Just returned from a funeral to find the Dallas Independent School District board discussing 21 ways to get better candidates down to 3700 Ross and how to restructure human resources — which, I know, sounds boring on the surface. But this is the so-called Star Employee Commission’s report to the…
The Dallas Independent School District board has much on its plate at today’s briefing, the first of the new year: that look-see at the coming year’s budget, a report on efforts to close 11 schools to save $11 million, a peek at how that under-construction teacher evaluation system is coming…
One week ago today, during council’s chat about the coming bond program, the subject of the UNT Dallas College of Law came up: Angela Hunt wanted to know when the university would take over the old Municipal Building, at which point City Manager Mary Suhm reminded the council, “They’re a…
Last month the Dallas Independent School District officially dedicated George Herbert Walker Bush Elementary, the Addison campus funded by the 2008 bond program. The affair was populated by pols, Ross Ave. administrators and educators, but at the 3:37 mark of the video just posted by the district the man for…
For several weeks we’ve known how 3700 Ross intends to deal with a budget shortfall in the coming school year — by closing schools (guesstimated to save $11.5 million) and jumping kindergarten to fourth-grade teacher-student ratios from 22:1 to 24:1 per classroom (which could result in the loss of 300…
Saw this when I got home last night — an invite to attend a Grand Prairie Independent School District open house January 21 at the South Grand Prairie High School Coliseum. The postcard thinks that maybe my Dallas ISD-attending child would want to attend, say, the Garner Fine Arts Academy…
On May 12 of next year three Dallas Independent School District trustee spots will come up for grabs — those presently held by Bernadette Nutall, Bruce Parrott and Edwin Flores. (And, depending on which rumors you choose to believe about possible doings on the Dallas County Commissioners Court and the…
The real reason I wanted to talk to Dallas Independent School District board president Lew Blackburn last week was about the district’s search for a superintendent — specifically, why it’s expected to take so long and why the district appears to be behind its own schedule. Because according to a…
I got the word late Friday: the long-disputed Jose “Joe” May Elementary School, which the Dallas Independent School District had planned to build on Webb Chapel between Royal and Walnut Hill as part of its 2008 bond program, is dead. Far as the neighbors are concerned, it’s an early Christmas…
Undaunted by last night’s cold drizzle, around 30 Dallas ISD teachers, custodial workers and other support employees held a quiet march and candlelight vigil outside 3700 Ross Avenue. The reason? DISD’s budget-cutting plan to outsource custodial services and HVAC repairs to a private company. Along with the 471 teachers who…
On the eve of the final school board meeting of the year, I had a long talk with Dallas Independent School District board president Lew Blackburn, who expects tonight’s adios to 2011 will be a lengthy one: “We’ve got a long list of people who want to speak about the…
I see here that on Thursday the Texas Education Agency quietly sent to superintendents its list of Public Education Grant-designated schools — otherwise known as the lowest of the low-performing campuses in the state. Forty-three Dallas ISD campuses make the list, from A. Maceo Smith to Woodrow — with Hillcrest,…
Friends and allies of former Dallas School board president Kathlyn Gilliam quietly mourned her death early Sunday afternoon. She had fought a 13-month battle with cancer. Gilliam, 81, was the first black woman in history to serve on the Dallas school board, elected in 1974 after a court battle to…
Slowly but surely we’re learning more about the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness test that’ll hit classrooms in the coming March. As in: For those who may have missed it, the Texas Education Agency has released some sample test questions for grades 3-8. Keep in mind, though, we…
Speaking of SMU …It has officially been invited to join the Big East, and is only too happy to accept. In a conference call with media, commissioner John Marinatto just intro’d the Hilltop to the ranks of the conference, along with the University of Central Florida and the University of…
Moments ago, the National Center for Education Statistics released its so-called Nation’s Report Card, wherein the U.S. Department of Education and the Institute of Education Sciences rank fourth- and eighth-grade public school students from 21 urban districts using math and reading scores. And for the first time ever the Dallas…
David Abbey is the principal of Kingswood Park Public School in Penrith, New South Wales, Australia, considered a suburb of Sydney. Kingswood Park has its familiar issues — a “socio-economic disadvantage” in large part because of a dwindling student body, “a significant Aboriginal population” and many of its students hailing…
At this very moment, the Dallas independent School District’s Citizens Budget Review Commission — assembled in March to bring fresh eyes to a district budget in need of gutting, thanks in large part to Gov. Rick Perry and the state Legislature — is meeting to discuss two proposals on the…
Below, Dallas Independent School District trustee Edwin Flores hopped in the comments to underscore something he said during yesterday’s discussion concerning Teach for America. Said the trustee yesterday, TFA corps members in the district “outperform two-thirds of all our teachers in math and science” — not just first-year teachers or…
Three hours after their start time, the Dallas ISD board finally got around to discussing whether or not to extend the district’s contract with Teach for America — which would seem like a no-brainer after you read this 2010 Atlantic piece about TFA or this January 2011 study by the…
The Dallas Independent School District board has yet to get down to business; at the moment it’s behind closed doors in executive session. But moments ago it heard from a parade of public speakers, all of whom were awfully well behaved and used their three minutes wisely as they spoke…
I didn’t have time to tune in yesterday for the entirety of the ad hoc committee meeting of some Dallas Independent School District trustees tasked with rewriting the district’s “educational philosophy.” At close to two hours, it wasn’t a short discussion either — it never is when trustees gather ’round…
