Thousands line up for free school supplies
By CYNTHIA VEGA / WFAA ABC 8
DALLAS, Texas - Thousands of Dallas students and their families lined up at Fair Park Thursday morning to take part in the Mayor's Back-to-School Fair.
The annual event offers free school supplies and health screenings for families who meet poverty-level income guidelines.
"It really is worth it, because I have seven children," said Angela Smith, a three-year veteran of the Back-to-School Fair, who was in line with her youngsters line well before the doors opened at 8 a.m.
"I have a new one going off to college, so this really helps me every year—it really does," Smith said.
Latarsha Jones, a stay-at-home mom, was at the Fair for the second year in a row. "I appreciate everything that they're doing for those that are not able to go out and get all the supplies that they can," she said. "I have several kids in school, so this is really helping out a lot."
The fair began in 1997 as part of a federally-funded drug intervention project. Since then, it has evolved into a community event with support from local health agencies, the business sector and school districts.
"Our superintendent tells us that if kids are excited on the first day, they're more likely to stay in school and work harder," said Dallas Mayor Laura Miller. "So we're trying to help DISD keep their kids in school."
Data from the Dallas Independent School District indicates that more than three-quarters of all its students are from families living below the poverty level. Proof of income, residency and a photo ID are required.
The Back-to-School Fair is designed to make sure that all students can return to school with required supplies and health services. More than 20,000 children were expected to participate in this year's event.
DISD classes resume next Monday.
News from the Lone Star State
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Seniors hit hard by rising electric costs
By MICHAEL REY / WFAA ABC 8
DALLAS, Texas - Electricity that runs air conditioners costs a lot, and that expense means making adjustments. Senior citizens often cut corners to ensure they can afford their bills, but a utility discount they have used as a safety net is going away - right at the hottest part of the year.
In the heat of the day, the hum of air conditioners is conspicuously absent in one Oak Cliff neighborhood.
Resident Lubertha Johnson has to use hers sparingly - "when it gets really hot," she said.
Johnson's main source of light comes through her open door, and a fan helps fight the warm air.
"I do most of my work early in the morning, or late at night," Johnson said.
Back in May, the Texas Legislature drained funds from a program that gave low-income Texans a ten percent discount on their electric bills. That electric bill discount ends next month.
"There's going to be a lot of people out there ... when they open their bills, they're going to be shocked," said Suzanne Cobb of The Senior Source, an organization that works to help those over 55.
Dallas electric consumers pay 46 percent more for electricity than they did three years ago. For those on fixed incomes, like those who utilize "The Senior Source", it often means tough choices.
"When you do that, then you're going to have to get behind on another bill," Cobb said. "It's kind of like borrowing from Peter to pay Paul."
By MICHAEL REY / WFAA ABC 8
DALLAS, Texas - Electricity that runs air conditioners costs a lot, and that expense means making adjustments. Senior citizens often cut corners to ensure they can afford their bills, but a utility discount they have used as a safety net is going away - right at the hottest part of the year.
In the heat of the day, the hum of air conditioners is conspicuously absent in one Oak Cliff neighborhood.
Resident Lubertha Johnson has to use hers sparingly - "when it gets really hot," she said.
Johnson's main source of light comes through her open door, and a fan helps fight the warm air.
"I do most of my work early in the morning, or late at night," Johnson said.
Back in May, the Texas Legislature drained funds from a program that gave low-income Texans a ten percent discount on their electric bills. That electric bill discount ends next month.
"There's going to be a lot of people out there ... when they open their bills, they're going to be shocked," said Suzanne Cobb of The Senior Source, an organization that works to help those over 55.
Dallas electric consumers pay 46 percent more for electricity than they did three years ago. For those on fixed incomes, like those who utilize "The Senior Source", it often means tough choices.
"When you do that, then you're going to have to get behind on another bill," Cobb said. "It's kind of like borrowing from Peter to pay Paul."
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Most Texas schools make progress
Many Dallas high schools fall short
DALLAS, Texas (WFAA ABC 8/WFAA.com) - State education officials said Thursday most Texas schools made "adequate yearly progress" in 2005 using federal criteria set up under the No Child Left Behind Act.
Education Commissioner Shirley Neeley said 87 percent of Texas districts and 77 percent of campuses met or exceeded the AYP targets.
The assessments are based on state reading and math exams in grades 3-8 and grade 10, graduation rates and attendance rates.
Overall, the Dallas Independent School District met the AYP requirements, according to preliminary data released Thursday. But a number of schools—including Adams, Adamson, Smith, Molina, Jefferson, Kimball, Pinkston, Roosevelt, Samuell, Seagoville, South Oak Cliff, Spruce, Sunset, White, Wilson, Carter, North Dallas and Madison high schools—fell short.
The Fort Worth, Arlington, Plano, Irving, Frisco, Garland, Grand Prairie, Lewisville, Grapevine-Colleyville, Coppell, Mesquite, and Richardson school districts were all judged to have made adequate yearly progress in 2005.
The troubled Wilmer-Hutchins ISD fell short of performance goals in reading and mathematics. Those students will be absorbed into the Dallas ISD this fall.
Statewide, 149 districts and 900 campuses failed to meet the federal guidelines, the TEA said, with math performance the most common reason.
Of those schools, 122 must offer parents the option of transferring their children to another campus at the district's expense because they missed adequate yearly progress for the same reason two years in a row.
The federal education law sets the unprecedented goal of ensuring all children are proficient in reading and math by 2013-14.
WFAA.com editor Walt Zwirko and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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2005 Adequate Yearly Progress from TEA
Many Dallas high schools fall short
DALLAS, Texas (WFAA ABC 8/WFAA.com) - State education officials said Thursday most Texas schools made "adequate yearly progress" in 2005 using federal criteria set up under the No Child Left Behind Act.
Education Commissioner Shirley Neeley said 87 percent of Texas districts and 77 percent of campuses met or exceeded the AYP targets.
The assessments are based on state reading and math exams in grades 3-8 and grade 10, graduation rates and attendance rates.
Overall, the Dallas Independent School District met the AYP requirements, according to preliminary data released Thursday. But a number of schools—including Adams, Adamson, Smith, Molina, Jefferson, Kimball, Pinkston, Roosevelt, Samuell, Seagoville, South Oak Cliff, Spruce, Sunset, White, Wilson, Carter, North Dallas and Madison high schools—fell short.
The Fort Worth, Arlington, Plano, Irving, Frisco, Garland, Grand Prairie, Lewisville, Grapevine-Colleyville, Coppell, Mesquite, and Richardson school districts were all judged to have made adequate yearly progress in 2005.
The troubled Wilmer-Hutchins ISD fell short of performance goals in reading and mathematics. Those students will be absorbed into the Dallas ISD this fall.
Statewide, 149 districts and 900 campuses failed to meet the federal guidelines, the TEA said, with math performance the most common reason.
Of those schools, 122 must offer parents the option of transferring their children to another campus at the district's expense because they missed adequate yearly progress for the same reason two years in a row.
The federal education law sets the unprecedented goal of ensuring all children are proficient in reading and math by 2013-14.
