So help me with this DISD math problem that arises out of numbers in today’s editorial on the lack of progress — in fact the reversal of progress in some cases — in the 33 Imagine 2020 schools.

A quick bit of background: This is a program intended to lift up several feeder-patterns of schools that are most struggling in southern Dallas: the Lincoln HS, Madison HS, Pinkston HS and South Oak Cliff HS clusters.

DISD budgeted $8.8 million for the program in 2013-14 and $11.3 million for 2014-15. The 2013-14 effort was for 21 schools; the 2014-15 effort covered 33 (this accounted for an additional 12 schools after the South Oak Cliff cluster was added).

Here’s the math question, which seems straightforward. I divide the amount budgeted by the total number of schools in the program; that gives me the amount per school each year, right? That would have been about $420,000 for each of the 21 schools in the first year and about $340,000 per school in the second year.

I’m certain the money wasn’t divided that precisely among the schools; this formula just offers a sense of how much money we are talking about.

Now based on the blueprint for Imagine 2020, you can see where the money might have gone. Here are some of the positions that were advertised as part of the makeovers:

– More teachers.

–More tutoring before, during and after school.

– Urban specialists.

– Social workers and psychologists.

So I assume those individual nest eggs of $420,000 and $340,000 would go toward these positions and other resources/support.

Yet the two trustees interviewed by Matt Haag in the original DMN story, Bernadette Nutall and Lew Blackburn (whom I assume were the two contacted because their districts include the majority of the 2020 schools) say they don’t know what the money was spent on and didn’t see much change in the schools. According to Haag’s story:

Nutall said campus employees told her they didn’t notice an increase in money for their schools. “A lot of people didn’t know what the money was going toward,” she said. “If we are not getting the return on our investment, we need to evaluate how we are spending our money.”

Now we know that Nutall considers former Supt. Mike Miles to be akin to a war criminal, so perhaps that needs to be factored into her response. But I’m surprised she wouldn’t have already demanded to know where two years’ worth of beaucoup bucks had gone. She’s very careful on details like that.

Interestingly, this previous profile of Imagine 2020, which focused on Pinkston HS (in Blackburn’s district) and written by Haag in January does indicate that, at the least, a few students and parents had noticed some extra teachers and resources. And this DMN piece, from a year ago, notes that six urban specialists were indeed hired. But that would seem to be just a sliver of that overall $20 million.

So if $20 million was invested in a relative handful of schools and no one can be found at the campus level to say, yes, here’s what we did with the money and why, that’s a really big story. Interim Supt. Michael Hinojosa says he is looking into details of the program; our board will have a chance to ask him about the Imagine 2020 budget in more detail when he comes in to meet with us later this month.