Candidate name: Larry Duncan

Large

DCS district: At-

Please complete questionnaire below.

You must send a completed electronic copy to Political@StonewallDemocratsOfDallas.org or mail
a completed copy to P.O. Box 192305 Dallas, TX 75219 by Monday, March 2nd.

1. Your background and the LGBT community

Please share any experience that illustrates your understanding and interest of the
needs of LGBT Dallas residents.
I am the proud to have been awarded the coveted Stonewall Democrats of Dallas (SDD)
Pink Pump Award for 2015. I have been a long time active SDD member. I have worked for
LGBT issues as an appointed official, an elected official, as a community leader and as an
individual, including the following highlights:
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I worked with Bill Dare in 1983 on the Health and Human Services to get the city to
recognize AIDS and to provide services to those infected.
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As President I provided leadership to the Dallas Homeowners League PAC in the
1980s which endorsed Bill Nelson, the first openly gay Dallas City Councilmember (the
first non-LGBT organization to do so).
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As President I provided leadership to the Dallas Homeowners League in the 1980s
which recruited Bill Nelson and elected him to the Board.
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As DCS President I work with non-profits that support LGBT youth to provide
transportation to help reach more young people and to enhance their programs.
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I participated in the demonstrations against the Rainbow Lounge and other
injustices.
Stonewall Democrats of Dallas seek to inform members of the LGBT and Democratic
Party community of candidate's political background. Our organizations by-laws
require us only to consider candidates with Democratic Primary voter history or
affirms their party affiliation via an oath of allegiance to the Democratic Party. Do you
qualify or would you be prepared to sign an oath of allegiance form from the Dallas
County Democratic Party?
I have been a active Democrat for my entire adult life as confirmed by my voting history.

2. Creating an inclusive community

Cities and Counties compete for residents, tax payers, conventions and new
businesses/economic development. As a member of the Dallas County Schools Board,
how would you insure that Dallas County can compete effectively with other places in
the area of LGBT inclusion?

As DCS Board President I do all that I can to ensure that DCS is an inclusive employer (see
#3). As an elected leader I work with other governmental entities and non-profits to
support LGBT inclusion (e.g., the City of Dallas comprehensive LGBT policy).
Would you recruit and consider qualified LGBT constituents for your staff and
appointments?
Yes, I have and will continue to do so. In 2009 I recruited a member of the LGBT
community to run for the DCS Board of Trustees with me. In 2014, I and another DCS
Board Member recruited Omar Narvaez to fill a vacancy and then led the DCS Board to
elect him to be the first openly gay DCS Trustees. After campaigning together, both Omar
and I were re-elected without opposition on Feb. 27, 2015.

3. Dallas County Schools (DCS) as a LGBT inclusive employer

The private sector has seen a large increase in policies and benefits for LGBT
employees, how should the DCS remain competitive to attract and retain top LGBT
talent?
I worked with DCS Trustee Omar Narvaez to get the DCS Board to enact comprehensive
Policies to ensure equality, inclusion and fairness for the over 3000 DCS employees and
the 440,000 students served by DCS. At my request through Omar, the Policy revisions
were identified by Lambda Legal.
In particular regard to bullying, DCS buses have 3 video cameras inside to monitor
behavior in real time and to record and document behavior to ensure accountability.
Do you support comprehensive LGBT and especially transgender-inclusive health
benefits? As a DCS board member will you work on lobbying the state and Teachers
Retirement System to implement such benefits?

Yes. Additionally DCS is lobbying the TX Leg to allow DCS to use a private health
insurance provider instead of the Texas Teachers Retirement System. Any such
coverage would be fully LGBT inclusive.
It is great to have policies supportive of non-discrimination for LGBT personnel and
students. Does DCS do any diversity training of personnel related to nondiscrimination and anti-bullying?

Yes, all employees go through such training.

4. Current Events
What do you see as the top challenges for the DCS board going into the next school
year, and what are your personal priorities for your work on the board for DCS?
We are in the midst of a full blown crisis in public education. Two legislative sessions ago,
the State cut pubic education by $5 billion and only partially restored it. The first draft of
the budget in this session call for a further reduction of $3 billion.
DCS continues to provide improved services and savings to Dallas County public schools.
CFB ISD determined that DCS saves them $1.2 million annually over running their own

buses. Multiply that across the county. We cannot offset the States funding cuts but we
can help.
DCS has developed an entrepreneurial approach by offering out products and services to
schools outside of Dallas County. Each of these endeavors brings additional revenue into
Dallas County to help take care of our employees and to improve our services and savings
to Dallas County public schools.
I played a leading role in developing this entrepreneurial approach and I am committed to
continuing to build it.
We must save public education.
LGBT youth make up approximately 40% of the homeless youth population, but only
10% of the youth population as a whole. They also face considerable discrimination
and abuse in traditional homeless assistance programs. Given these facts, is there
anything that DCS can do to help this at risk population stay in school, and any other
assistance to help get them off the streets?
DCS provides transportation to homeless youth enabling them to safely get to and from
school.
DCS also makes our police force available in schools to help keep children save from
bullying and other hazards.
Dallas County's Department of Elections has made it a priority to encourage new
young voters to participate in elections more. In what ways would you attempt to
increase participation in Dallas County's successful Student Election Worker program?
Is there anything that DCS can do to help student voters participate in elections?
If Dallas County contracts with DCS to provide the transportation for a such a program and
the Commissioners provide comprehensive support, I would support it.
I have been recruiting for the Student Election Worker program.
Given that tax revenue for the City of Dallas and Dallas County should rise this year
without a tax rate increase, what are the top priorities to which these additional
funds should be directed towards?
DCS is limited by statute to a one penny tax rate. Any increase DCS gets due to property
values increases would not begin to offset the $800,000 increased cost of collecting
property taxes being imposed on DCS by the County.

I, _Larry Duncan_______________________, am seeking an endorsement from the Stonewall

Democrats of Dallas for the 2015 Dallas County Schools Board elections.

Signed___________________________________ Date___March 1, 2015__________