Schools: Northwest ISD – Dispatches from Dallas

School District Sunday – 2025 04 13

Star-Telegram: Tarrant County schools, cities urge appraisal district changes, say millions at risk. This is about the Tarrant County Appraisal District’s decision to move to appraising property every other year and the bill Rep. Chris Turner (D-Grand Prairie) to force TCAD to appraise every year.
WFAA: Texas school districts rush to pass nearly 100 bond proposals as funding remains murky in state legislature. There are 89 bond proposals on the May ballot, totalling $12 billion. The funding needs are in mid-sized districts that are growing. Also, inflation.
Dallas Observer: Trans Sports and CRT: Ken Paxton Targets North Texas School Districts. Gotta keep throwing that red meat to the base while he runs for Senate!
KERA: Dallas ISD, AG’s office reach agreement in investigation into trans athletes policy. It’s a wrist slap and all that happened is the superintendent told the district to follow state law. See: red meat for the base.
The Barbed Wire: Paxton’s Anti-CRT Lawsuit Was Based on A Manipulated Video, Coppell ISD Says. I’ve talked about this elsewhere, but the subhead says it all: “District officials claim the suit was meant to fuel debates over private school vouchers and public school funding”. See: red meat for the base.
Dallas Morning News: Dallas ISD teachers, staff could see pay increases under proposed budget. This is the budget for the next school year, of course, which is up in the air because of vouchers.
Fort Worth Report: Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD adopts new reading curriculum for $3M. It’s Amplify Texas, not Bluebonnet Learning, the controversial religious curriculum.
Star-Telegram: Fort Worth ISD election: Incumbent accuses opponent of illegal campaign activity. This is in their District 1 election; the incumbent says the challenger of illegally gathering mail-in ballots.
Star-Telegram: A new Fort Worth political action committee looks to marshal support for literacy. “Fort Worth Students First” is a PAC started by Fort Worth officials including Mayor Mattie Parker and Commissioner Manny Ramirez (both Republicans) to get elected officials on board with increasing literacy. We’ll have to see how this pans out and whether it leads to actual expenditures, like more money for the library.
Fort Worth Report: Fort Worth ISD considers closure of S.S. Dillow Elementary due to structural issues. The building has underground leaks and they’re worried about the walls moving and tiles popping off. It was already under consideration for closure under the district’s consolidation plan, but the damage to the building means it may close after this year.
Fort Worth Report: Fort Worth ISD trustees OK $22.5M in spending. Here’s what they approved in March.
Fort Worth Report: Hurst-Euless-Bedford ISD sees mixed results from midyear test results.
Star-Telegram: Keller ISD will close early learning centers, consolidate classrooms to cut costs. One of the two early learning centers they’re closing is in a free-standing building that was rezoned by Fort Worth City Council recently.
Star-Telegram: Keller board says lawsuit alleging open meetings violation has no merit, calls to dismiss. They’re making technical arguments here that are above my pay grade. The gist of it is that the split didn’t happen so there’s no problem, which seems a little disingenuous to me.
Fort Worth Report: Northwest ISD budget remains $965K short following $15M in cuts to staff, programs. Voters rejected a tax increase in November, so they’re stuck figuring out how to do more with less, and it’s really going to be less with less.
Fort Worth Report: Tuition at many Fort Worth private schools is higher than proposed voucher amount. The current voucher proposal is about 2/3 of average private school tuition.

School District Sunday – 2025 03 30

Normally this is a Saturday event, but this week we’ve had to delay to Sunday evening.

