And the past two years I've been running a non-profit startup policy focused on
mental health issues.
I've been deeply involved in education at every level.
I see education as a system.
I've had a chance to serve as a campus volunteer at
the OM Broderick's Elementary School in DISD.
And I served as a member of the Dallas Chief's Commission under
Superintendent Yohost during his first tour of duty.
On upper division higher education,
I currently serve as a member of the UT Dallas Development Board.
But community college has always been a special passion for me.
I was on the Dallas County Foundation Board for roughly 12 years,
and deeply involved in the Rising Scholar scholarship program which raised over
27 million dollars for the scholarship for the students in this district.
In 2004, I chaired the last five campaigns the district had that received
voter approval before, and 50 billion dollar jobs and facility improvements,
and that helped build the science center and
the early childhood center that exist on this campus today.
So, it's great to be with you.
We're grateful for some of our supporters who are here, including my wife,
Stephanie, who's in the back somewhere.
Many students who have volunteered on my campaign and I also want to
thank Delron Fleming, who's just taught me so much about what it means to teach and
to be a part of the community college system here.
And I look forward to answering all your questions.
Thank you [INAUDIBLE].
[APPLAUSE] >> All right, well, good morning.
It's great to be here.
Thank you Dr. and everyone who's worked so hard on this event and for
the students for being here.
Again, my name is Richard Morgan.
12 years ago I was I was a student here at E Triple Sigi.
I went to Eastfield College, my brother went to El Centro.
I'm running because I am passionate about education,
specifically about community college.
I just read a report recently that said the class of 2015 has the highest student
debt of any class in our history,
with 35,000 dollars of student loans on average.
That is why community colleges are so critical.
We have the key to maintain to maintain a strong community college system where our
students can come get the first two years of their degree, and then transfer or
complete a two year degree certificate, then get a good job with it.
I spent the last 12 years in technology.
We hear a lot about STEM and about computer jobs.
That's what I do.
I think that I have probably the best expertise, of people running for
this seat, in this district, because I actually work in the field.
I understand what they're probably looking for in the field, we've been hiring for
many months at my company.
I want to ensure that our students, each person in this room,
is able to get the skills you need to get the job, to actually complete
those degrees and then get good paying jobs with those degrees.
And that's why I'm running.
I'd appreciate your support.
>> [APPLAUSE] >> Thank you, candidates.
We'll now move into a series of one minute reply questions,
some broader, some more specific.
For those of you who may have joined us a little bit late,
these questions come to us from Brookhaven students.
Our first question will begin with Monica.
As a board of trustees member, what do you see as the top priorities for
the Dallas County Community College District and
how do you hope to see it achieved?
I think the biggest issue that this next beard will see
is deciding how to balance our budget, and
figuring out how can we be effective stewards of our tax dollars,
and not question for our students.
DCTD prides itself on having the second lowest tuition in the State of Texas.
And so if afford, we should be very conscious of any increase in tuition and
trying to find other ways of funding the community college district.
Whether it'd be looking for increasing funding,
because state funding is really low right now, it's about 22%.
As the board, I would want the board to look at
maybe making private partnerships with corporations in the DFW area.
Seems like many headquarters here in the DFW area.
That we could possibly partner with that would help with either funding courses or
partnerships for training program, so that we don't have to increase tuition for
our students.
>> All righty.
One of the biggest things is, as I see it,
is the dropping enrollment that's going to basically impact
the cost to the students who've due come to the college.
The dropping enrollment has not necessarily been publicized.
But one of the reasons our State funding is not coming Through at this
greater rate, is that our involvement has been dropping.
The state does not pay for students who do not come here.
So, if we can get the students back, then we can get further
funding from the state, and perhaps work it that way.
But at the same time, at home when you know that there's a bill coming and
you know that there's not whole lot that you can do about getting a third job.
You simply cut back on what you're spending.
And I think we've all had to do that.
So, if we can look at what we are maybe not getting the biggest bang for
our buck and see about doing it that way.
We can benefit the students who will come here and
we can benefit the students who are already here.
>> I'd like to show you some information on district and
in long term [INAUDIBLE] college and they aren't prepared so
they require [INAUDIBLE] other programs.
By the time they have gotten up to speed [INAUDIBLE] it may be more financial aid
so that really creates a problem because a lot of them then can't go to school.
So we had to [INAUDIBLE] the community and to them.
That's one thing I'll tell you is our population is getting older,
they're retiring, they're not making [INAUDIBLE] that I've seen.
So the older population [INAUDIBLE] retiring a little bit younger,
a little more healthier, a little more affluent, a little more free time.
[INAUDIBLE] [INAUDIBLE] I think we're seeing in some cases a decrease in
creative art, some of the drama classes,
creative writing, technology programs of all kinds, and we got to worry about that.
We haven't [INAUDIBLE] income in the district.
We have state funding, we have tuition, we have taxes, and we have outside sources.
That's one area that we can tap into.
We're not doing a very good job at outside sources, meaning community involvement.
I think those are areas we really need to address.
>> Gene, same question.
>> The biggest problem facing this district is
the bloated administrative structure and
spending in areas that has not been [INAUDIBLE] education.
The top five salaries in this district, breaking $1.4 billion a year.
Salaries alone.
In 2014, when Student Services were cut here at Brookhaven, in that same year and
the following year, these two parking lots out here were concreted,
that it never been concreted before in 38 years.
And I can tell you for a fact that $5 million was spent on that,
when Education Services were cut.
Those kinds of decisions are killing this district and
they're killing this educational prowess.
From the top down, spending in this district needs to be controlled,
they have a $500 million a year budget, that's half a billion dollars folks.
But they still have to raise tuition, they still have to raise taxes?
There's a major problem for.
