Amy Fennell, a Republican candidate who had been challenging State Rep. Mike Olcott in the GOP primary for Texas House District 60, has withdrawn from the race after previously posting a series of social media comments sharply critical of President Donald Trump and the Republican Party.  Fennell’s withdrawal follows months of public posts opposing Trump’s return to the White House, promoting messaging from former Vice President Kamala Harris, and attacking Republican leadership and party priorities. view article

After a three-hour executive session on Tuesday, the Conroe ISD Board of Trustees appointed Agueda “Aggie” Gambino to fill the board’s vacancy following former Trustee Tiffany Nelson's resignation. Nelson resigned last month and announced her bid for the State Board of Education. view article

Frustration grew Monday as parents addressed school board members at a special meeting in Celina ISD. “It has been 108 days since 38 families got the call that pictures of our boys in various states of undress were identified in Caleb Elliott’s phone,” one mother said. The meeting was held to receive and review a third‑party investigation into former Moore Middle School football coach Caleb Elliott. Elliott was previously arrested and charged with secretly recording boys in the locker room. view article

The Texas Education Agency has denied Beaumont Independent School District’s appeal and will move forward with a state takeover of the district, with Andrew Kim appointed as the new conservator. Kim said his focus will be on strengthening the district in partnership with local leadership. “I have spent my entire career focused on strengthening public schools and supporting the incredible educators who teach our kids every day,” Kim said. “As I step into this role, I am committed to working closely with district leadership and the community to establish strong systems that work for the students, staff and families of Beaumont ISD.” view article

A former El Paso ISD board of managers talks expectations and scrutiny ahead of the TEA takeover of Connally ISD following some campuses not meeting state testing standards in recent years. view article

Caleb Elliott, a former teacher and coach in the district, was arrested last year for sex crimes involving dozens of students. He has been in jail since October 2025 for allegedly recording videos of middle school students undressing in a boy's locker room and allegedly forcing two of them to perform sexually explicit exercises. 10h ago view article

Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath has appointed a conservator to oversee the Lake Worth ISD after saying in December that the district suffered from a ‘chronic inability to support students.' The TEA said on Thursday that Andrew Kim, a former superintendent now serving as a co-conservator for the Socorro ISD in El Paso, has been appointed conservator to oversee the Lake Worth ISD's board of trustees, superintendent, and school administrators. Kim is expected to hold the position for approximately two years, during which time the district will be under the control of the Texas Education Agency. view article

At Houston ISD's headquarters Thursday morning, incumbents Bridget Wade and Myrna Guidry, alongside newcomers Felicity Pereyra, Maria Benzon and Mike McDonough, were officially sworn in to the board of trustees. But under the ongoing takeover by the Texas Education Agency, which began in 2023, elected trustees in the state's largest school district have been sidelined in favor of a state-appointed board of managers. The elected board members will not regain voting power until after the state's intervention, which last summer was extended until at least 2027. view article

It’s a new year, but public schools are facing the same fiscal difficulties, with lower student enrollment and budget shortfalls. On Monday, the Judson Independent School District school board will review the results of a school consolidation vote. The district faces a growing $18 million shortfall. The board will discuss the closure of two elementary schools, a middle school and the elimination of a Spanish immersion program. view article

A spirited discussion and new economic figures prompted the majority of the Judson Independent School District’s school board to table a vote on whether to eliminate the Spanish Immersion Program at one of its elementary schools. Four of the seven board trustees voted in favor of postponing action during the district’s school board meeting on Thursday night. view article

The Texas Education Agency received hundreds of complaints about educators’ online reactions to the conservative activist’s death.  One of Texas’ largest teacher unions wants a federal court to block Education Commissioner Mike Morath and the state education agency from investigating teachers accused of making inappropriate remarks about conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination on social media, saying the act violates legally protected speech.  A lawsuit the Texas American Federation of Teachers filed Jan. 6 argues that Morath “unleashed a wave of retaliation and disciplinary actions against teachers” when he urged school districts to report “reprehensible and inappropriate” content about Kirk’s killing last year. view article