WFAA.com editor Walt Zwirko and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2005 Adequate Yearly Progress from TEA
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Mom's war protest gains momentum
CRAWFORD, Texas (WFAA ABC 8/AP) - Cindy Sheehan's eyes well with tears when she talks about her oldest son, Casey, an easygoing young man with a quiet wit.
Casey joined the Army in 2000, never imagining he would see combat. Five days after he arrived in Iraq last year, the 24-year-old was killed in Sadr City.
Sheehan knows nothing can bring back her son, but she wants to talk to President Bush. The Vacaville, Calif., mother has been camping out along a road near his ranch since Saturday, vowing to remain until his Texas vacation ends later this month.
"Before my son was killed, I used to think that one person could not make a difference," she said Wednesday under a tent where she has slept since arriving. "But one person that is surrounded and supported by millions of people can be heard."
Bush National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley and a deputy White House chief of staff talked to Sheehan on Saturday. She said the meeting, which she called "pointless," lasted 20 minutes, but the White House said the meeting lasted 45 minutes.
By Wednesday, about 50 people had joined her cause, pitching tents in muddy, shallow ditches and hanging anti-war banners; two dozen others have sent flowers. Her name was among the most popular search topics Wednesday on Internet blogs.
The soft-spoken Sheehan, 48, is surprised and touched at the overwhelming response -- most of which is positive, she says.
But not everyone supports her. Kristinn Taylor, co-leader of the Washington, D.C., chapter of FreeRepublic.com, said Sheehan's protest is misguided and is hurting troop morale.
"She has a political agenda that goes way beyond her son's death in combat," said Taylor, whose conservative group has held pro-troop rallies since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks and counter-protests of anti-war demonstrations.
Sheehan, a Catholic youth minister for eight years, never wanted Casey to join the military. But he did after being misled by his recruiter, she said. Although he also opposed the war, he didn't try to back out of his duty.
"I begged him not to go," she said through tears. "I said, 'I'll take you to Canada' ... but he said, 'Mom, I have to go. It's my duty. My buddies are going."'
Sheehan has spent the past several days in rainy weather talking to scores of reporters, hugging fellow protesters and taking brief breaks to eat sandwiches and fruit brought by supporters.
She and her husband are separated, affected by the stress of losing their son. But her other three children, ages 19 to 24, may join her in Crawford, she said.
Sheehan was among grieving military families who met with Bush in June 2004 at Fort Lewis, Wash., near Seattle. She has said her feelings have shifted from shock to anger since then, in part because of various reports that have disputed some of the Bush administration's justifications for the war.
Many supporters decided to go to Crawford because of rumors that Sheehan would be arrested.
But no protesters will be arrested unless they trespass on private property or block the road, said Capt. Kenneth Vanek of the McLennan County Sheriff's Office.
Trucker Craig Delaney, 53, was in Georgia on Monday when he heard numerous radio shows discussing Sheehan -- some criticizing her. He altered his route to California, heading for Texas, and got to Sheehan's site Wednesday morning.
"I felt compelled to come and tell her I support her," said Delaney, a self-described hippie from Sly Park, Calif. "The way they were bad-mouthing a mother whose son was killed in the war is un-American."
Nearly 40 Democratic members of Congress have asked Bush to talk to her. On Wednesday, a coalition of anti-war groups in Washington also called on Bush to speak with Sheehan, who they say has helped to unify the peace movement.
"Cindy Sheehan has become the Rosa Parks of the anti-war movement," said Rev. Lennox Yearwood, leader of the Hip Hop Caucus, an activist group. "She's tired, fed up and she's not going to take it anymore, and so now we stand with her."
Earlier this year Sheehan formed Gold Star Families for Peace and has spoken to groups across the nation and overseas.
Judith Young, national president of the similarly named The American Gold Star Mothers of America Inc., said she is concerned the public will mistake her 76-year-old Washington, D.C., nonprofit organization with Sheehan's group.
In Young's group, commonly known as Gold Star Moms, mothers whose children died in the line of duty volunteer in veterans' hospitals and programs. Members don't do advocacy work, Young said.
CRAWFORD, Texas (WFAA ABC 8/AP) - Cindy Sheehan's eyes well with tears when she talks about her oldest son, Casey, an easygoing young man with a quiet wit.
Casey joined the Army in 2000, never imagining he would see combat. Five days after he arrived in Iraq last year, the 24-year-old was killed in Sadr City.
Sheehan knows nothing can bring back her son, but she wants to talk to President Bush. The Vacaville, Calif., mother has been camping out along a road near his ranch since Saturday, vowing to remain until his Texas vacation ends later this month.
"Before my son was killed, I used to think that one person could not make a difference," she said Wednesday under a tent where she has slept since arriving. "But one person that is surrounded and supported by millions of people can be heard."
Bush National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley and a deputy White House chief of staff talked to Sheehan on Saturday. She said the meeting, which she called "pointless," lasted 20 minutes, but the White House said the meeting lasted 45 minutes.
By Wednesday, about 50 people had joined her cause, pitching tents in muddy, shallow ditches and hanging anti-war banners; two dozen others have sent flowers. Her name was among the most popular search topics Wednesday on Internet blogs.
The soft-spoken Sheehan, 48, is surprised and touched at the overwhelming response -- most of which is positive, she says.
But not everyone supports her. Kristinn Taylor, co-leader of the Washington, D.C., chapter of FreeRepublic.com, said Sheehan's protest is misguided and is hurting troop morale.
"She has a political agenda that goes way beyond her son's death in combat," said Taylor, whose conservative group has held pro-troop rallies since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks and counter-protests of anti-war demonstrations.
Sheehan, a Catholic youth minister for eight years, never wanted Casey to join the military. But he did after being misled by his recruiter, she said. Although he also opposed the war, he didn't try to back out of his duty.
"I begged him not to go," she said through tears. "I said, 'I'll take you to Canada' ... but he said, 'Mom, I have to go. It's my duty. My buddies are going."'
Sheehan has spent the past several days in rainy weather talking to scores of reporters, hugging fellow protesters and taking brief breaks to eat sandwiches and fruit brought by supporters.
She and her husband are separated, affected by the stress of losing their son. But her other three children, ages 19 to 24, may join her in Crawford, she said.
Sheehan was among grieving military families who met with Bush in June 2004 at Fort Lewis, Wash., near Seattle. She has said her feelings have shifted from shock to anger since then, in part because of various reports that have disputed some of the Bush administration's justifications for the war.
Many supporters decided to go to Crawford because of rumors that Sheehan would be arrested.
But no protesters will be arrested unless they trespass on private property or block the road, said Capt. Kenneth Vanek of the McLennan County Sheriff's Office.
Trucker Craig Delaney, 53, was in Georgia on Monday when he heard numerous radio shows discussing Sheehan -- some criticizing her. He altered his route to California, heading for Texas, and got to Sheehan's site Wednesday morning.
"I felt compelled to come and tell her I support her," said Delaney, a self-described hippie from Sly Park, Calif. "The way they were bad-mouthing a mother whose son was killed in the war is un-American."
Nearly 40 Democratic members of Congress have asked Bush to talk to her. On Wednesday, a coalition of anti-war groups in Washington also called on Bush to speak with Sheehan, who they say has helped to unify the peace movement.