>> Well, one of the greatest challenges, perhaps the greatest challenge for
the district in the future, keeping up for growth and demand for what we do.
20 years ago, there were about 46,000 students at
the Dallas County Community College There are 76,000 students today.
This economy is booming, and community colleges are becoming even and
more preferred as an option for a lot of families.
A lot of people keep moving here,
because we're the most cost effective way to get a higher education.
One of my biggest concerns is will we be nimble enough, will we be creative enough,
as an institution to be able to adjust our training partnerships,
our certifications and our degree programs to meet the needs of a rapidly changing
Dallas Fort Worth economy.
So we're going to have to be nimble and we're going to have to be quick and
we're going to have to figure out how to pay for it.
And we've got three ways of paying for things here.
We've got tuition, we've got state funding and we've got property taxes.
And Ladies and gentlemen, state funding will likely be going down so
it is incumbent upon this board to work with the administration to figure out how
to pay for what's going to be a lot of growth, a lot of demand, for
what this district does in the future.
>> Richard. >> I think our biggest challenge right now
facing the district is that we need to do a better job And
helping students with degrees, and degrees that are offered.
We have around 73,000 students district wide, 12,000 here at Brookhaven, but
did you know that last year,
only 400 students completed a degree out of the general studies?
And only about 800 total completed any degree out of 12,000 students.
We are around 10% graduation rate, and national average is 40% for
community colleges.
We have a long way to go.
Even if you had slid the 17,000 students who transferred here to a four year
university, we'd still only have a 12.5% graduation rate.
We know that having full time students,
having students attend full time makes it much more likely to finish.
The problem is that over the last ten years we've dropped from 30 25%
full time students to 15% full time students.
We've gone in the wrong direction these last 12 years.
That happened because of decisions that were made or the changes that happened.
And if we reverse that, we can reverse that trend we can help students graduate.
In addition, there's a lot of challenges.
A lot of students have to attend more than one campus.
I hear this all the time.
We need to make sure you can take your classes at the campus you attend if
We need to also make sure that we offer classes at the right times, and
in a structure that you can balance that with your jobs.
Because most of our community college students have jobs.
I'm working full time through college myself,
I understand what that challenge is like.
So we need to remove the barriers that are making it difficult for
students to complete our degree, and that would be my top priority.
>> Micheal >> I feel like the biggest challenge that
the board will be facing in the coming years is to continue the quality of
education that you students have right now and also maintain the quality of
instructors that are at the Dallas County community colleges.
And to be able to do that with less finances.
In the 1980s, the State provided 75% of the money for
our community colleges and now that is down to the lower 20%.
So there has to be other ways through businesses, grants.
Whatever we can find to continue to have monies to make
sure that we have a quality education and take our students into the future.
We move on to our next student question.
You'll be responding first and here is the question.
If it appeared that you would be the only no vote
on the issue before the board of custody, how would you handle that?
Would you go with majority to maintain consensus or
would you stay firm on your position? Why?
>> I have a feeling after attending
four years of board meetings,
that I most likely am going to be one of the only no votes.
I've not seen them say no to a single spending item on the board for
those four years.
I don't know if there's anybody out there with children.
But I can't imagine not telling a child no for four years.
I don't think they're going to be very pleased with me, but ultimately,
not everything that's brought before the board is worthy.
When you think about it coming out of a student's pocket
in higher tuition or a taxpayer's pocket in higher taxes.
We have to be very careful with our money because if we live within our means,
we live within our means, we don't have to go knocking on doors begging.
Because we do get a very nice sum of money from the area taxes.
>> Frank, same question.
>> I'm Frank on the board of trustees.
I will not be opposed to saying no to things that I do not feel would be
a benefit to the process, I think progress in the community [INAUDIBLE] and
the community.
Remember we are a community college, so
it's made up of community as well as administrators, faculty, students, TSS,
all the people that could make the college successful.
It's made up also of the community.
I am a firm believer that you do your homework first, and the class, you're
coming into a lecture, you get homework, you go home and do your homework.
In the real world,
you better do your homework before the customer gets there or you're lost.
And it's something that comes up and
it's strictly to board members [INAUDIBLE] is not discussed,
[INAUDIBLE] if we don't pass anything, to go back and
do your homework to go back and find out positive or negative things [INAUDIBLE].
>> Gene?
>> I would have absolutely no problem whatsoever saying no.
Dorothy's point is very, very valid.
For 20 years, we've had a board that simply rubber stamped decisions,
crazy educational decisions that have done nothing but hamper education.
There's one board member on the board right now who's trying to
do the right thing.
But he's been one voice crying in the wilderness,
because the rest of them don't care about doing the right thing.
It's time to say no.
It's time to say no to a lot of these crazy educational ideas that [INAUDIBLE].
Not saying no is the way this district has gotten into the shape it's in now where
it basically exists as a cash cow for administrators at the top.
And education is, well,
this would be a great place to work if it weren't for all the students.
Yeah, saying no is something that needs to start happening right now.
>> Well, I would certainly not vote for something I didn't support or
I didn't think was in the best interests of the district.
But one of the premises of the question is how do board members relate to each other,
and I believe we have a duty as board members to listen to each other,
to behave in a collegiate manner, in a manner that sets a good example for
the community, for the students who are watching us and the public at large.
So yeah, that doesn't always happen on a public forum and oftentimes,
it goes haywire because you don't understand what the role is.
We basically do two things.
We hire the chancellor and we set the budget.
And in the context of two those things,
there's a lot of work that happens behind the scenes to manage priorities,
to deal with budget and spending items and so forth.
At the end of the day, those are the only two things the board should do.
And I want be cognizant of that, and I want to learn and
listen to my fellow trustees,
and I'm determined to be part of a board that this community can be proud of.
>> Richard?
