Six months into his tenure as chair of the Texas Democratic Party, Kendall Scudder is moving the party’s headquarters from Austin to his hometown of Dallas, prompting an exodus of top staff and throwing the party into a state of upheaval ahead of a critical midterm election, according to interviews with over a dozen people familiar with the dynamics.  Every member of the party’s top staff, including the executive director, chief of staff and two communications staffers, is departing after Scudder required them to agree to move to Dallas by November — or else be laid off. A fifth top staffer has already quit, and more departures among the seven other staffers are expected. view article

Other smaller oil and gas producing regions in the state are better poised to help power the growing data center market, a new report found.  ODESSA — Big data centers that power the artificial intelligence industry demand an abundance of energy.  West Texas — known for producing 40% of the nation’s crude oil — also has an extraordinary amount of natural gas that could power those data centers. But the region lacks adequate infrastructure to convert the gas, a byproduct of pumping oil, into electricity and transmit it to the growing industry, experts said.  “Meeting this unprecedented demand takes more than production alone,” said Ed Longanecker, president of the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association, a trade group. “It requires a strong network of pipelines and infrastructure to move natural gas efficiently and ensure reliable power for end users. In Texas, expanding this network has never been more important to keep pace with growth.” view article

A new congressional report found that the University of Texas at Arlington and the University of Houston have concerning connections with the Chinese military-industrial complex.   The U.S. Congress’ Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party and the Committee on Education and the Workforce published the 39-page report that found both universities have partnerships with Chinese institutions that “pose serious national security risks.”  The University of Houston partners with Dalian Maritime University to run the Houston International Institute, a joint engineering operation. view article

Christian Hardigree has a background in “diversity” and “sustainability.”  The finalist for president of Texas A&M Victoria has pervasive experience with left-wing causes such as “diversity,” “equity,” and “sustainability.”  Christian Hardigree was named the sole finalist for the presidency of Texas A&M-Victoria following a special called meeting of the Texas A&M System Board of Regents on September 18. There is a 21-day waiting period before the regents can finalize her appointment. Hardigree is the regional chancellor of the University of South Florida St. Petersburg campus, where she has been quoted as wanting to sustain the momentum behind USFSP’s diversity, equity, and inclusion programming.   view article

Shonterrich Johnson was an assistant principal at the IDEA Parmer Park charter school in Austin.  For a second time this year, an IDEA Public Schools administrator is accused of sex crimes involving a student.  Shonterrich Jeremaine Johnson, 29, was arrested and charged with improper relationship between educator and student, a second-degree felony, and online solicitation of a minor, a third-degree felony.  Johnson worked as an assistant principal of instruction at the IDEA Parmer Park charter school in Austin, which serves about 1,300 K-12 students. view article

Gov. Greg Abbott called for a student to be expelled for celebrating Kirk’s death. Legal experts say the student’s speech is likely constitutionally protected.  “Hi, my name is Charlie Kirk,” he announced, before collapsing to the ground, pretending to be shot. As he walked away, someone on video can be heard saying, “you’re going to get expelled, dude.”Gov. Greg Abbott agreed, telling the university on social media to “expel this student immediately. Mocking assassination must have consequences.” Texas State President Kelly Damphouse later confirmed that the student was no longer enrolled, explaining in a statement that the university “will not tolerate behavior that mocks, trivializes, or promotes violence.”  Eugene Volokh, a First Amendment expert at UCLA and Stanford, read those statements skeptically. view article

Secretary of State Jane Nelson said voter registration data-sharing provides “a critical tool to detect and prevent potential voter fraud.” view article

Thousands gathered for the Texas Youth Summit, where speaker after speaker memorialized Kirk and encouraged young attendees to rise in his place.   James Swank Jr. traces his interest in politics to the COVID-19 pandemic. As he left middle school for high school, a mask meant to stop the spread of the virus was always on his face, except for brief moments between bites at lunch. Meanwhile, his social life — whether in the classroom or on Friday nights — was suspended with no end in sight.  “There wasn’t much for me to do at the time. It was really a difficult time,” Swank, who grew up outside of Houston, said of social distancing precautions and business restrictions aimed at preventing infections that could overwhelm hospitals. “I wouldn’t say it radicalized me but it definitely opened my eyes to what government overreach could be.” view article

DALLAS — Last year, Fort Worth gained a new distinction as Texas’ fourth city with more than 1 million people.  While other major Texas cities grew at a slower clip or struggled to regain residents it lost during the COVID-19 pandemic, Fort Worth boomed. The city added more than 100,000 new residents between 2019 and 2024, outpacing any other Texas city — including its neighbor, Dallas. view article

COLLEGE STATION — It was the third week of Texas A&M’s summer semester and students in the ENGL 360: Literature for Children class were reading “Jude Saves the World,” a novel that features a 12-year-old protagonist who navigates coming out as nonbinary.  On the projector screen, Professor Melissa McCoul shared a graphic of a purple “gender unicorn,” often used to teach the differences between gender identity, expression and sexuality.  As the discussion began, one student angled a phone in her lap, pressed record on a video and then raised her hand.  “I just have a question, because I’m not entirely sure this is legal to be teaching,” said the student, who went on to accuse the professor of violating President Donald Trump’s executive order, which recognizes only two biological sexes.  McCoul told the student she disagreed with her assessment, and after a short back-and-forth, captured on video, McCoul asked the student to leave. view article

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has announced that his office will investigate whether any laws were broken after a private Facebook group urged members to pressure teachers at a Spring Branch high school into refusing sponsorship of a Club America chapter.Moms for Liberty Harris County exposed the post in the “Be the Change SBISD” group, which was written by Nathalie Herpin. She mentioned Stratford High School teachers by name and called on group members to “please send an email and remind them of the following.” view article

ALLAS — Last year, Fort Worth gained a new distinction as Texas’ fourth city with more than 1 million people.  While other major Texas cities grew at a slower clip or struggled to regain residents it lost during the COVID-19 pandemic, Fort Worth boomed. The city added more than 100,000 new residents between 2019 and 2024, outpacing any other Texas city — including its neighbor, Dallas. view article

Elementary school boundaries in College Station ISD will see some changes when the 2026-27 school year rolls around. Tuesday night, the CSISD school board voted to approve an updated elementary plan 7. The updated version was made with feedback from parents. The difference involved moving a boundary line up to George Bush Street. view article

In the Spring, the Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill 10, which requires the Ten Commandments be displayed on a donated poster sized at least 16 by 20 inches come September, when most new state laws go into effect. The backstory: The bill was made by Republican Sen. Phil King of Weatherford and signed into law in late June by Governor Greg Abbott, just one day after the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found a similar law in Louisiana was "plainly unconstitutional." 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

Here in Central Texas some public schools are just now beginning to welcome students back to the classroom for in-person learning. And they're taking every precaution to avoid the spread of COVID-19. Austin ISD just started class 100% online last week, but Pflugerville ISD students started back on August 13 and they're already four weeks into the school year. view article