"Cindy Sheehan has become the Rosa Parks of the anti-war movement," said Rev. Lennox Yearwood, leader of the Hip Hop Caucus, an activist group. "She's tired, fed up and she's not going to take it anymore, and so now we stand with her."
Earlier this year Sheehan formed Gold Star Families for Peace and has spoken to groups across the nation and overseas.
Judith Young, national president of the similarly named The American Gold Star Mothers of America Inc., said she is concerned the public will mistake her 76-year-old Washington, D.C., nonprofit organization with Sheehan's group.
In Young's group, commonly known as Gold Star Moms, mothers whose children died in the line of duty volunteer in veterans' hospitals and programs. Members don't do advocacy work, Young said.
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Man shoots self with officer's gun
From KVUE ABC 24 in Austin
KYLE, Texas - A man shot himself Thursday morning after grabbing an officer's gun outside police headquarters in Kyle, about 20 miles south of Austin.
The shooting occurred around 8:45 a.m. Police said earlier the 24-year-old man walked into the town's municipal building with his six-month-old brother, screaming "the baby is not breathing." A city official examined the baby, and pronounced him dead.
An officer then took the man to the town's police station for questioning, but while he was getting out of the police car a scuffle ensured. The man grabbed the officer's gunand shot himself. He was taken by medical helicopter to Brackenridge Hospital in Austin; at last report the man was alive but there was no further word on his injuries.
The baby's mother was notified, and has been speaking with investigators. Police would not say whether the child had any signs of trauma or injury.
The name of the officer involved was not released, but officials said he suffered minor injuries, bumps and bruises.
From KVUE ABC 24 in Austin
KYLE, Texas - A man shot himself Thursday morning after grabbing an officer's gun outside police headquarters in Kyle, about 20 miles south of Austin.
The shooting occurred around 8:45 a.m. Police said earlier the 24-year-old man walked into the town's municipal building with his six-month-old brother, screaming "the baby is not breathing." A city official examined the baby, and pronounced him dead.
An officer then took the man to the town's police station for questioning, but while he was getting out of the police car a scuffle ensured. The man grabbed the officer's gunand shot himself. He was taken by medical helicopter to Brackenridge Hospital in Austin; at last report the man was alive but there was no further word on his injuries.
The baby's mother was notified, and has been speaking with investigators. Police would not say whether the child had any signs of trauma or injury.
The name of the officer involved was not released, but officials said he suffered minor injuries, bumps and bruises.
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Dash cameras capture crimes, wrecks
By STEVE STOLER / WFAA ABC 8
PLANO, Texas - Cameras recently installed in Plano city cars and trucks are designed to help determine who's at fault in traffic accidents - but those cameras are catching much more on video than just fender-benders.
The new "DriveCam" devices are similar to the cameras police have had in their vehicles for years, but there's one big difference: officers start dash cams manually when they activate their lights, but the DriveCams are always on.
So far, the cameras have captured everything from crimes to serious traffic violations. In one instance, two city workers were waiting at an intersection for the light to change. when a motorcycle turned in front of them and wiped out. The driver was not hurt, but his crash was recorded by the camera.
In another video from a DriveCam mounted on a Plano garbage truck, a car runs a red light and hits four other cars before coming to a stop in the middle of the intersection.
"From what we've captured, there's criminal activity and activities that would not normally be seen or identified," said Joey Page, Plano's risk manager.
Police are also using DriveCams in addition to their existing dash cameras. The digital devices show drivers running red lights right in front of officers, a man stealing water from a fire hydrant, and a shoplifter trying to get away by hitting a police car.
"He just rammed me," the officer can be heard saying on the tape.
But the real reason behind the purchase of the cameras is to figure out who is at fault in accidents - and city officials believe they will serve that purpose well.
By STEVE STOLER / WFAA ABC 8
PLANO, Texas - Cameras recently installed in Plano city cars and trucks are designed to help determine who's at fault in traffic accidents - but those cameras are catching much more on video than just fender-benders.
The new "DriveCam" devices are similar to the cameras police have had in their vehicles for years, but there's one big difference: officers start dash cams manually when they activate their lights, but the DriveCams are always on.
So far, the cameras have captured everything from crimes to serious traffic violations. In one instance, two city workers were waiting at an intersection for the light to change. when a motorcycle turned in front of them and wiped out. The driver was not hurt, but his crash was recorded by the camera.
In another video from a DriveCam mounted on a Plano garbage truck, a car runs a red light and hits four other cars before coming to a stop in the middle of the intersection.
"From what we've captured, there's criminal activity and activities that would not normally be seen or identified," said Joey Page, Plano's risk manager.
Police are also using DriveCams in addition to their existing dash cameras. The digital devices show drivers running red lights right in front of officers, a man stealing water from a fire hydrant, and a shoplifter trying to get away by hitting a police car.
"He just rammed me," the officer can be heard saying on the tape.
But the real reason behind the purchase of the cameras is to figure out who is at fault in accidents - and city officials believe they will serve that purpose well.
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Ninth-grade campus making the grade
Lewisville: School boasts new facility, improved test scores
By JAY PARSONS / The Dallas Morning News
LEWISVILLE, Texas – In 1996, school district officials told parents that Lewisville High was critically overcrowded. They had three options:
1) Make school year-round.
2) Split the high school into day and night classes.
3) Temporarily send ninth-graders to an abandoned middle school dubbed the "Dungeon" – marked by few windows and little space.
Parents grudgingly went along with Option 3.
Nine years later, Lewisville district officials say they stumbled onto a great concept: Keep ninth-graders away from the big kids.
Test scores climbed, disciplinary referrals slid. Attendance rates jumped, pregnancies plummeted – from 40 in 1996 to zero the next year, district officials said.
"At first, I thought it was stupid," said Susan Jones, president of the Lewisville High PTA and parent of two girls who went through the ninth-grade campus. "But now I'm all in favor of it."
Instead of moving the ninth-graders back to the expanded Lewisville High as planned, on Thursday the district opened a $26 million freshmen-only campus, Killough Lewisville High School North.
There are at least seven freshmen campuses in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Lewisville North is the only one ranked above "acceptable" by the Texas Education Association.
The school's "recognized" rating is more significant considering that half its students are minorities and almost one-third are low-income. And yet its rating topped two predominantly white high schools in the district.
In the U.S., minorities and low-income students generally score lower than their white counterparts on standardized tests.
Educators cite factors such as parental education level, income and primary language for the gap.
Another factor magnifying the school's rating: Only one of Lewisville North's four feeder middle schools was recognized. Two were acceptable and one was unacceptable. Lewisville High, its parent school, was rated acceptable.
Parents and teachers now say the buffer year better prepares kids for high school temptations: drugs, alcohol and sex. And the students aren't arguing.
"It's an easier transition into high school," said Tory Lane, who attended Lewisville North last year. "It's more work [than middle school] but you're not in the high school environment."
New ninth-graders poured into the halls of Lewisville North on the first day of school Thursday. Several said they preferred to rub elbows with upperclassmen, but the new building was a good trade-off.
"It feels like a high school because it's big but a middle school because it's all ninth-graders," said Emily Abney of Lewisville. "I'd rather go to the high school because we know some of the 10th-graders."