Texas Monthly: “We Might Have a Mutiny on Our Hands”: Why One Texas District Won’t Abandon the Four-Day School Week. An interview with the superintendent of Athens ISD, which is about an hour and 15 minutes from Dallas in East Texas. They’ve been running a four-day school week for six years. Since a lot of rural districts are now looking at moving to four-day weeks for retention reasons, this is a preview of the rural future.
Texas Tribune: Texas schools have leaned on uncertified teachers to fill vacancies. Lawmakers want to put a stop to it. Almost 40% of new teachers in Texas are uncertified this year. The state will pay to help them get certified, but there will still be a shortage, and according to the article, teacher salaries in Texas are about $9,000 less than the national average. All this explains why rural districts are willing to go to four-day weeks to retain the good teachers they have and attract new ones.
Fort Worth Report: Fact brief: Can Texas school districts use voter-approved bonds for budget deficits?. Answer: NO.
Texas Observer: ‘We’re Not Just Some Bureaucrats’: DOE Employees on How Their Work Helps Texas Students. Former employees from the Dallas office of the Department of Education talk about what they did until their office was shut down by the current administration.
Dallas Observer: North Texas School Districts Among The Wealthiest in Texas. Our area took seven of the top ten spots, including Highland Park and Southlake-Carroll, which are tied for first place.
Moving into local districts, we have news from Coppell ISD (which is one of those top ten districts). From KERA: Texas AG sues Coppell ISD in response to undercover ‘critical race theory’ video. This is Accuracy in Media, and “edited” may be doing a lot of work there along with “critical race theory”, which often means any accurate history of how badly America has treated her Black citizens, during and after slavery. Also in the Texas Tribune: Texas AG Ken Paxton accuses Coppell ISD of violating Texas’ “critical race theory” ban.
We have two stories from the Fort Worth Report about Eagle-Saginaw ISD. First, Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD looks to lower student-to-teacher ratios despite $10M deficit. Even if they lower the ratios to 24:1, they’ll still be above the state requirement of 22:1 and need to get a waiver. Second: Why Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD’s new superintendent is hopeful about public education. A bit of a puff piece but note, as a piece of the larger pie, that the new superintendent calls out the Lege’s refusal to increase the per-pupil allocation for schools since 2019.
KERA: To cut costs, Euless charter school to lose middle, high school grades. They’re also going to a four-day school week next year to keep their teachers.
There’s a lot of news about Fort Worth ISD and its new superintendent, mostly but not all from the Fort Worth Report.
- Fort Worth Report: How much will Fort Worth ISD’s new superintendent earn? Here are the details from her contract? $360,000 annually for the next three years, without the bonus structure that the previous superintendent got.
- Fort Worth Report: Q&A: Superintendent Karen Molinar outlines Fort Worth ISD’s turnaround efforts. Also: Transcript: Newsmaker Q&A with Fort Worth ISD Superintendent Karen Molinar.
- Fort Worth Report: Educators vie to represent southwest Fort Worth ISD on school board. This is for the District 7 election.
- We have two stories on literacy efforts in FWISD. First, from the Star-Telegram: Fort Worth ISD wants to redirect $22.7 million toward reading, which will mean job cuts. And, related, from the Fort Worth Report: Fort Worth ISD looks to spur reading renaissance through literacy-infused budget. There are a lot of statistics and charts about FWISD’s performance in this one.
- Last, but not least, a follow-up to a story from last year in the Fort Worth Report: Fort Worth ISD apologizes to North Side cheerleaders following fall racist incident. Last year, during the previous superintendent’s tenure, North Side high cheerleaders were insulted with (anti-Latino) racial slurs by Arlington Heights students. The district can’t pin down exactly who said what so nobody’s getting punished and the cheerleaders are unsurprisingly unsatisfied.
We also have a lot of fallout from the Keller ISD situation even after the board made the decision not to split the district. Most of the news is from the Star-Telegram.
- Star-Telegram: ‘It’s not over’: Opponents of squashed Keller ISD split rejoice, but demand transparency.
- Star-Telegram: Keller ISD’s pursuit of a split district is over, but the school board’s legal woes aren’t.
- Star-Telegram: Keller school board may have violated open meetings act with decision to kill split. Unsurprising, since they’ve been violating it all along.
- Star-Telegram editorial: Effort to divide Keller schools was sneaky to the end. How do we prevent a repeat? | Opinion. The answer seems to be “throw the current board out”, which is probably a good idea. I’ve heard but haven’t seen proof that the board members behind the plan were Patriot Mobile candidates, so they need to go if that’s the case regardless of their position on the split.
- Star-Telegram: Keller trustees who were ‘blindsided’ by split plan surprised again when plan is called off. This is my lack of surprise face.
- Fort Worth Report: Council approves new zoning for planned Cultural District hotel, Keller ISD properties. This is about the properties in the Fort Worth city limits that it really looks like the district-splitters wanted to sell off to make a bunch of money.
- Two on the same move by the Heritage HOA, one of the groups opposed to the Keller split. First, from the Fort Worth Report: Heritage HOA demands removal of Keller ISD trustees over alleged open meetings violations. Also in the Star-Telegram: Keller school board member calls latest legal move a ‘publicity stunt,’ waste of money. I hope all the board members involved end up out on their ears in May and that part of the lawsuit is rendered moot.
Fort Worth Report: Mansfield ISD trustees approve library books every month. Now, the policy might go statewide. This is about SB 13. You’d have to have a small district and the number of library books you add each month would have to be small for the policy of taking individual book choices to the trustee level to make sense.
Fort Worth Report: Northwest ISD is spending $3 billion on new schools, stadiums. Here’s where projects stand. Mansfield currently has 33,000 students and is expecting another 18,000 by 2033, so they need more facilities.
Dallas Morning News: Plano arts center: $67.5M building offers new amenities in Dallas suburb. I attended a couple of events in a Plano ISD auditorium when my niblings were in high school there, so I’m glad to see them building something nice(r) for the kids. I’m interested in this venue for non-school shows, too; I’ve been to shows at the Eisemann, which is one of their comparison halls, and I’m happy to see some competition for shows. I hope it means we’ll get more acts in suburban venues.

