We have 508 Park Avenue; The Dallas Morning News, Adamson High School, which the Dallas Independent School District wants to demolish, save for the facade, to make way for a new facility next door by August 2012. A few weeks back, the paper made note of the DISD’s tussles with…
While President Obama’s speech to students met a lukewarm reception at some schools around Dallas-Fort Worth, former Dallas mayor and current U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk made sure the speech played to a full house this morning at Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts.At a…
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 proposal: At Thursday’s…
A few minutes ago, I spoke to Dallas Independent School District spokesman Jon Dahlander concerning his voice-mail message this morning. I wondered if today’s decision, to let teachers and principals decide whether their classes could watch President Obama’s speech to students on Tuesday, was a change from any kind of…
So, the Plano Independent School District has opted out of President Obama’s speech to students on Tuesday, but what says the Dallas ISD? I asked Jon Dahlander, district spokesman, via e-mail this morning about the district’s plans. While I was out of the office, he left the following message on…
In a small meeting room at Dallas Independent School District headquarters this afternoon, Ron Price addressed reporters and a half-dozen cameras to explain why — on the eve of the deadline to file for re-election as District 9 trustee — he’s ending his 12-year run on the school board. “I…
Late Monday, Brooks Love and I had a brief chat about Dallas Friends of Public Education, the political action committee set to make its bow this morning with a 10:30 press conference at Dallas Independent School District HQ. (DFPE’s Web site made its debut yesterday.) You know Love, right? Former…
So agreed the respective parties and ordered the federal judge in Georgia who’s handling the college’s lawsuit against the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, which stripped the 137-year-old Paul Quinn College of its membership back in June. However, the school remains on double-secret probation pending the outcome of case…
Just got back to my desk to find a copy of the highly critical Adult Basic Education Department Audit about which we wrote yesterday. So, as always, the full document follows after the jump. And while there are a whole mess of figures to sort through, per the auditor’s concerns…
As expected, Paul Quinn College is making good on its threat to take the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools all the way to federal court for tossing its accreditation. Two days after the SACS denied Paul Quinn’s appeal, the 137-year-old school sued the association in Atlanta federal court, claiming…
We end the day where we began the day, if only because we’ve finally spoken with Dallas Independent School District spokesman Jon Dahlander concerning the critical internal audit of the Adult Basic Education Program, funded last year with $3.7 million in grant money. We were expecting to post the audit…
The Dallas Independent School District’s Adult Basic Education Program is available to all “adult learners and educationally disadvantaged adults in Dallas and Rockwall counties” who want to learn about, well, you name it — everything from English to math, computer skills to parenting skills. So says this 2007-2008 at-a-glance, in…
Turns out, Paul Quinn College President Michael Sorrell was available to talk to us today, following the news that the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools refused to reinstate the the 137-year-old institution’s accreditation. Not surprisingly, Sorrell was defiant in the wake of the decision: “When we went down this…
The president of Southern Association of Colleges and Schools just called Unfair Park with news concerning Paul Quinn’s accreditation status. Says Dr. Belle Wheelan, “The appeal panel did uphold the decision the commission had made.” In other words, Paul Quinn will remain unaccredited. The decision comes two months after the…
Missed this one yesterday, mostly because Dallas Independent School District trustee Carla Ranger doesn’t post to her blog as often as she used to. But one thing’s got her attention: Fellow trustee Ron Price’s proposal to rename schools for President Barack Obama and Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayor, one of…
In the comments concerning Mayor Tom’s proposal to limit speakers at city council meetings, Friend of Unfair Park Mike MacNaughton directs our attention to a similar policy change the Dallas Independent School District’s trustees will consider on Thursday. You can read the whole thing here, but looks like the board…
A few minutes ago, the University of Texas at Dallas posted word that over the weekend, one of its programmers made a tiny boo-boo that allowed students to peek at each other’s very private information — such as, their names, “addresses, class schedules, Net identification, UT Dallas ID numbers, and…
Hadn’t intended to look at the Dallas Independent School District board’s meeting agendas till next week — damn, summer break went by in a hurry — but Tawnell Hobbs gives us an early warning: Trustee Ron Price would like to rename some schools for President Barack Obama and your newest…
Here’s a fun weekend activity: Scroll through the Texas Education Agency’s accountability ratings for the Dallas Independent School District, which were released this afternoon. (You can go here for the full statewide breakdown by district, region, etc., while KTVT-Channel 11’s Steve Pickett offers a ratings ranking for area’s school districts.)…
A Friend of Unfair Park with deep DISD roots forwards along the link to the We are Teachers Web site, where Woodrow Wilson High School’s Michael Moran is among dozens of teachers from around the country competing for a Digital Learning Microgrant. And micro it is: $200 and a Flip…
When last we heard word from the campus of Paul Quinn College, local and state legislators had gathered to voice their unconditional support for the college stripped of its accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools in late June. While the school works through the process of appealing…
Sorry, that’s hardly as sexy as it sounds. But that is how José Bowen, dean of the university’s Meadows School of the Arts, describes his edict to pull the plug on the technology clogging up the classrooms. Bowen, speaking to The Chronicle of Higher Education, doesn’t buy University of Texas…