Students do spend some time at the Big House, as Lewisville High is called at the freshmen campus. Shuttles transport students 1.5 miles back and forth for advanced and extracurricular classes and sports. The schools share a PTA and a mascot, the Fighting Farmer.
Limited studies
There are no statewide studies on freshmen campuses, education researchers said. Across Texas, isolating freshmen remains uncommon and grows slowly.
"There are some very specific needs of ninth-graders," said Jim Gibson, superintendent of the Cedar Hill school district, which opened a new freshmen center Thursday. "Students begin to experience a lack of academic success most profoundly at the ninth-grade level."
The state didn't test ninth-graders until 2003, making it difficult to compare students with those in 1996, the last year freshmen attended Lewisville High.
But even since 2003 – and despite rising state standards – Lewisville North's TAKS scores have improved in every category and ethnic group.
Teachers credit a simple concept that some dismiss as a talking point teamwork.
But at Lewisville North, that idea is tied to an intricate plan initiated three years ago. All 65 teachers – even in electives such as art, drama, woodshop and P.E. – incorporate the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills.
For example, the woodshop teacher assigns TAKS-style essays related to his course. He grades them on standards the state uses.
The result: The passing rate among low-income students grew from 83 percent in 2003 to 90 percent in 2005 on the TAKS reading test.
Rhonda Arnold, the school's testing coordinator, found that many students missed math questions because they didn't understand the wording. So she enlisted English teachers to instruct students how to read math questions and comprehend terms.
It worked. From 2003 to 2005, the school scored its biggest improvements in math, up from 85 percent to 90 percent passing. Hispanic scores jumped from 69 percent to 85 percent passing.
In the spring semester, the school devotes 22 minutes every day to TAKS TV, broadcast to every classroom. Teachers and students use music and drama to teach TAKS skills.
One show was modeled after the popular drama Law & Order. The episode depicted a courtroom with a lawyer who argued only an opinion without evidence. He lost the case.
"We made the analogy that it's exactly what they're writing," Mrs. Arnold said. "You have to back up your opinions."
The occasional critic says they're teaching to the test. Teachers have no problem with that.
"If someone says I'm teaching to the test, I'm glad," said Kathryn Phillips, a third-year English teacher. "It's stuff they need to know. If as a teacher you say it cramps your style, you're not doing it well."
Keeping up the pace
Officials expect the district to grow by another 20,000 students, up to 65,000, in the next 10 to 15 years.
Along the way, trustees will choose between more ninth-grade campuses and four-year high schools and magnet schools.
"That model has worked there, and I think it can work at the other schools in our district," said Fred Placke, Lewisville's school board president.
Lewisville North Principal Andy Plunkett knows staying successful won't come easy. The area continues to attract more native Spanish speakers and low-income students who traditionally struggle on TAKS.
"Knowing that population is changing, we just have to keep doing what we're doing," Mr. Plunkett said.
Lewisville: School boasts new facility, improved test scores
By JAY PARSONS / The Dallas Morning News
LEWISVILLE, Texas – In 1996, school district officials told parents that Lewisville High was critically overcrowded. They had three options:
1) Make school year-round.
2) Split the high school into day and night classes.
3) Temporarily send ninth-graders to an abandoned middle school dubbed the "Dungeon" – marked by few windows and little space.
Parents grudgingly went along with Option 3.
Nine years later, Lewisville district officials say they stumbled onto a great concept: Keep ninth-graders away from the big kids.
Test scores climbed, disciplinary referrals slid. Attendance rates jumped, pregnancies plummeted – from 40 in 1996 to zero the next year, district officials said.
"At first, I thought it was stupid," said Susan Jones, president of the Lewisville High PTA and parent of two girls who went through the ninth-grade campus. "But now I'm all in favor of it."
Instead of moving the ninth-graders back to the expanded Lewisville High as planned, on Thursday the district opened a $26 million freshmen-only campus, Killough Lewisville High School North.
There are at least seven freshmen campuses in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Lewisville North is the only one ranked above "acceptable" by the Texas Education Association.
The school's "recognized" rating is more significant considering that half its students are minorities and almost one-third are low-income. And yet its rating topped two predominantly white high schools in the district.
In the U.S., minorities and low-income students generally score lower than their white counterparts on standardized tests.
Educators cite factors such as parental education level, income and primary language for the gap.
Another factor magnifying the school's rating: Only one of Lewisville North's four feeder middle schools was recognized. Two were acceptable and one was unacceptable. Lewisville High, its parent school, was rated acceptable.
Parents and teachers now say the buffer year better prepares kids for high school temptations: drugs, alcohol and sex. And the students aren't arguing.
"It's an easier transition into high school," said Tory Lane, who attended Lewisville North last year. "It's more work [than middle school] but you're not in the high school environment."
New ninth-graders poured into the halls of Lewisville North on the first day of school Thursday. Several said they preferred to rub elbows with upperclassmen, but the new building was a good trade-off.
"It feels like a high school because it's big but a middle school because it's all ninth-graders," said Emily Abney of Lewisville. "I'd rather go to the high school because we know some of the 10th-graders."
Students do spend some time at the Big House, as Lewisville High is called at the freshmen campus. Shuttles transport students 1.5 miles back and forth for advanced and extracurricular classes and sports. The schools share a PTA and a mascot, the Fighting Farmer.
Limited studies
There are no statewide studies on freshmen campuses, education researchers said. Across Texas, isolating freshmen remains uncommon and grows slowly.
"There are some very specific needs of ninth-graders," said Jim Gibson, superintendent of the Cedar Hill school district, which opened a new freshmen center Thursday. "Students begin to experience a lack of academic success most profoundly at the ninth-grade level."
The state didn't test ninth-graders until 2003, making it difficult to compare students with those in 1996, the last year freshmen attended Lewisville High.
But even since 2003 – and despite rising state standards – Lewisville North's TAKS scores have improved in every category and ethnic group.
Teachers credit a simple concept that some dismiss as a talking point teamwork.
But at Lewisville North, that idea is tied to an intricate plan initiated three years ago. All 65 teachers – even in electives such as art, drama, woodshop and P.E. – incorporate the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills.
For example, the woodshop teacher assigns TAKS-style essays related to his course. He grades them on standards the state uses.
The result: The passing rate among low-income students grew from 83 percent in 2003 to 90 percent in 2005 on the TAKS reading test.
Rhonda Arnold, the school's testing coordinator, found that many students missed math questions because they didn't understand the wording. So she enlisted English teachers to instruct students how to read math questions and comprehend terms.
It worked. From 2003 to 2005, the school scored its biggest improvements in math, up from 85 percent to 90 percent passing. Hispanic scores jumped from 69 percent to 85 percent passing.
In the spring semester, the school devotes 22 minutes every day to TAKS TV, broadcast to every classroom. Teachers and students use music and drama to teach TAKS skills.
One show was modeled after the popular drama Law & Order. The episode depicted a courtroom with a lawyer who argued only an opinion without evidence. He lost the case.
"We made the analogy that it's exactly what they're writing," Mrs. Arnold said. "You have to back up your opinions."
