(Ericka Mellon, Houston Chronicle)
The long-troubled North Forest school district will remain intact for at least another year as Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott granted it a rare reprieve Friday from having to close in July.
Scott said he would give the northeast Houston district a year to improve. He said he had seen some academic progress but still had serious concerns about its financial stability.
North Forest officials, backed by several state lawmakers and a member of Congress, had appealed Scott’s earlier order to close the district. At the time, Scott said he was worried about the “long-term education of the students.”
“We do think that the district has made some improvements under this current superintendent, and there’s some legal issues that prompted this decision,” Debbie Ratcliffe, a spokeswoman for Scott, said late Friday when the decision was announced.
Ratcliffe said the state faced a time crunch to get federal approval for the closure before this school year ended. The U.S. Department of Justice has to sign off to ensure voters’ rights would not be violated.
In addition, the Texas Education Agency, which Scott oversees, had not conducted the state-mandated investigation of the impact on the Houston Independent School District, which would have assumed control of North Forest and its roughly 7,500 students.
(Read more at Houston Chronicle)
OTHER HEADLINES:
- Mother Pleas in Search for Missing 2-Year-Old Boy (KRIV 26 News)
- United Way Exceeds Annual Goal by $5 Million (Houston Chronicle)
- Rice U. To Host Texas’ First IBM Blue Gene Supercomputer (KUHF Public Radio)
- FEMA Spurns Harris Housing Authority’s $7M Reimbursement Claim (Houston Chronicle)
- Confronting Inner Alcoholic Demons in a Virtual World (KRIV 26 News)
- ‘Obamacare’ Sounds Different When Supporters Say It (KUHF Public Radio)
OPINIONS ON THE NEWS:
Does Exclusivity Breed Contempt for the Other?
- Editorial: TAPPS Must Cast a Wider Net
(Editorial, Houston Chronicle)
“As magnets for immigration, Texas and Houston are becoming ethnically and religiously diverse. Refusing to acknowledge this fact, as the TAPPS board appears to do, will only make the process more painful and unfair than it needs to be.” - The Gated Community Mentality
(Rich Benjamin, New York Times)
“As a black man who has been mugged at gunpoint by a black teenager late at night, I am not naïve: I know firsthand the awkward conundrums surrounding race, fear and crime. Trayvon Martin’s killing at the hands of George Zimmerman baffles this nation. While the youth’s supporters declare in solidarity “We are all Trayvon,” the question is raised, to what extent is the United States also all George Zimmerman?”