>> I think it's simple, we're not elected to vote yes,
we're elected to do what's right.
I will be happy to vote no on any issue if it's not right to vote yes.
I think the broader question, though, is can you work with people on the board?
And I think a lot of that conversation can't happen behind the scenes before we
get there, where we have this conversation,
we say, what are the disagreements?
What are the real issues here, and talk them through and see if we can find that
consensus so that we can build the fill the gas tank with something that is good.
But something that concerns me also is that we need to do so
in a way that's transparent to the public and to everybody here.
Just last week at a board meeting, there was a vote coming up for
almost an $8 million expenditure on a new building on a lease and
there was disagreement on the current board.
It was probably about four to three or five to two at the time.
I don't remember the exact numbers.
But what they did was they took that issue into executive session behind closed doors
so no one could hear the conversation that happened.
That does not benefit us.
I think there is a way to discuss these things that advance to form that
consensus, but we need to do so in a way that's transparent, and I will fight for
that as your trustee.
>> Martha?
>> I believe that I definitely can stand firm on both no on an item
that I do not feel is best for the Dallas County Community College system and
also if the decision represents those who are in my district and
how that they feel about the issues.
So I would definitely vote no if I thought I needed to.
>> I would agree that I think as a board member, we all have to do our duty,
and we have a job to be a representative for our constituents.
Which, our constituents include faculty, staff, students,
but also the taxpayers in the county.
And so, I have no problems voting against several board members,
but again, besides just voting no, I would want to engage in
meaningful discussions and explain my viewpoint on why I am voting no.
So it's not just, oh, I'm against this bill or this proposal, but
I would want the other board members to hear why I'm voting no in hopes that
maybe somebody would understand or that would trigger something else and
maybe a compromise could be reached and we could do what's best for
the community as a whole.
>> Thank you, candidates.
We'll move to another question from our students.
And on this Frank, you'll be the first to respond.
The question is,
what is your position on the legislation which approved concealed campus carry?
And how would you envision implementing it within the DCCCD?
>> That's a pressing question that I'd like the issue to be debated and
studied a lot.
I do not own a concealed carry gun license,
I do not own a gun but anyone has the right.
>> [LAUGH] >> If the law
allows it to happen, I'm not going to be opposed to it.
I think there should be some certain restrictions,
I'm not willing to discuss that time, but I agree with what the law says and
I'm not sure that the law [INAUDIBLE] finalized yet, so
we'll have to wait until that time comes before I would act on it.
But in general, I would not necessarily be opposed to,
I would not make a statement for no guns on campus period.
>> Gene.
>> [LAUGH] Well, I think nobody will argue with me that
we live in a crazy dysfunctional world right now.
I am sure, along with everybody in this audience,
is horrified with the daily news we have of horrendous crimes being committed,
terrorist attacks, domestic terrorism, angry violence, workplace violence.
Our society and our government have gotten us into this situation where there's
no morals, there's moral decay, terrorists have been allowed to come County.
It's a dangerous world right now,
the concealed handgun law is a good one that allows us to protect ourselves.
The police can't be everywhere, these are responsible citizens and
this concealed handgun law has been in effect here in Texas for 20 years.
There are no problems with these people these are law abiding citizens who want to
They want to protect you and themselves.
A soft target is what these crazy people are looking for.
They're looking for churches, they're looking for schools, they're looking for
shopping malls where they know people are not armed.
If they know people are armed they're not coming here.
If they do come here the last law in which he saw in Garland, last year,
year before, when terrorist tried to attack that facility and
didn't make it passed, [INAUDIBLE] yeah, I'm fully supportive of.
>> Well, the legislature has spoken on this issue,
and there will be handguns allowed on campus in 2017 on Community Colleges.
So one of the elements of the law is four year upper level institutions have to
implement as possibly 2016.
So there's a lot of learning that we will require those of us
involved in community colleges from that experience.
But at the end of the day the law does not change the fundamental calculus in
the responsibility of law enforcement to secure the campus and to keep us safe.
And we have a police department here and police officers who are here.
And so yeah,
I'm going to be very interested in how that law gets implemented and
I'm going to be listening to stakeholders throughout this district.
But I'm also going to be asking a lot of questions about our public safety
professionals here a community college system about how they keep us safe at
because it's not just about who's got concealed handgun permits.
There's a relatively small number of people that have concealed handgun
And the responsibility really lies with law enforcement to keep us safe.
[SOUND] >> Richard.
>> Yeah.
As others have said there's a lot of desire to pass this legislature it applies
to all public colleges and universities whether it's a two year or a four year.
So it will apply to us as well.
In 2017 when it takes effect.
The legislature has said we cannot overrule its decision.
Meaning guns will be allowed on campus.
What the board can do is they have some jurisdiction into which
specific buildings or which specific areas guns can be carried on campus.
So I think obviously we do get the benefit from the other colleges who are doing
this now.
But also we need to make sure we're keeping our students safe and
I think the campus police do a great job here.
What I would love to see the campus police in the program, a volunteer program for
those who do choose to conceal carry can meet with campus police and
talk with them and have those concerns addressed upfront so
that if there ever should be an incident which hopefully will never happen.
At least the police have had a chance to express those concerns in advance.
Hopefully that will make it a smooth implementation of this law.
>> Well I imagine the previous question,
this might mean one of those areas where I stand firm in my beliefs,
and that is that the Dallas County Community College, or
any college for that fact, is not the place to have guns.
Especially when we have young children in the pre-k programs and
when we we have high school age children in
the academy program that is on campuses.
And the person who is carrying the gun might be a perfectly wonderful person
to have the gun for protection.
But someone else can get the gun who is not having a good moment at that time, but
I have family members that attend the Dallas County community colleges.
