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88 Superintendent Vacancies
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Harrison Says New Audio Proves TAMU President Knew Student Was ‘Threatened’ by Faculty
Embattled Texas A&M President Mark Welsh is facing new calls for his job. This comes following disclosures that he knew about threats issued against a student who complained about a controversial LGBT curriculum. In an audio recording posted by State Rep. Brian Harrison (R–Midlothian), a student told Welsh that a department head had threatened her over recordings she had taken of a class. The student told Welsh that the department head told her the student handbook prohibits that activity despite Texas being a one-party consent state.
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Man who made threat against Austin ISD board convicted of hate crime
Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza recently announced that his office secured a hate crime conviction for Michael Boone.
Timeline:
On August 11, 2023, the Austin Independent School District’s Police Department investigated a terroristic threat sent to the Austin Independent School District Board of Trustees via their "Let’s Talk" App prior to the Board of Trustees' participation in the Austin Pride Parade on August 12, 2023.
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Spring Hill ISD holds meeting on proposed property tax increase, bond package
Spring Hill ISD held a meeting on Monday to answer questions from residents about a proposed property tax hike and $20 million bond package that will be on the November ballot. If approved by voters, property taxes in the district would be increased by $.0321 per $100 property valuation. The district says the change would provide an additional $304,000 per year. Spring Hill ISD School Board President John Borens says there is leeway with how that money is used.
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Tax cuts for Texas homeowners on ballot for Nov. 4 general election
Several proposed amendments in Texas’ Nov. 4 general election would provide property tax cuts for Texan homeowners if approved at the cost of billions of the state’s funding. The general election has 17 different proposed statewide amendments on the ballot. Of those, ten of them relate to providing tax cuts in various ways, including on homes, businesses, capital gains, securities, and animal feed.
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Coppell: Another North Texas school district is considering closing a campus
Another North Texas school district is considering a possible school closure as it grapples with an $8.5 million budget deficit. Coppell ISD says it's considering closing Town Center Elementary, among other possible changes. The move would save about $1.3 million in payroll, according to information shared by the district.
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Splendora 1st-Grade Teacher Charged With Aggravated Sexual Assault of a Child
Rene Tavera taught bilingual classes at Peach Creek Elementary in Splendora ISD.
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Athens ISD board discussing accepting band director’s resignation after meth allegations
The board of Athens Independent School District is discussing accepting the resignation of the high school’s band director. 45-year-old Nicholas Durham was arrested on a meth charge earlier this month after Henderson County Sheriff’s Office deputies searched his apartment. According to arrest records, he gave investigators two bongs containing meth at that time.
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Student Who Mocked Charlie Kirk’s Assassination No Longer at Texas Tech
A Texas Tech University student was caught in a viral video mocking the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. She is now no longer enrolled there. “F*** y’all, ya homie’s dead,” the student chanted. The confrontation occurred outside a vigil for the slain evangelist on the Texas Tech University campus. The student, Camryn Giselle Booker, is 18 years old. According to press reports, Booker was arrested after she shoved several people, including an elderly veteran and a mother with a young child. The viral video does not show that incident.
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Tarrant County schools sued over Texas Ten Commandments law
More than a dozen multi-faith families, including one from Fort Worth, filed a lawsuit against five Tarrant County-area school districts and others across Texas to stop them from displaying the Ten Commandments in classrooms as required under a state law. The group of 15 families filed the suit Monday in a San Antonio court against 14 districts, including Fort Worth, Arlington, Northwest, Mansfield and Azle saying the law is a violation of religious freedom and the separation of church and state. This is the latest legal challenge to the new state law that went into effect Sept. 1. Kristin Klade, a Lutheran pastor in Fort Worth, is among those who filed this week’s lawsuit. She said in a statement that displaying the Ten Commandments in her children’s classrooms steps on her parental right to teach religion to her family.
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Report: University of Houston Must End Partnership With Chinese University
A new congressional report found that the University of Texas at Arlington and the University of Houston have concerning connections with the Chinese military-industrial complex. The U.S. Congress’ Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party and the Committee on Education and the Workforce published the 39-page report that found both universities have partnerships with Chinese institutions that “pose serious national security risks.” The University of Houston partners with Dalian Maritime University to run the Houston International Institute, a joint engineering operation.
