In the days and weeks after the Dallas ISD Board of Trustees voted not to place a tax ratification election before voters, there have been several attempts by media to explain why and how these nine trustees, each advocating on behalf of children, failed to find the six votes needed to place an option on this November's ballot.  The narrative used by both The Dallas Morning News editorial board and Jim Schutze of the Dallas Observer laid the blame on the three black trustees on the school board. view article

The Ector County Independent School District Board of Trustees is meeting all this week for a variety of reasons from its regular meeting tonight to training and parent meetings at campuses in their fifth year of improvement required status under state accountability standards. The campuses in their fifth year of IR are Ector Middle School and Zavala and Noel elementary schools. view article

State Senator Jose Menendez is calling on the Texas Education Agency to be more transparent and to look into possible criminal activity at Edgewood ISD. Menendez sent a letter to the commissioner of education Mike Morath on Friday. He expressed his concerns about the removal of a board member, Amanda Gonzalez, who was terminated and not given any reason for her removal. view article

Fort Worth school district leaders are asking for public comments on a proposed $749.7 million bond to fund new schools and classrooms and upgrades to high schools. The plan carries no tax rate increase. Parents, taxpayers, and others will have a chance to offer their input during a series of town hall meetings through October. Town hall meetings are a common practice for the school board and are often designed to answer questions from the public in hopes of turning any objections into a yes vote on a bond.  view article

Port Aransas ISD students can expect to return to the district on Monday, Oct. 16, according to Superintendent Sharon McKinney. Classes will be held in portable buildings until the schools are repaired from damages caused by Hurricane Harvey, she said. A bid for portable classrooms was approved at a school board meeting this evening, view article

The Kilgore ISD Board of Trustees will meet Tuesday for a Team of Eight training session with the Texas Association of School Boards. view article

Notice is hereby given that on Monday, September 18, 2017, at 6:00 PM the Board of Trustees of the Bonham School District will hold a Regular Meeting at the Bonham ISD Administration Center, 1005 Chestnut Street, Bonham, Texas 75418. The subjects to be discussed are listed on the agenda which is attached to and made a part of this Notice. view article

Those expecting Midland ISD’s Listen and Learn event at Crestview Baptist Church to be a traditional town hall were probably surprised at what they encountered when they arrived.  Because there was nothing traditional about this event.  Instead of listening to new Superintendent Orlando Riddick, those in attendance did the talking while Riddick and other MISD leaders listened and learned what members of the community wanted. view article

Here are four takeaways from the Pearland Independent School District board meeting on Sept. 12. PISD is still collecting data about students who have been displaced. The district’s office of communications sent out surveys to the student body about whether or not students have been displaced, PISD Superintendent John Kelly said. The district is still in the process of collecting information on how many students were displaced, Kelly said. The results from an employee telephone survey conducted by the district showed that an average of three to five employees per campus were affected by the flood. view article

The Ector County Independent School District Trustees are wishing to speak with parents from several school campuses. Those campuses are Ector Middle School, Noel Elementary and Zavala Elementary. We're told the meetings will be focuses on update legislation in House Bill 1842, Chapter 39, which pertains to school accountability and now requires the state to intervene in a school district with a school rated Improvement Required for 6 consecutive years. view article

The Spring ISD board of trustees voted Sept. 7 not to hold an election on Nov. 7 for two open board seats because the candidates are unopposed, SISD Communications Director Karen Garrison said. The Position 5 seat will be held by incumbent Rhonda Newhouse, and newcomer Winford Adams will fill the Position 4 seat previously occupied by Rhonda Faust, who did not run for re-election. Both will be sworn in and take office in December. view article

Temple Independent School District is losing a trustee, and applications to replace her are due by Monday. Jennifer Davis was re-elected to serve as a member of the TISD board of trustees in May, representing District 7. She announced in August that she is resigning from the board because she and her husband are moving out of District 7 and she will no longer be eligible to represent that area. The board will need to appoint someone to serve out the rest of her term. view article