I also have a daughter who is a professor at the University of North Texas.
So, with that in mind, I would stand opposed to having guns on campus.
>> Monica, same question.
>> As you may know, the state legislature did pass a law allowing guns on campus.
So, there isn't a way around it.
Guns will have to be on campus because that is the law.
However, this next board will be tasked with designating
safe zone within the campus.
Deciding at what parts of campus can we designate that
events will not be allowed on.
And my personal view on this is that we should have forums with the community,
with the faculty, and staff.
And listen to their concerns about where these safe zones should be.
We have to remember that at several of our campuses we have early college high
schools, we have teenagers attending our colleges.
We have child care centers at some certain places and
we have children daily on our campus.
So all of these things need to be considered when we decide which areas will
designate safe zones because unfortunately, it's not as easy as saying,
you can't have guns because we would basically be sued for
not complying with state law.
But as Board we do have an obligation to keep our community safe and
keep our students safe.
>> [APPLAUSE] >> One of the benefits of being last.
All right,
just one of the things that comes to mind as the Dallas County Community College
district has paid their administrators a little bit more and a little bit more.
They have actually cut the starting pay for our security personnel on campus.
They're having trouble, in speaking to some of the folks that I've had
conversations with, they're having trouble hiring people for our security.
Because the starting pay is just, too low.
They can go any place else and get an immediate seven to nine thousand dollars
a year raise instead of hiring on at the Dallas County Community College District.
I see that as a big problem and at the same time to call
something a safe zone because there are no guns there,
we know from Umpqua College in Oregon that indeed,
that man brought his gun, because he knew it was a gun-free zone.
>> Our next student question we'll have,
this first respondent will be, excuse me, Gene.
What is one innovation or
truly new idea you want to bring to the Board of Trustees and
the Dallas County Community College this year?
>> I'll answer that in two ways.
The first is a novel idea >> I will be presenting to control
spending and spend on education, and not buildings, or
yourselves, and your salary increases and etc., etc.,
that's the first novel idea becoming financially and fiscally responsible.
And to the end I'll also point this fact out.
There is an awful lot of opportunity in this district
to increase revenue without raising taxes.
There are facilities here that are amazing facilities.
We can take advantage of that.
[INAUDIBLE] facility.
All these campuses contain large areas of land.
State funding is totally unreliable, the oil is down in the dumps,
there's one tenth as many operating oil rigs in Texas now, as we were last year.
State funding will be even lower this year, there'll be another budget crisis,
and another, and another Funding is going away, it's undependable.
We need to develop the resources we have here.
>> Phil.
>> Innovation, I would say, it's not a new idea but
it would be innovative if we're able to execute it, is for
the district to assume a strong leadership role in early childhood education.
And if you look at the data, there's nothing that can advance long-term student
success better than ensuring that a young child, especially a child from a poor or
impoverished community, shows up ready to read and ready to learn.
We've got a shortage of about 4,000 early childhood educators,
quality early childhood educators, in this community.
That needs to be addressed.
And the community college systems got the scale to address it.
So I want to be very supportive of our involvement in addressing that need.
And you look at what's happened here at Brookhaven and work with Mary and
others to create an early childhood center here at the community college as well.
That's an accessibility option too, for a lot of students who've got kids and
drop them at an early childhood center here at Brookhaven,
and then go to class and pick them up right afterwards.
I think it's a lot of innovation and continuing to scale and be involved in
the early childhood programs by the Dallas Community College District.
>> I think there are a number of innovative things we can do here.
And it's not that they've never been done before, they've been done in other places,
but we haven't done them here as well as we could.
One of the things I hear frequently from students is that the cost of textbooks
are so high.
Well, there's something we can do to fix that.
We can embrace open education resources.
The largest community colleges in the country have already done so.
They've adopted open textbooks.
It saves students $5 million in textbook costs over the last five to six years.
We can do that here.
We have started to, but we have a long way to go.
Something else we can do.
There's a new partnership with that's happening at Richland College, which
allows you to apply the learning you get online from towards your Associate degree,
so you can get through your program faster and graduate.
Something else we could do is a portfolio review.
So if you've been out in the workforce for 20, 30 years and you've had on the job
training that you've learned, let's give you college credit for it.
Let's not make you sit in the classroom and
retake the same information that you've already learned through the job.
Let's give you credit so you can move on get those degrees.
So there's been a lot of innovative things we can do.
And that's the stuff that gets me excited.
>> [APPLAUSE] >> The innovation
that comes to my mind most is not really an innovation at this time
because it's already kind of in existence.
But it is the collegiate academy or school within a school where
students come to the colleges, their junior and senior year.
And I understand that this was expanded at the board meeting,
this past board meeting.
And that is a wonderful opportunity to get students here on campus
that probably might not finish in two years and the third year,
they would still be here increasing enrollment,
paying tuition, and those kind of things.
Also, a second phase of that would be to publicize
through the media the Dallas County Community Colleges more than we do,
and especially this Collegiate Academy.
>> [SOUND] Monica.
>> Yes, I think one of the things that would definitely help our students have
greater retention rates and not only finish their degrees, but
find gainful employment,
would be more private partnerships with private corporations in the DFW area.
Like I mentioned before, we have several headquarters here in the DFW area,
and sometimes they're having to go outside the DFW to find
people who are skilled workers who can take these jobs.
And so, it makes perfect sense to partner up with these companies, for
example, Toyota.
And have them, not only provide training to our students in certain fields or
in certain things that they're lacking workers, but
also guarantee them a job once they finish.
And so, that way, we're not only meeting our retention requirements, but
we're actually helping our local economy by having more workers in our community.
>> Dorothy.
>> Innovation, I would like to see alumni gathered at all the campuses.
The idea that we could bring people together,
students and previous students.
