Articles about Education
How Plano Kicked Its Heroin Habit, How Dallas’ Thomas Jefferson High School Is Kicking Its Own
The Santa Clarita Valley Signal ran this illustration, which I doubt the Plano Chamber of Commerce will want to borrow for its promotional materials.
Santa Clarita, California, has in recent years been having trouble with heroin use among its young people. So the community’s newspaper, the Santa Clarita Valley Signal, turned to leaders in Plano to seek advice on how they beat their own well-documented teen heroin epidemic in the 1990s.
Plano Police Chief Gregory A. Rushin says it’s a never-ending fight:
“We haven’t scaled back at all,” Rushin said, adding every officer brought in and assigned to fight heroin remains committed to that fight 15 years later.
“We added numbers to that (heroin) unit, and we have not reduced any of those numbers,” he said.
“In this battle, we’ve seen no end in sight.”
Plano’s efforts were known as the awesomely named “Operation Rockfest,” because (one assumes) when you’re trying to connect with the kids to get them to stop doing illegal drugs you’ve got to talk to them on their level and some cops had heard that the rock music was popular with the kids.
What It’s Like To Be an Intern at D
Michelle Saunders is one of our new interns. Her first day was Thursday. She seemed to do well. We’re working on getting our March issue out the door, so I didn’t have time to ask a lot of questions. But then on Friday, I had to tell her to leave (I feel guilty when interns work later than I do). She said she had just a couple more things to finish and she was only going to stay until 6 or so. I begged her not to, and then I left. I still haven’t asked her how late she stayed. I’m afraid of the answer.
However, she sent me a note this morning from her first day. It amused me, and I thought it might amuse you as well.
Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Michelle Saunders and I am one of the new spring 2012 interns here at D. Just how new, you ask? Keep reading and you’ll understand.Yesterday was my first day and it started off without a hitch, er with relative hitches, well…define hitch (oh wait, that’s my job!). I left my house in plenty of time and despite typical Dallas traffic, made it to the parking garage a couple of blocks from the office in just enough time to walk there. Although I’m growing increasingly nervous, I set off with a jaunty step, ready to edit, highlight, slash, and verify.
I call my mom to let her know I’m about to start and I talk to her as I walk…until I trip and eat pavement just one short block from the office. Did I mention I’m on Ross Avenue? In the heart of Downtown? During morning rush hour? Yes, Dallas, that was me, Michelle, who accidentally flashed you as I scrambled to retrieve the contents of my bag, my laptop, phone, and dignity (in that order). Luckily the light changed quickly so I couldn’t see your faces as you sped by me, smirking behind your tinted windows.
Leading Off (1/30/11)
DISD Teacher Calls for “Sick Out” Last week the Dallas ISD school board voted to close 11 campuses and extend teachers’ work day by 45 minutes without additional compensation. Now an anonymous teacher is trying to organize a “sick out” protest for February 29.
Mom Will Give Son Kidney: When Jace Glenn was four weeks old, he had both his kidneys removed. He has been on dialysis ever since, awaiting an age when he would be old enough to undergo a kidney transplant operation. Now three, all he needs is a donor. He found one in his mom.
Police Officer Saves Women From Car Sinking In Lake: Saturday night, Ngac Do and Nhi Tran took a wrong turn on Dalrock Rd. off I-30 and drove their Honda Civic into Lake Ray Hubbard. A police dash cam caught the rescue.
A Star is Born at Fort Worth ISD
I’m not entirely sure what it is that Fort Worth ISD business support services manager Ed Spears is selling, but whatever it is, I’m buying it.
Pizza Hut Makes Local Newspaper Editor Weepy
You remember my post about not being able to get through to the Pizza Hut media relations office? I was calling to ask about the H.U.T. Fund, a charity created by Pizza Hut CEO Scott Bergren exclusively to help students at my alma mater, the Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts.
The Booker T. orchestra has a chance to perform at Carnegie Hall in May, but the trip will cost about $70,000. The group already has more than $50,000 in the bank, and a good portion of that money came from the H.U.T. Fund. As a proud alum, I’d like to publicly thank Bergren for his generosity.
You can read more about the Booker T. orchestra in the current issues of Preston Hollow People and Oak Cliff People. And you can hear them perform — for free — at 7:30 tomorrow night at SMU’s Caruth Auditorium.
Map of Downtown Tunnels Is Here
Downtown resident/neighbor Noah Jeppson launched a campaign on Kickstarter in June. He wanted a beautiful map that accurately plotted the downtown tunnel system. He had worked on one before, but it was a little out of date. The last printed version was done before DART was in the area. So, Jeppson saw a need.
Several months, countless hours, and $1,200 later, Jeppson has 10,000 maps to hand out. He just dropped a few off by our office. I plan on using mine to get home tonight.
Jeppson has lived downtown for 6 years. He currently lives in the beautifully renovated 400 N. Ervay (which I immediately fell in love with and wrote about here). I told him my feelings about the tunnels, and he said he’s neutral. “They’re an asset that already exists, so why close them down?” he says. “Don’t expand them, but don’t close them down.” He’s on a task force that is evaluating the tunnels. He said the group is close to releasing some recommendations. I hope one of those recommendations is to open the tunnels around lunch on Saturdays. I know it won’t happen, but I would really love to be able to get a Salata salad or a Chick-fil-A sandwich without getting in my car.
If you want one of Jeppson’s maps, check out his site here or stop by our office. I’ll have a few at the front desk.
D Magazine Readers’ Favorite Stories in 2011
Our list of the most popular features on DMagazine.com in 2011 can’t help but make you hungry, as our dining coverage continued to be the best in the city.
See our top 10 most trafficked stories of the year right here.
Coach June Jones’ Departure From SMU, Ctd., Ctd.
