Extra Credit

Two Fort Worth schools leaders tapped for top Dallas schools posts

New Dallas schools superintendent Mike Miles has announced his top leadership staff and among them are two members of the Fort Worth schools administrative team.

Sylvia Reyna, Fort Worth schools' chief of administration, is taking a post as the chief of school leadership in Dallas, the district announced. Her salary is $198,000.

And Josie Hernandez-Gutierrez, currently a district steward in Fort Worth schools, will become one of five assistant superintendents who will report to Reyna. She will earn $173,000.

The full announcement is on the Dallas school district's website.

Jessamy Brown

 

Fort Worth administrator Sylvia Reyna leaving school district

Fort Worth schools Chief of Administration Sylvia Reyna has resigned from her position after two years on the district's top leadership team.

A news report said that she is taking a post at Dallas schools as chief of school leadership, supervising assistant superintendents and executive directors.

The Dallas school district indicated that new Dallas superintendent Mike Miles is still in hiring mode for top jobs.

"Mr. Miles is continuing to interview candidates for various administrative positions within the district. A full announcement of various top level positions that have been filled will be made in the near future," spokeswoman Libby Daniels said in an email.

Reyna did not return a follow up phone call from the Star-Telegram about her job.

In a brief interview this morning with the Star-Telegram, Reyna said she is leaving to “pursue other opportunities” but declined to elaborate.

Reyna said she submitted her letter of resignation and is taking vacation time until her contract runs out at the end of June.

"I definitely have enjoyed my employment with Fort Worth," she said. "The individuals in the organization are absolutely wonderful. I see only a bright future for Fort Worth."

In March, Reyna interviewed for an open position as interim superintendent in San Antonio. The school district had approached her about the job.

She spent 31 years there as a teacher and administrator.

Reyna came to Fort Worth from the Edgewood school district, also in San Antonio, in 2010. She has said she aspires to become a schools superintendent but did not apply for the job when Melody Johnson resigned in 2011.

Jessamy Brown

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/06/22/4051563/top-administrator-leaves-fort.html#storylink=cpy

 

Dallas ISD votes to close 11 schools amid budget struggles

Last night Dallas trustees voted to close 9 elementaries and two middle schools in hopes of saving about about $11.5 million to help make up for cuts in state funding.

For years, consultants have recommended that the Fort Worth school district close schools as well to better maximize its resources, but no immediate steps have been made to do so. But Fort Worth officials may want to take note as to how our neighbors to the east handled it. As the Dallas Observer reports, "it got ugly."

In 2009, former Fort Worth superintendent Melody Johnson discussed various criteria to consider for closing schools here besides enrollment -- such as academic performance, access to alternative schools, cost of operation, program offerings, building conditions and location. The issue comes up from time to time during budget discussions, but no set plan has yet to be brought forward.

--Eva-Marie Ayala

Fort Worth trustees begin interviewing superintendent candidates

It was a short-and-sweet open session when the Fort Worth School board met this morning just outside a bank of elevators at a private downtown building. They soon headed up to a ninth-floor conference room where they planned to interview six candidates for the superintendent post today and tomorrow. One of them is interim superintendent Walter Dansby.

The search process -- like many in Texas -- has been rather secretive despite officials publicly saying that they wanted to be as transparent as possible. Trustees did have a public meeting to get input on the next superintendent, but search firm consultants also met with key city and community stakeholders in closed-door meetings.

Trustees were split when a reporter (uh, me) tried to stand outside the ninth-floor business offices where the interviews were being held. Trustee Ann Sutherland said the reporter couldn't be on the floor because she would learn who the candidates are. Vice President Juan Rangel and trustees Carlos Vasquez had said she could stay.

But a few minutes later, a security officer escorted her off the floor saying the tenants did not want the newspaper reporter on that floor. The downtown building has multiple entrances and access to floors through an attached parking garage. The school board complex where trustees generally meet has fewer entrances and is on a single floor.

Before the meeting Rangel said confidentiality is a must in a superintendent search with only a lone finalist generally named.

