Hundreds of New Orleans children seeking spots in public schools have been turned away and told that the campuses have no room. In the state-run Recovery School District, 300 students have been placed on a waiting list since Jan. 8, and officials are scrambling to open additional buildings and hire more teachers. (New Orleans Times-Picayune)
Despite the destruction that Hurricane Katrina inflicted on the New Orleans area, university leaders should not have used that as an excuse to disregard due process and long-standing policies on such matters as tenure and making major decisions on personnel and programs, according to a report by the American Association of University Professors. The report is based on an investigation of post-storm actions taken by leaders of the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, Loyola University, Southern University, Tulane University and the University of New Orleans. (New Orleans Times-Picayune)
Northeast of Scottsdale, Ariz., the Christopher Verde School District was created with no intention of ever building schools, buying buses or hiring teachers. It has a name, a soon-to-be-appointed school board and 437 students who are bused to schools in neighboring districts. Voters, many of whom live in multimillion-dollar homes, created the Christopher Verde district to avoid the higher property taxes they would have had to pay if the area were annexed into the Cave Creek Unified School District. (Arizona Republic)
Charter schools in Pembroke Pines, Fla., won't get any new money from the Broward County school district to pay for school buildings, leaving the charters in a potentially precarious financial position. (Miami Herald)
Families lined up at clinics in Prince George's County, Md., and Baltimore after their children were turned away from public schools for failing to get new vaccinations required by state law. (Washington Post)
Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti has proposed the school's largest construction project, a $100 million science complex. To create the Mark Jefferson Science Complex, the university would renovate the Mark Jefferson building and augment it with new construction. State lawmakers would have to approve the spending. (Detroit News)
For the sixth time in a little more than a month, someone in the Detroit area has vandalized school bus tires, this time forcing classes to be canceled in the Flat Rock (Mich.) district. (Detroit Free Press)
Voters in San Antonio's largest school district will be asked to approve the biggest school bond issue in the city's history—nearly $700 million—in a May 12 election. Northside Independent School District leaders say they need the money to pay for a dozen new schools and about $275 million worth of upgrades, renovations and classroom additions. (San Antonio Express-News)TODAY'S QUOTE:
“We're growing at 4,000 students a year, and we don't anticipate that that growth is going to taper off a whole lot in the next few years.”
--Northside (Texas) school superintendent John Folks, on the district's seeking approval of a $700 million bond proposal. Read the San Antonio Express-News article.
Hours after Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst promised that money for a Texas A&M campus on San Antonio's South Side would be in the state budget, a review of the preliminary document showed no funds for the facility. (San Antonio Express-News)
Anchorage (Alaska) School District superintendent Carol Comeau has proposed outsourcing high school boys hockey, which would save the district $244,400 a year and cost each player's parents more money each season. Outsourcing means the district would no longer pay coaches' salaries, transportation or ice time for all eight schools in the Cook Inlet Conference. Those expenses would be borne by an organization willing to foot some of the bill -- or players, parents and coaches raising funds. (Anchorage Daily News)
The Chula Vista, Calif., City Council has voted to grant High Tech High a long-term lease on a city-owned site where a technology-themed charter school would be built. High Tech High operates seven schools in California. (San Diego Union-Tribune)
The head of New York City’s teachers’ union is asking state lawmakers to reserve at least $1 billion of new state education spending to reduce class sizes. (New York Times)
Police say a 14-year-old Ludington, Mich., boy who brought a loaded revolver in his backpack last week to O.J. DeJonge Junior High School was planning to use the weapon on three teachers. (Ludington Daily News)
Politicians and families in Bartlett, Ill., have searched for years for a way to disconnect from Elgin Unit School District 46 and create their own district may look to the legislature. Now, a state senator is planning to introduce legislation that would allow residents to vote on whether Bartlett, and possibly Carol Stream and Wayne, to secede from the 40,000-student Elgin district. (Chicago Tribune)
Major higher-education institutions, including Boston University, Boston College, and Northeastern University, are too secretive about what stocks they hold and how they vote in corporate elections, a new study asserts. (Boston Globe)
The San Dieguito (Calif.) High School Academy unveils its new library. (San Diego Union-Tribune)
The University of Houston is considering starting a medical school in partnership with The Methodist Hospital and Cornell University. The idea comes amid appeals for medical school expansion because of projected statewide and nationwide doctor shortages. Houston has two medical schools—Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. (Houston Chronicle)
Romeo (Mich.) Community Schools will ask residents next month to approve a $93 million bond issue to address crowded middle schools and aging buildings. (Detroit News)
Representatives from a janitors union in St. Charles (Ill.) District 303 picketed at four schools Tuesday afternoon on behalf of workers who allege their employer violated collective bargaining rules. (Chicago Tribune)
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