Background checks will now be included in the appointment process for Round Rock trustees, the school board agreed Monday night. Adding a background check is among ways in which the school board is revamping how it appoints trustees after fallout from the resignation of Stuart Selvaggi. view article

Last year, Amanda Gonzalez was appointed to serve on the board of managers overseeing the state's overhaul of the Edgewood Independent School District, and last week, she was notified by email that she was being removed from that position. Gonzalez has plenty of criticism for the way the Texas Education Agency handled her removal and has serious concerns for the troubled district. view article

The Cy-Fair ISD board of trustees met Sept. 11 to take action on the 2017-18 property tax rate and hear the latest reports on Harvey and the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness results. Next month’s meeting will take place at 6 p.m. Oct. 12 at 10300 Jones Road, Houston. view article

The Ector County Independent School District Board of Trustees will meet for a work session at 6 p.m. today in the board room of the administration building at 802 N. Sam Houston Ave.  The board is expected to go into a closed session on the superintendent’s appraisal and will discuss renewals of existing agreements with a variety of entities. view article

The Killeen Independent School District board of trustees voted unanimously Tuesday to approve seven class-size waivers for kindergarten through fourth grades. The waivers ranged from one additional student at Trimmier, Skipcha, West Ward and Cavazos Elementary schools to seven additional students at Dr. Joseph A. Fowler Elementary School. The average class size for grades K-4 in KISD schools is 22 students. view article

Magnolia ISD held its regular board meeting Monday, Sept. 11. Here’s what you may have missed. Assistant Superintendent of Operations Erich Morris said the district’s enrollment as of the first week of school totaled 28 students more than MISD’s 2016-17 total enrollment. The district expects to add 200 students by the end of the year. view article

San Antonio Independent School District board of trustees got an earful from parents opposed to their action to change the district's discrimination policy three weeks ago.Forty-nine people signed up to speak during the “citizen’s presentation,” portion of the regular meeting on Monday. A large majority of them were there in regard to the change. view article

The Round Rock ISD board of trustees tackled the empty seat on its dais on Monday night by reviewing the vacancy appointment policy. Just two weeks ago, newly appointed trustee Stuart Selvaggi stepped down from his position after details about his financial and criminal history came to light. The board in turn started exploring how to include background checks as part of the application process for vacant trustee seats. At Monday night’s special-called meeting, the trustees decided to ask applicants to consent to a background check on the application. view article

A Gatesville High School Senior is running for a spot on the Gatesville ISD Board of Trustees. 18-year-old Ryan Coggins is also the school's student council president, a member of the choir and the leader of Shattered Dreams, a program that stresses the dangers of distracted driving. view article

Citing a lack of growth in the student population, the Sharyland School Board of Trustees voted to commence open enrollment so students outside the district can attend Sharyland district schools. However, students outside the district interested in attending SISD schools must go through a strict application process and pay a $2,500 yearly fee. “We’re one of the few districts in South Texas that doesn’t allow external transfers,” District Superintendent Robert O’Connor told the board during a presentation during an Aug. 28 school board meeting. “We’ve always been very exclusive and we’ve had kids choosing to go to other districts but we can’t, in turn recruit from other districts.” view article

The Killeen Independent School District board of trustees will meet Tuesday in closed session to discuss a pending lawsuit filed in 2016, regarding the bullying and sexual harassment of a female over a three-year period while she attended Rancier Middle School. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Waco on Feb. 25, 2016, alleges Rancier Middle School Principal Amanda Silkitt and KISD Superintendent John Craft failed to address the student’s mistreatment in a timely and appropriate manner. view article

The Gilmer ISD school board has scheduled a special meeting Monday to discuss future facilities. view article

The board of trustees for the Rusk Independent School District will be holding their regular meeting Monday at 6 p.m. in the RISD Administrative Office on East Seventh Street. view article