"That's been this board's procedure since I've been on the board because many applicants tend to be sitting superintendents who have a job, and we want to make sure we get the best candidates," Rangel said.

Recently other major urban districts have released more than one finalist to the public -- including Cleveland, Milwaukee and the Louisville area. This week officials at the East Baton Rouge Parrish released the names of 43 applicants vying for that superintendent job. (Interesting side note, applicants include Dallas ISD board president/Texas CAN! Academies administrator Lew Blackburn, who attended Fort Worth schools in the Kirkpatrick area for a bit when he was younger.)

-Eva-Marie Ayala

North Texas teachers to rally at Capitol on Saturday

Hundreds of teachers from North Texas are making preparations to travel to Austin for a huge march and noon rally at the Texas Capitol on Saturday.

As many as 10,000 educators, parents, students and other supporters are expected at the Save Texas Schools event.

“The proposed legislative cuts to public education funding are unacceptable. Texas – we deserve better,” the group says on its website.

Before the rally, student groups, including a drumline and a “student-led positive hip hop group,” are scheduled to perform for the crowd, the agenda says.

Scheduled rally speakers include Connor Brantley, a Fort Worth school district student, Bobby Rigues, vice president of the Aledo school board and Michael Hinojosa, Dallas schools superintendent.

The march is at 11:00 a.m., starting from 12th and Trinity streets. That’s one block east of the Capitol grounds.

The rally is from noon to 2 p.m. on the south steps of the Texas Capitol, at Congress Ave. and 11th Street.

UPDATE: United Educators Association, based in Fort Worth, reports they are sending four buses of teachers and parents from Tarrant, Denton and Johnson counties -- that's 224 people. And they expect that another 300 to 400 more people will be carpooling and caravaning, said Executive Director Larry Shaw.

Jessamy Brown

Dunbar Middle holds first drill meet

Last month the east Fort Worth campus held what officials hope becomes an annual drill meet for middle schoolers. The school's Junior Cadet Corp invited middle schools from the Fort Worth and Dallas areas to compete in various drills, such as with mock rifles and in step performances.

The nine schools participating included T.C. Marsh (the reigning Middle School National Champions)  and Hill from Dallas, Elsie Robertson from Lancaster and Fort Worth's Dunbar, Rosemount, Riverside, Wedgewood, McLean and Meadowbrook.

At top left is a picture of the Dunbar team doing their step performance with students from Rosemont being inspected at right. At left is the team from Meadowbrook.

-Eva-Marie Ayala

Dropouts affect North Texas economics big time, study says

If North Texas schools, including those in Dallas and Tarrant counties, could decrease their dropout rates by half, it could mean an additional $143 million in spending a year for the region, according to a new national report out this morning.
The Washington D.C.-based Alliance for Excellent Education analyzed data from 45 large metropolitan areas in an effort to illustrate how high school dropouts influence not only their own lives, but their community's economic health. The group, which promotes secondary school reform that results in more high school graduates, has done similar state level studies before, but none as specific as that released Tuesday.
The figures for North Texas, which were compiled for an area that includes Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington and 12 surrounding counties,show that 32 percent of students in the area didn't graduate from high school in four years and with a regular diploma. If just half of the dropouts in the class of 2008 had graduated on time, it could have meant as much as $197 million a year in average increased annual earnings for those approximately 14,500 students, according to the study, called The Economic Benefits from Halving Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington's Dropout Rate: A Boom To Regional Businesses. Even just 1,000 additional graduates could bring an add $1.3 million to local and state tax proceeds each year, the researchers estimated.

Educators in Tarrant County and throughout the state have put increased focus on keeping students in school in recent years, as their state accountability rankings have been tied to "completion rates." Those rates also give districts credit for students who come back for programs even though they didn't graduate in five years.

In Arlington, for example, officials tried to get students back this fall by doing home visits and offering freebies like Texas Rangers tickets to students who attended tutoring. In that district, 74.5 percent of the students in the class of 2008 graduated in four years. Another 14.3 percent came back the next fall for some kind of program, whether it was to re-enroll or take part in test preparations courses that would help them pass the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills exam.