I think there could be a lot of mentoring that could go on.
I think it would be an incredible value for those who have been
through a college education, either two year or four year.
I think it would be very good to come and explain and
show people that you can start out at a community college.
And you can go all sorts of places and accomplish all sorts of things.
Lots of times, if you're trying to make the rent and you're working on
your tuition and you're doing the jobs and you're working with your family.
If you can go and speak to somebody who's made it through that,
who can actually tell you the pitfalls they fell into and
help you arrange your life and things.
I think that would be an innovation that wouldn't cost anything.
>> Frank.
>> I think there's several things that we can do in this innovation that hasn't been
done in our campus.
Actually, one specific example would be Title 3S of Chapter 54, I believe it is,
of Title 3 house code, education code, allows a reduced tuition, not free,
for anybody over 55 years old that's been displaced to come back to retrain.
We haven't even addressed that ever in the district, that I'm aware of.
This would allow people that are trying to throw something down.
I know what an important years ago.
The best thing that happened to our enrollment would be [INAUDIBLE] up.
And I said I'm tired of doing things up and down.
I'm going to grow grass.
It's going to turn green every year.
And these are opportunities for us to make these opportunities for
these people that otherwise would be passed by.
We're beginning to look at that getting into corporate involvement.
As an example, we have an opportunity in our program, in the auto body program,
a company brings us a $100,000 [INAUDIBLE] machine each year,
allows us to use it for a year and then they replace it for free.
Otherwise, we'd have to pay $100,000 every 20 years and
we'd still be teaching 20 year old technology.
This is what I mentioned before, community involvement, industry and
corporate America.
We'll move back to a broader question from our students and
this time we'll begin with Phil Ritter.
Here's the question.
How do you perceive the role of trustee?
What makes a great board member for the Dallas County Community College District?
>> A couple things.
First off, is qualifications.
Does a person have the education qualifications, the workforce
qualifications, the experience to be trusted with the stewardship of something
as important as the Dallas County Community College District?
You're a very large and significant enterprise, and
I would encourage voters to look for
people who had some experience in dealing with large and significant enterprises.
Secondly is experience.
Who's been involved in leadership on behalf of education?
Who's been involved in leadership on behalf of the district?
Who's made contributions to prepare them to be a trustee?
And the third thing is the approach and the philosophy of being a trustee.
I mentioned mine earlier.
I believe that the trustee's role is to set policy,
to hold the administration accountable and to pass the budget.
I am not going to be micromanaging the Dallas County Community College District.
I promise you if you want micro manager, vote for some body else.
I think there needs to be a clear understanding about the policy role
that trustees have and that they respect the prerogatives of management and
administration and that does not work well when [INAUDIBLE] One public awards.
It doesn't serve the institution and [INAUDIBLE]
>> Yeah, well certainly
the role of the [INAUDIBLE] Oversight and policy is not operation, but
I think there's a broader question here in terms of what
makes [INAUDIBLE] I think [INAUDIBLE] >> Is skill at finding the root cause of
the issues.
So we can fix them.
That's what I've done for my creative software engineers.
That's what we do.
We analyze systems.
We find what can be better.
And we fix it.
I think that I've touched on a number of the issues that I've already discovered
that I think we can improve in terms of the graduation rates.
Make it easier for students to get more of the classes on the same campus.
Stop raising tuition on our students.
[INAUDIBLE] All these things addressed at this [INAUDIBLE] Results.
It is [INAUDIBLE] Important [INAUDIBLE] Without the committee.
The last time [INAUDIBLE] I've been meeting with [INAUDIBLE] Sometimes two or
three times a day.
Often, people [INAUDIBLE] Input,
tell us about the great programs that we have here at the community college.
>> And so I think that
all of that goes into being a good trustee.
>> Martha? >> The realm of a trustee is to operate
as part of a team, to be one of the seven and
to never speak >> Individually.
But when speaking, represent the consensus of the board.
The important issues such as hiring a chancellor, approving the budget,
taking care of other fiscal matters,
contracted employees and a few other items,
these are part of what a trustee should be.
But, I also think that a trustee is an ambassador for
the Dallas community of the system.
>> Monica. >> I believe that a good board member
has several duties and responsibilities including understanding what it means to
review financial documents and
statements and approving a multi million dollar budget.
Understands how to implement policy.
A sort of To the listener.
And being a good listener not only with the other members Meaningful discussed but
also the community at large and being more connected to what's actually formed.
What effect are these policies taking on in the classroom?
And so I think as a board member,
we cannot just operate in a vacuum and just talk to each other.
We have to engage with our community to make the best decisions.
>> As a board member, I view my responsibility as to my constituents.
Those who voted for me, those who expected me to pay attention to their needs,
long before I was going to be pals with the guys on the board.
I feel as though our spending has got to be curtailed and if we do not
keep the spending down We can approve everything or we can approve nothing.
But if we do not keep our eye on the ball of education, then
I'm afraid your tuition is going to go crazy a little bit more than
what it is now, and taxes have no chance but to go up.
So as a board member I understand we are to take care of our constituents,
and education is why we work for.
>> Right.
[INAUDIBLE] responsibility instance of when he said,
The community involved, college district campuses and
the staff, they're Community, the policy
District higher than due to answer.
Also, the standard policy.
Policy, Promulgation to make sure that the policy is yielding the intended results.
So you have to follow that.
And if you can't get results then you have to do that and
that's something that's very very critical and
is a combination got the same policy,
and making sure the yields begin to.
>> What is the interest in the conclusive cell, in recent positions.
As employees, district as an instructor in this district,
as a student in this district, and as a taxpayer.
Then you know to do the right thing.
If you're responsible and conscientious, you're going to do the right thing.
Employees in this district are expendable when the budget needs to be balanced.
