Back in January, the Dallas Independent School District suffered some minor self-inflicted PR wounds when it tried to eliminate a policy that bans schools from holding graduations in places of worship, except for in “unusual” circumstances. After the ACLU did the whole ACLU thing — stern press releases, vague threats…
With a lingering budget crisis and shrinking enrollment, the Dallas Independent School District has eliminated hundreds of teaching jobs in recent years, and this year will be no different. But in a sharp departure from years past, the district is preparing to part ways with hundreds more teachers for reasons…
Kids walking the halls of Prime Prep Academy next fall might have a shot at television stardom because Deion Sanders, the school’s co-founder, is working with entertainment exec Tracey Edmonds (with whom Sanders’ ex-wife accused him of cheating) to make his school a reality … show. That’s right, a reality…
Back in January, Robert watched as the DISD board, which has the amazing skill of stretching out any conversation to 10 times its natural length, debated the qualities they’d like to see in a new superintendent. Last night, Resource Center Dallas CEO Cece Cox sent the board an open letter,…
Make no mistake: The achievement gap is still a seemingly uncrossable gorge, and minority students in Dallas and across the country are still pretty much hosed. But in a few key areas at least, black and Latino students are slightly less hosed here than they are in other large, urban…
Like I was saying, or writing, earlier this morning …When Edwin Flores announced he wasn’t going to seek re-election to the Dallas Independent School District board two weeks ago, the District 1 trustee said he’d hold off on making an endorsement. At the time, only one other candidate had announced:…
More or less moments after Edwin Flores announced he wouldn’t be running for another term as Dallas Independent School District trustee, a Friend of Unfair Park wondered: “Is he going to give Educate Dallas their money back?” Referring, of course, to the $10,000 pledge made by the Dallas Regional Chamber-connected…
Whilst trolling the Dallas ISD’s website last night, I noticed that the district has posted its 2012-2013 District Improvement Plan, a 21-page look at all that ails DISD and offers general fix-its to accommodate its myriad needs. And needs there are: The word appears dozens of time over a handful…
I called Dallas Independent School District spokesman Jon Dahlander early this morning to see if that lone, anonymous teacher’s call for a leap day of protest went answered by his peers. No, says Dahlander in a statement just dispatched from 3700 Ross. Not at all:The percentage of Dallas ISD teachers…
Had a couple of readers ask late yesterday: Why no mention of tomorrow’s maybe-could-be-probably-not Dallas ISD teacher “sickout,” which a single anonymous teacher’s calling for? To which I responded: Well, I’m not sure it’s going to be much of one, despite lingering resentment over last month’s vote to increase workdays…
Deion Sanders is not messing around with haters. “Someone is ready to hate, somebody is ready to naysay,” he said at last night’s Oak Cliff town hall meeting to rally support for his charter school, Prime Prep Academy, slated to open campuses in Dallas and Fort Worth in August. The…
Deion Sanders overlooked the crowd from his seat at a long table, positioned in front of the altar at Charity Church in East Fort Worth at last night’s town hall meeting for his latest venture, Prime Prep Academy, a charter school he says will have campuses in both Fort Worth…
The Dallas City Council council didn’t waste much time getting ’round to the most eagerly awaited showdown of the day: Item No. 53 on its agenda, which creates that nonprofit that would allow Uplift Education to some $85 million in low-interest-rate bonds. As city Chief Financial Officer Jeanne Chipperfield told…
Speaking of the Dallas Independent School District’s doings … No doubt you recall the ugly allegations that came out of Ebby Halliday Elementary School in the fall, stories of abuse and intimidation that resulted in principal Kamalia Cotton going to another campus (Phillis Wheatley Elementary School) while furious parents demanded…
On the other side is a missive I just received from Dallas Independent School District board member Edwin Flores, in which the longtime District 1 trustee announces that he will not seek another term. I asked Flores why not — if, maybe, this had something to do with the furor…
In May we hopped about this ad-adorned Dallas County Schools bus, one of many so decorated courtesy an ad agency specializing in school-bus advertising (hence the name of its website). As Dallas Independent School District spokesman Jon Dahlander explained at the time, the district contracts with Dallas County Schools to…
In November The News broke the news that Roslyn Carter, the principal at Tom Field Elementary, took teaching to the test a little too far — at least, according to Dallas Independent School District investigators. Acting on anonymous tips, the district says it discovered that Carter told her third-grade science,…
Edwin Flores said it a couple of weeks back: The Dallas Independent School District has a communications problem. Which is one way of putting it — the nice way of putting it. And so, following months’ worth of dust-ups and screw-ups involving school closures and longer teacher workdays and suspended…
Container Store co-founder Garrett Boone and the Star Employee Commission told the Dallas ISD trustees last month that the HR department was … how did they put it … well, let’s just go with completely, totally and utterly effed. (Look, my kid reads Unfair Park, all right?) And they offered…
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…