The occasional critic says they're teaching to the test. Teachers have no problem with that.
"If someone says I'm teaching to the test, I'm glad," said Kathryn Phillips, a third-year English teacher. "It's stuff they need to know. If as a teacher you say it cramps your style, you're not doing it well."
Keeping up the pace
Officials expect the district to grow by another 20,000 students, up to 65,000, in the next 10 to 15 years.
Along the way, trustees will choose between more ninth-grade campuses and four-year high schools and magnet schools.
"That model has worked there, and I think it can work at the other schools in our district," said Fred Placke, Lewisville's school board president.
Lewisville North Principal Andy Plunkett knows staying successful won't come easy. The area continues to attract more native Spanish speakers and low-income students who traditionally struggle on TAKS.
"Knowing that population is changing, we just have to keep doing what we're doing," Mr. Plunkett said.
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TexasStooge
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Police: Girl saw dad beat mom to death
Euless: Man said to have dropped off child, then stabbed himself
By JASON TRAHAN / The Dallas Morning News
EULESS, Texas - A Euless man beat his wife to death with a hammer, dropped their 7-year-old daughter off with her grandmother, returned home and attempted to stab himself to death, police said.
Investigators believe that the little girl saw her father, Johnny Omorogieva, 45, attack her mother, Isatu, 35, in the family's apartment in the 1600 block of El Camino Real on Wednesday.
Euless police filed a murder case against Mr. Omorogieva with the Tarrant County district attorney's office on Thursday afternoon. He was being treated for nonlife-threatening wounds at Harris Methodist Fort Worth Hospital, police said. Hospital officials would not acknowledge that he was a patient.
The girl told police that the incident began as her mother was preparing to take her shopping for school supplies. Her father then sent her upstairs.
According to an arrest warrant, the girl then heard her mother screaming, "Don't kill me!" She went back downstairs and saw her father striking her mother "twenty times with the hammer."
He then took the girl and drove to her grandmother's apartment. The grandmother told police she became suspicious after the pair arrived. She told police that Mr. Omorogieva said his wife was waiting in the car as he washed his bloody hands and washed blood off his daughter's feet.
The grandmother then called other family members, who met police at the apartment.
Officers kicked in the locked door about 7 p.m. and found Mrs. Omorogieva dead. They recovered the hammer. Lying nearby in the same downstairs room was Mr. Omorogieva.
"Johnny was on the floor with a large kitchen knife stuck in his abdomen," said Assistant Chief Harland Westmoreland.
According to the arrest warrant, he told police, "I killed her, just let me die."
Officers also found a long, rambling suicide note in the apartment.
"We can discern some things from the note, but as part of the investigative process, we're going to keep some things close to the vest," he said.
Earlier this year, police responded to a call by Mr. Omorogieva, who asked them how he could have the locks changed to keep his wife out, he said. Officers referred him to apartment management, he said.
Euless: Man said to have dropped off child, then stabbed himself
By JASON TRAHAN / The Dallas Morning News
EULESS, Texas - A Euless man beat his wife to death with a hammer, dropped their 7-year-old daughter off with her grandmother, returned home and attempted to stab himself to death, police said.
Investigators believe that the little girl saw her father, Johnny Omorogieva, 45, attack her mother, Isatu, 35, in the family's apartment in the 1600 block of El Camino Real on Wednesday.
Euless police filed a murder case against Mr. Omorogieva with the Tarrant County district attorney's office on Thursday afternoon. He was being treated for nonlife-threatening wounds at Harris Methodist Fort Worth Hospital, police said. Hospital officials would not acknowledge that he was a patient.
The girl told police that the incident began as her mother was preparing to take her shopping for school supplies. Her father then sent her upstairs.
According to an arrest warrant, the girl then heard her mother screaming, "Don't kill me!" She went back downstairs and saw her father striking her mother "twenty times with the hammer."
He then took the girl and drove to her grandmother's apartment. The grandmother told police she became suspicious after the pair arrived. She told police that Mr. Omorogieva said his wife was waiting in the car as he washed his bloody hands and washed blood off his daughter's feet.
The grandmother then called other family members, who met police at the apartment.
Officers kicked in the locked door about 7 p.m. and found Mrs. Omorogieva dead. They recovered the hammer. Lying nearby in the same downstairs room was Mr. Omorogieva.
"Johnny was on the floor with a large kitchen knife stuck in his abdomen," said Assistant Chief Harland Westmoreland.
According to the arrest warrant, he told police, "I killed her, just let me die."
Officers also found a long, rambling suicide note in the apartment.
"We can discern some things from the note, but as part of the investigative process, we're going to keep some things close to the vest," he said.
Earlier this year, police responded to a call by Mr. Omorogieva, who asked them how he could have the locks changed to keep his wife out, he said. Officers referred him to apartment management, he said.
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Police: Operation busts stolen property ring
By DAN RONAN / WFAA ABC 8
DALLAS, Texas - Dallas police said a sting they call Operation Triple Play has captured tens of thousands of dollars worth of stolen goods and ended in the arrests of at least nine people Thursday. They also said the bust broke up a major stolen property and fencing ring.
They said they had been watching more than a few locations recently and saw an unusually large amount of stolen goods being fenced.
In the small house in East Dallas, police found truck loads of lawn care equipment, fire arms, construction equipment, bicycles, stereo components and sporting goods. All believed to be stolen.
The bust has many burglary and theft victims hopeful the recovered items might belong to them.
One such victim included Alan Williams who said he figures he lost at least $1,200 when his backyard shed was broken into two weeks ago.
"All they did was open it up and rip off," Williams said. "We had a lawn mover and two bicycles and they were gone."
Williams said he called the police in hopes his items were among the recovered.
"I've already called the police and gave them the serial numbers," he said. "We had that on the lawnmower and both of the bicycles."
Police said out of the nine arrested, that four - including Raymundo Lopez and his brother Roberto Lopez - were ring leaders and now face charges of running an organized crime ring. The other remaining suspected leaders were believed to be cousins Francisco and Rueben Trevino.
"He could have opened up his own hardware store or department store," said LT. Jeffrey Cantrell. "There was a lot of merchandise."
Police said by breaking up this ring it could go a long way towards stopping stolen goods from being resold at pawn shops. The Dallas Police Department said those who think some of the items that are now in their custody might be their own should contact them.
By DAN RONAN / WFAA ABC 8
DALLAS, Texas - Dallas police said a sting they call Operation Triple Play has captured tens of thousands of dollars worth of stolen goods and ended in the arrests of at least nine people Thursday. They also said the bust broke up a major stolen property and fencing ring.
They said they had been watching more than a few locations recently and saw an unusually large amount of stolen goods being fenced.
In the small house in East Dallas, police found truck loads of lawn care equipment, fire arms, construction equipment, bicycles, stereo components and sporting goods. All believed to be stolen.
The bust has many burglary and theft victims hopeful the recovered items might belong to them.
One such victim included Alan Williams who said he figures he lost at least $1,200 when his backyard shed was broken into two weeks ago.
"All they did was open it up and rip off," Williams said. "We had a lawn mover and two bicycles and they were gone."
Williams said he called the police in hopes his items were among the recovered.