And the money Upstairs, so
the administrator can continue to garnish their salary.
That's wrong.
Instructors are Increasingly asking students with no standards, meaning Can.
As the students I know that student services are cut at
this college and throughout the district, in order for money to be
sent upstairs to the administrators to continue making their salaries.
As a taxpayer, I paid $6,200 last year in property taxes in my house,
right down the street from here.
That money is supposed to be spent to educate you as college students.
It is not that money is being, you know, money is being spent
illegally at this campus, it educates students who are not college students.
[SOUND] And there the education's supposed to be paid for out of IST taxes.
That's wrong, that's illegal, that needs to stop.
>> We'll go back into specifics with this
next question, which Richard will be the first to respond.
Both President Obama and presidential candidate Bernie Sanders have stated
an interest in providing a three columned education for every american.
What are any of the means for eliminating or
significantly lowering tuition in the Dallas County Community College district?
>> Well this is a great question.
Over the last six years,
the current Board of Trustees had voted to raise your tuition by 45%.
The plan is to continue raising your tuition 15% every two years.
I'm against it.
I've been firmly against it from the beginning of my campaign.
I'm against it because 12 years ago when I was a student it was 60% lower.
So we're certainly going in the wrong direction if the goal is free tuition.
Well let's start with affordable tuition.
It's interesting, we talk a lot about courses of funding In about state versus
tuition versus taxes, state funding is about the same as it was six years ago.
And yet we're bringing in about 22 million more through tuition and
80 million more from local property taxes.
And so it seems to me that certainly we can get better
control of our expenses we've lost 6,000 students over the last five years,
and yet tuition keeps going up.
So I think that there is more we can do to make community college affordable for
students, including the textbook costs, which are even larger than tuition itself.
>> Martha, >> Free tuition,
and I hear that from the federal government.
I do not believe that that can happen unless the federal
government is willing to totally fund education for
all students everywhere.
And I don't see that happening.
I would be opposed to that totally.
>> And Monica?
>> Currently, tuition funds about 23% of the budget for
the community college district.
So obviously if we wanted to offer free tuition, which I'm all for
anything that will help students.
And if getting, if it's possible to have lower tuition,
I think that'd be phenomenal.
And I think that would increase our numbers in enrollment and
hopefully improve our retention numbers, but we also have to realize,
where is this money coming from?
And if it's coming from different sources, potentially maybe increased
State funding or increased federal funding, I think that's great.
I think, also part of the board's decision is to decide what
property taxes are going to be, so
obviously local property tax did not sustain doing this on its own.
So we would need outside help to be able to lower the tuition more, to
the level to where we could offer this to more students to better their community.
>> An easy answer about free education.
If it has value, and someone gets a paycheck because of that value,
how can we ask them to work for free?
I don't know that the administration is going to take a big cut in their salaries
to provide a lesser cut of tuition for the students.
At this point, money is not on trees.
And I think all of us know that.
So as far as cutting tuition, I want to do that, I want to get it down,
and if we can live within our means there would be no reason
to have to ever raise tuition or ever have to raise taxes.
It's not, as they say it's not taxing problem, it is a spending problem.
So again if it has value understand no one's going to work for free.
To provide it to you for free.
>> Right, pretty simple fact of life there are no free rides.
I am not in favor of zero tuition.
I think that if you don't have stake in the game then you don't have buy in.
I think that's important how we control the cost is important.
Also, I think a lot of times we're so [INAUDIBLE] driving it up,
one thing I see in district [INAUDIBLE] chasing political dollars.
In an election year, [INAUDIBLE] we know that can't be so
we take, so we have opportunities they're not going to last.
What we do is each lesson we propagated ourselves and
act again and I am not in favor of that.
>> Gene. >> Free education works in Europe because
Standards that begin at the universities are extremely high on that.
So, students have to bust their tails to get there to make it.
In US we don't have the same system, or have the same social expectation.
So yes I think free education is a bad idea,
just like any free program from the federal government's a bad idea.
I'm very much in favor of affordable education, but
these community colleges were created to offer students basic education.
Quality education at a very affordable price where you could then transfer on
to a university of higher education.
That's what I'm in favor of.
We need to keep tuition down.
No more tuition increases, no more tax increases.
Maintain standards in the classroom.
And you will not have a problem with enrollment.
Maintain the hiring quality instructors.
Cut administrative bloat and excessive spending on unnecessary programs.
Increase the resources you have and this district will not only balance its budget,
it'll have a profit.
>> Well, I agree with Gene that tuition should not be free and it's important for
everybody to be vested in the mission of higher education at the individual level
and at the community level.
I took out a lot of loans to pay for my education.
I think it was the best investment I've ever made.
There are several things that have been done and
we've continued to build on in order to keep tuition affordable.
One is certainly, look for efficiencies in the budget and
operations of this district.
Second is philanthropy.
And we have a program in place today in Dallas County Community College which is
called Rising Star.
And $27 million has been raised for $3 million for fully endowing the opportunity
for every student in Dallas County that graduates with a B average or
better to attend the community college for free.
There are probably some students in this audience who are taking advantage of that
program, and it is absolutely critical.
There are other things we can do too.
State support community colleges is declining and
it's declining dramatically and that trend will likely continue.
We need to articulate the value proposition and
the cost effectiveness of creating higher education capacity at community colleges.
And there are federal issues as well.
Federal government for example said okay programs no longer apply for
students taking summer school.
Well, that's a terrible idea because students should be able to get support for
their education from federal grants, anytime they want to go to school.
So, expanding federal support for students at community colleges,
President Obama wants it to be free there are ways that the federal government and
colleges can step up and support those and I will be involved in those efforts.
[INAUDIBLE] >> All right thank you candidates.
