A couple of weeks ago we noticed that the Dallas Independent School District’s board of trustees was considering a new “Superintendent Evaluation Instrument,” which broke down the criteria into three separate categories: “student achievement,” “sound financial management” and “stakeholder satisfaction.” For the purposes of this particular report card, percentages were…
Patricia Viramontes has long been one of Dallas Independent School District’s more controversial figures, dating back to at least September 2007, when district officials concluded that, yes, maybe the DISD’s executive director of instructional technology services shouldn’t be reporting to her husband after all, nepotism policies being what they are…
Jon Dahlander, spokesman for the Dallas Independent School District, posted a comment on Unfair Park today that perfectly expressed the school system’s official position on the preservation/demolition of Adamson High School. It blames abandonment of the school on the people who have been fighting to preserve it. And then it…
Speaking of old local cases involving schoolchildren sitting in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit …On Tuesday, the court handed down an opinion in that years-old case involving a Plano Independent School District third-grader and other PISD-off kiddies told by district officials that, no, they couldn’t hand…
Far as the Dallas Independent School District board of trustees is concerned, there are three factors that go into determining how good a job the superintendent’s doing: “student achievement,” “sound financial management” and “stakeholder satisfaction.” Those, say the board, “embody the core beliefs and expectation of the community as represented…
Governor Rick Perry stopped by DISD’s Emmett J. Conrad High School on Fair Oaks Ave. yesterday to tout the Texas Workforce Commission’s $1 million investment in expanding robotics education programs across the state. Conrad, of course, boasts an estimable robotics club — the RoboChargers — that, for the last three…
He sounded a little groggy when he spoke to Unfair Park this morning. But University of North Texas junior Stephen Michael Benavides had a long night: The chair of ACLU’s student chapter spent Thursday night appealing to the UNT Supreme Court to adopt language of a failed bill and allow…
This’ll most likely be our one and only item about the race for the Dallas Independent School District board of trustees — because, judging by the early-voting numbers, well, not too many folks seem to be all that interested. Take the hotly contested District 1 race, for instance: Incumbent Edwin…
Speaking of the Dallas Independent School District and grant money …I was poking around the briefing agenda for this week’s meeting of the board of trustees and noticed this intriguing item: NASA — yes, that NASA, not this NASA — is giving the DISD, via the Foundation for Community Empowerment,…
It’s a common scenario: an “A” elementary school student suddenly becomes a “C” middle-schooler. What happened? According to local brain health researchers, your child is suffering from information overload. “He was so overwhelmed by the amount of information he was trying to stuff in,” says Dr. Sandra Bond Chapman, chief…
Whilst doing some research for something that may not lead to anything, I’ve been reading Walter J. E. Schiebel’s Education in Dallas: Ninety-two years of History 1874-1966, published by the Dallas Independent School District. So this isn’t entirely an exercise in futility, I thought I’d share some of the tome:…
On Monday I moderated a District 1 school board candidates debate, and long story short, all four contenders were thoughtful, well-reasoned and dead-level; even 79-year-old long-shot Melvin Cannon’s call for more vocational education was greeted with a few nods of approval. Most of the questions stuck to issues of policy…
In case you missed it, on Tuesday Tawnell Hobbs published Dallas Independent School District trustee Jack Lowe’s list of things he’s looking for in an “ideal” trustee. Among his bullet points: “Supports our vision of being the best urban school district in the country.” Fantastic. “Makes courageous decisions for the…
The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas just sent word that the organization, in coordination with a U.N.-affiliated advocacy group called United Sikhs, sent out a letter warning Texas school districts — including DISD — to protect Sikh students from discrimination or bullying. The missive is after the jump. The…
Last time we checked, there wasn’t much to laugh about when it came to the state of public education in Dallas. But leave it to Dallas Independent School District Superintendent Michael Hinojosa to at least try to insert some humor, even at his own expense. This morning Hinojosa gave the…
Maybe you recall the ruckus raised last May, when some folks up in Frisco got upset with the fact the school district allowed for the dissemination of Gideon bibles on campuses. And no doubt you recall what happened a year earlier, when some Jewish kids in Plano ISD were taunted…
Struggling to remain viable since losing its Southern Association of Colleges and Schools accreditation this summer, Paul Quinn College yesterday announced a major fund-raising milestone. The historic black college has raised more than $1 million since July, when the Texas Legislative Black Caucus rallied behind the foundering 137-year-old institution. School…
So, judging by this sneak peak at the Dallas Independent School District board of trustees’ briefing agenda this week, Ron Price has decided to save the district $18,000-plus: He’s now recommending giving DISD Chief Academic Officer Robin Ryan a $10,000 raise. Because, as you may recall, Price and superintendent Michael…
Got a buddy who is Cowboys’ season-ticket holder. One of the privileges is getting first dibs at all the events – not just NFL games – at the sparking, billion-dollar joint. So he buys four tickets on the 50 to last month’s Oklahoma-BYU game. Cost him $1,200, and he sells them…
Now that the air has been cleared regarding Dallas Independent School District Superintendent Michael Hinojosa’s poorly spelled add-on agenda item to “undo” the $28,000 raise set aside for Chief Academic Officer Robin Ryan, we can move on to what happened at today’s Dallas Regional Chamber meeting: “A Look Back and…
A Dallas Regional Chamber meeting featuring Dallas Independent School District Superintendent Michael Hinojosa has been on our agenda now for some time. Still, we couldn’t help but use the opportunity to ask Hinojosa in person about this morning’s story by Tawnell Hobbs, who reported that Hinojosa may face reprimand after…
It’s been around since forever — not quite since the ’70s, but close enough. But just yesterday, National Public Radio’s Wade Goodwyn got around to profiling for All Things Considered none other than Mesquite ISD’s KEOM-FM (88.5), our once-upon-a-time favorite blast from the past where, Goodwyn reports, the sound of…