"I've already called the police and gave them the serial numbers," he said. "We had that on the lawnmower and both of the bicycles."
Police said out of the nine arrested, that four - including Raymundo Lopez and his brother Roberto Lopez - were ring leaders and now face charges of running an organized crime ring. The other remaining suspected leaders were believed to be cousins Francisco and Rueben Trevino.
"He could have opened up his own hardware store or department store," said LT. Jeffrey Cantrell. "There was a lot of merchandise."
Police said by breaking up this ring it could go a long way towards stopping stolen goods from being resold at pawn shops. The Dallas Police Department said those who think some of the items that are now in their custody might be their own should contact them.
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TexasStooge
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Murder charges filed against unconscious mom
Keller: Police waiting at hospital; doctors puzzled by condition
By BRANDON FORMBY / The Dallas Morning News
KELLER, Texas - Technically, Norma Jean Roberts is under arrest. But she doesn't know it.
Keller police would tell her, but she's unconscious.
The 49-year-old Keller woman is charged with murder in connection with the Aug. 5 suffocation of her 11-year-old daughter, Kelsey. Ms. Roberts' estranged husband, Steven, and a family friend found Kelsey's body at Ms. Roberts' home in the 1900 block of Stallion Court.
Ms. Roberts was lying unconscious in another bedroom, with her wrists slit, police said.
The Tarrant County district attorney's office filed the murder case against her Thursday morning.
Ms. Roberts remains unconscious at Baylor Regional Medical Center at Grapevine, where she is under police guard. Her bail is set at $200,000.
"I've been a police officer since 1978, and I've never seen something like this, where the person is completely unconscious and they're under arrest," said Lt. Tommy Williams, a Keller police spokesman.
Ms. Roberts is expected to be transferred to the custody of the Tarrant County Sheriff's Department. But she'll probably remain at the Grapevine hospital for now.
"We will send a female deputy to sit with her and keep her in custody," said Terry Grisham, a sheriff's spokesman. "We're there just to make sure she stays where she is. And when the doctor says she's well enough to go to jail, she'll go to jail."
Keller Municipal Judge Matthew King attempted to arraign the woman Sunday, but she wasn't alert. Lt. Williams said doctors have indicated there's no physical reason for Ms. Roberts to remain unconscious.
For more than 30 years, Dr. Geoffrey McKee, a clinical professor at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine, has studied mothers who kill their children. He recently wrote Why Mothers Kill: A Forensic Psychologist's Casebook, which is to be published next year.
He said cases of a mother killing a child older than age 10 are extremely rare. In 40 percent of the cases he's studied, the child is younger than 1.
"It's rare in my experience and rare in my research," he said. "The older the age of the child, the more likely it is someone other than the mother."
Dr. McKee said it's impossible to make a diagnosis without meeting the patient and knowing his or her history. But he said it's uncommon for someone to remain unconscious without an apparent physical explanation.
"She may be having just a severe, major depressive episode," Dr. McKee said. "It's one thing to think about killing your child or threatening to kill your child. It's quite another to actually do it."
Lt. Williams has said the motive in the killing appears to be upcoming divorce and child custody proceedings between Mr. and Ms. Roberts.
In a 911 call released this week, Mr. Roberts could be heard sobbing after he found Kelsey and Ms. Roberts.
"Why did she do that?" he can be heard saying in the background. "Why did she think that's a way out?"
In March, Mr. Roberts' attorney filed a motion in Tarrant County District Court requesting a court order for Ms. Roberts to undergo a mental examination.
The motion stated that her mental condition was in controversy in the divorce. A settlement finalized last month detailed custody arrangements for Kelsey as well as the split of personal property and debt. The document noted that Mr. and Ms. Roberts agreed that neither would receive a copy of the other's psychological evaluation.
Kelsey's funeral was Wednesday at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church in Keller.
Kevin Rousseau, an assistant Tarrant County district attorney, said his office will continue to investigate the case. But he said there's little that can be done with Ms. Roberts until she wakes up. He said he's unsure of what would happen if she never regains consciousness.
"I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get to it," he said. "I've never experienced that before."
Keller: Police waiting at hospital; doctors puzzled by condition
By BRANDON FORMBY / The Dallas Morning News
KELLER, Texas - Technically, Norma Jean Roberts is under arrest. But she doesn't know it.
Keller police would tell her, but she's unconscious.
The 49-year-old Keller woman is charged with murder in connection with the Aug. 5 suffocation of her 11-year-old daughter, Kelsey. Ms. Roberts' estranged husband, Steven, and a family friend found Kelsey's body at Ms. Roberts' home in the 1900 block of Stallion Court.
Ms. Roberts was lying unconscious in another bedroom, with her wrists slit, police said.
The Tarrant County district attorney's office filed the murder case against her Thursday morning.
Ms. Roberts remains unconscious at Baylor Regional Medical Center at Grapevine, where she is under police guard. Her bail is set at $200,000.
"I've been a police officer since 1978, and I've never seen something like this, where the person is completely unconscious and they're under arrest," said Lt. Tommy Williams, a Keller police spokesman.
Ms. Roberts is expected to be transferred to the custody of the Tarrant County Sheriff's Department. But she'll probably remain at the Grapevine hospital for now.
"We will send a female deputy to sit with her and keep her in custody," said Terry Grisham, a sheriff's spokesman. "We're there just to make sure she stays where she is. And when the doctor says she's well enough to go to jail, she'll go to jail."
Keller Municipal Judge Matthew King attempted to arraign the woman Sunday, but she wasn't alert. Lt. Williams said doctors have indicated there's no physical reason for Ms. Roberts to remain unconscious.
For more than 30 years, Dr. Geoffrey McKee, a clinical professor at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine, has studied mothers who kill their children. He recently wrote Why Mothers Kill: A Forensic Psychologist's Casebook, which is to be published next year.
He said cases of a mother killing a child older than age 10 are extremely rare. In 40 percent of the cases he's studied, the child is younger than 1.
"It's rare in my experience and rare in my research," he said. "The older the age of the child, the more likely it is someone other than the mother."
Dr. McKee said it's impossible to make a diagnosis without meeting the patient and knowing his or her history. But he said it's uncommon for someone to remain unconscious without an apparent physical explanation.
"She may be having just a severe, major depressive episode," Dr. McKee said. "It's one thing to think about killing your child or threatening to kill your child. It's quite another to actually do it."
Lt. Williams has said the motive in the killing appears to be upcoming divorce and child custody proceedings between Mr. and Ms. Roberts.
In a 911 call released this week, Mr. Roberts could be heard sobbing after he found Kelsey and Ms. Roberts.
"Why did she do that?" he can be heard saying in the background. "Why did she think that's a way out?"
In March, Mr. Roberts' attorney filed a motion in Tarrant County District Court requesting a court order for Ms. Roberts to undergo a mental examination.
The motion stated that her mental condition was in controversy in the divorce. A settlement finalized last month detailed custody arrangements for Kelsey as well as the split of personal property and debt. The document noted that Mr. and Ms. Roberts agreed that neither would receive a copy of the other's psychological evaluation.
Kelsey's funeral was Wednesday at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church in Keller.