We'll do one more round.
One minute responses to a specific set of questions before our candidates will
be allowed to give closing remarks.
Martha will lead off in this final one minute question.
If elected how would the DCCCD be different
at the end of your first term in six years?
>> If I'm elected, I believe that the Dallas County Community Colleges
will be more physically, fiscally responsible.
At the end of my term, we will make wise decisions as
a board of trustees about spending.
One example of that is the southern association evaluation.
Instead of having it separate on each campus so
that it costs seven million dollars to do that.
It could be done under one umbrella for one million dollars, so
just cutting in the right places so
that we can spend in the right places, which is for our students.
And our staff.
>> Martha.
>> If I'm elected, one of the things I would like to see done at the end of
my term, is have more student involvement with the Board of Trustees.
And what I mean is, having students engage in,
not only knowing what goes on at the board level, but going to meetings,
potentially maybe even having a student trustee.
As I talk to students this past few months,
and I ask them what they think about the board, and what the board should improve,
many of them have no idea that there's a Board of Trustees.
That decide these huge decisions, such as tuition for them, and I think that's
really sad, because students are the reason why this board exists.
And I believe that we should have more student input and
have more students be engaged in the system.
>> In six years,
I would hope that there would have not been another tuition increase.
I do hope at that point, our instructors are paid,
as the instructors deserve to be paid.
And then everything revolves around the student.
That is what I'm hoping for, because education is why we're here.
We're not here to provide parking lots,
we're not here to make sure that administrators get a really good paycheck.
I want it to be a safe place, I want it to be a nurturing place,
and I want it to be a place of education.
And after six years I very much, I believe I could do that.
>> Given my term, I'd like to see that maybe through the community would have
involvement in the decisions and operations of the campus.
We are a community college, and as such, the college there, student involvement,
and the community itself I think that is the most critical that we look at that.
And the way you've made your election evaluation, as an example,
I mentioned before, is in the technology programs.
How do you measure success?
Well you measure it in all kinds of academic terms, but
in reality the way to measure a technology program,
where you're trying to help students, develop students to become important.
It's really, the industry needs help, when do they call you?
First or last?
That's a good evaluation of success academically.
How many four year schools,
major universities come to each campus to recruit students?
That's their known measure of success.
I was thinking that, if involved in community involvement, by getting all
the people in the community involved as well as students in [INAUDIBLE].
>> At the end of six years, I hope to turn this district around 180 degrees.
I hope to put the focus from useless spending on projects
that are very questionable about whom exactly has benefited from them.
I want to put the focus, instead of that spending, I want to put the focus on
education, quality education, I want to put it back in the classrooms.
I want to make sure that quality employees are hired,
both as employees of professional support staff, and it's instructors.
I want to see this district again be the jewel that it once was,
where when students come out of here they know something.
They've been educated in the basics, of the classics, of science and math.
Not just technical schools.
That's what I want to see.
I want to see a return to fiscal responsibility and
conservative education practices and ideas.
>> Well in six years, I'd like to see these two things happen.
First off, I'd like to see a more intelligible and
transparent set of metrics on how this district's performing.
I tend to think it performs very, very well, as an absolute strength and
an asset to this community, but sometimes that's hard to prove.
We got on the district's website there's this strategic plan, but
there's no metrics attached to that plan that chart progress.
And I think that's an important issue to work on, especially going to be important
for policymakers, as we're making decisions about resources.
The second thing I would like to see is a more educated, balanced county.
In a lot of ways we need to start thinking about education in
terms of population outcomes in the county.
Do we have a smarter, better, more skilled workforce that's meeting the needs
of the economy, and perhaps not focus so much on the metrics of the past.
i.e., how many people we graduated, or how many remedial courses we do and
those types of things.
Dallas County is smarter, better, and our population's better educated,
we've got a big role to play in that, and we need to participate in that.
And so I'll be moving on those population success metrics as well.
>> Richard.
>> Six years from now, if I'm on the Board of Trustees, I think that we can count on
a few things to take effect, and we'll make progress on many others.
I think that we will be graduating more students,
we will make sure those students that graduate get good jobs.
I think that we can empower students with more information to make decisions.
For example, we have about 40 different certificates and
degrees that are offered here, but we don't really do a good job of breaking
down how much they pay, and how many of those graduates get jobs.
And giving students the ability to make important decisions about their own
investments, and their time in their education.
Again, I think we can keep costs affordable, there's at least two of us in
this race who I think are committed to not raising tuition.
I don't think every candidate in this race has made that commitment.
I will vote against tuition increases, I think it's important that we keep
community college affordable for all students.
I think that we can make a lot of progress by leading the open textbooks into
the classroom to reduce cost for students.
I think you gotta embrace technology to bring education to our students through
their computers, online.
If you're able to learn something online and
demonstrate that you have the knowledge that we teach in the class,
we should have a way that you can get credit for that.
I think we would make a lot of progress in a lot of those areas in six years.
>> Thank you, thank you, candidates.
This might be an appropriate place for us, and maybe the candidates would agree,
to thank our students for this level of questions,
the rigor of the questions that you've heard over the last hour.
>> [APPLAUSE] >> We'll
continue with the established rotations.
And Monica you'll be up to start with the closing remarks.
This is of course an opportunity for you to consider, was there a questions our
students didn't ask, you wish they had, and what would the answer be.
You again, will each have two minutes to respond with the closing remarks.
>> Thank you so much for your time in attending today.
Again my name is Monica Lira Bravo.
I'm running for District 4, which is Southeast Dallas part of the county, which covers Eastfield College.
Again, I remind you that I believe that my background as an attorney, as a business owner, and as a board member gives me the right qualifications for this position.
