Jack Lowe

"Foolishness in the Extreme": Watch the Dallas ISD School Board Debate the Budget

​If you care at all about the fate of the Dallas Independent School District, carve out an hour over the weekend. Then, jump to the other side of this item, where I've posted the entirety of the school board budget discussion to which I referred yesterday (down below too). Now, fair warning: It's ... More >>

Your First Look at DISD's 2011-'12 Budget, Which Cuts $90 Million and Reinstates Full-Day Pre-K (On Most Campuses, Anyway)

From today's first look at the proposed 2011-'12 Dallas ISD budget​As promised earlier today, on the other side you will find the entirety of the Dallas Independent School District's proposed budget for the 2011-'12 school year, which was just released. And though it's still rife with cuts ("Staff ... More >>

Laura Bush Announces Million-Dollar Grant to School Libraries at Jack Lowe Elementary

Courtesy the Dallas Independent School DistrictLaura Bush amongst the third-graders at Jack Lowe Sr. Elementary School this morning​Former First Lady Laura Bush announced this morning that her foundation, which has provided more than $14 million in grants intended to fill school libraries with mor ... More >>

Dallas ISD Trustee Jack Lowe to Step Aside Early, Allowing Mike Morath His Shot at Budget

Mike Morath​Looks like Mike Morath's going to become a Dallas Independent School District trustee earlier than he'd expected. He was already running unopposed for Jack Lowe's North Dallas-Near East Dallas District 2 seat, which is one of the reasons why the district canceled the May 14 elections. ... More >>

In Wake of Townview Changes, Dallas ISD Super Hinojosa Insists He's "Not Anti-Magnet"

​The battle over Yvonne A. Ewell Townview Center -- which Dallas Independent School District Michael Hinojosa is splitting up in order to excise five of its seven principals next school year, over parents and Carla Ranger's objections -- has reached The New York Times, via its relationship with th ... More >>

DISD's Latest Budget-Gut Guesstimates, and Central Admin Staffers to Get Buyout Offers

Lynn Moak briefs Dallas ISD trustees Thursday afternoon.​Last night, Robert teased us all with the news that Lynn Moak, from Dallas ISD's lobbyist-consultant group Moak Casey & Associates, would be taking a seat before trustees this afternoon with an update from Austin on the Legislature's att ... More >>

Read the Dallas Independent School District's "Budget Reduction Plan Version 2.0"

The scene at 3700 Ross Avenue today, courtesy the district​Jim -- lucky -- is at 3700 Ross at this very moment, where the trustees are doing a little math involving employees and enrollment. Moments ago, Carla Ranger wanted to know: If enrollment has dropped, why has the number of employees grown? ... More >>

Why Bernadette Nutall Does Not Support Extending Dallas ISD Trustees' Terms

​We already know where Dallas Independent School District trustee Carla Ranger stands on extending DISD trustees'  terms from three years to four. (She's very against it.) But moments ago, as the board finally got 'round to discussing the subject, District 9 trustee Bernadette Nutall made her ... More >>

Old Guard Board Members Are At It Again, Trying To Destroy the Magnets. But A New Coalition Of Trustees Seems Determined To Stop Them.

DISD CFO Says Budget's Balanced, District's Better Off Than City of Dallas, But, Still ...

​Speaking of the city's $131.1-million shortfall ...That very subject came up last night at the first DISD Budget Town Hall Meeting held at Walnut Hill Elementary, where school district staffers, principals and board members far outnumbered parents. (There were, maybe, 10 people in the audience no ... More >>

At 3700 Ross Avenue Today, Fighting for an Old School ... and a Battle For Democracy!

Galactic Butterfly​As the Friends of Unfair Park can probably guess, there were two good reasons why we suffered through nearly four hours of a Dallas Independent School District board of trustees briefing today. The first: the fate of W. H. Adamson High School, whose historic main building distri ... More >>

Dallas ISD Board To Spend Time Debating How Much Time Public Gets to Speak to Board

Patrick Michels​A couple of weeks back, we mentioned that the Dallas Independent School District's board of trustees is considering putting a cap on how long speakers get to, ya know, speak at board meetings. Turns out -- surprise, surprise -- there's some dissent amongst the board regarding the p ... More >>

Look, It Has Always Paid to Be Royce West

Sam MertenState Sen. Royce West and friendsFormer Dallas Observer ace reporter (and sometime-Unfair Park contributor) Matt Pulle has a great piece up today on the Texas Watchdog Web site revealing that in 2008 alone, state Sen. Royce West's 10-person law firm billed the City of Dallas, Dallas Area R ... More >>

DISD's Attempt to Gut Magnets, Learning Centers Gets Uglier With Every Misstep

Patrick MichelsThe scene outside 3700 Ross Avenue last nightLast night's decision by the Dallas Independent School District's board of trustees to delay voting on budget cuts for the district's enhanced schools was more than just a stall. The debate leading up to that decision shed a little more lig ... More >>

Carla Ranger Wonders If the DISD Board of Trustees Is About to "Commit Fraud"