Kevin Rousseau, an assistant Tarrant County district attorney, said his office will continue to investigate the case. But he said there's little that can be done with Ms. Roberts until she wakes up. He said he's unsure of what would happen if she never regains consciousness.
"I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get to it," he said. "I've never experienced that before."
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TexasStooge
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Crickets descend on N. Texas
By LINDA LEAVELL / DallasNews.com
They crunch under your feet and swarm around your office. They’re black field crickets, and according to one expert, they’ve arrived in North Texas far sooner than expected.
“I think this is the earliest I’ve seen cricket flights in our area,” said Dr. Mike Merchant, an urban entomologist at Texas Cooperative Extension, which is a division of the Texas A&M University System. “Usually, it’s September. They’ve been around for a couple of weeks.”
Normally, black field crickets go fairly unnoticed, spending time in their natural environment, like grasslands, pastures and undeveloped ground. “When they become a pest is when they’re going through their mating flights,” Merchant said.
After the mating, the female lays eggs that remain dormant until the next spring and summer, when the new inspects are born and begin the mating cycle again.
Merchant attributed a spate of rain several weeks ago along with cooler weather for the earlier mating flights, in which males and females are drawn “like a magnet” toward lighted buildings.
The solution to reducing the “millions” that end up around office buildings in the morning is to cut down on the bright, white lights (like halogen and incandescent) that draw them. Sodium vapor lamps that give off a yellow or orange cast are less attractive, Merchant said.
Crickets aren’t just a nuisance around businesses. Merchant said his colleagues get called for tips on keeping them from annoying players and fans at baseball games and from flying into singers’ mouths at concerts.
The best answer is to turn out the lights. “That’s not really an option for most of these types of venues,” he said.
Crickets can damage fabrics and carpets in homes. Museums are particularly finicky about getting rid of them because they can ruin artifacts, like cloth, Merchant said.
“It’s not a national big pest but it does seem to be a pretty significant pest here in the North Texas area,” he said. “I can’t say that no one else has these problems, but it’s not a real common problem nationwide.”
And then there’s the stench factor.
Scott Sawlis, entomologist for the Dallas County Health and Human Services Department, said crickets are a “big chunky insect.” So when they all die en masse in a parking lot, where you “almost need a snow shovel to push them aside,” the decaying protein “can get kind of funky,” he said.
In general, Merchant said, there’s not a lot for humans to like about crickets “other than they sing to us at night.”
But perhaps mindful that he is a guy who makes his living appreciating bugs, Merchant did note that crickets serve an ecological role: they feed on decaying plant material and dead insects and they are food for toads, fish and other animals.
Crickets, Merchant said, are “part of the fabric of life.”
By LINDA LEAVELL / DallasNews.com
They crunch under your feet and swarm around your office. They’re black field crickets, and according to one expert, they’ve arrived in North Texas far sooner than expected.
“I think this is the earliest I’ve seen cricket flights in our area,” said Dr. Mike Merchant, an urban entomologist at Texas Cooperative Extension, which is a division of the Texas A&M University System. “Usually, it’s September. They’ve been around for a couple of weeks.”
Normally, black field crickets go fairly unnoticed, spending time in their natural environment, like grasslands, pastures and undeveloped ground. “When they become a pest is when they’re going through their mating flights,” Merchant said.
After the mating, the female lays eggs that remain dormant until the next spring and summer, when the new inspects are born and begin the mating cycle again.
Merchant attributed a spate of rain several weeks ago along with cooler weather for the earlier mating flights, in which males and females are drawn “like a magnet” toward lighted buildings.
The solution to reducing the “millions” that end up around office buildings in the morning is to cut down on the bright, white lights (like halogen and incandescent) that draw them. Sodium vapor lamps that give off a yellow or orange cast are less attractive, Merchant said.
Crickets aren’t just a nuisance around businesses. Merchant said his colleagues get called for tips on keeping them from annoying players and fans at baseball games and from flying into singers’ mouths at concerts.
The best answer is to turn out the lights. “That’s not really an option for most of these types of venues,” he said.
Crickets can damage fabrics and carpets in homes. Museums are particularly finicky about getting rid of them because they can ruin artifacts, like cloth, Merchant said.
“It’s not a national big pest but it does seem to be a pretty significant pest here in the North Texas area,” he said. “I can’t say that no one else has these problems, but it’s not a real common problem nationwide.”
And then there’s the stench factor.
Scott Sawlis, entomologist for the Dallas County Health and Human Services Department, said crickets are a “big chunky insect.” So when they all die en masse in a parking lot, where you “almost need a snow shovel to push them aside,” the decaying protein “can get kind of funky,” he said.
In general, Merchant said, there’s not a lot for humans to like about crickets “other than they sing to us at night.”
But perhaps mindful that he is a guy who makes his living appreciating bugs, Merchant did note that crickets serve an ecological role: they feed on decaying plant material and dead insects and they are food for toads, fish and other animals.
Crickets, Merchant said, are “part of the fabric of life.”
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TexasStooge
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Study: Dallas more liberal than Austin
AUSTIN, Texas (The Dallas Morning News/AP) - The "Live Music Capitol of the World" where trendy residents like to "Keep Austin Weird" just got a shock.
Dallas has dented Austin's reputation as the most liberal city in Texas.
According to the Bay Area Center for Voting Research, a nonprofit think tank based in Berkeley, Calif., "Big D" is a more liberal city than Austin based on results from the 2004 presidential election.
The group ranked 237 cities, placing Dallas at No. 32. Austin? Way back at No. 93, just ahead of Virginia Beach and Salt Lake City. Now that's weird.
The study found that cities with large black populations tend to turn out for liberal candidates.
Yet in 2004, Republican President George W. Bush carried Dallas County with just over 50 percent of the vote compared to Democrat John Kerry's 49 percent. In Travis County, Kerry easily trumped Bush with 56 percent.
"I would find it hard to believe that Austin is not in the top 25 or 30 liberal cities," said Travis County Republican Chairman Alan Sager.
Mark Nathan, a Democratic political consultant concurred: "I think someone in Berkeley may be one toke over the line."
The study also ranked several other Texas cities. Plano stands as the fifth-most-conservative. Abilene was No. 3 and Lubbock was No. 2, trailing only Provo, Utah.
AUSTIN, Texas (The Dallas Morning News/AP) - The "Live Music Capitol of the World" where trendy residents like to "Keep Austin Weird" just got a shock.
Dallas has dented Austin's reputation as the most liberal city in Texas.
According to the Bay Area Center for Voting Research, a nonprofit think tank based in Berkeley, Calif., "Big D" is a more liberal city than Austin based on results from the 2004 presidential election.
The group ranked 237 cities, placing Dallas at No. 32. Austin? Way back at No. 93, just ahead of Virginia Beach and Salt Lake City. Now that's weird.
The study found that cities with large black populations tend to turn out for liberal candidates.
Yet in 2004, Republican President George W. Bush carried Dallas County with just over 50 percent of the vote compared to Democrat John Kerry's 49 percent. In Travis County, Kerry easily trumped Bush with 56 percent.
"I would find it hard to believe that Austin is not in the top 25 or 30 liberal cities," said Travis County Republican Chairman Alan Sager.