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Sen. Phil King predicts legal victory as Texas schools begin displaying Ten Commandments
AUSTIN — After scoring a legislative victory with a new law requiring classrooms to display the Ten Commandments, state Sen. Phil King of Weatherford says he’s ready for the next round: a court challenge asserting that the mandate on Texas schools violates the fundamental principle separating church and state. Enacted by the recently adjourned regular session of the Texas Legislature, King’s Senate Bill 10 requires a version of the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every classroom beginning Sept. 1. Gov. Greg Abbott signed the bill into law on June 20. The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas and allied groups filed suit in a San Antonio federal court July 2 declaring the law violates the religious rights of students and parents and “is plainly unconstitutional.” It also seeks a preliminary injunction to keep the law from going into effect pending the resolution of the suit.
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How a SIM farm like the one found near the UN threatens telecom networks
The U.S. Secret Service has found and is quietly dismantling a massive network of “SIM farms” across the New York area just as world leaders gather for meetings at the United Nations
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FWISD plans teacher shake-up for 7 struggling schools, new reading lessons with Bible stories
Teachers and principals at seven persistently failing Fort Worth schools must reapply for their jobs for next school year if trustees approve a turnaround plan next week. That’s because FWISD students deserve to have the best teachers in front of them, Superintendent Karen Molinar said Wednesday. As a potential state takeover looms, Molinar wants to shift three middle schools and four elementaries to a Texas-approved turnaround model. On top of that, FWISD administrators want to use the state’s new reading materials that incorporate Bible stories into lessons.
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Finalist for Texas A&M Victoria President Has Extensive DEI History
Christian Hardigree has a background in “diversity” and “sustainability.” The finalist for president of Texas A&M Victoria has pervasive experience with left-wing causes such as “diversity,” “equity,” and “sustainability.” Christian Hardigree was named the sole finalist for the presidency of Texas A&M-Victoria following a special called meeting of the Texas A&M System Board of Regents on September 18. There is a 21-day waiting period before the regents can finalize her appointment. Hardigree is the regional chancellor of the University of South Florida St. Petersburg campus, where she has been quoted as wanting to sustain the momentum behind USFSP’s diversity, equity, and inclusion programming.
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Another IDEA School Admin Arrested for Sex Crimes Involving Student
Shonterrich Johnson was an assistant principal at the IDEA Parmer Park charter school in Austin. For a second time this year, an IDEA Public Schools administrator is accused of sex crimes involving a student. Shonterrich Jeremaine Johnson, 29, was arrested and charged with improper relationship between educator and student, a second-degree felony, and online solicitation of a minor, a third-degree felony. Johnson worked as an assistant principal of instruction at the IDEA Parmer Park charter school in Austin, which serves about 1,300 K-12 students.
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While praising Charlie Kirk’s commitment to free speech, Texas leaders move to punish students celebrating his death
Gov. Greg Abbott called for a student to be expelled for celebrating Kirk’s death. Legal experts say the student’s speech is likely constitutionally protected. “Hi, my name is Charlie Kirk,” he announced, before collapsing to the ground, pretending to be shot. As he walked away, someone on video can be heard saying, “you’re going to get expelled, dude.”Gov. Greg Abbott agreed, telling the university on social media to “expel this student immediately. Mocking assassination must have consequences.” Texas State President Kelly Damphouse later confirmed that the student was no longer enrolled, explaining in a statement that the university “will not tolerate behavior that mocks, trivializes, or promotes violence.” Eugene Volokh, a First Amendment expert at UCLA and Stanford, read those statements skeptically.
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Texas Signs Voter Roll Crosscheck Agreements With 9 States
Secretary of State Jane Nelson said voter registration data-sharing provides “a critical tool to detect and prevent potential voter fraud.”
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UNT Student: No Protection After Harassment for Defending Charlie Kirk
Attorney General Ken Paxton has demanded answers from UNT. After opposing in-class celebrations of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, a University of North Texas student says she is being harassed and threatened, and the university police are not protecting her. On the afternoon of September 18, Mary-Catherine Hallmark was manning a Turning Point USA table on campus in front of the Willis Library. As a safety precaution, Hallmark said Turning Point had already informed UNT police about the panel. “There should have been a police officer, but there wasn’t,” she said. She recorded a student collecting materials from the table and tearing them up as he walked away. “You all should burn in hell,” he’s heard saying.
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Young Texas conservatives say Charlie Kirk’s death is galvanizing their religion-forward politics
Thousands gathered for the Texas Youth Summit, where speaker after speaker memorialized Kirk and encouraged young attendees to rise in his place. James Swank Jr. traces his interest in politics to the COVID-19 pandemic. As he left middle school for high school, a mask meant to stop the spread of the virus was always on his face, except for brief moments between bites at lunch. Meanwhile, his social life — whether in the classroom or on Friday nights — was suspended with no end in sight. “There wasn’t much for me to do at the time. It was really a difficult time,” Swank, who grew up outside of Houston, said of social distancing precautions and business restrictions aimed at preventing infections that could overwhelm hospitals. “I wouldn’t say it radicalized me but it definitely opened my eyes to what government overreach could be.”
