Right now, there's really only one big story in Dallas: The school district's massive budget shortfall that will almost certainly result in hundreds and hundreds of contracted teachers losing their jobs, perhaps as soon as December.

Last year the number of recognized or exemplary schools in the district doubled. Things were looking up for the public education until earlier this month when the Dallas Independent School District suddenly announced that its annual operating budget was $64 million in the red.

Then last week, at a school board meeting, school superintendent Michael Hinojosa announced the shortfall was actually $84 million. Whatever. At that point, who was counting anyway?

Yesterday, at a special DISD board of trustees meeting, Hinojosa asked the board to fire more than 1,200 district employees including 675 contracted teachers, 50 campus administrators and more than 150 administrative positions. For the second straight week, the trustees voted to delay any firm decision, asking Hinojosa to consider other ways to save money, besides, oh, I don't know, getting rid of the most important people in a school--the teachers. That's not a bad idea, particularly since Hinojosa seems loathe to fire his own administrators.

From the Dallas Morning News recap of the meeting:

One flashpoint came when trustees asked which central office personnel Dr. Hinojosa planned to cut. He said about 100 of 275 vacant jobs would be eliminated. It also became apparent during questioning that those positions were vacant because of attrition. In essence, Dr. Hinojosa's proposal would have allowed him to fill the remaining vacant but budgeted positions later in the year.

That's an astounding passage, but the Morning News' story leaves us hanging worse than No Country for Old Men ever did.

Did Hinojosa mislead the board? Did he try to make them think that he was canning nonteaching employees when he was merely eliminating vacant positions? That's kind of a big deal, particularly since the relationships between Hinojosa and the board, particularly the black trustees, seem troubled. In any case, how many actual administrators -- not positions but people -- will be fired? We're not trying to be flip here, but why should teachers walk the plank and not those who toil in the central office?

Finally, did Anton Chigurh kill the young woman or not? Oh wait. Wrong tragedy.

Anyhow, there's been sharper press coverage of the schools shortfall story elsewhere: The Dallas Observer's Jim Schutze pinpoints how Hinojosa has again passed the buck on another district money problem, while Robert Wilonsky, over at the paper's blog, Unfair Park, gives a parent's perspective on what the shortfall means. (Full disclosure: I used to work with both writers.)

Finally, for a telling glimpse into the odd and arguably dysfunctional personality of the Dallas school board, check out Frontburner's Tim Roger's live blogging from last week's meeting. It's very funny ... and sad.

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(Photo by DMJN.)