Extra Credit

Six FWISD students travel to Japan for Sister Cities exchange

Six students who attend Fort Worth schools left Thursday for a trip to Japan as part of the Fort Worth Sister Cities International exchange program, the school district announced Friday.

The students will spend a week in Japan as goodwill ambassadors.

"Since 1990. The Harashin Co. of Nagaoka, Japan has funded scholarships for eight Fort Worth students and two teachers to travel there for educational and cultural enrichment exchanges. In return, the families of these Fort Worth students host students and teachers from Nagaoka in their homes for a reciprocal exchange," the Fort Worth school district said in a news release.

The students are:

Southwest High School: Blaine Edwards

Paschal High School: Mariley Grissom and Alison Strickland

South Hills High School: Brian Loredo

Arlington Heights High School: Meagan Moses and Katherine Super

Jessamy Brown

 

Last chance for mandatory registration for free school supplies Roundup

FORT WORTH—Families who still need to preregister for the annual Tarrant County Back to School Roundup can do so at two events on Saturday.

Qualified Tarrant County residents in prekindergarten through grade 12 who attend public schools can get free school supplies, backpacks, health screenings (bring your child's vaccination records) and haircuts at the August 8 event.

The preregistration deadline is August 1. The qualification requirements include photo identification, proof of residency in Tarrant County and proof of income that the family falls below the poverty level.

Preregistration events on Saturday, July 28, are:

• 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Resource Connection Conference Center, 2300 Circle Drive, Fort Worth
• 10 a.m. to noon, White Settlement ISD Family Resource Center, 1000-A. S. Cherry Lane, White Settlement

Two more events are next week:

• 3 to 6 p.m. on Monday, July 30 at Nichols Junior High School, 2201 Ascension Boulevard, Arlington
• 3 to 6 p.m. on Wed., August 1, Stripling Middle School, 2100 Clover Lane, Fort Worth

Preregistration is mandatory to attend the Roundup event, scheduled for 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Will Rogers Memorial Center, 3401 W. Lancaster Ave., Fort Worth. Parking is $5 at the center. Free parking will be provided at Farrington Field. The T will provide free bus service to the Roundup to families with preregistration vouchers.

The event is funded by donations and in kind contributions and sponsored by Walmart/Sam's Club.

Jessamy Brown

Community Education Forum at 6 p.m. tonight

FORT WORTH -- The South East Kingdom Neighborhood Association is sponsoring a community education forum that will be held at 6 p.m. tonight at the Kingdom Manifesters Church, 2401 McCurdy St.

Panelists will include Carlos Walker, Dunbar High School principal, Rev. Kyev Tatum, Tarrant County Southern Christian Leadership Conference president, community activists, educators and others.

For more information about the forum call Isiah Woods, South East Kingdom Neighborhood Association president, at 817-655-5626.

-- Mitch Mitchell

High school principals named at Crowley

For the first time, both of Crowley's high school principals are women.

Lyndsae Benton is Crowley High School's new principal. The 15-year educator began teaching at Eagle Mountain/Saginaw, Fort Worth and Bartlesville Okla. districts, as well as North Crowley High School. She has served as principal at Crowley Middle School, H. F. Stevens Middle School and in the Birdville school district.

Stefani Allen, new principal at North Crowley High School, has spent all 11 years of her career at Crowley district. She was a teacher at Jackie Carden Elementary School, then became principal at Summer Creek Middle School and Sue Crouch Intermediate School. She was also an assistant principal at North Crowley High School.

Other new principals in the district include Kristina Turner, Mary Harris Intermediate School; Betty Lewis, David L. Walker Intermediate School; Jaretha Jordan, Crowley Middle School; and Pamela Berry, Summer Creek Middle School.

_Shirley Jinkins

 

Fort Worth schools chief: no raises, but hopes extra payment: "conveys our gratitude and respect"

Fort Worth schools superintendent Walter Dansby said he recommended giving employees a one-time payment rather than a salary raise because of a tight budget. 

The schools chief periodically posts a Direct from Walter Dansby letter to employees on the school district's website. In a post late Tuesday, Dansby discussed a proposal to give employees a one-time, one percent payment in October. (Star-Telegram photo: Max Faulkner)

Trustees approved the recommendation unanimously on Tuesday.

Permanent employees who qualify under the program will get a payment equal to one percent of their base salary in 2011-2012. (Dansby himself won't get the extra payment).

"Because of our continued funding challenges, this has been a tough time. In fact, like many districts across the state, we've had to tighten our belts. We've suffered the loss of employees. We've had to reduce and, in some cases, eliminate programs," Dansby wrote. "For this reason, we were unable to recommend a salary increase for the coming school year."

Dansby went on to say that "this is doable because unlike a raise, it's a one-time event and does not carry a continuing financial obligation. I regret that a one-time 1 % incentive in a lump sum is all we can afford at this time. It's a small amount and by no means reflects the value that you bring to our district."

Dansby concluded: "You make the difference -- and we hope in some way this one-time payment conveys our gratitude and respect."

Jessamy Brown

H-E-B supermarkets donate school supplies, funds to Burleson's Harvest House

It may seem like summer's just begun, but folks are already getting ready for classes to gear back up again.

Harvest House, a Burleson relief agency that provides food, clothes and financial help, runs the Little Red School House, which serves about 350 each year by providing their families school supplies, haircuts and immunizations.