- Traci Shurley 

Arlington's cancellation may mean Cowboys Stadium visit for other students

A spokesman for the North Texas Super Bowl XLV Host Committee said Monday officials are disappointed that the Arlington students won't be attending the Sept. 21 event, but they're still excited about the news they plan to share that day.
Tony Fay, director of communications for the committee, said the press conference is only the first step in a large-scale service- learning project for north Texas youth.
"This is a chance to really do something meaningful for and with the kids in this region and we want to keep the focus on that," he said.
Students from Fort Worth and Dallas schools are also scheduled to attend the stadium event where former President George W. Bush will speak, Fay said. Arlington's cancellation will create room for more students. Officials were working Monday to determine who else to invite, he said.
 

- Traci Shurley

Around Campus

Change of plans. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, the former Maryland lieutenant governor, won't be speaking Friday at the University of North Texas’ doctoral commencement ceremonies. She had been the keynote speaker, but the death of her aunt, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, prompted her to change plans, UNT officials said. Townsend is also the daughter of the late Sen. Robert Kennedy.

Think you can sing? Well prove it. Weatherford College’s fine arts and communication department is preparing for the annual performance of Handel’s Messiah by the Parker County Community Choir. The performance is scheduled for the last Monday in November, and Rob Laney, who conducts the musical tradition, will hold auditions from 6 to 8 p.m. Aug. 24 in the Alkek Fine Arts Center on the college’s main campus in Weatherford.
 The Parker County Community Choir typically numbers 45 to 50, and Laney said he is looking for all voice ranges.
 “We need singers who are familiar with the piece, preferably, and those who can devote the needed time for at least weekly rehearsals,” he said.
Rehearsals are 7:30 to 9 Monday nights at the Alkek. For information, call Laney at 817-598-6237 or e-mail him at laney@wc.edu.

They're making history. University of Texas at Arlington professors are working to boost student achievement by offering  workshops to middle and high school teachers on more effective ways to teach American history.
The project is funded through a $969,477 federal grant to the Dallas school district.
Under the grant, beginning this fall:
nThe UT-Arlington history faculty will work with Robert Edison, the Dallas district’s social studies director, to design curriculum.
nFifty selected Dallas teachers will participate in monthly workshops.
nThe sessions will focus on training teachers to deal with content, interpretation and methodology. 
nParticipants will be invited to attend summer institutes and field trips that will enable them to design curricula for their classes.

“Presence: René Francisco, Florencia Levy and Teresa Rafidi” will be the opening exhibit for the fall semester at the University of North Texas art gallery. The exhibit will run Aug. 25-Sept. 26 in UNT’s art building, one block west of Mulberry and Welch streets. Gallery hours are noon-8 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and noon-5 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. The exhibit features the work of Cuban artist Francisco, Argentine artist Levy and U.S. artist Rafidi, who each convey the meaning of felt presence through photographs, video or paintings.  The artists’ works highlight the power of human influence — even when no one is present, like in an empty, still room that is interrupted by faraway voices. In seeing “Presence,” the audience is invited to think about how people influence others and are influenced. Admission is free. For information, call 940-565-4005 or visit www.gallery.unt.edu.

Got news? E-mail higher education reporter Gene Trainor at gtrainor@star-telegram.com

Dallas best city for young teachers?

Well, according to this top 10 list, it is. Dallas tops Certificationmap.com's list of cities for young teachers to work. Now the list doesn't mention the Dallas school district specifically as the best district to work for but notes two of its high-achieving magnet schools as some reasons why the area is attractive. The list did not mention that Dallas ISD recently cut about 240 positions at specialized schools or that it laid off hundreds of teachers in the fall because of budget issues. Now the district's bond credit rating has slipped as it plans to borrow $100 million for next year's budget, according to this story.  The other Texas city to make the list is Austin, which has a hiring freeze.

-Eva-Marie Ayala