My journey toward understanding and believing in integrated schools is well-documented. I’ve reported, opined, and emoted publicly. But until now, my personal relationship to integration has been theoretical. When we signed up our kids for Mark Twain Dual Language Academy, a socioeconomically integrated school in our home district, I was excited…and nervous. One of the…
San Antonio ISD may have just found the cure to what ails it. The district announced a partnership with SA Rise to lead efforts in restorative justice and diverse cultural curriculum, especially in celebration of immigrant communities. These issues have been near the core of SA Rise’s efforts for most of its two year organizing…
At tonight’s meeting the San Antonio ISD board of trustees unanimously approved management agreements for 18 district schools, and new in-district charter applications for 13 schools. Nineteen schools total were a part of SAISD’s newest generation of autonomous schools. The applications go to the Texas Education Agency on April 1. The charter applications are the…
It’s here! It’s here! No, not the phone book. The Texas House’s bill, “The Texas Plan” to overhaul the State’s love-to-hate school finance system. Now, every public school advocate will tell you, “this is a start.” But it’s also the best start Texas has seen in decades, and before horse-trading with the ultra-conservative Texas Senate…
Just the other day I asked a member of the San Antonio Alliance, the San Antonio ISD teachers and support staff union, whether relations with the district administration had improved at all. She demurred. But today I got my answer. They have not. The Alliance distributed a questionnaire, printed below in its entirety, to vet…
Applications are in for our three choice schools. It was super easy. Everyone should do it. While we applied, we were automatically registered for our neighborhood school, Hawthorne Academy. It’s a valid option. It’s the kind of school where our kids would be fine. We’d be fine. Everyone at Hawthorne is giving it their all, from…
When applying for SAISD’s choice programs, parents may choose three programs per child. While we started out with the ambitious goal of visiting about five schools before applying, by the time we visited our top three choices, we were pretty much set. Both kids are in the lottery for Steele Montessori. Moira went on the…
Having an education reporter for a wife, Lewis McNeel rarely needs to comb through niche.com or GoodSchools.org to learn more about his local options. In fact, having an education reporter for a wife, if either of those sites were ever discovered in his browser history, he would likely be subjected to an exhausting treatise on…
For the past six years, I’ve been there every time San Antonio ISD sneezed. I’ve done so from a safe distance, where the propulsion of mucus and saliva can’t hit me. I stayed noncommittal when, hugely pregnant, an SAISD principal asked me if I would send my unborn daughter to the neighborhood school.…
It’s not uncommon to see yoga groups on the Hays Street Bridge, but there will be something extra special about one on August 7. Mobile Om will be hosting a special yoga class, especially for teachers. The monthly yoga event will give teachers a chance to network, and introduce them to some of the city’s…