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Texas cities, counties pinch pennies amid slowing economy
DALLAS — Last year, Fort Worth gained a new distinction as Texas’ fourth city with more than 1 million people. While other major Texas cities grew at a slower clip or struggled to regain residents it lost during the COVID-19 pandemic, Fort Worth boomed. The city added more than 100,000 new residents between 2019 and 2024, outpacing any other Texas city — including its neighbor, Dallas.
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Texas baseball coach shot mid-game—parents say gunfire ongoing for hours
A youth baseball game turned terrifying Sunday morning when a 27-year-old coach was shot in the shoulder by a stray bullet, reportedly fired from nearby recreational gunfire. The coach was airlifted from the scene in front of stunned families and players at TheRac Baseball complex in Katy.
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How a secret recording of a gender identity lecture upended Texas A&M
COLLEGE STATION — It was the third week of Texas A&M’s summer semester and students in the ENGL 360: Literature for Children class were reading “Jude Saves the World,” a novel that features a 12-year-old protagonist who navigates coming out as nonbinary. On the projector screen, Professor Melissa McCoul shared a graphic of a purple “gender unicorn,” often used to teach the differences between gender identity, expression and sexuality. As the discussion began, one student angled a phone in her lap, pressed record on a video and then raised her hand. “I just have a question, because I’m not entirely sure this is legal to be teaching,” said the student, who went on to accuse the professor of violating President Donald Trump’s executive order, which recognizes only two biological sexes. McCoul told the student she disagreed with her assessment, and after a short back-and-forth, captured on video, McCoul asked the student to leave.
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17 statewide propositions will appear on the November ballot. Here’s what Texas voters need to know.
A majority of the proposed constitutional amendments address tax cuts for homeowners and businesses. A majority of the proposed constitutional amendments address tax cuts for homeowners and businesses. On Nov. 4, Texas voters will get the final say on 17 constitutional amendments — usually listed as statewide propositions at the top of the ballot — including billions of dollars in property tax cuts for homeowners and businesses. Earlier this year, a two-thirds majority of the state Legislature passed the joint resolutions calling for the constitutional amendment elections, along with the state’s budget for the next two years, which includes $51 billion for property tax cuts. Texas lawmakers have used multibillion-dollar budget surpluses, the result of inflation and temporary federal stimulus dollars during the COVID-19 pandemic, to pay for tax cuts in recent years. Proponents of tax cuts and bans, including Gov. Greg Abbott, have said they will maintain Texas as a competitive, business-friendly state and contribute to economic growth.
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Attorney General Investigates Claims of Political Pressure Against Stratford High’s TPUSA Club
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has announced that his office will investigate whether any laws were broken after a private Facebook group urged members to pressure teachers at a Spring Branch high school into refusing sponsorship of a Club America chapter.Moms for Liberty Harris County exposed the post in the “Be the Change SBISD” group, which was written by Nathalie Herpin. She mentioned Stratford High School teachers by name and called on group members to “please send an email and remind them of the following.”
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Texas cities, counties pinch pennies amid slowing economy
ALLAS — Last year, Fort Worth gained a new distinction as Texas’ fourth city with more than 1 million people. While other major Texas cities grew at a slower clip or struggled to regain residents it lost during the COVID-19 pandemic, Fort Worth boomed. The city added more than 100,000 new residents between 2019 and 2024, outpacing any other Texas city — including its neighbor, Dallas.
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Major statewide propositions will be on the Nov. 4 ballot. Here are your voting rights in Texas.
Learn more about all the ways you can register to vote, cast your ballot and protect your rights at the polls. Texans’ next opportunity to use their vote to shape state policies and their communities will be during the Nov. 4 elections. On the ballot are 17 constitutional amendments, including billions of dollars in property tax cuts for homeowners and businesses. Some Texans may also see local elections for elected officials or for measures to raise property taxes or issue bonds to pay for projects and services.
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Texas baseball coach shot mid-game—parents say gunfire ongoing for hours
A youth baseball game turned terrifying Sunday morning when a 27-year-old coach was shot in the shoulder by a stray bullet, reportedly fired from nearby recreational gunfire. The coach was airlifted from the scene in front of stunned families and players at TheRac Baseball complex in Katy.
