Under the baking sky at the Texas Motor Speedway, a small, rotund man adjusted his straw hat and tightened his grip on a green flag nearly half as tall as he was. “Houston Lady Racers, you’ve got 30 seconds,” he said to the high-school aged girls surrounding him. They flanked…
The Dallas Independent School District, currently without a superintendent, is now without a chief academic officer — and only 13 months after Ivonne Durant was bumped up from Northwest Learning Community supervisor to that particular title under then-Superintendent Michael Hinojosa. DISD just posted to its Facebook page her adios, given…
Dallas Independent School District spokesman Jon Dahlander, back from summer break, shot me a note this morning about a short film called Von Bagdad nach Dallas. “At some point, you need to see this,” he wrote, explaining he had a lone copy on DVD given to him a while back,…
Yesterday, some 8,500 Dallas Independent School District elementary students reported to 17 campuses, from Bryan and Caillet to Truett and Winnetka, to begin summer school. Pardon: Make that summer camp. At least, that’s how district officials and DISD’s educational partners sell the idea to kids who’ll spend summer vacation learning.And…
Former Dallas Independent School District Superintendent Michael Hinojosa officially begins his new gig in Cobb County, Georgia, today. Hence, this morning’s piece in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “New Cobb superintendent’s job 1: Close students’ achievement gap.” Long story short: Cobb County, like most urban districts around the country, has seen an…
In April director Morgan Spurlock came to the Dallas International Film Festival to show his sponsored-from-start-to-finish documentary The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, after which he and I engaged in a little post-screening Q&A at the Magnolia. During our chitchat, I asked him about a sequence in the film concerning budget-beleaguered…
Exactly one month ago we got a look at longtime Washington Post education columnist Jay Mathews’ list of the best public high schools in the country — the same list that used to run in Newsweek. The School of Science and Engineering at Yvonne A. Ewell Townview Center came in…
Speaking of redistricting …Had an awfully long talk with Dallas County Commissioner Maurine Dickey this afternoon, which I’d post now if she didn’t mention a few things worth tracking down. So that’ll have to wait till tomorrow. But while we’re on the subject, I see here that Nate Silver and…
No doubt, Dallas PD’s million-dollar helicopter is the big-ticket item over on Lone Star Auctions — bigger, certainly, than the donkeys, mules and potbelly pigs being sold off by Dallas County. (I’m gonna call this one “Groucho.”) But I see the Dallas Independent School District’s selling off dozen of portables…
If you care at all about the fate of the Dallas Independent School District, carve out an hour over the weekend. Then, jump to the other side of this item, where I’ve posted the entirety of the school board budget discussion to which I referred yesterday (down below too). Now,…
This week, a couple dozen high-schoolers have been honing their design skills, trying to create the perfect plan for a social space adjacent to a community garden planned for a patch of land along Good-Latimer. Various plans for the space, just south of Canton Street, include a serpent that is…
We went over this last year: Despite the fact the Dallas Independent School District board was just given a presentation on preliminary TAKS scores for the school year that just wrapped, the Texas Education Agency won’t formally release its 2011 Accountability Ratings till July 29. That said, there are some…
The Dallas Independent School District board was just told it’s “still in limbo” when it comes to the exact dollar figure it can expect in cuts from the state Legislature, though something could land on Gov. Rick Perry’s desk as early as late next week. Right now, Senate Bill 1…
School’s out, but not for the Dallas Independent School District’s trustees, who’re meeting at this very moment (behind closed doors) before they look at two versions of the 2011-’12 budget — what they’re calling versions 5.1 and 6.0, which follow the iteration presented to the board on May 26 that…
Last night in Austin, state Rep. Sid Miller laid out a novel solution for Texas’s troubled school budget: the Taxpayer Savings Grants Program, a reward of nearly $5,000 for any parents who’ll do us all a solid and take their kids out of public school. Under Miller’s plan, parents would…
Following their acceptance of superintendent Michael Hinojosa’s resignation, the Dallas Independent School District board unanimously selected current district CFO Alan King — who’s all of six month into his job — as the interim superintendent. “He’s done a great job … and I’m looking forward to him doing an even…
Leslie’s at the Dallas Independent School District board meeting at this very moment, where the trustees will more than likely announce who will temporarily take Michael Hinojosa’s place now that he’s off to become a Georgia peach. Shocking — they’re in closed session. Ah, but speaking of: The district just…
Dallas Independent School District trustees once more spent most of Friday afternoon and evening rating and debating the five interim superintendent candidates. But, once more, they retreated to exec session and opted to run out the clock till Michael Hinojosa was officially offered the top job in Cobb County, Georgia…
ight now, DISD trustees are meeting once again in closed session (Leslie drew the short straw on this one) to discuss their pick for an interim superintendent once Michael Hinojosa exhales his first fresh breaths in Cobb County.All the discussions of particular candidates have taken place behind closed doors — giving…
Turns out, the Dallas Independent School District’s decision to take away teachers’ collaborative planning time — a very reluctant budget cut — has necessitated a change to schools’ start times next year, which begins August 22. So here’s the deal: School’s starting just a little bit later next year, which…
At this very moment, Nolan Estes is at his home in Austin filling out a questionnaire sent to the handful of finalists for the position of interim Dallas Independent School District superintendent. It was dispatched to him by DISD board president Lew Blackburn, who, Estes says, called him yesterday and…
A fellow Dallas Independent School District parent, who recalls Tuesday’s sparring match between Carla Ranger and newly installed board president Lew Blackburn, suggests I take another look at the prolific Ranger’s blog. That’s because, moments ago, she posted yet another item about the interim superintendent debate — this one suggesting…
