The Austin Independent School District plans to find new non-education uses for five of the 10 campuses slated for closure this summer, but district administrators say they haven’t yet determined what they’ll do with the properties. view article

Spring Branch ISD directed campus leaders to remove a Ramadan display at Bunker Hill Elementary School, saying the decoration violated district policy.  A Ramadan display set up in the lobby of Bunker Hill Elementary School in Houston was removed earlier this week after Spring Branch ISD determined it violated the district’s policy on religious and political neutrality.  “Because the display was religious in nature, campus leaders were directed to remove it,” the district said in a statement to the Houston Chronicle. A district spokesperson said the removal was prompted by a parent complaint.  he display was put up by the Parent Teacher Association’s cultural awareness committee. Casey Kaf Alghazal, the committee’s chair, said the school has had Ramadan-related decorations in past years, but this year’s display was larger than previous ones. It featured “Ramadan Mubarak” signage and crescent moon imagery in the school’s lobby. view article

Republican primary voters across Texas overwhelmingly supported a ballot proposition calling for the prohibition of Sharia law, according to unofficial results from the March 2026 Primary Election.  The measure—Proposition 10—asked voters whether Texas should prohibit the use of Sharia law. The proposition was one of 10 non-binding questions placed on the Republican primary ballot by the Republican Party of Texas to gauge grassroots priorities ahead of the party’s 2026 convention and the 2027 legislative session.  The propositions are advisory only but are often used by party activists and lawmakers to shape the party platform and future legislative priorities. view article

This Tuesday, Tribune reporters are watching two blockbuster senate primaries, an open attorney general seat, and more high-stakes, competitive races up and down the Texas ballot. view article

As companies look to build projects that consume more power than cities, ERCOT is trying to plan transmission. view article

Republicans on Capitol Hill are about to give President Donald Trump a major boost — a green light to conduct a war against Iran without worrying about Congress, at least for now.  The House and Senate are on track this week to vote down a pair of bipartisan war power resolutions aimed at limiting Trump’s ability to conduct the Iran campaign. Rank-and-file Republicans are prepared to back Trump, giving them co-ownership of a conflict that’s already unpopular with Americans.  The Senate is likely to vote Wednesday, with the House set to vote on Thursday. The House and Senate will receive separate briefings on Iran this afternoon from top administration officials.  Who to watch. In the Senate, previous GOP skeptics of Trump’s unilateral war-making authority say they’re comfortable with the president’s efforts on Iran. view article

Polls close today in the Texas primaries. Here are 5 things to watch.  This Tuesday, Tribune reporters are watching two blockbuster senate primaries, an open attorney general seat, and more high-stakes, competitive races up and down the Texas ballot. view article

Every day at lunch, a handful of teenagers in Frisco, Texas, would pop into room C112, face a whiteboard and kneel for one of their five daily prayers. Last week, top state officials learned about the room — and suddenly Liberty High had a big issue indeed. view article

A Nacogdoches non-profit organization is celebrating its 20th anniversary while also honoring Black History Month. The event highlights two decades of community service and cultural contributions in the area.  Local residents and supporters are invited to join the celebration, which includes tributes, guest speakers, and performances recognizing local Black leaders and history. The event takes place in Nacogdoches, Texas. view article

If you are wondering where to find a good example of how important the simple wheat grain once was to Fort Worth, go to a museum.  In this case, architect Louis Kahn’s iconic Kimbell Art Museum — which has a design that features cycloid barrel vaults reflecting the grain silos and Egyptian granaries.  While the art aficionados swooned with flowery words about the design at its opening in October 1972, few realized Kahn’s architecture plan for the museum was no simple design choice meant to “wow” the snooty criticsfrom both coasts.  The namesake family of museum had built their fortune on wheat, explains TCU history professor Rebecca Sharpless. Her upcoming book “People of the Wheat” explores the history of the grain and its importance to North Central Texas. view article

One more year of a failing state accountability rating for South Waco Elementary, largely determined by State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness tests conducted in April, would trigger potential state takeover of Waco ISD operations. The district's timeframe for improving ratings was shortened by the arrival of three years worth of state ratings last year, after court challenges delayed the release of two prior years.  Turning over South Waco, which has four consecutive F's, and Dean Highland, which has three, would effectively mean a two-year reprieve from potential state intervention under a state law that passed in 2017 as Senate Bill 1882. Waco ISD was the first district in the state to take advantage of a so-called 1882 partnership when it turned over operation of five schools in 2018 to Transformation Waco, a nonprofit created locally for the purpose. The in-district Transformation Waco charter, which turned the schools back over to Waco ISD operation in the summer of 2024, included Alta Vista Elementary, Brook Avenue Elementary, J.H. Hines Elementary, G.W. Carver Middle and Indian Spring Middle.  Waco ISD Superintendent Tiffany Spicer will ask district trustees at their Thursday night meeting for the authority to negotiate a contract with Third Future Schools, a Colorado-based company that operates a half-dozen Texas public schools as charters. view article

Sherman Middle School teacher Brad Strickland resigned from Tioga ISD in 2023 in lieu of being fired amid misconduct allegations.  Mary and Wiley Alexander—parents of the girl targeted by then-Tioga ISD teacher Brad Strickland—spoke on the record at the beginning of Monday night’s Sherman ISD school board meeting.   “Do Sherman parents know his history?” asked Mary Alexander.   The Alexanders previously filed grievances accusing Strickland of grooming their daughter while she was a student in Tioga ISD, from 2020 until she graduated in 2023.   Immediately after graduation, their daughter moved in with the Stricklands. view article

The Temple Independent School District Communications Department took home a host of awards this February. The district announced that the Communications Department was presented with 14 Star Awards by the Texas School Public Relations Association (TSPRA) at the association's annual conference in late February. view article

History often seems far off a distant memory of days long past. Sometimes though, history is not just written in books but lives among us. Two siblings named in a 1955 case to desegregate Dallas ISD are still in North Texas today. During this Black History Month, they’re reflecting on the contributions they made as children. NBC 5’s Candace Sweat has this story. view article

Edgewood Fine Arts Academy cosmetology students spent Tuesday afternoon providing children at Loma Park Elementary with affordable haircuts. According to a press release, students offered $5 haircuts to provide families with affordable and accessible haircut services. Many of the student barbers said the visit was personal because they once attended Loma Park themselves. 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

Hundreds of parents chimed in Tuesday night as Fort Worth ISD took another stab at deciding when to send kids back to the classroom. This comes after voting just last week on a date for in-person learning. In a meeting that went until 4 a.m., the board took a series of votes on everything from upholding last week's vote to open school October 5, to pushing it back to the end of October with different outcomes with each vote. view article

Fort Worth ISD's superintendent recommended that students who choose to can return to in-class instruction starting Oct. 5. The district's school board was presented plans for the return to in-person learning on Tuesday afternoon. Parents also got to weigh in. One week after Fort Worth ISD students started back-to-school learning virtually, the school board is already talking about what to do next. view article