This was a good day — such days do occur — to study democracy in action at Dallas City Hall. The city council engaged in a smart debate on a proposal to help a charter school organization sell bonds to build more charter schools. The mayor and council decided not…
Earlier today Rudy posted an explainer to the City Hall blog about those so-called “conduit bonds” Uplift Education hopes to sell with City Hall’s backing. But long story short, per a Los Angeles Times piece last year, they “allow private entities to tap into low-cost municipal bond financing for projects…
We started this morning by noting Brett Shipp’s piece from last night suggesting the Texas Education Agency is threatening to withhold Dallas ISD from close to $80 million in federal funds birthed by No Child Left Behind. The reason, says Commissioner of Education Robert Scott: Only 40 students out of…
The Texas Education Agency released its federally mandated, No Child Left Behind-backed Adequate Yearly Progress report back in August, at which point it was revealed that the Dallas Independent School District missed the mark for the third consecutive year — which interim superintendent Alan King blamed on the “annual ratcheting…
We first touched on this back in June — the possibility that the Dallas Independent School District might turn its schools and buses into billboards, because, hey, every penny counts these days. And while, oh, Morgan Spurlock might think it’s a terrible idea (“Are we going to live in a…
For the last few months I’ve been on my son’s school’s Site Based Decision Making Committee, as one of the Dad’s Club reps, and last week was our first discussion about something that’s been a topic of conversation at 3700 Ross for a good long while: the district’s in-the-works teacher…
One week ago tonight I was at Thomas C. Marsh Middle School for my son’s elementary-school talent show; those kids play the big room. We’re in the Matadors’ feeder pattern, and plenty of neighbors and friends send their kids to Marsh, which has made significant strides in recent years –…
Below is a missive just dispatched to Unfair Park: Dallas Independent School District trustee Edwin Flores’s “Open Letter of Apology” — to Central Elementary fourth-grade bilingual teacher Joseph Drake, who was put on leave after he sent Flores a fist-shaking letter concerning 45 minutes added to teachers’ workdays, and to…
Only yesterday we were wondering during a staff meeting whatever became of Roslyn Carter, the principal at Tom Field Elementary who, as The Dallas Morning News reported in November, phonied up science and social studies grades for her third-graders because, well, they never actually had science or social studies classes…
But a few hours ago, Rena Honea, president of AFT-Alliance, held a press conference and posted this petition demanding the Dallas Independent School District reinstate fourth-grade Central Elementary bilingual teacher Joseph Drake, who was put on leave late last week after he sent trustee Edwin Flores an angry email regarding…
In the end, of course, the commenter was right: They took it easy on Edwin Flores last night at E.L. DeGolyer Elementary — mighty easy. The audience was small, equal parts critics and cheerleaders; the faces, familiar — Michael MacNaughton, Bill Betzen, one-time school board candidate Kyle Renard, newly announced…
Anna’s attending tonight’s meeting of Deep Ellum property owners and city officials concerning Uplift Education’s latest charter school — which, Uplift CEO Yasmin Bhatia just told me, is very definitely going to take the former Baylor building on Elm Street. As Bhatia put it: “All systems go” for an August…
Edwin Flores’s appearance at E.L. DeGolyer Elementary has been on the schedule for quite a while; says the invite, the Dallas Independent School District trustee’s scheduled to speak about “the state of the district and superintendent search.” I expect that’s not all he’ll be asked to address.But where to begin?…
At the beginning of the Dallas ISD trustees’ long day’s journey into night, I dialed up the back-and-forth over the superintendent search, as the board at long last debated what makes a super super. That video’s archived here. And it was intriguing too, a peek into the thought processes of…
They argued, they reasoned, they pleaded, they threatened, they chanted, they cried. But in the end, it just didn’t matter. It never really did. It’s over, and it was never in doubt. Under budget pressure, and after a final, five-hour session, the Dallas Independent School District’s board of trustees voted…
There’s every chance today’s meeting of the Dallas Independent School District’s board of trustees could last till the wee small hours of tomorrow morning. Because in addition to all the previously mentioned public hearings and hot-button items scheduled for today — everything from school consolidations to longer workday hours for…
Lawrence Smith has what you might call a bit of a beef with Cowboys great Deion Sanders. And he just took that beef — what’s that phrase? Ah yes. Priiiime tiiiime. A few years back, Smith went into business with Sanders and a businessman named D.L. Wallace on a high-school…
Tomorrow is C-Day, the day we find out if the Dallas Independent School District will consolidate nine elementary schools and two middle schools in order to grapple with its looming $38-million budget gap. Months of public hearings, protests in front of 3700 Ross and staking signs in front of schools…
Throughout the week the in-box has been filling up with complaints from Dallas Independent School District teachers who insist they were given no advance warning that trustees would be voting tomorrow on extending their workday hours from seven hours and 45 minutes to eight and a half hour. Writes one:…
In the ever-lasting debate over whether and how and how well our teachers are living up to their charge — that charge, of course, being simply to save their country from a slow, seamless descent into collective idiocy — a lot of buzzwords get buzzed: evaluations, testing, metrics, merit pay,…
Just eight months ago, Lawrence Billy Jones III was a senior at Garland High School. He’s a UNT freshman now, double-majoring in political science and criminal justice. He just turned 19. And for reasons we really can’t figure, he’s running for office. Specifically, he’s gunning for a seat on the…
Just got off the phone with tax attorney Mark Melton, who, as you’ll recall, is co-chairing EducateDallas, that political action committee with ties to the Dallas Regional Chamber. I had questions following receipt of a release this afternoon that says the PAC is endorsing two candidates for the Dallas Independent…
