Officials at North East Independent School District have decided to defend their cell phone policy amid an ongoing review from the Texas Education Agency.  A new state law requires schools to bar students from using cell phones and other electronic devices during the school day.  The NEISD board voted in August to define the school day as instructional time, which allows students to use phones at lunch and during passing periods. view article

Faculty have spent weeks seeking clarity on new restrictions, which have often been issued by word of mouth. A written Q&A was rescinded.  As a viral video of a Texas A&M student and professor debating the legality of discussing gender identity roiled the College Station university and spurred a political firestorm, deans hundreds of miles away at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock quietly rolled out new instructions for faculty.  Teaching doctors were told to remove words like “transgender,” “DEI” and “affirmative action” from their curricula, a professor told The Texas Tribune. Simulated patient exams that included scenarios with transgender patients were suddenly in question. view article

Attorney General Ken Paxton has criticized the Texas Medical Association for allegedly rejecting recent federal advisory guidance that emphasizes patient and parent choice in pediatric COVID-19 vaccination decisions, framing the move as an anti-science shift that sidelines informed consent and parental discretion.  Paxton urged Texas physicians to oppose what he called a quiet policy change and pledged continued alignment with President Donald Trump and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on expanding medical freedom and patient-centered decision-making. view article

Situated at Old Celina Park, the new playground officially opened Oct. 4 when city leaders turned out to the park for a ribbon-cutting ceremony.  The park was designed for children ages 2-12 and features a variety of attractions. The Old Celina Park Playground includes a water feature, a multiuse court, slides, swings and climbing equipment.  The project cost totaled more than $7.6 million, with funding coming from 2021 and 2024 bond funds, and park fees, according to the city. view article

wFaculty have spent weeks seeking clarity on new restrictions, which have often been issued by word of mouth. A written Q&A was rescinded.  As a viral video of a Texas A&M student and professor debating the legality of discussing gender identity roiled the College Station university and spurred a political firestorm, deans hundreds of miles away at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock quietly rolled out new instructions for faculty.  Teaching doctors were told to remove words like “transgender,” “DEI” and “affirmative action” from their curricula, a professor told The Texas Tribune. Simulated patient exams that included scenarios with transgender patients were suddenly in question.   Professors decided to delay lessons that contained those terms, in part because “there isn’t a synonym for transgender.” But they were concerned: Removing such instruction would undercut the school’s mission to prepare health workers for underserved West Texas communities, the professor said.   “The Hippocratic Oath is ‘first do no harm,’ right? But if students aren’t prepared, then they are going to do harm,” the professor said. view article

The Texas Stock Exchange is expected to launch in Dallas next year, as economists wait to see if “Y’all Street” is big enough to support the exchange and challenge New York’s dominance in the financial sector.  The Texas Stock Exchange on Tuesday crossed its latest hurdle toward becoming a direct competitor to the dominance of the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq.  The announcement that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission had approved the Dallas-based startup to operate as a national exchange was met with celebration by Texas lawmakers, including Gov. Greg Abbott, who declared “Texas is swiftly becoming America’s financial hub.”  The hype around the Texas Stock Exchange, or TXSE (pronounced Tex-ee), has been building since the June 2024 announcement that the exchange intended to launch with $120 million in backing from investment large firms like BlackRock and Citadel Securities, making it one of the most well-funded attempts at a new national exchange in decades. view article

Tommy Williams will serve until regents name a permanent president.  Texas A&M System Regents have named Tommy Williams interim president of the College Station campus.  Williams, a former state legislator, is returning to Texas A&M. He previously served as the Vice-Chancellor for Federal and State Relations for the Texas A&M System after leaving office in 2013. He later worked for Gov. Greg Abbott and currently runs a public affairs company. view article

We are thrilled to announce the launch of the Austin Current, a bold, new local newsroom built to keep pace with Austin’s explosive growth. Our mission is simple but urgent: deliver journalism that is innovative in approach, uncompromising in standards and deeply connected to the needs of our community.  When we imagined this newsroom, we envisioned more than headlines. We want to become a civic resource that closes information gaps, builds trust through collaboration and provides timely and relevant coverage that matters to Austinites. view article

A long-awaited list of which Austin ISD campuses will close for the 2026-2027 school year will be released to parents at 5:30 p.m. on Friday. In an Instagram video, Superintendent Matias Segura said the late-in-the-week announcement is “very very intentional.” view article

