Last month, while reporting last week’s cover story on Dallas Independent Superintendent Michael Hinojosa, I had two long interviews with school board trustee Leigh Ann Ellis, pictured at right. Most people consider the soft-spoken Ellis one of Hinojosa’s most reliable supporters on the board, but I found her more ambivalent…
Last month, while working on this profile of Dallas Independent School District Superintendent Michael Hinojosa, I met DISD board of trustees president Jack Lowe for coffee at the La Madeline by SMU. Lowe, as you may recall, said upon the revelation of the district’s initial $64-million budget shortfall in September…
DISD school board trustee Carla Ranger The day before Halloween, three Dallas Independent School District board members — Ron Price, Lew Blackburn and Carla Ranger — told board president Jack Lowe, in writing, that they were calling for a “no-confidence vote” against superintendent Michael Hinojosa. Lowe repeatedly ignored the request,…
During today’s closed-door meeting of the Dallas Independent School District board, the trustees will tell superintendent Michael Hinojosa whether or not they, ya know, trust the dude. As in: The board will “deliberate the appointment, employment, evaluation, reassignment, duties, discipline, or dismissal of a public officer or employee; including evaluation…
That’s what BusinessWeek wanted to know, which is why it interviewed Director of Admissions Patti Cudney for a Q&A that runs more than 2,400 words. No doubt you’ll read the entire thing, but toward the end, there’s a question concerning the university’s image worth noting, if nothing else. Jump for…
Well, as it turns out, Dallas Independent School District superintendent Michael Hinojosa was far more engaged than we all thought. We just received the superintendent’s annual evaluation of Eric Anderson, the district’s former chief operating officer who has been widely blamed for DISD’s epic financial crisis. Long story short: Hinojosa…
Texas State Board of Education member Mavis Knight, a Democrat whose District 13 includes part of Dallas and Tarrant Counties, had no idea till reached by Unfair Park this afternoon that her fellow board member Cynthia Dunbar has published a book. But, sure enough, there it is on Amazon: One…
Schutze has already mentioned what a big fan he is of the Raptor scanner recently installed at Dallas Independent School District HQ on Ross Ave., along with a handful of other district campuses. The point of the device, which scans a person’s driver’s license before they’re allowed in the building,…
I don’t love Texas. I don’t hate Oklahoma. But what transpired yesterday in the Big 12 is absolute bullshit. I know life ain’t fair, but college football should be. Or at least it should use common sense trying. Let me apologize to Texas. I posted some of the best…
DISD school board trustee Carla Ranger Took her a few days for her to respond, but, at last, Dallas Independent School District trustee Carla Ranger has posted a lengthy essay concerning the school board’s Thursday-night vote to extend the trustees’ terms from three to four years. Ranger, who’s already called…
Jack Lowe, DISD school board president Blacks were hissing rudely at Hispanics. Hispanics were yelling at other Hispanics. And just about everyone was taunting distraught school board trustees, themselves appearing to teeter on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Ladies and gentleman, this is your Dallas Independent School District. Last…
Edwin Flores Northwest Dallas residents with kids in the Dallas Independent School District and some spare time Saturday might want to duck into Thomas C. Marsh Middle School, where, as you will see, board trustee Edwin Flores will be hosting a District 1 Summit. The full flier that came home…
The Texas State Board of Education’s meeting in Austin about, among other things, whether the board ought to revise the state’s science curriculum to allow for, ya know, the teaching of creationism alongside evolution. Which is why three rabbis, two from ’round these parts and one of whom hails from…
DISD school board trustee Carla Ranger Jack Lowe and several of the Dallas Independent School District trustees keep insisting their push to extend term limits, from three to four years, is plenty legal. Which is why, at 5:30 p.m. today, the board will indeed vote on a resolution that does…
Paul Coggins After the jump, courtesy Dallas Independent School District spokesman Jon Dahlander, the district’s announcement concerning the appointment of former U.S. Attorney Paul Coggins to look into the whole phony Social Security number mess. Coggins, now at Fish & Richardson, has a history of doing this kind of dirty…
Yes, indeed — that’s Dallas Independent School District’s Dalton Sherman, the fifth-grade feel-good story of a school year in desperate need of good news. As we noted last week, Sherman got Oprah’d yesterday: He was showcased among the handful of “Little Phenoms” Winfrey handpicked as she searches for the “World’s…
See, Patrick “Buzz” Williams, this is what happens when you’re the first one to write about the Dallas Independent School District’s Social Security number snafu — by two days, no less — only you’re all funny and forgiving about it. (To wit: “This is merely another instance of the sort…
Dalton Sherman and some other guy No doubt about it — Dalton Sherman is the Dallas Independent School District’s feel-good story of the school year and has been ever since his kick-off speech at the American Airlines Center in August. Two months later, the Charles Rice Learning Center fifth-grader found…
Just spotted this announcement on the Dallas Independent School District’s Web site and thought we’d pass it along, as the deadline is tomorrow. –Robert Wilonsky Attention: Recently RIFed Personnel Personnel who were part of the recent reduction in force will have an opportunity to address a panel composed of a…
DISD school board trustee Carla Ranger Dallas Independent School District board trustee Carla Ranger can’t understand why the district doesn’t make superintendent Michael Hinojosa’s contract available online. Because, see, the Texas Administrative Code says that really oughta be available to anyone interested in taking a peek at the document. And…
DISD school board trustee Carla Ranger Maybe we oughta turn Virtual Coffee — that’s right, isn’t it? — over to Dallas Independent School Board trustee Carla Ranger; this makes three posts in three days, fancy. But you knew this one was coming following last night’s board of trustees vote to…
That is, he’s leading in the Dallas Independent School District’s Mock Election 2008, taking place today all over the district in grades K-12. (The boy said this morning he was going to vote for Boba Fett.) And with a scant 9 percent of the vote in, it’s Barack Obama by…