School District Saturday – 2025 02 15

There is regularly a lot of news about the school districts here in North Texas, which is because just as Texas is the national laboratory for bad government, North Texas is one of the state laboratories for terrible school district decisions. So I’m going to try to round up what’s going on with our local districts and what’s going on statewide (and nationally, if needed) that will affect our local schools.

First, another piece of the Keller ISD puzzle from the Star-Telegram: Fort Worth City Council calls for zoning changes to 23 Keller ISD properties. Looks like they think some of the properties might be sold off for parts when the district breaks up, so they’re going to prevent that by zoning them all as community facilities (not commercial, industrial, or residential).
Second: our state government at work: KHOU: Yes, there is a lawsuit that could eliminate Section 504. This lawsuit is Texas v Becerra, which seeks to remove protections for gender dysphoria, but as a part of its arguments says Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which protects folks with disabilities from discrimination, is unconstitutional. More on this case from the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, who are understandably unhappy.
Fort Worth Report: Fact brief: Did the Texas Lottery start as a way to help fund public schools?. The answer, which I am old enough to remember, is yes. Apparently people on social media think it was supposed to fund all of our public school needs, which is of course not true.
Texas Tribune: With vouchers fast-tracked, other Texas public education issues to watch this session. What we need to talk to our legislators about.
Texas Observer: Molly Ivins on School Vouchers (1997). We have been having this fight for a long time. Also, I still miss Molly.
Texas Tribune: In quest to infuse more religion into Texas schools, advocates say courts are now on their side. One of the bills to get more religion in school is from Sen Phil King (R-Weatherford), from just west of Fort Worth.
KERA: Majority of Texas school districts aren’t in compliance with armed security requirement. This was last session’s unfunded mandate placed on schools.
DMN: More North Texas teachers under investigation for alleged cheating and Star-Telegram: State identifies more teachers from North Texas districts in certification investigation. This is ongoing fallout from the big fake certification scandal in Houston. We’ll be hearing more about this for a while.
Dallas Observer: Every Texas School District Book Ban. This is about the PEN America report discussed in this Guardian article: Multi-level barrage of US book bans is ‘unprecedented’, says PEN America.
Fort Worth Report: Fort Worth ISD trustees discuss possibly closing as many as 25 schools to rightsize district and What are Fort Worth ISD’s school closure options? Here’s what’s on the table. Also, from the Star-Telegram: Fort Worth ISD gathers community feedback with school closure decisions on the horizon. Demographics and funding are a merciless pair.
Fort Worth Report: Northwest ISD cuts student programs as $16M deficit forces staff reduction, larger classes. At the same time, the Lege continues to want to send more money to private schools.
‘It Doesn’t Make Any Sense’: More Local Schools Proposed for Closure. This time it’s Carrolton-Farmers Branch ISD. Three of the four schools slated for closure are Title I schools, with 40% of kids qualifying for free/reduced lunches. Also more Black and brown kids.
Arlington charter school principal, 2 others charged in connection to child sex abuse. The two other adults are staff members at Newman International Academy High School in Arlington; one had the relationship with the child and the other two covered it up.
AP: DOGE cuts $900 million from agency that tracks American students’ academic progress. “Some of the biggest contracts were for long-term studies that track students’ learning from kindergarten through high school, a study evaluating strategies for teaching elementary school reading, and research on the effectiveness of supports for youth with disabilities, according to list of cuts obtained by The Associated Press.” Your tax dollars are not at work.
Fort Worth Report: Feds file lawsuit against maker of AI-powered weapons screener used in Mansfield ISD. Mansfield ISD stands behind the screening devices after spending about $2.3 million to put them in across 49 campuses in the fall.
KERA: Texas AG Paxton investigating two more school districts over trans athlete policies. One of the two districts is Richardson ISD, where I’m zoned. (The other is Hutto ISD near Austin.) I would like to think the Attorney General of the State of Texas has better things to do with his time than panty patrol on teenaged girls, but apparently not. Previously in the Dallas Observer: Ken Paxton Bullies Dallas, Irving ISDs Over Transgender Youths in Sports.
DMN: North Texas schools rebounding from pandemic learning loss, new rankings show. This is the Children at Risk (private) ranking since the TEA rankings are still in court.
KERA: Grand Prairie ISD approves separation agreement with former superintendent. I still have no idea who Jorge Arredondo pissed off within the first two months of his job as superintendent there, but whoever it was had the pull to get him out. That said, the agreement here is keeping all the details under wraps, so if he did something heinous, nobody will know.
Star-Telegram: With eyes on the future, Fort Worth Country Day unveils new $25M lower school. Fort Worth Country Day was, when I was in high school at St. John’s School in Houston, one of the schools in the same prep league. This is how the other half lives and where your voucher money is likely to go. I don’t begrudge more middle class kids getting into schools like Fort Worth Country Day–it’ll do both the rich kids and the less-rich kids some good–but at the same time, we need to fund our public schools fully before we consider putting extra money into private schools, most of which are not of the caliber of Fort Worth Country Day.