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Fort Worth ISD students are a step closer to again being taught sex education in school classrooms. Yet, before the board-appointed School Health Advisory Council voted to recommend a sex education curriculum called Choosing the Best to parents and Fort Worth ISD board members, the Zoom meeting was interrupted by porn. view article arw

The Austin Independent School District will hold a virtual meeting Tuesday evening about a program to increase internet access for students in some neighborhoods. According to a Dec. 7 announcement, “Project Lighthouse” will involve the installation of low-footprint broadband communications towers, or “monopoles,” at nine schools over its winter break. view article arw

Last month, security researcher Jeremiah Fowler discovered 800 gigabytes of files and logs linked to school software provider Raptor Technologies. The firm provides software that allows schools to track student attendance, monitor visitors, and manage emergency situations. Raptor says its software is used by more than 5,300 US school districts and 60,000 schools around the world. view article arw

SAN ANTONIO - Currently at Northside ISD, there is a glitch within their payroll system that has prevented some employees from receiving their paychecks. This problem affects maintenance workers. view article arw

BRYAN, Texas — 14-year-old Josh Kelbly is hard at work, learning how to lay down brick, one at a time. “I was never really good at that until today,” Kelby said. Like Kelby, dozens of other Bryan ISD construction students are adding another skillset to their education. With the help of the Texas Masonry Council, local contractors are showing students the basics of laying down brick structure. view article arw

CCoppell ISD recently announced a robotics and automation technology Career and Technical Education (CTE) program of study that will be introduced to Coppell High School’s curriculum starting in the 2024-2025 school year. The addition of the robotics and automation technology program at Coppell High School comes from a result of student interest, feedback from the CTE Advisory Committee and labor market data. “This new CTE program of study aims to equip students with the necessary skills and knowledge to excel in a multitude of postsecondary paths, all of which are in high demand and fully supported by current and future labor market data,” said Josh Howard, CISD's director of career and technical education. “This comprehensive curriculum has been developed based on insights presented at the 2023 Region 10 College, Career and Military Readiness (CCMR) Summit by such contributors, including UT Dallas, view article arw

The main goal of the workshop is to teach educators how to incorporate this year's unique eclipse into their classrooms. view article arw

Video games have done nothing but increase in popularity since the days of the quarter arcade machines. Working for a gaming company can be very lucrative, and that’s why many schools have classes geared towards game design. And a Longview ISD instructor can offer his students some inside information, as he’s been designing his own game for several years. view article arw

Read the full story:  Gone are the “good old days” when the only emails we had to worry about were from a Nigerian prince asking for half a million dollars or an occasional threat of a computer virus. Your tech director has been faced with many new threats to school technology assets– networks, computers, and data security. You can be a big help in keeping your school district and your own personal devices secure by following a few time-honored adages from one of our founding fathers, Ben Franklin. view article arw

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 arw

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 arw

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 arw

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 arw

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 arw

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 arw

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 arw

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 arw

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

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 arw

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 arw

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 arw

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 arw

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 arw

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 arw