KEEVER SAYS HE’LL CALL IT QUITS

AFTER JUST SIX MONTHS AS DISD board president, Bill Keever will soon be quitting his post. “I won’t make it to the end of the year, I can tell you that,” Keever, who has three years left on his term, tells D Magazine.

Keever’s tenure as president may not only be the shortest but trH^ocKiestin Dallas history. On May 23, when members of the New Black Panther party disrupted board proceedings, Keever had them subdued and several members were arrested. Vowing justice, the Panthers threatened to bring guns to the next school board meeting, which Keever canceled. But Dallas Police Chief Ben Click scolded Keever at a press conference for complaining publicly that he thought the police ought to do more to maintain order.

After the Panthers’ incident, there were threats against his life, and he now has a police officer living in his house with his wife and two young daughters, whom he says he sees rarely these days. The 100-hour work weeks have taken a toll on his family life, Keever says. He charges that the media, as well as the public, have been relentlessly critical and unsupportive of the board-a factor that, Keever says, played in former board president Sandy Kress’ decision not to run again last term. To make matters worse, superintendent Chad Woolery abruptly resigned two weeks before school started in August, burdening the board with the task of finding a new super. From the look of things, Keever may not be the last to bail. Says Keever; “Who would want this job? I mean, would you want this job?”