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The Texas Senate has approved a proposal to ban transgender college athletes from competing in sports with those who match their gender identity. Senate Bill 15, filed by Sen. Mayes Middleton (R-Galveston), would require college athletes to compete on teams that align with their sex assigned at birth. Under the proposal, transgender women would have to play on men’s collegiate sports teams and transgender men would have to play on women’s sports teams. The bill, which is one of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s priorities this legislative session and received the Senate's blessing in a 19-10 vote, will now head to the House where it is likely to get a favorable reception. 

 

Austin American-Statesman

Republican lawmakers are considering auditing states’ spending of federal pandemic aid and requiring them to return any funds found to be misspent, according to discussions with witnesses in a hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability this week. Schools’ spending on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, teacher training, and athletic programs are just some investments lawmakers and witnesses challenged. “I don’t know what that stuff has to do with COVID. I don’t know what it has to do with reopening schools either,” complained Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y. Virginia Gentles, director of the Education Freedom Center, which is the school choice advocacy arm of the Independent Women’s Forum nonprofit, told lawmakers: "School spending obviously reveals their priorities. We’re dealing with a once in a lifetime academic crisis … the funds need to be focused on academic recovery.”

 

K12 Dive

Austin ISD trustees have voted unanimously in favor of extending the district's contract with interim Superintendent Matias Segura through to June 2024, giving them more time to find a permanent leader "We need more than an educator—we need someone who will listen to the educators in our district," said David Kauffman, District 7 trustee. "We need someone who can recognize and build on what we need in our system and Segura can do that." "I am pretty humbled and excited—there are a lot of emotions flowing through me at the moment," Mr. Segura said after the meeting. "It is really about the work and seeing all the great work around initiatives over the past 12 weeks. Our biggest concern was that these initiatives would still be very new, and I'm excited that I get to continue the work a little bit longer." Board President Arati Singh said there is not a definite timeline for when trustees will resume their search for a superintendent, but confirmed they will stick to its contract with GR Recruiting.

 

Community Impact

Fox 7 Austin

KVUE

The Fort Worth ISD board has voted unanimously to uphold a previous decision to dismiss a teacher’s whistleblower complaint over allegations that a safety course brought bonuses to the district and prevented minority students from pursuing advanced career options. Barton Scott, department head of Career and Technical Education at the Young Men’s Leadership Academy, had alleged that the district was requiring students to take a 30-hour occupational safety course that was meant for managers at work sites. The district then received bonuses for students’ achievements as part of a Texas Education Agency program. Mr. Scott had alleged that the district is “funneling at-risk children into low skill jobs rather than steering them toward higher paying careers" - a claim that was rejected by district officials, who said the course was optional and was offered because students could earn certificates online as COVID-19 caused disruptions in learning. Officials have, however, asked Superintendent Angelica Ramsey to review Mr. Scott's concerns. 

 

Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Bowie Fine Arts Academy Principal Melissa Horner has been named as Midland ISD’s executive director of Student Services. Ms. Horner started teaching in Midland 27 years ago; she was promoted to assistant principal in 2010 and principal in 2012, and has served as principal at Bowie Fine Arts Academy since 2016. The Midland board has also approved the hiring of four principals for the next school year. Two of the hirings were for junior highs as longtime Legacy Associate Principal Vanessa Carr will move to San Jacinto Junior High and Juan Dominguez returns to Midland as principal at Alamo Junior High. Midland ISD also reported Paul Hidalgo will move back into a principalship role at Rusk Elementary. Finally, current Midland High School Associate Principal Jared Andrews heads to Legacy Freshman.

 

Midland Reporter-Telegram

Midland Reporter-Telegram

Katy ISD teachers and staff will soon be receiving a lump-sum payment of 1% of their salary. At a board meeting on Monday, trustees approved a measure for a one-time retention payment for the district’s more than 12,000 teachers and staff. They will receive the payment later this spring, according to media relations representative Maria DiPetta. The move is “reflective of the district’s ongoing efforts to maintain its comparatively low attrition rate as measured against other school districts across the Houston region,” she added. In other Katy news, the district will roll out new Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) systems on school buses this fall. The ID system will require each student bus rider to have a Katy ISD SMART Tag ID card, which they will use every time they enter and exit their school bus.  Buses will be equipped with a tablet that will read students’ IDs, providing real-time information for bus drivers, school administrators and parents.

 

Katy Times

Houston Chronicle

A Houston ISD elementary school is to unveil a project aimed at giving students a creative space to further aid their learning in a dedicated outdoor field of study. This Saturday, Helms Elementary will show off its  Geology Garden to the public with a cleanup day from 9-11 a.m. at the school. The approximately 20’ x 30’ space at Helms features rocks from the three major geologic classifications - igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic. There are 17 total boulder-type rocks representing the groups in the garden that were brought in from all over the U.S. There is also an exploration zone where students are encouraged to dig through pea gravel and find hidden fossils, unique rocks.

 

The Leader

A spate of threats and false reports of shooters have been pouring into schools and colleges across the country for months, with groups of schools in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Iowa all recently affected. The hoaxes, which drain resources at an already critical time, are raising concerns among law enforcement and school leaders, who are already on edge amid a backdrop of deadly school shootings, the latest just this week in Nashville. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has even nodded to the risks, warning that it must take any school threat cases seriously because of the potential outcomes.  This can result, the Bureau says, in innocent people being treated as potential shooters.

 

AP News

Javed Ali, an associate professor of practice at the University of Michigan's Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, argues that designating K-12 schools as a "distinct critical infrastructure sector" would allow higher levels of DHS-backed funding, training, expertise and support to facilities that strengthen security. Such designation could either deter would-be attackers in the future or minimize the threat they pose if they attempt attacks. DHS would have to work with Congress to adjust its budget for such a new initiative, says Ali, who has more than 20 years of professional experience in Washington, D.C., on national security issues, including roles at the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Office of the Director of National Intelligence and National Security Council, but the DHS secretary does possess the authority to designate schools as critical infrastructure. "Given this flexibility, and with bipartisan support from Congress, such a move could start to pay dividends and ultimately prevent future K-12 school attacks," he suggests.

 

The Hill

School districts should be concerned about ChatGPT’s terms of use when permitting the artificial intelligence tool on school devices, especially when it comes to protecting students’ personally identifiable information. Speaking at the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) conference this month, panelist Keith Bockwoldt, chief information officer of Hinsdale Township High School District 86 in Illinois, warned that OpenAI, the research lab and company that runs ChatGPT, is both “very elusive about its data privacy policy and will share its information with anybody." Even if schools block ChatGPT on their networks and devices due to a fear of exposing student data, attendees heard, those students can still use the technology at home.

 

K12 Dive