An investigation into Humble ISD Superintendent Roger Brown found that no policies were violated after he allegedly said he wanted to “lynch the mayor" for being without power during Hurricane Beryl. Back in late March, Brown made the remark at a leadership meeting with more than 100 employees while discussing the lives of settlers in western U.S. Henry Phipps, the district's chief education support services officer, later at a board meeting brought up that he was offended by the use of a racially charged word. view article

Houston ISD is moving to phase out direct contact with external news media in favor of a district-controlled communication strategy, according to the 2025–2026 District Improvement Plan obtained by Chron. The shift comes amid mounting community frustration over transparency, ongoing staffing cuts and broad district changes. view article

Local leaders see data centers, which help power the world’s shift to artificial intelligence, as a way to keep their towns open. Residents worry their way of life — and water — is at stake. view article

Adrian Musquiz, a parent at Parkdale Elementary School and the General Manager of Peter Piper Pizza, was honored with Waco ISD's Community Partner Award for September, as announced on Thursday, Sept. 30. Each month, Waco ISD honors individuals within the community who make a positive impact on students through its Community Partner Award. view article

Ian Roberts was a beloved leader in the Des Moines public school system. Then parents learned he was an undocumented immigrant with a criminal past.  DES MOINES — When the Des Moines School Board announced former Olympic athlete Ian Roberts as superintendent in 2023, he was praised as a “career educator” and a “proven champion for creating equitable opportunities for all students to thrive.”  More than two years later, his tenure at Iowa’s largest school district has come to an abrupt end. In late September, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Roberts, surprising the education world by revealing him as an undocumented immigrant with a final order of deportation. Investigators said they found him with “a loaded handgun, $3,000 in cash and a fixed blade hunting knife.” view article

A Pollok woman died following a Monday wreck in downtown Lufkin, Lufkin police confirmed. Morgan Wright, 40, had been taken to the hospital following a two-vehicle wreck around 1 p.m. Monday. Wright was a speech pathologist at Lufkin ISD, and the district offered condolences to her family and friends on Tuesday. view article

Kingsville ISD is facing a major shakeup after the district confirmed two volleyball coaches were removed from their positions. The decision has prompted the Kingsville Athletic Booster Club to dissolve, raising questions about the future of support for student-athletes. view article

President Donald Trump is asking the Supreme Court to revive his controversial policy to deny birthright citizenship to children born in the U.S. to undocumented immigrants and to visitors on short-term visas.  In petitions submitted to the high court on Friday, Solicitor General D. John Sauer asked the justices to hear arguments on the issue early next year, which would likely lead to a ruling by June. view article

Who says you can't mix two passions together? For Dallas Independent School District softball Coach Mark Stout, he's done it weekly this season. Stout warms up his team at W.T. White High School every home game and then, for a brief moment, plays the national anthem on the trumpet to get to that exciting umpire line: play ball! He started doing it before games last season. view article

In some voting locations where a party’s appointed polling judge didn’t show up, election officials allowed the other party’s judge to operate both parties’ voting machines in an effort to keep the polling place running. view article

The Lewisville ISD board of trustees approved the district's 2022-23 academic calendar, which includes 177 instructional days. The 2022-23 calendar, which was approved during a Jan. 10 board meeting, will have an Aug. 10 start date with exams for the first semester to be completed before winter break, which runs Dec. 19-Jan. 4, 2023, according to the calendar. view article

Fort Worth ISD is moving forward with plans to establish four early learning centers across the district in areas where affordable, high quality child care is hard to come by after voters narrowly approved a November bond to fund the project along with other improvements. Three other bond measures were defeated in the same election after opposition groups lobbied against them, pointing to the district’s lackluster academic performance and what they called limited information about the bonds in the weeks leading up to the election. view article

An online petition created by the 'Students of KATYISD' group is demanding change to allow access to LGBTQ+ resources and websites, including a suicide prevention hotline. Katy ISD student, 17-year-old Cameron Samuels, spoke out at a school board meeting last week and told ABC13 that students cannot access LGBTQ+ youth resources and websites while on the district's internet server. view article

The Northwest ISD Education Foundation last week held a grand opening event for its new free store and library for teachers to get resources and educational materials for their classrooms. Teachers can “shop” for school and classroom supplies, snack packs, clothing items and books. All items are free to district educators, who will use them in their classrooms to support students, according to a news release from Northwest ISD. view article

