Results tagged “schoolboard”

Various images from the AISD Documentary, Teaching Austin: 125 Years of Public School Education, produced by Barbara Morgan of the Austin Film Festival and directed by local filmmakers Kevin Smith and Mike Nicholson. Local luminaries interviewed include political writer and UT/Austin High grad Liz Carpenter, former Austin school board president and city council member Gus Garcia and current AISD Superintendent Pat Forgione. RSVP information is available in our previous post. Photos courtesy AFF, Picture...

Earlier this morning, Tamara Hoover posted the following announcement to her MySpace blog: Hello all. Under advice of my lawyer (and not without great resistance on my part) I have agreed to settle the matter with AISD out of court. With this agreement the district asked that I resign my position as an art teacher at Austin High School. My legal bills were mounting and my lawyer felt that the settlement was in my...

First, teachers can’t express themselves artistically outside of the classroom; now the kids are feeling the wrath.

It's official. Last night the school board voted to turn Porter Middle School into a single-gender academy. It isn't effective immediately, but starting next year, the sixth graders of the area will be sent to other middle schools. The seventh and eighth graders are to follow later, with the district planning the all-girls school to start in 2007. We imagine teachers and administrators are probably at a loss to their future role with the school. On paper, this concept sounds like a good one (except for the whole closing of the current school thing). Will A. I. S. D. be able to handle an all-girls school and all that it will entail? We'll see . . .

The AISD School Board voted unanimously Monday to name five new schools after Austin heroes. The schools will bear the names of Lance Cpl. Nicholas Valdez Perez, the first U.S. soldier form Austin to be killed in Iraq; frmr Austin Mayor Gus Garcia, the first Hispanic to serve on the school board; activist Volma Overton, who helped to desegregate Austin schools in 1971; longtime volunteer John Blazier and former school board member Nan Clayton.

Taking a page from former governor Bush's political playbook, Rick Perry has been spending quite a bit of time up conservative Christians' asses of late. In his latest move to pander to the far right, Governor Perry announced Thursday that he believes Texas public schools should teach intelligent design alongside the theory of evolution in science classes.

The school board in Odessa, TX has voted to add a Bible class to its curriculum by the fall of 2006. While this elective class will be taught as a “history or literature” course, the Austinist can’t help but feel hesitant, to say the least, in supporting this decision.