By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 1B The Wilmer-Hutchins school board is no longer grounded. State District Judge Merrill Hartman agreed Thursday to let the board hold a meeting next week. He had issued an unusual temporary restraining order last week banning the trustees from meeting or acting on any subject. “We’re happy with the […]
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 1B The leaders at the top are changing, but the news is familiar: Wilmer-Hutchins will not be meeting payroll this month. Interim Superintendent James Damm said Wednesday that the district will not have enough funds to pay its employees their monthly paychecks Wednesday. The district is seeking a loan, […]
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 1B After months of turmoil in Wilmer-Hutchins schools, the state is ready to take over. Texas Education Commissioner Shirley Neeley said Tuesday that she had decided to send a state management team to run the district’s operations. “We want everyone to have a positive feeling about Wilmer-Hutchins at the […]
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 5B The Wilmer-Hutchins administration building was silent Monday night after district officials unsuccessfully tried to convince a judge that its school board should be allowed to meet. State District Judge Merrill Hartman refused to rescind the temporary restraining order he issued Friday, preventing trustees from meeting or making any […]
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 1A On this year’s third-grade TAKS reading test, an unlikely school finished No. 1 in the state. Wilmer Elementary – a perennial underachiever in a district many consider the state’s worst – beat out the scores of 3,212 other elementary schools. But substantial evidence, including a Dallas Morning News […]
Read More… from W-H scores suspicious; Exclusive: News analysis triggers cheating concerns
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 13A Wilmer-Hutchins schools are under criminal investigation over allegations that they reported false attendance information to the state – which could have been a way to get more state funding than the district deserved. James Damm, the district’s interim superintendent since Monday, confirmed that Texas Education Agency auditors are […]
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 13A Wilmer-Hutchins has seen one of its schools’ test scores jump unexpectedly before. In the late 1990s, passing rates on the old Texas Assessment of Academic Skills test soared at Alta Mesa Elementary. From 1994 to 1997, the fourth-grade passing rate rose by 53.1 percentage points. In 1999, the […]
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 1B The Wilmer-Hutchins school board is supposed to meet Monday night. That is, if it’s allowed to. A Dallas County district court judge issued a temporary restraining order Friday preventing the school board from doing anything for at least the next 10 days. The highly unusual move left confusion […]
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 1B Wilmer-Hutchins schools weren’t on the ballot Tuesday. But they weren’t far from it. Outside polling places throughout the school district, a group of activists gathered hundreds of signatures on a petition to abolish Wilmer-Hutchins altogether. “Everybody realizes this needs to happen,” said Frances Churchill, who spent Tuesday morning […]
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 1B Charles Matthews is out as superintendent of Wilmer-Hutchins schools, and his replacement says the Texas Education Agency probably will take over the district by the end of the month. Dr. Matthews, who was indicted last week on felony charges of tampering with evidence, was put on paid administrative […]