Extra Credit

Fort Worth's Trimble Tech, USPS honor Emancipation Proclamation for Black History Month

Writing and mailing letters may be a bit of a foreign concept to the text and tweet generation. But teenagers at Fort Worth’s Trimble Technical High School learned all about stamps at a Black History Month presentation last week.

Students hosted Beverly Baugh, U.S. Postal Service district manager, to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared that slaves in Confederate states were free.

Last month, the Postal Service issued a stamp honoring the 1863 proclamation, the first of three marking milestones in the fight for civil rights. A stamp of Rosa Parks, a Montgomery, Ala., woman who launched a bus boycott in 1955 after refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger, was issued Feb. 4.

Students are being encouraged to write letters to improve their skills and express themselves, said Kyev Tatum, who helped establish the campus’s Brilliant Bulldog Center, which provides tutoring.

“We partnered up with the post office to encourage students to talk about it and write letters and get stamps as a keepsake,” he said. “And you don’t just get on a stamp because you did something. You have to have made a tremendous difference.”

Glenn O. Lewis, chairman of the Texas Southern University board, spoke about the “legacy of excellence” at historically black colleges and universities.

Jessamy Brown

Mirabeau B. Lamar Day was a coup for schools

If you can read this post, Texans, thank Mirabeau B. Lamar, the second president of the Republic of Texas. 

He championed the Education Act, passed on Jan. 26, 1839, which set the foundation for Texas public schools. The Daughters of the Republic of Texas later designated the date as Mirabeau B. Lamar Day.

Though the 1836 Texas Constitution called for "a general system of education," nothing happened until the Georgia-born Lamar was elected in late 1838 on a vow to get Texas schools up and running.

Texas was cash-strapped but land rich, so Lamar decided to use public domain lands (and their value) to endow education. Each county got three leagues (more than 13,000 acres each) for public schools, and 50 leagues were designated to fund higher education in the new republic.

County schools had received more than 4 million acres of land by the time the State  of Texas switched to a different school funding mechanism.

_Shirley Jinkins

 

Fort Worth schools clarify rules banning Santa, gifts in class

The Fort Worth school district "loves Santa."

Officials posted a note on the district's website this morning seeking to clarify its position on Santa Claus after the Star-Telegram reported on updated guidelines that say Santa is not allowed to visit classes.

Interim Superintendent Walter Dansby said that Santa is welcome on campus: "He can be in the lobby. He can be in the cafeteria. He can be in the auditorium. He can be in the school, outside the school, around the school. But he cannot visit the classroom while the teacher is teaching."

Principals were told by the district's chief of schools on Tuesday that, "No instructional time may be devoted to classroom visits by characters associated with holidays (Santa Claus, Easter bunnies, Cupids, etc.). PTAs or parent groups may choose to sponsor such activities, but they shall not occur during the instructional day." 

The district today also said that students can exchange presents and holiday cards before and after class, in the hallway and in the lunchroom, but not during classroom instruction.

A spokesman on Thursday had said that students were allowed to hand out presents and cards for celebrations such as Christmas and Valentine's Day before school, after school or during lunch.

The issue has drawn criticism from parents.

But the school district said Friday: "Fort Worth ISD loves Santa Claus and continues to support his universal message of generosity and kindness."

-- Jessamy Brown

North Texas students to make up for February snow day on Friday

Remember the ice-covered roadways and subfreezing temperatures during the mega snowstorm in February? Schools were closed and classes canceled, at some districts for up to four days.

So Friday will not be a day off for many students. Districts will be holding classes to make up for lost time.

Many districts got state waivers allowing officials to only have to make up two of the days. Several districts scheduled classes on Friday, which is often a day off just before Easter weekend.

As best we can tell from websites, school districts holding classes on Friday include:

(Be sure to check with your school district's calendar for the schedule).

Aledo, Birdville, Burleson, Carroll, Castleberry, Eagle Mountain-Saginaw, Fort Worth, Grapevine-Colleyville, Hurst-Euless-Bedford, Keller (early release through middle school), Kennedale, Northwest and White Settlement.

UPDATE: These school districts are listed on their websites as closed on Friday: Arlington, Azle, Crowley, Lake Worth and Mansfield.

Jessamy Brown

 

 

 

 

Hill School takes holiday performance to hospital

Students from Hill School, a private school with campuses in Fort Wort and Grapevine, recently took their show on the road. And in this case, that show was a "December in Our Town" and the road led to a Monday performance at Cook Children's Medical Center in Fort Worth.

Hill School is a nonprofit school that focuses on helping students with "learning differences" excel. Elementary and high school students work together each year to produce a musical.

This year's musical, which students performed in the atrium of the hospital for staff, patients and their families, is about students collecting canned goods and celebrating December holidays. Students have also been doing canned food collections in real-life and will donate the proceeds to Mission Arlington, school officials said.

(The picture is of a rehearsal of the play. It is of Hill School fourth-graders Jourdan Lutter, of Fort Worth, Kevin Carter, of Fort Worth and Deanna Hilliard, of Arlington)

- Traci Shurley