Houston ISD's state-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles says the district will pilot two schools designed to train students for a future where artificial intelligence "will be ubiquitous," even as key details about the plan remain unclear.  Miles briefly introduced the so-called "Future 2 Schools" during a back-to-school convocation, alongside a program for remote learning that has since been paused.  Miles' announcement about the new AI-focused schools came at the board of managers' meeting last week, amid renewed talk of potential school consolidations. HISD previously planned to close up to 10 schools next year, but has backed away from that. view article

As artificial intelligence pushes demand for more data centers, companies are drawn to the state’s relatively inexpensive land and natural gas that can run on-site power plants.  Texas is poised to become the largest home for data centers in the country within the next three years as artificial intelligence continues to boom, according to a report published Tuesday. view article

ERCOT is making a first attempt at a planning process in which multiple requests will be considered simultaneously.  Texas’ main electric grid operator is developing a new process to evaluate multiple large-load interconnection requests at the same time. The question for cryptocurrency miners and data center developers that are already in line is: Who gets to go first?  view article

The Texas State Legislature passed a bill in July banning cell phone use at public schools during the school day, and Hearne Independent School District is now taking it one step further: implementing Yondr pouches. Yondr is a company that helps schools become phone-free zones by creating secure pouches for students to store their phones. The program forces students to focus on school instead of their screens. view article

Missouri’s proposed “Hands-On Learning Restoration Act” aims to put the state into the national spotlight of educational reform as literacy rates drop. Missouri State Representative Tricia Byrnes (R-Wentzville) pre-filed HB 2230 in response to ongoing national concerns of increasing screen time and decreasing educational outcomes amongst youth. view article

Three leaders of the Alamo's fundraising arm have quit in the wake of the forced resignation of Kate Rogers, president and CEO of the Alamo Trust, the San Antonio Express-News has learned.  Three of the most active fundraisers on the board of Remember the Alamo Foundation - real estate developer Phil Bakke, philanthropist Tracy Wolff and retired Air Force Gen. Don Cook - have stepped down. view article

A Kansas school is shelving Chromebooks for pencil and paper. On Tuesday, McPherson Middle School announced in a letter to families that students will be turning in their Chromebooks at the end of the semester. The school hopes that returning to “paper and pencil tasks” will “promote deeper thinking, handwriting fluency, and less screen fatigue.” view article

Houston ISD will become one of the first school districts in the country to use OpenAI's new education-focused artificial intelligence tool to help manage its special education compliance — a high-stakes area where federal deadlines and privacy are critical and that HISD must improve under the state takeover. view article

AMARILLO, Texas (KFDA) - The pandemic accelerated how much we all depend on internet access to carry out daily activities. The latest data shows more than 2 million Texas households do not have high speed internet, disproportionately affecting those in rural areas. “What has been revealed by COVID is the fact that many of our students in the city do not have equal access to broadband,” said Amarillo Mayor Ginger Nelson. However, this is not something that can be fixed overnight. view article

Ahead of the spring semester, Spring ISD officials have announced that changes will be implemented in hopes of improving remote and in-person instruction for teachers and students. In a presentation at the Dec. 8 board meeting, Lupita Hinojosa, chief officer of school leadership and student support services, announced that not all teachers will have to teach online and in-person students concurrently in the spring semester, as is currently the case. view article

Cleveland and Liberty ISDs became the latest school districts on the outskirts of the greater Houston area to cancel their online learning options this week, joining Barbers Hill and Navasota ISDs in requiring the majority of their students to return to campuses. Liberty ISD, which educates 2,266 students about 50 minutes northeast of downtown Houston, told parents at the end of October that remote learning would be offered only to medically fragile students, students who have tested positive for COVID-19, students who are quarantining due to COVID-19 exposure and students whose schools temporarily were closed due to positive tests. view article

The deadline has been extended for Fort Bend Independent School District parents deciding if they want their children to continue virtual learning or head back to the classroom. This comes as a special board meeting scheduled for today was canceled. Ft. Bend ISD Superintendent Charles Dupre said board members wanted to give more parents time to decide. view article

The Waco Independent School District and its charter school partner, Transformation Waco, could see more than half of their students start the school year Sept. 8 via remote instruction, according to registration numbers provided by both entities. view article

Alief Independent School District Superintendent HD Chambers says school officials have decided to begin the school year online. Chambers said he doesn’t want any student to lose out on their education because of the pandemic but the thought of how to bring students and teachers back to the classroom safely keeps him up at night. view article

Children with severe disabilities often don’t have the ability to speak up when they are hurt at school, so determining what happened can be difficult. That’s why one Dallas ISD trustee wants to require each special education classroom in the district to have video cameras. Texas public schools are already required to place one in a special education setting if a parent requests it. view article

Robert Bostic, a self-described evangelist for science, technology, engineering and math, really started something when he became the superintendent of the Stafford Municipal School District in 2014. The Stafford High Robotics Program, which began two years ago, competed May 19-20 in Austin as one of 32 teams from the state invited to the 2017 University Interscholastic League Robotics FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Division State Championship based on the points it earned at earlier competitions. view article

A threat was made against Seven Lakes Junior High School via social media Thursday, officials said. view article

On March 11, 2016, the Texas Education Agency Commissioner of Education, Mike Morath, requested an opinion from the Texas Attorney General on the implementation of SB 507. This new law requires video surveillance of certain special education settings upon request beginning in the 2016-2017 school year. In an earlier blog post, I outlined the provisions of SB 507. view article

Schoolhouse bullying is nothing new. It has been going on for decades wherever someone bigger, tougher or meaner believed they could get away with abusing another child. And wherever it's happened, it has been harmful to the person being bullied in degrees ranging from intimidation and fear to causing children to commit suicide, or even murder. view article

School districts have been caught flat-footed in the last two years, facing an onslaught of digital textbook providers who follow no standard data file creation process. This problem is called "user provisioning," (a.k.a. account provisioning) a fancy way of saying that you have to create usernames and passwords in EVERY online system students and staff will need to use. view article

The Beaumont ISD Board of Managers appointed Fred Shafer as executive director of the district's special education department during a special meeting Monday, according to social media reports. view article

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New Braunfels ISD Superintendent Randy Moczygemba is in Washington DC today, joining President Barack Obama for the "ConnectED to the Future" Event, a special conference including superintendents and other educators from across the country, who will lead their schools and districts in the transition to digital learning.  view article

While the staff at TexasISD.com preferrs Google Chrome as our browser of choice, we often use Mozilla Firefox as well.  We aren't huge fans of Microsoft Internet Explorer (MSIE) but the site works on it as well...as long as you are current in your versions, otherwise, well...it's just a mess. Most browsers have an update function and may even notify you that there are updates availible.  In some districts I have been to, the attitude is what I have works, why update. Well, what you have probably doesn't work that well and you just don't realize it. Take a second to check your browser version or look for updates if you haven't in a while. view article