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Serial Ballot Harvester Arrested in Starr County for 2022 Election Crimes
A woman accused of running an illegal ballot harvesting scheme during the 2022 General Election was arrested in Starr County, Attorney General Ken Paxton announced on Wednesday. A grand jury indicted Modesta Vela of Roma after a yearlong investigation into ballot harvesting operations targeting numerous senior citizens in South Texas. She was arrested on September 4, marking her fourth arrest since 2010. “Due to the findings of this investigation, a grand jury issued a true bill indictment against Vela for intentionally and knowingly influencing a Texan’s vote in the presence of the ballot during the voting process, which is an offense punishable as a state jail felony,” according to Paxton’s office. Ballot harvesting—sometimes referred to as “ballot trafficking”—typically involves a third party illegally collecting and handling voters’ ballots in order to influence elections.
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Texas State To Remove LGBT Course Following Legislative Pushback
A university spokesperson says it will be removed from the course catalog shortly.
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Texas border providers brace for rate of uninsured patients to balloon as federal policy changes loom
RIO GRANDE CITY — Jake Margo Jr. stood in the triage room at Starr County Memorial Hospital explaining why a person with persistent fever who could be treated with over-the-counter medication didn’t need to be admitted to the emergency room. “We’re going to take care of the sickest patients first,” Margo, a family medicine physician, said. It’s not like there was space on that June afternoon anyway. A small monitor on the wall pulsed with the vitals of current patients, who filled the ER. An ambulance idled outside in the South Texas heat with a patient waiting for a bed to open up. “Everybody shows up here,” Margo said. “When you’re overwhelmed and you’re overrun, there’s only so much you can do.”
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After using loophole, Alamo Heights ISD adopts full ‘bell-to-bell’ cellphone ban
After weeks of permitting students to use their devices during lunch and passing periods, the Alamo Heights Independent School District will now enforce a bell-to-bell cellphone ban. At a board meeting on Wednesday evening, the board approved a policy change prohibiting students from using personal communication devices for the entire school day. The move is in response to House Bill 1481, a new state law requiring school districts to develop policies restricting student phone use on campus.
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IDEA Parmer Park assistant principal accused of soliciting sex from minor, former student
Shonterrich J. Johnson, 29, was the assistant principal of instruction at IDEA Parmer Park. He no longer works for the charter network. Shonterrich J. Johnson, 29, was the assistant principal of instruction at IDEA Parmer Park on East Yager Lane. After multiple students raised concerns about his alleged relationship with a minor, police investigated and arrested him, the affidavit said. He is facing one count of an improper relationship between educator and student and one count of online solicitation of a minor.
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Corporal Punishment in Texas Schools: Researching Student Discipline Using The Texas Public Information Act
Texas now gives the largest number of school paddlings, surpassing Mississippi, a new study reports. During the past six years, 65 Texas high schools in non-urban areas have brought back paddling. Many Texas high schools are now using “opt-in” consent provisions to obtain parental support for the introduction or continued use of corporal punishment. Often these forms are also signed by the student. There is a growing use of swats in voluntary extracurricular activities, particularly high school athletics, the study notes. A district's decision to implement corporal punishment at the high-school level has often been accompanied by ending or reducing spanking in the lower grades. In districts that paddle, a high school student has a significantly higher chance of receiving swats than an elementary student. Between 2017/18 and 2021/22, 431 Texas schools ceased using corporal punishment. The overall number of corporal punishment incidents has continued to decline, the study reports.
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Regents name sole finalist for president of newly acquired Texas A&M University-Victoria
The selection of Christian Hardigree, regional chancellor for the University of South Florida St. Petersburg, was one of several shakeups at the Texas A&M System on Thursday. The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents on Thursday named Florida higher education administrator Christian Hardigree as the sole finalist for president at the system’s newly acquired Texas A&M University-Victoria. Hardigree currently serves as regional chancellor for the University of South Florida St. Petersburg and has previously served as a founding administrator for two schools at universities in Colorado and Georgia. She holds a Juris Doctor from Mercer University in trial litigation and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
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Whitesboro Officials Say City Can Raise Property Taxes Despite New Law
City Council members plan to adopt a tax rate on September 29 that could increase homeowners’ tax bills by 61 percent. Whitesboro City Council is still on track to raise residents’ property taxes by as much as 61 percent, despite questions and concerns about the legality of the tax hike and its impact on local homeowners. During a special meeting Tuesday night, Whitesboro officials said the city can legally raise residents’ property taxes this year, and they will meet later this month to finalize the rate. Last week, city council tabled a planned vote on a proposed property tax increase due to concerns it might run afoul of a new law tying tax rates to audit compliance.
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