By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 1G ENUGU, Nigeria – When the Rev. Humphrey Ani walks out on the poured concrete floor of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, he sees the future of Christianity stretched before him. The pews are packed, even though the slowly turning fans do little to disperse the Sunday morning heat. More […]
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 1A For the fourth time since November, Wilmer-Hutchins teachers will have a new superintendent to call boss. But this time they’ll have an entirely new board, too. State Education Commissioner Shirley Neeley swept into the troubled district Thursday and swept out the seven-member school board that has overseen the […]
Read More… from W-H gets new leaders; State ousts trustees, picks manager board and superintendent
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 1B State officials say it’s unlikely they will force the shutdown of Wilmer-Hutchins schools in the next few months. But they are hopeful a federally approved board of managers may do it for them. If that can happen before next school year, children would be saved from the results […]
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 1B Tom Ha left Vietnam 30 years ago today. He was a 24-year-old medical student on the island of Phu Quoc, tending to refugees who had fled the advancing North Vietnamese Army. It was on the radio that he first heard the news: Saigon had fallen. Having worked alongside […]
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 17A ENUGU, Nigeria – “The pope is coming! The pope is coming!” Sister Chinyere was yelling at the television the moment she saw the crawl across CNN’s screen. She and three other Sisters of Divine Love were in the front room of the small hostel they run in this […]
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 1A The number of schools the state considers failing will skyrocket next year under a tougher accountability system approved by state Education Commissioner Shirley Neeley. And a new Senate proposal could pave the way to dozens or hundreds of those failing schools being taken over by private companies. “I’m […]
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 1B The great Wilmer-Hutchins agenda debate continues. Last week, both the district’s school board and its state overseers produced agendas for Monday night’s meeting. The documents differed in some fairly substantial ways – for instance, about who would be the district’s superintendent and who would serve on its school […]
Read More… from W-H cancels meeting; But state overseers gather, rehire interim superintendent
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 1B I can’t promise you Linda Hosey would be a great history teacher. I’ve never seen her try to wrangle a classroom of distracted 16-year-olds. I’ve never seen her try to explain the fall of the Bastille or the rise of the New Deal. But I think it’s fair […]
Read More… from Column: History teacher cut from starting lineup
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 1A State officials are back in charge of running Wilmer-Hutchins schools, and changes are on the way. The 5th District Court of Appeals threw out a week-old temporary restraining order Friday. That order, issued by state District Court Judge Merrill Hartman, had removed the state-imposed management team that has […]
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 1B The Texas attorney general’s office is asking a Dallas appeals court to immediately return to the state oversight of the troubled Wilmer-Hutchins school district. “It is an emergency request,” said Tom Kelley, a spokesman for Attorney General Greg Abbott. “We want to put back what was undone.” On […]