Late into last night, there erupted at the bottom of Schutze's Tuesday post -- concerning the Dallas Independent School District board's threat to needlessly gut the magnets and learning centers -- a discussion about "commitments and covenants." Those are what the district adopted in '03 to get out ... More >>

Right Now, the DISD Board is Probably Yelling At Each Other Behind Closed Doors

DISD board trustee Ron PriceAs I noted, earlier Jim's at 3700 Ross Avenue, where, at this very moment, the board of trustees is behind closed doors, no doubt arguing over the ramifications of the Texas Attorney General's opinion that the trustees should not have extended their terms from three years ... More >>

In Dallas District Court, that Preston Hollow Elementary Lawsuit You Forgot All About

Illustration by Brian StaufferWith little fanfare and hardly any spectators, the trial in the case of Graciela McKay vs. DISD wraps up this week in U.S. District Court, with a verdict expected as early as tomorrow. McKay is the Preston Hollow teacher who filed a federal lawsuit against the district ... More >>

Barefoot Sanders Always Was the Best Boy

Couple of weeks ago, word was that Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price was talking to Dallas Independent School District board president Jack Lowe about renaming North Dallas High School for one of its most famous graduates, Judge Harold Barefoot Sanders, who died in September. So happens th ... More >>

Buzz Reviews the News of 2008: Yes. It Was All Bad.

Sex clubs in the 'burbs, teacher layoffs in the district, black holes in the commissioners court—Buzz makes perfect sense of 2008

Dallas ISD Trustee Ellis Defends Superintendent Hinojosa. Kinda.

Last month, while reporting last week's cover story on Dallas Independent Superintendent Michael Hinojosa, I had two long interviews with school board trustee Leigh Ann Ellis, pictured at right. Most people consider the soft-spoken Ellis one of Hinojosa's most reliable supporters on the board, but I ... More >>

Carla Ranger Also Has No Confidence in Fellow DISD Trustee Ron Price

DISD school board trustee Carla Ranger The day before Halloween, three Dallas Independent School District board members -- Ron Price, Lew Blackburn and Carla Ranger -- told board president Jack Lowe, in writing, that they were calling for a "no-confidence vote" against superintendent Michael Hin ... More >>

How Can DISD's Michael Hinojosa Still Love His Job—and Keep It?

DISD: Hitting Bottom, Then Reaching for a Shovel to Dig Deeper

Explanations be damned. There is only one justifiable response to the worst fiscal disaster in DISD history.

At 3700 Ross Avenue Last Night, It Got Nasty. Then, It Got Even Worse.

Jack Lowe, DISD school board president Blacks were hissing rudely at Hispanics. Hispanics were yelling at other Hispanics. And just about everyone was taunting distraught school board trustees, themselves appearing to teeter on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Ladies and gentleman, this is you ... More >>

Take it to the Limit: When Will the DISD Board Believe Carla Ranger?

DISD school board trustee Carla Ranger Jack Lowe and several of the Dallas Independent School District trustees keep insisting their push to extend term limits, from three to four years, is plenty legal. Which is why, at 5:30 p.m. today, the board will indeed vote on a resolution that does just t ... More >>

DISD Trustees May Make Cutbacks in Democratic Process

DISD trustees may try to cancel next year's school board election to preserve the status quo and the superintendent

D? Well, Maybe D-.

Look, let me take one specific portion of the D special issue about the Dallas Independent School District that came out this week and use it to explain why I don’t think much of this stuff is worth reading. This was a sidebar under the byline of our former colleague, Mark Stuertz, who was fam ... More >>

DISD's Ghosts of Scandals Past

If history tells us anything, the recent security crackdown at DISD signals doom for its superintendent.

Poll Position

Carla Ranger on DISD Ethics Policy: How Lowe Can You Go?

School Board's Carla Ranger on DISD: "The Wrong People Are in Charge."

TEA, Legislators Meet with Hinojosa to Discuss DISD's Direction, We Suppose

DISD|Teacher Layoffs|Michael Hinojosa|PACs

DISD In the Hole

Teachers get axed and parents fret as Dallas' school leaders scramble to cover a budget hole

How to Get Big Business Interested in DISD: Threaten Its Bond Money.

Ah, Yes. But What About the Children?

Falling on a Sword

Teachers, If You Could Use Some Extra $ in the Classroom, Raise Your Hands

Jack Lowe Is "Very Embarrassed " About DISD's $64 Million Budget Shortfall

The TEA Threatens "Alternative Management" or Closure For DISD's "Unacceptable" Schools

An Arts Magnet By Any Other Name

Hitting Where It Hurts

DISD Doesn't Deserve to Win Its Bond Election Because of Its Fiscal Incompetence

Bond and Gagged: Notes from Last Night's DISD Board of Trustees Meeting

Ranger Danger: DISD Trustee Suggests Altering Board Policies

Dwaine Caraway Scared DISD Away From Skyline

The school district decides not to mess with Skyline's magnet program—or Caraway

School Board, Never Boring

Shhh!

What Mike Moses doesn't want anyone to know

Shotgun Love

Once again, the school board gets married the hard way

Hardhat utopia

Sixties social theory meets the building trade at Dallas contractor TDIndustries -- and it works