When you were in school, did you ever wonder to yourself, "what if I were principal for a day?" On Wednesday, WFAA's Cynthia Izaguirre and our station general manager, Brad Ramsey, got that chance thanks to the Principal for a Day Program (PFAD) with the Dallas Independent School District. The program is meant to help people who don't work in education understand the strengths and challenges Dallas ISD schools face. view article

It’s 4 p.m. at S.S. Conner Elementary School’s district-run afterschool program, and cheerleaders are pumping up a group of 70 students as they enjoy a healthy snack. Now with full bellies and high spirits, the students go into classrooms and center themselves with deep breathing exercises and social and emotional learning practices. Then it’s on to fun, hands-on learning and, at last, an epic game of kickball in the gym. view article

The McAllen Independent School District (McAllen ISD) is considering closing Bonham Elementary School due to low student enrollment. Since 2010, McAllen ISD has closed down three schools: David Crockett Elementary in 2011, Jose Antonio Navarro Elementary, after the 2017-18 school year, and Abraham Lincoln Middle School the same year. view article

Calallen ISD's superintendent apologized for a video that surfaced on social media of a high school pep rally during which students portrayed former President Donald Trump and Jesus Christ while making racist remarks. The video, captioned "i'm so scared #saveme," has garnered close to 34,000 views and has been shared over 550 times since being posted. It is a screen recording from someone's Snapchat account. That person recorded the pep rally, which took place at Calallen High School's gymnasium. view article

The national outcry over efforts to foster diversity and inclusion initiatives in schools has added fuel to a heated Grapevine-Colleyville ISD runoff election. The incumbent, Mindy McClure, said she is fighting a campaign of “misinformation” from her opponent, community volunteer Shannon Braun. view article

For Granger ISD officials, they have been working since the spring of last year, planning on getting kids back to campus for the start of school. School for the Lions has been fully on campus since the start of the school year. The district says this is due to the COVID-19 safety protocols that are in place, as well as teachers who have gone above and beyond. view article

Austin ISD hosted its Operation Reconnect block walk door-to-door event to ‘reconnect’ with existing district families and help recruit new ones to its schools. The event specifically aimed at attracting families to schools in its northeast corridor, including (among others) Andrews and Harris elementary schools, Garcia’s Young Men’s and Sadler Means Young Women’s middle school leadership academies, and Northeast High School. view article

ABILENE – The Abilene ISD is opening baseball and softball contests at both high schools to 50 percent capacity at all four fields for the 2021 season. Fans will be allowed to enter this weekend’s baseball tournament games at Blackburn Field (Abilene High) and Cougar Field (Cooper) at no charge, but beginning with next week’s home games, all games for baseball and softball will be $4 for adults and $2 for students. Full-time AISD employees will be allowed to enter for free, but only with a district-issued ID, and that ID only gains entry for the employee. view article

This week, Westex Federal Credit Union stopped by Lubbock ISD’s Wolffarth Elementary School to surprise one of its teachers. Melissa Catano nominated her daughter, Vanessa for this Week’s Pay It Forward. “She is so devoted to her students and she sincerely cares about each one of her students and goes above and beyond to fill that need,” said Melissa. “Vanessa believes in her students and she has high expectations for each and every student to succeed in her classroom and outside of her classroom. She does everything power to help her students.” view article

After months of online learning, most students who go to schools at Poth ISD will be required to return to the classroom starting Monday, except for those with certain medical issues or those who have high-risk family members in their home. School officials said productivity was low with virtual learning. Their decision to bring students back to campus was made with consideration of research in collaboration with health officials and a low number of coronavirus cases in Wilson county. view article

She's a first-year educator and the leading instructor of the Principles of Architecture course at the new Career Institute East. After earning a masters in Architecture at Texas A&M University in 2004, Toffer began working for Corgan – a leading architecture and design firm based in Dallas. She was ultimately promoted to senior project manager, where she fully supervised projects from first sketches to construction. view article

Ector County ISD is sharing its revised academic calendar for 2020-21 to clear confusion for parents. According to ECISD, the original calendar that was adopted in February included two student holidays on September 25 and 28. Changes made over the summer eliminated those holidays and both days are now normal class days for students. You can view the updated calendar below. view article