The three things that I have been focusing on, and will focus on if I'm elected as the next Trustee, will be keeping the property taxes low for our communities, as property owners I believe that's important, that those stay low.
And at the same time, I would like accessible tuition for all of our students.
And that could mean by keeping our tuition low, and finding other revenue sources, other than classes and intuition.
And the last thing that I have on my platform, and there's flyers outside on the table, I encourage you to grab it.
And so if you have any other questions for me you can reach out.
I'm a strong proponent of keeping our community first, keeping our community engaged, and that includes taxpayers, that includes our faculty, our staff, and mostly our students.
On this board, I will be a voice for all of you.
Thank you so much for your time.
>> I'm Dorothy Zimmerman.
Yes, at this point I hope to be your candidate for place three on the board.
I do intend to put all my energy behind the education.
As far as spending if you can live within our means there's no reason to ask for funding from any place else.
Dallas County is a very good tax space.
If we're careful with our money we can make sure that your education is excellent.
>> Frank Millsap, District 3.
This is basically with my colleagues I have a long and strong history probably as along the way, Lakewood and that area just north of Dallas [INAUDIBLE] I think my experiences about being the district all these years [INAUDIBLE] Success [INAUDIBLE] Idea of need and necessity and appreciation for the hard work that you had to go to paint the big picture.
I make the program, with about thousand dollars and make a foundation just for a program, and that came after community involvement.
Our behavior Regarded as 19,000 to the foundation this year, began community involvement.
I think it is important that we You [INAUDIBLE] that would be the one thing [INAUDIBLE] Million dollars and [INAUDIBLE] Bond issue.
One thing, I would highly require if I get on the board is [INAUDIBLE] Do anything or say anything we do a major budget impact.
We could get all kinds of donations and gifts and [INAUDIBLE], but we never seem to think about what's it going to cost to maintain it in an area that we would be proud to say we built this ten years ago?
And I think that is something that is really important that we continue in the most [INAUDIBLE] Gene.
>> Gene Robinson I'm running for board of trustees position two.
I think everybody here today knows my position, knows how I feel I've been talking about it on the campus for ten years, so I think it's not a surprise, to anybody, I won't waste my two minutes going back over that.
What I will do is to ask you to support [INAUDIBLE] your health by licensing [INAUDIBLE] I cannot do it by myself, I need your vote.
I need you to vote for me, I need.
You can ask your colleagues to vote for me, I need you to ask your friends and family members.
Please look on your voter registration card, I'm in district two.
It says it on your card.
There are elections this period for district two, three and four.
There are fiscally conservative candidates that want to run with me for these positions they are up here today.
I ask you to vote for tem.
If we can get in that position [INAUDIBLE] Forward we can turn things around.
And we will have more obstacles.
Please do something to help yourselves.
It's been a long period of time.
We have had no voice in this campus.
You have a chance now.
Okay you have a chance.
Thank you, thank you.
>> Paul Ritter running for district two and in my We focused on overseeing an efficient operation management operation of the district.
And also focusing on sweet success and [UNKNOWN]
Look at the qualifications in the backgrounds of the Candidates running for office.
I believe I have an educational background, I believe that my experience over 30 years in the business and public and non-profit sector is highly relevant and important characters to think about as you look at your next trustee's, look at the trajectory of the involvement of the candidate education generally and this district in particular.
I've been involved for nearly 20 years in supporting the Dallas County Community College District.
I'm not hoping just to advance any partisan agenda.
I'm not doing it to advance the personal, political ambition.
Two other candidates in my race have won other offices recently before choosing to run for this one.
And that's not what I'm about.
This will be the last office that I will seek.
I promise you.
And I commit to fully finishing my term as a trustee, over six years, if you elect me to this office.
Thank you very much.
>> I'm going to stand if that's all right because [INAUDIBLE].
Thank you everyone for coming out here today.
Again my name is Richard Morgan.
I'm here to ask for your vote.
What I can commit to you for the next six years, I will work tirelessly for this district, for the students of this district.
We exist for the success of our students.
Not only have I been a student here, but I want to point out also, I have also worked staff at a university here in North Texas.
I spent two years on the technology team where I worked directly with each of our departments to build the employee internet and
I built the Emergency Testing System for our campus and a number of things.
And during that time I worked closely with our staff members to understand their needs and to find solutions that work.
So I'm looking forward to helping our students as well as our staff and our faculty who work so hard here.
If you live in Coppell, Carrollton, Farmers Branch, Irving or kind of the west side of Dallas are in this district.
Obviously, Brookhaven is an important part of the Farmers Branch community.
I'm honored to have the endorsement of the current Farmers Branch mayor and three former Farmers Branch mayors, as well as many citizens who support the reasons why I'm running.
But, again, I'd love to have your vote.
Richard Morgan, thank you. [APPLAUSE] Monica, I believe you have the last word.
>> I'm sorry?
>> You have the last word.
>> Oh good. The last word.
>> Okay.
Martha Jo Talbot, place 4.
Which is the Eastville Southeastern part of our county.
And if I'm elected to this position I will be the only educator serving on the board of trustees.
I think it's an important step to have an educator on the board so that things can be presented from an educator's view point.
I currently work with college students as they do their student teaching in the classroom, and I also supervise first year teachers.
So I'm accustomed to working with students of this age group.
If elected I will serve you well.
The students and the instructors.
We'll make sure that I know what your feelings are on certain subjects before we move to vote.
>> Members, I'll ask them
Provide a healthy round of applause for candidates.
Everybody let's take the [INAUDIBLE] and create services divisions through the programs and resources Theater staff here in the space that we're in.
My own staff, our faculty association and our.
I think all of our candidates are ready and willing to leap and have an extended conversation with you right outside these doors for the reception.
So let's extend our remarks there, otherwise this session has concluded, thank you very much for coming.