Earlier today, when word broke that Donna Micheaux was out the door as the Dallas Independent School District’s chief of schools, I asked Jon Dahlander if there was Official Comment concerning the surprising departure. Because it is surprising, at least on the surface: Micheaux, who was appointed chief administrative officer…
“Thought-provoking events” — that’s how SMU said it wanted to honor the 10th anniversary of September 11, with a series of “thought-provoking events.” There would be lectures, speeches, prayer services and, tonight, a half-time tribute at Gerald J. Ford during SMU-UTEP — events political and spiritual, a few attended by…
The jury’s still out, but the fact fetishists at the Texas Freedom Network seem to think that the recently enacted Senate Bill 6 may help neuter the historically science-averse state Board of Education. The law provides districts with state money for text books and tech devices like laptops and tablets…
Got a robocall from the Dallas Independent School District last night asking me to help round up any truants I might know of. Sorry, wish I could help. Turns out, it was just a precursor to tomorrow’s kick-off of Operation Graduation, which is now in its fourth year and involves…
Got stuck watching Footloose the other night — what, like you’re one to judge? Well, it was right before the warehouse scene. Who’d miss that? OK, sure, I’d had a drink, maybe two. It was late. Anyway. Can’t believe Craig Brewer’s remade the thing, due October 14. Sacrilege! Turns out,…
Earlier today we revisited the Dallas Regional Chamber’s plan, blessed by Mayor Mike and Lew Blackburn, to save the Dallas Independent School District. And while Commit! is still in its vague, unformed infancy, clearly this is Very Important to a few very important people. Which is why Blackburn wants the…
Still waiting on a response from Mayor Mike concerning the Dallas Regional Chamber’s so-called Commit! initiative, which we took at long look at Sunday. Turns out, Rawlings, Dwaine Caraway, Uplift Education board member Todd Williams and Dallas ISD board president Lew Blackburn paid The Dallas Morning News a visit yesterday…
For the past six days, the Dallas Independent School District has been hosting “community meetings” on campuses deemed academically unacceptable by the Texas Education Agency — 33 in all, based, of course, on last school year’s TAKS scores. Tonight’s meeting will be held at North Dallas High School, one of…
Spend this morning learning how to convert carbon dioxide into oxygen — by filtering it through algae, duh. Thanks, Param Jaggi! No, seriously. Thanks. The Plano East Senior High School senior’s a genius. Says so right here, in the latest issue of Popular Science, in which he was named one…
As timing would have it, our 8-year-old entered third grade just as the state’s rolling out the new State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness test, which, of course, replaces the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills test, which also turned 8 this year. That means his mom and I…
For a split second in the second quarter, SMU was this close to tying up A&M, 20-20. Backup QB J.J. McDermott, subbed in after Kyle Padron tossed two picks in four pass attempts, had a man open with nothing but open field in front of him. But the pass sailed…
At its August 11 board briefing, Michael Casserly, executive director of the D.C.-based Council of the Great City Schools, told the Dallas Independent School District’s board of trustees: It could be a good, long while till you find a suitable replacement for Michael Hinojosa. Casserly, invited by board president Lew…
You probably noticed: It’s been quite the last few days for the Dallas Independent School District’s board of trustees, what with the board president Lew Blackburn being compared to Idi Amin by a speaker at the last boarding meeting, and trustee Carla Ranger resigning and then, a few days later,…
On Friday, Dallas Independent School District trustee Carla Ranger posted a note to her blog saying that she was resigning. She didn’t say why. We speculated instead. But, no, she’s not leaving. Not now.”I’ve heard overwhelmingly from the community and constituents who have asked me to stay, and I am…
[Update at 4:53 p.m.: As far as the district is concerned, Carla Ranger has not formally resigned because has not delivered “written notice, signed by the Board member, to the presiding officer of the Board,” per resignation policy. An email is not considered a resignation letter. There will also need…
After our back-to-back items about redistricting last night — one involving the city of Dallas, one concerning the Dallas Independent School District — I received a missive from Bill Betzen, about whom Anna wrote a couple of weeks back as his proposed map for the city’s new council districts worked…
Speaking of contentious redistricting …A little while ago, the Dallas Independent School District board of trustees was treated to its own redistricting drama courtesy the public speakers lined up, for the most part, behind trustee Carla Ranger, who has accused board president Lew Blackburn of wanting “to take by force”…
Speaking of the DISD board of trustees’ meeting agenda for Thursday night …Here’s an item of interest: Consider and Take Possible Action to Approve Amendment to Board Policy BJCG (Local) Superintendent Retirement or Resignation (First Reading), which was initially on the consent agenda but has since been pulled for a…
The Annie E. Casey Foundation just released KIDS COUNT, its annual report on child well-being in every state across the U.S. One of their grantees, the Austin-based Center for Public Policy Priorities, put the report for Texas on its website on Wednesday: The State of Texas Children. So how are…
You can’t swing a mace and chain around Observer HQ without hitting someone who knows what it’s like to fight in a real newspaper war. That Buzz fellow worked in San Antonio back when the Express-News toiled against the Light. Schutze and Wilonsky are both veterans of The Dallas Morning…
How does one explain the follicle-by-follicle perfection of Gov. Rick Perry’s imperturbable man-mane? Where does his mega-watt smile and its rows of pearly whites come from? Braces? No, silly. They come from God. God spoke, and Perry was born a man of uncommon comeliness. That, Friends of Unfair Park, is…
Not so very long ago it looked as though Paul Quinn College on Simpson Stuart Road might not be long for this world, following the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools’ decision to yank its accreditation. Appeals were made; lawsuits, filed. And the entire time, president Michael Sorrell stood firm,…