Texas will hold its 2026 primary elections on March 3. Here are all of the candidates who have filed for the Democratic and Republican primary elections, according to the Secretary of State. Voters in each primary will choose which candidates they want to represent their party in the November general election.  Candidates are listed in alphabetical order in this ballot guide. Elections in Texas are run by the 254 counties, and each county determines the order of candidates on the ballots printed there. To see each county’s ballot order, visit the Texas Secretary of State’s site. view article

Lubbock County Judge Curtis Parrish removed Commissioner Jason Corley from office this week, the latest twist in the Republicans’ fraught relationship.  A West Texas county commissioner with aspirations for higher office was ejected from his seat this week, after the county judge accused the commissioner of violating the Texas Constitution — the latest twist in a yearslong feud between the two Republicans. view article

The Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District will soon take a crucial vote on the future of two elementary schools. The special meeting on Wednesday evening began with potential interim superintendents being interviewed in closed session. The public comment period began at 8 p.m., with 75 people signed up to speak. view article

Republican officials in Oklahoma and Florida have also launched plans to expand the presence of the conservative youth organization founded by Charlie Kirk. view article

Now that the deadline has passed to apply to serve on the board of managers for Fort Worth ISD, more details have emerged about the nearly 300 applicants. After opening applications for the board of managers following its announcement of its intent to appoint a board of managers and conservator to oversee Fort Worth ISD, the Texas Education Agency extended the deadline to apply from Nov. 21 to Dec. 1. view article

After the Austin school district’s consequential decision last month to close 10 campuses, questions remain about the enrollment process, how students will be assisted with transitions and where staff will move. view article

The Austin school district must sell two school properties this year to keep its $19.7 million deficit from ballooning. If the old Brooke or Rosedale campus properties fail to sell, district officials may have to go back to the drawing board to explore other ways to save money just months after a painful decision to close 10 schools because of budgetary and enrollment strains. view article

Luis Gomez, a trustee for Edgewood Independent School District, resigned from his position on the school board on Tuesday.   Gomez cited health concerns in a statement to the board explaining why he’s stepping down.   “I need to take care of medical issues due to my service in the military,” he said. “I want to be perfectly clear that it’s health issues and nothing else.” view article

For months, election officials across Texas have been hustling to redraw precinct boundary lines and secure polling locations and workers for the March primary election, all based on new congressional maps Republican state lawmakers drew in a rare mid-decade redistricting this summer.  County party chairs have accepted applications from candidates for precinct chair ​​— the parties’ neighborhood-level representatives — and, beginning this month, from candidates seeking congressional seats based on the newly drawn districts. view article

The Fort Worth ISD board voted 7-1 Tuesday night to appeal a decision by state educators to assume control over the struggling district, a decision that injects new uncertainty into a takeover that has upended the district. The vote to request the State Office of Administrative Hearings to reconsider the intervention came at the end of a four-hour school board meeting. view article

The Fort Worth ISD school board voted 7-1 Tuesday night to appeal the state's takeover of the district. The district was eligible for state intervention because one of its campuses, The Leadership Academy at Forest Oak 6th Grade, received its fifth consecutive "unacceptable" academic rating for the 2022–2023 school year. FWISD has since closed the campus. view article

The Austin Independent School District has released the final draft of its school consolidation plan Friday afternoon, ahead of a vote by the Board of Trustees next week. For months, district leaders have been fine-tuning their plan to close schools in a bid to reduce a $19.7 million deficit in AISD’s general fund, which is used to pay teacher salaries and cover daily operational expenses. Board members are set to discuss the recommendations and take a final vote at their Nov. 20 meeting. view article

