This morning, the Environmental Protection Agency released a list of 62 schools around the country set to have their air quality studied as part of what the agency calls "a new air toxics monitoring initiative." And there's a Dallas Independent School District elementary on the list: N.W. Harllee, so named for a textbook author and Dallas educator, on Eighth Street, right between R.L. Thornton Freeway and the Trinity River and across the street from Yvonne A. Ewell Townview Center. The EPA says
School for the Talented and Gifted at Yvonne A. Ewell Townview CenterAs of this afternoon, we've got 50-plus good reasons why we run comments on Unfair Park. They're affixed to Jim's Friday-evening item concerning the potential fate of DISD's magnet schools and learning centers. Jim and I marveled throughout the weekend at the quantity and quality of the comments, many of which came from former and current TAG students. As an Alex W. Spence grad myself, I was especially touched by and proud of m
Woodrow Wilson High SchoolAt about 5:50 pm today, I received a call from a Fort Worth attorney, Ben Barlow, representing the Dallas Independent School District on the magnet school and learning center issue. He informed me that my piece posted to Unfair Park on Friday night was dead wrong and that there are no waivers for magnets from federal Title I requirements. Barlow -- who is, I bet, a very good lawyer -- read me the law and made a very persuasive case.One hour later, I received a call fro
On Tuesday of this week Dallas Independent School District spokesman Jon Dahlander responded to questions I had asked him last week for my column this week about per-pupil expenditures at high school campuses. Unfortunately, his response by e-mail reached me several days after my deadline had passed. Mr. Dahlander is a busy man these days and has a lot more to do in this world than answer questions for me, so I won't hold it against him that he replied after my deadline.I only regret that I wasn
Sam Tasby, who sued the DISD in 1970, when his son Phillip was denied admission to two all-white schools near the Tasby residenceWell, we have now officially turned our back on school desegregation. I'm sure some of you will be thrilled. Personally, I'm sitting here at my computer in the back corner of a darkened house at a quarter to two in the morning, and I feel more like throwing up.At a little past 1 this morning, led by board member Edwin Flores, the whites and Hispanics on the board (wit
Newsweek has yet again released its list of the top 1,500 public high schools in the U.S. -- and Dallas, with six on the list, has dropped one from the '08 scorecard: poor ol' Hillcrest High School, which last year came in at No. 547, dang. The School for the Talented and Gifted at Yvonne A. Ewell Townview Center and the School of Science and Engineering at Yvonne A. Ewell Townview Center are back in their '07 slots -- at Nos. 1 and 2, respectively. Rounding out the list: Highland Park (at No. 2