The Texas Education Agency has removed Amanda Gonzalez from the board of managers it appointed to oversee Edgewood ISD a year ago, notifying her by email Thursday after word of it had already spread before its regular mailed notification could arrive. The agency also notified the rest of the board and Superintendent Emilio Castro on Thursday afternoon. Gonzalez said she was informally warned of the development last week by local elected officials who had been told by the TEA. view article

The Texas Education Agency has removed Amanda Gonzalez from the board of managers it appointed more than a year ago to oversee the Edgewood Independent School District, notifying her by email Thursday and later confirming it had named her replacement.  The agency had sent its letter to Gonzalez by regular mail, and she and other board members had not received it when word of her ouster — and the name of the new manager, Timothy Payne — began to spread from an early notice the TEA gave elected officials. view article

On Tuesday night, the Round Rock ISD board of trustees moved forward with asking potential trustee candidates to consent to background checks in the appointment process. The board is looking at adding a district policy that would require trustee applicants (only in the case of appointments, not in the case of elections) to consent in writing to a background check, including but not limited to a criminal history background check. view article

The FSISD School Board approved policies DBA and DK, in accordance with the District’s innovation plan, during their regular meeting on Monday, Aug. 28. Policy DBA outlined that the District will be exempt from the state law requiring them to hire certified teachers. The policy awarded the board the authority to hire non-certified individuals who are highly qualified in a certain field. According to the policy, the employees would need to file an official college transcript and proof of certificate or endorsement for employment. view article

Update: 9:40 p.m.: Humble ISD trustees formally approved moving Kingwood High students to the Summer Creek campus in an emergency meeting Tuesday night. But before voting, board members heard from several parents from Summer Creek concerned about the shortened school days for their own children. Under the current version of the plan, Summer Creek students would have class from 7 to 11:19 a.m. Kingwood students would meet from 12:11 to 4:20 p.m.  Trustee Keith Lapeze is sending a child to Summer Creek High and said he had many of the same concerns.   "I pressed everybody extremely  hard to try and find a better option," Lapeze said. "I've been promised by the administration that this is flexible — that this is a plan in progress. We're going to get the kids in school, and we're going to see how it works."  Ultimately, he said, the district had to choose between two sides of a bad coin — shorter class days or overcrowded classes. view article

The first session of the new school year for the Red Oak ISD Board of Trustees was more informative than most. Board members did, however, address several TASB recommendations, updated hazardous bus routes and prohibited students from carrying skateboards or long boards to school. view article

The North East Independent School District school board unanimously voted on Tuesday to change the name of Robert E. Lee High School. Two years ago, NEISD voted to keep the name but after recent events such as what happened in Charlottesville, the board decided it was time to revisit the issue. view article

Austin district police arrested a man waiting to address trustees during the middle of a school board meeting Monday night.  Just prior to the arrest, the first of 30 speakers signed up for public comment had concluded his address when the school board President Kendall Pace abruptly said the board was going into recess and the trustees left the room.  Austin district police immediately went to the back of the room, confronted Daniel White, who was signed up to speak, and arrested him. Members of the audience began shouting, “he wasn’t doing anything.” view article

After being selected by the Round Rock ISD board of trustees to fill the vacant Place 6 position, trustee Stuart Selvaggi announced Monday he would be resigning his post. With just two weeks in office, Selvaggi said he resigned because it was in the best interest of his family and the district. “It was a tough decision to come to, but ultimately, it is what is best for the students, staff and community,” Selvaggi said in a statement. view article

Stuart Selvaggi was appointed to the vacant Round Rock ISD Place 6 trustee position Aug. 14. On Aug. 28, he stepped down from his newly acquired position. Selvaggi’s resignation happened after residents wrote to the board expressing concern about Selvaggi’s financial past—which, according to a resident-authored letter, includes bankruptcies and a new residency in the state of Texas. view article