When Lesley Guilmart's cellphone rang Wednesday afternoon, she almost didn't answer the unknown number. "I’ve been getting interesting calls from folks since last week’s win," said Guilmart, who on Nov. 4 was elected to the Cy-Fair ISD Board of Trustees. "And so I was like, ‘Oh, why not? Let me answer this.' " None of the calls were as interesting as Wednesday's. On the other line was former Vice President Kamala Harris. view article

A summary of the November 11, 2025 NISD Board Meeting Dr. John Craft reported to the Board:      view article

With Austin ISD just days away from releasing its final consolidation plan, families at Blackshear Elementary gathered Wednesday night to share their thoughts about the proposal that could merge two East Austin schools. view article

Austin school district leadership launched an internal investigation into key staff in part over concerns about noncompliance with a directive to evaluate all community feedback on a comprehensive plan to close schools and redraw attendance boundaries, Superintendent Matias Segura told the American-Statesman’s Editorial Board on Tuesday. view article

The legislative panels were created after Republican leaders criticized students mocking or celebrating Kirk’s death. They come amid a push to tighten rules around campus expression.  Texas lawmakers on Thursday will hold their first hearing to review speech on public universities after some reactions on campuses celebrating or mocking the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk drew ire from Republican leaders.   Kirk was killed on Sept. 10 while speaking at a college in Utah. State leaders announced the formation of bipartisan committees to discuss campus speech and related policies two days later. The Senate and House Select Committee on Civil Discourse and Freedom of Speech in Higher Education will convene jointly Thursday at 9:30 a.m. in Austin and take invited testimony only.  view article

WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump signed a government funding bill Wednesday night, ending a record 43-day shutdown that caused financial stress for federal workers who went without paychecks, stranded scores of travelers at airports and generated long lines at some food banks.  The shutdown magnified partisan divisions in Washington as Trump took unprecedented unilateral actions -- including canceling projects and trying to fire federal workers -- to pressure Democrats into relenting on their demands.  The Republican president blamed the situation on Democrats and suggested voters shouldn't reward the party during next year's midterm elections. view article

Texas is now in control of Fort Worth ISD.  But what does that mean for FWISD’s 65,700 students, their families and 10,000 district employees?   Here are answers to a few questions parents and community members have about Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath’s decision to take over Fort Worth schools. view article

Kate Rogers, the former president of the Alamo Trust, joins the TribCast this week to talk about her decision to step down from running the Texas’ most beloved historic site amid political pressure from Republican state leaders.Rogers walks Eleanor and guest host Alejandro Serrano through the unexpected controversy over a social media post celebrating Indigenous People’s Day, and her surprise when state leaders started sharing excerpts of her 2023 doctoral dissertation. In the paper, which she had to go back and read herself when it began circulating, she’d written that she wanted the Alamo to “become a beacon for historical reconciliation … but politically that may not be possible at this time.”  Rogers was in the midst of overseeing a politically fraught overhaul of the Alamo Historic Site, which has become a flashpoint in the ongoing debates over how to tell the story of Texas’ history. While she maintains there was nothing particularly controversial in her dissertation, she acknowledged that some parts could be read as critical of the Texas Legislature, which is the project’s largest funder. view article

Hundreds of families lost child care when certain programs weren’t funded earlier this month, and scores more may be affected if Congress doesn’t fund the government by Dec. 1. view article

The president praised Abbott for leading this year’s effort to redraw the state’s congressional maps to favor Republicans during the 2026 midterm elections. view article

The Texas Education Agency has named a former teacher and New Mexico state education secretary to oversee Fort Worth ISD in the wake of its state takeover after the district had several schools that were "academically unacceptable for many years in a row." view article

An unlikely slate of candidates with progressive backing, although they refer to themselves as non-partisan, won their bids for the Cy-Fair ISD board by wide margins Tuesday, bucking a trend of conservative leaders winning in Cypress. The three candidates — Kendra Camarena, Lesley Guilmart and Cleveland Lane Jr. — unseated two conservative incumbent trustees, Scott Henry and Natalie Blasingame, who challenged Henry directly rather than running for her own seat. view article