On Wednesday, officials from the H-E-B supermarket chain donated a $2,500 check plus $2,500 worth of school supplies to the Little Red School House. The organization will give out supplies at an annual back-to-school event on Aug. 18.

Meanwhile, donations are being collected in a supply drive that runs through Aug. 12. More than businesses and churches are serving as drop-off locations for donated school supplies.

(Photo: Burleson H-E-B General Manager Eli Daniel presented donation. Courtesy H-E-B)

Jessamy Brown

 

Fort Worth schools teams with councilman Joel Burns on anti-bullying video for grownups

Fort Worth schools wants you to be respectful and professional on the job.

The school district is expanding its anti-bullying campaign dubbed "It's Not Okay," to adults. They've teamed with Fort Worth city councilman Joel Burns, to create a video called "It's Not Okay-- At Any Age."

The video has not been released, but the district is offering previews of it in coming weeks, according to a Friday news release. Go here for a clip, because I can't get it to embed. Click here for a making the video photo gallery on the school district's website. 

Burns is playing host and the actors are students and staff from Fort Worth schools and Fort Worth community theaters. Another host is middle school student Mia Cruz.

The school district says all Fort Worth schools employees will look at and discuss the video. It will also be used in training for new employees.

Burns says: "Bullying: Fort Worth ISD is out to stop it in the schoolyard and in the workplace."

Jessamy Brown

UT Arlington physicists thrilled by discovery of new particle at Geneva collider

Physicists at the University of Texas at Arlington celebrated the announcement this morning that an international research project in which they participate has discovered a new particle.

Scientists at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, in Geneva stopped short of claiming that the particle is the elusive Higgs boson, a theoretical particle that could explain where mass comes from, Bloomberg News reported.

“As a layman, I think I would say ‘we have it,’” CERN director Rolf-Dieter Heuer said at a news conference. It will take at least three to four years of research to fully understand the properties of the observed particle, Heuer said.

The announcement brings humankind closer to answering a millennia-old question that the ancient Greeks wrestled with: What is matter made of? The particle is a key to the Standard Model, a theory explaining how the universe is built, and its existence would help scientists gain a better understanding of how galaxies hold together. It also could open a door to exploring other parts of physics such as superparticles or dark matter that telescopes can’t detect.

The Center of Excellence for High Energy Physics at UT Arlington is part of the U.S. team contributing to the experiments, both in Switzerland and on campus, where it operates a massive computing center for the ATLAS project.

Kaushik De, director of the center, said the discovery is one of the biggest in 30 years in physics.

“Without the Higgs there would be no matter,” he said. “No stars, no planets. Only light would exist, and maybe some other unknown massless objects. Everything would move fast — at the speed of light. Nothing in the universe could move slower or faster. It would indeed be an unusual universe.”

The field that generates mass for objects is named for UK physicist Peter Higgs, who in the 1960s was one of the first scientists to outline a working theory on how elemental particles achieve mass.

Higgs was one of four of the theorists attending today’s meeting in Geneva. He wiped a tear from his eye as the findings were presented, Bloomberg News reported.

"For me, it’s really an incredible thing that it’s happened in my lifetime,” he said.

-Patrick M. Walker

Crowley principals move up, and away

Crowley's two high school principals are bound for bigger schools, leaving superintendent Dan Powell to find their successors.

Crowley High School's Thurston Lamb is departing to become principal of DeSoto High School, according to news reports, and North Crowley's Andre Smith is headed to Duncanville High School.

Lamb was at Plano district as assistant principal of curriculum and instruction before coming to Crowley High. He had also served in Richardson, Duncanville and Garland.

Smith served in several positions with the Duncanville district before coming to North Crowley four years ago. He was Dean of Students, associate principal for instruction and grade level principal at Duncanville High School.

_Shirley Jinkins

Family of special-education student considering suing Arlington school district over injuries

Although he is outgoing and has a ready smile, Peyton Jarrett spends most of his time at home now as he recovers from head and facial injuries, bladder damage and surgery to repair an implanted device that helps prevent seizures.

The Bowie High School student, now 18, was diagnosed at age 4 with Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome, a disorder that manifests itself in multiple seizures and mental impairment. (Photo: Peyton Jarrett and his mother Patty Jarrett. ST/Brandon Wade)

But his current problems are the aftermath of something that happened at school this spring.

On April 4, Peyton was pushed down a flight of 10 concrete steps outside Bowie by another special-education student while a district employee was distracted, according to a police report filed after his mother, Patty Jarrett, saw video taken by a surveillance camera. 

It shows Peyton's wheelchair clattering to the bottom of the stairs with Peyton restrained inside, appearing to land head-first on the pavement at the bottom of the stairs.

Patty Jarrett and her husband, Hayden, say they plan to sue the Arlington school district, hoping to recoup expenses such as the cost of his medical care, ongoing nursing services and the price of a new $8,000 wheelchair.

School administrators have apologized in a letter that reads: "The AISD deeply regrets what happened to Peyton. It was an unfortunate accident that we take very seriously. The district is currently working to address this issue and make sure this doesn't happen again."

Read more in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Shirley Jinkins

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/07/02/4075219/family-of-special-ed-student-considers.html#storylink=cpy