By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 12G Jonathan Kozol knows full well that “apartheid” is a loaded word. It may literally mean “separateness” in Afrikaans, but it implies much more: a total governmental separation of the races, based on violence or the threat of violence. Which is why Mr. Kozol’s use of the word in […]
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 7A Baylor University’s interim president has withdrawn his name from consideration for the permanent job. That delays the university’s efforts to fill its top spot and find a unifying leader for a divided campus. “Hopefully, one of these days we’ll bring you a permanent president,” Will Davis, chairman of […]
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 8B Wilmer-Hutchins has lost its students, but that doesn’t mean its schools will sit empty. Some evacuees from Hurricane Katrina will be moved to the district’s high school in southern Dallas, according to Superintendent Eugene Young. The school would normally be housing students this time of year, but a […]
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 1B The Wilmer-Hutchins school district is being put out of its misery. State Education Commissioner Shirley Neeley announced Friday that the long-troubled district will cease to exist July 1. Its boundaries will be merged into the Dallas school district – which is already educating Wilmer-Hutchins’ students, since Wilmer-Hutchins can’t […]
Read More… from State to dissolve W-H district; Merger with DISD needs OK from Justice Department
By Joshua Benton and Toya Lynn Stewart Staff Writer Page 1B Sunday morning, when Demetrice Nora fled New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward with her family, she only packed clothes for a few days. But on Wednesday – seeing the destruction back home – she enrolled her daughters at Larson Elementary in Grand Prairie. It’s the […]
Read More… from A new twist on transfers; Districts waiving admission rules for displaced children
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 1B You remember Miss Crabtree, don’t you? She was your third-grade teacher, and even back then she seemed impossibly old. She thought music had gone nowhere but downhill since Scott Joplin. Her reindeer sweater – the one she pulled out every December – was knit during the Rutherford Hayes […]
Read More… from Column: Throngs of teachers retiring, and that’s not such a bad thing
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 1A For tens of thousands of students across Texas, the letters A-Y-P now spell “free tutoring.” Students in 60 schools are now eligible for free after-school help from for-profit companies, state officials announced Thursday. That’s because their schools failed to make “adequate yearly progress” – AYP for short – […]
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 1B And the winner is … South Oak Cliff High. That’s where Wilmer-Hutchins’ senior class will attend school starting next month. Wilmer-Hutchins’ financial problems led the district to seek a new home for its 2,700 students, and the Dallas school district agreed Monday to take them in. Dallas trustee […]
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 4B A lawsuit that could have stopped the deal between Dallas and Wilmer-Hutchins schools was dismissed Tuesday. The suit argued that state Education Commissioner Shirley Neeley did not have legal authority to remove Wilmer-Hutchins’ elected school board in May because not enough time had passed since the district was […]
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 1A The students of Wilmer-Hutchins may finally have a home. The Dallas school board voted Monday night to accept Wilmer-Hutchins’ roughly 2,700 students into its existing south-end campuses. “We’re absolutely thrilled,” said Wilmer-Hutchins attorney Kevin O’Hanlon. “We have a home.” The adoption was made necessary by Wilmer-Hutchins’ mounting debts […]