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Gov. Greg Abbott has reiterated that discussions about gender identity in schools are a likely target for the upcoming legislative session. The Republican governor on Sunday tweeted a link to a Fox News article about a Fort Worth teacher who reportedly came out to students and staff as nonbinary and discussed it with the middle schoolers. Mr. Abbott responded that lawmakers will “put a stop to this nonsense” during the session that starts January 10th. “Schools must get back to fundamentals & stop pushing woke agendas,” he wrote. “We will pass laws to get it done.” Earlier this year, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said he wants Texas to replicate Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law, which forbids instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in the youngest grades. Patrick, also a Republican, controls the legislative direction of the Texas Senate as its president.

 

Dallas Morning News

Stephanie Muth, a consultant and a former Medicaid director at the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, has been named as the next Commissioner of the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS). Gov. Greg Abbott announced Monday that Jaime Masters will leave the position, almost three years after being appointed in the midst of an ongoing federal lawsuit against the state for the failures of its foster care system. Former DFPS Commissioner Anne Heiligenstein is returning to the department in a senior advisor role. Before Ms. Muth takes the helm in January, Kez Wold, DFPS associate commissioner for Adult Protective Services, will serve as the interim commissioner.

 

The Texas Tribune

The mother of 10-year-old Eliahna Torres, one of those killed in the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde in May, has filed a lawsuit against nearly two dozen people and entities, including the gun manufacturer and store that provided the rifle used in the attack, and law enforcement officials who responded to the scene. The 76-page federal lawsuit, filed by Everytown Law and a Texas law firm on behalf of Sandra Torres and Eliahna’s siblings, alleges the “mass shooting was enabled by the illegal, reckless, and negligent actions” of gun manufacturer Daniel Defense. Investigators have said the Uvalde shooter used an AR-15-style rifle manufactured by Daniel Defense. The lawsuit also accuses Oasis Outback, a gun store that delivered the Daniel Defense rifle to the shooter and sold him another weapon and ammunition, of negligent transfer of firearms. The Torres family is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages and has requested a jury trial.

 

CNN	Houston Chronicle

Houston ISD schools will remain closed today due to the ongoing boil water notice that was issued Sunday due to a loss of water pressure at the city's East Water Purification Plant. Mayor Sylvester Turner said two transformers at the power plant went offline around 10:30 a.m., and another followed shortly after. When the plants went offline, sensors indicated the PSI, or pounds per square inch, dropped below 20 in 16 of 21 sensors, Turner added. Carol Haddock, the director of Houston Public Works, said PSI lower than 20 increases the potential for contaminants to be introduced. Officials expect the boil water advisory issued Sunday evening will have been lifted by 3 a.m. this morning, Mr. Turner said. Nevertheless, Houston ISD wrote on Twitter that it would be closed today "due to the logistical challenges caused by the notice. Those challenges prevent the district from being able to provide meals for its students and ensure safe water is available for students and staff."

 

CNN

CBS News

NPR

The Pharr-San Juan-Alamo ISD Board of Trustees voted last night to approve a settlement agreement with Superintendent Jorge Arredondo, and to appoint former PSJA principal Alejandro Elias as the district’s interim superintendent. The entirety of the board’s discussions on the decision happened behind closed doors. It comes a week after trustees took a preliminary step toward launching a forensic audit into district operations, and less than a month after voters backed a new majority of trustees at the polls.

 

The Monitor

Seagraves ISD Superintendent Joshua Goen has been placed on administrative leave, while under FBI investigation. Seagraves Police Chief Romeo Guerrero confirmed the police department and the Gaines County Sheriff’s Office are assisting the FBI with its probe, but said he could not provide details at this time, adding that no arrests have been made. The district’s high school principal, Daylan Sellers, is acting as the interim superintendent.

 

News Channel 10

Seminole Sentinel

Conroe ISD has created an $18.8m contingency fund, taken from its general fund, to use for construction costs that rise outside planned budget allocations for projects. “Going back to last summer, at Conroe High School we had a concrete shortage,” explained Easy Foster, the district's director of planning and construction. “Leading up to the summer we had plenty of allocation, we knew the war in Ukraine was starting to impact the supply chain. What we learned was that it was impacting the supply chain for pouring cement to the United States.” The district’s concrete suppliers cut the allocation to the CHS project to less than half of the original order. This meant the project didn’t have enough concrete to finish that stage of construction before the school year started. Any funds left in the contingency fund after 2025 will be returned to the general fund. 

 

Houston Chronicle

Districts that stuck with full-time remote learning for longer in the first year of the pandemic saw larger declines in enrollment in subsequent school years than districts that prioritized getting kids back in school, according to a report published Monday by the American Enterprise Institute think tank. Districts that spent the longest time in remote mode saw enrollment drops during the first two pandemic years that were 1.3 percentage points larger than schools that offered the most in-person learning (more than 90% of the school year, on average), and 0.4 percentage points larger than schools in the middle of that spectrum (60% of the school year, on average). For schools that stayed remote the most, the drops were steeper in the second post-pandemic year than in the first. The findings build on previously published research showing clear signs that remote learning was among the factors, along with poverty and racial disparities, that impacted students' academic achievement. Nat Malkus, senior fellow and deputy director of education policy for the American Enterprise Institute, comments: “We took pretty good pains to find something else that could plausibly explain the differences that we found with all the controls we had on there. Is it possible? It is. But I can’t imagine what it could be.”

 

Education Week

Frisco ISD has created a Trending Topics webpage for students and parents to find facts about issues such as critical race theory, library book policies, and attendance zone modifications. “It can be hard to know what’s really happening and to discern what’s true from what’s not true,” according to the website. Each section contains information about the topic as well as misconceptions and truths. District officials said the information will give greater perspective and clarity on issues impacting FISD and public education.

 

Dallas Morning News