Now reports are saying that the Arizona State boosters got “cold feet” about Jones when the news broke. So, umm, nevermind?
Coach June Jones’ Departure a Blow to SMU?
Southern Methodist University was all excited today about officially announcing that its sports teams will be joining the Big East conference. But then the news began to break that head football coach June Jones has decided to leave the Hilltop in favor of Arizona State University.
Jones had been at SMU for four seasons and is credited with helping the football team to become somewhat respectable. Jean-Jacques Taylor of ESPN Dallas says “Jones’ decision to leave for Arizona State makes SMU a laughingstock. Again.”
Meanwhile, Bleacher Report speculates that SMU entering the Big East may have spurred Jones to move west, because of “quality of life” considerations:
The Big East is going to be a mess and will require a lot of traveling. SMU is in Texas and will be taking several trips to the East Coast to play football games in November and December.
I’m sure when Jones heard the words freezing and snow, he remembered his coaching days in Hawaii and found the first flight out. In fact, every place Jones has coached in for the most part has great weather, including San Diego when he was a quarterbacks coach for the Chargers.
And the Arizona Republic warns that the ASU gig isn’t exactly a football coach’s “dream job”:
ASU fans expect the unrealistic. Old-timers resist new logos and pine for the good old days under Frank Kush, forgetful that it was a different time and a different country back then. The younger generation is impatient and half-vested. A school official sagely says ASU leads the nation in fans who scream their dissatisfaction from the couch.
How Deion Sanders Got A Charter School
Brand new Texas Observer reporter (and competitive eating enthusiast) Patrick Michels has the interesting tale of how Neon Deion got into the business of public education: “The most novel aspect of these charters,” Michels writes, “May be the private funding sources they’ll depend on to round out their $10 million-a-year budget: not usual suspects like Bill and Melinda Gates or the Walton Family Foundation, but big brands Sanders has endorsed or worked with over the years, which he name-drops regularly when talking about the school.”
After telling the board how nervous he was—more than he was before those Super Bowl and World Series appearances you might remember him from—he recounted how plans for the school were born. “This all started as a dream, but yet a dream while I was still awake,” Sanders explained, relating a vision he’d had three years ago. “Could you imagine, educating kids of all socialities and different social statuses—white, black, Hispanic… Asian?”
People Who Will Likely Get Coal This Christmas
A readingpants FrontBurnervian shot this into my inbox today – a story about Fort Worth ISD kicking Santa out of the classrooms. And not only that, gift exchanges are verboten. Santa can visit the cafeteria, but nowhere else.
And why? For that you’d have to cue up the district’s lawyers, according to the story.
“One of the district’s lawyers is reportedly concerned that if they allow students to exchange presents, they would also be be required to let them distribute a religious message with the gift.”
Anyone think that the worry is related to the Plano candy cane kerfuffle that is still winding its way through the courts?
Petition Started to Save Bonham Elementary
As most of us have heard, Dallas ISD is looking to close some campuses in a bid to address a sizable shortfall in next year’s budget. The list consists of mostly elementary schools, with a couple or so middle schools thrown in the mix as well. One of those, as Robert Wilonsky points out, is Bonham Elementary.
Now, I’m sure just about every school on the list has parents, teachers and students who are ready to fight to keep their doors open. But let me tell you – I went to elementary school (swear) and never once have I been asked to join an alumni group with an eye toward helping out the school where funding falls short. But Bonham Elementary has such a group. A couple of years ago, in fact, I attended a fundraiser hosted by that group that featured one of it’s most familiar graduates – Rawlins Gilliland. And the group is rightly proud of their neighborhood elementary school (located just down the street from The Old Monk, The Porch, etc.),which was awarded a National Excellence in Urban Education award and was named a Presidential Blue Ribbon school.
I bring this up because someone has now started a petition to save Bonham Elementary. There is also one here. But do online petitions actually do anything?
What DISD Could Learn From Finland
DISD trustees have to figure out this new STAAR testing deal and how much it will figure into grading. It’s important, it’s complicated, and we should ditch the whole thing. Read this New Republic story about Finland’s education system. If you’re too busy to read the entire thing, here’s the gist:
In comparison to the United States and many other industrialized nations, the Finns have implemented a radically different model of educational reform — based on a balanced curriculum and professionalization, not testing. Not only do Finnish educational authorities provide students with far more recess than their U.S. counterparts—75 minutes a day in Finnish elementary schools versus an average of 27 minutes in the U.S. — but they also mandate lots of arts and crafts, more learning by doing, rigorous standards for teacher certification, higher teacher pay, and attractive working conditions. This is a far cry from the U.S. concentration on testing in reading and math since the enactment of No Child Left Behind in 2002, which has led school districts across the country, according to a survey by the Center on Education Policy, to significantly narrow their curricula.
Leading Off (11/14/11)
Trinity River Ground Zero in Texas Drought: The first in a promised series of articles about Texas water in the Houston Chronicle kicks off on the Trinity River which, the piece points out, does not share the history or mystique of some of the state’s more well-known rivers, such as the Rio Grande, Brazos, Neches, Red, or Guadalupe. But the Trinity is Texas’s “hydraulic heart,” and in the current drought, it is nearly tapped.
Father Shoots Wife, Holds Kids During Three Hour Police Standoff: Two four-year-old boys survived a horrific shootout and standoff with police yesterday, as their father shot their mother six times and then barricaded himself in his apartment in West Dallas with the children for three hours before he finally surrendered. Though Martinez is in critical condition at Methodist Hospital, remarkably, she stumbled to her mother’s house after the incident to call for help.
Highland Park School District Hits $1 Billion Robin Hood Milestone: The outflow of tax dollars from Highland Park Independent School District to other Texas public school districts has hit the $1 billion mark.
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