Mark Nathan, a Democratic political consultant concurred: "I think someone in Berkeley may be one toke over the line."
The study also ranked several other Texas cities. Plano stands as the fifth-most-conservative. Abilene was No. 3 and Lubbock was No. 2, trailing only Provo, Utah.
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TexasStooge
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School aflutter over flag flap
By BRETT SHIPP / WFAA ABC 8
DALLAS, Texas - There is lots of talk these days among adults about rushing the kids back to school to get an education.
But in this case, score one for the kids who can sometimes remind us that grown-ups don't know everything.
Rosemont Elementary School teacher Lynn Merlino gets help from her daughter Kelly putting her new classroom in order. In fact, teachers and workers are all scrambling to move into their new school by Monday - so perhaps that's why no one noticed what young Kelly observed when she saw a flag hanging on the wall.
"It was not the right flag," Kelly said.
So how did she know that?
"Because I was in fourth grade, and that's all we talked about," she said.
Curious, the Rosemont fifth grader checked out the other classrooms.
"I went all over the school (and saw) the wrong flag," she said.
At first her mother was ready to dismiss such a mistake.
"I got the flag out and said, 'Oh, no, the children are correct - it is the wrong flag,'" Merlino said.
When word spread, the flags were hastily removed and safety tucked out of sight, but not out of little inquisitive minds.
"It was just really weird," Kelly said. "How can they mess up a flag?"
That was a good question, so News 8 asked the grown-ups at DISD headquarters.
"Unfortunately, it appears that a vendor grabbed the wrong stack of flags, and shipped us four loads of them," district spokesman Donald Claxton said.
A plausible answer - and to be fair, the differences are subtle, and many adults got "schooled" when asked what flag it was.
Kelly said one of her fellow students also knew.
"It's like, kids can do something too," she said with a laugh.
By BRETT SHIPP / WFAA ABC 8
DALLAS, Texas - There is lots of talk these days among adults about rushing the kids back to school to get an education.
But in this case, score one for the kids who can sometimes remind us that grown-ups don't know everything.
Rosemont Elementary School teacher Lynn Merlino gets help from her daughter Kelly putting her new classroom in order. In fact, teachers and workers are all scrambling to move into their new school by Monday - so perhaps that's why no one noticed what young Kelly observed when she saw a flag hanging on the wall.
"It was not the right flag," Kelly said.
So how did she know that?
"Because I was in fourth grade, and that's all we talked about," she said.
Curious, the Rosemont fifth grader checked out the other classrooms.
"I went all over the school (and saw) the wrong flag," she said.
At first her mother was ready to dismiss such a mistake.
"I got the flag out and said, 'Oh, no, the children are correct - it is the wrong flag,'" Merlino said.
When word spread, the flags were hastily removed and safety tucked out of sight, but not out of little inquisitive minds.
"It was just really weird," Kelly said. "How can they mess up a flag?"
That was a good question, so News 8 asked the grown-ups at DISD headquarters.
"Unfortunately, it appears that a vendor grabbed the wrong stack of flags, and shipped us four loads of them," district spokesman Donald Claxton said.
A plausible answer - and to be fair, the differences are subtle, and many adults got "schooled" when asked what flag it was.
Kelly said one of her fellow students also knew.
"It's like, kids can do something too," she said with a laugh.
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TexasStooge
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Foster dad arrested in child's death
By JIM DOUGLAS / WFAA ABC 8
ARLINGTON, Texas — A foster father in Arlington was arrested Friday morning in connection with the death of a three-year-old girl in his care.
Police said Timothy Warner III brought Sierra Odom to the U.S.M.D. Hospital around 11:30 p.m. Thursday. He told doctors the child had been injured in a car accident.
She was pronounced dead about 30 minutes later.
But medical personnel and police investigators determined that the trauma suffered by Sierra was inconsistent with the damage to Warner's car.
Police said Warner then changed his story and indicated the girl had been injured at his home in the 7300 block of Criswell Drive, where Warner's four biological children, three other foster children and three family friends were staying overnight.
"Detectives are really still trying to get to the bottom of what happened," said Arlington police Lt. Blake Miller. "They're going to have to interview all of the 10 children who were there at the house."
Warner was arrested at 10 o'clock Friday morning after a judge signed a warrant for his arrest on charges of Injury to a Child with Serious Bodily Injury.
He was being held on $250,000 bond.
Child welfare officials took custody of the remaining children at Warner's home.
By JIM DOUGLAS / WFAA ABC 8
ARLINGTON, Texas — A foster father in Arlington was arrested Friday morning in connection with the death of a three-year-old girl in his care.
Police said Timothy Warner III brought Sierra Odom to the U.S.M.D. Hospital around 11:30 p.m. Thursday. He told doctors the child had been injured in a car accident.
She was pronounced dead about 30 minutes later.
But medical personnel and police investigators determined that the trauma suffered by Sierra was inconsistent with the damage to Warner's car.
Police said Warner then changed his story and indicated the girl had been injured at his home in the 7300 block of Criswell Drive, where Warner's four biological children, three other foster children and three family friends were staying overnight.
"Detectives are really still trying to get to the bottom of what happened," said Arlington police Lt. Blake Miller. "They're going to have to interview all of the 10 children who were there at the house."
Warner was arrested at 10 o'clock Friday morning after a judge signed a warrant for his arrest on charges of Injury to a Child with Serious Bodily Injury.
He was being held on $250,000 bond.
Child welfare officials took custody of the remaining children at Warner's home.
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Miller: Planning official should resign
DALLAS, Texas (WFAA ABC 8/WFAA.com) - Dallas Mayor Laura Miller held a news conference at City Hall this morning to call for the resignation of city plan commissioner D'Angelo Lee.
Lee is among the individuals under investigation by the FBI as part of a probe into possible financial corruption at City Hall. He has been accused by another commissioner of trying to use his position on the commission to make money on property purchases.
Miller said if Lee does not resign, she will place an item on the City Council budget for their meeting next Wednesday to forcibly remove him.
"They can vote however they'd like," Miller said. "But I assume, considering the litany of transgressions and unethical behavior exhibited by the plan commissioner, that the council will vote to remove him - and it will surprise me greatly if they don't."
Miller said she met with Mayor Pro Tem Don Hill on Monday and asked him not to renew Lee, Hill’s appointee on the Plan Commission. Despite her request, Miller said Hill told her he still planned to reappoint Lee.
Hill said Friday he was not aware of the mayor’s news conference, or of her plans to put a vote to remove Lee on Wednesday’s agenda.
WFAA-TV's Don Wall and The Dallas Morning News contributed to this report.
DALLAS, Texas (WFAA ABC 8/WFAA.com) - Dallas Mayor Laura Miller held a news conference at City Hall this morning to call for the resignation of city plan commissioner D'Angelo Lee.
Lee is among the individuals under investigation by the FBI as part of a probe into possible financial corruption at City Hall. He has been accused by another commissioner of trying to use his position on the commission to make money on property purchases.
Miller said if Lee does not resign, she will place an item on the City Council budget for their meeting next Wednesday to forcibly remove him.
"They can vote however they'd like," Miller said. "But I assume, considering the litany of transgressions and unethical behavior exhibited by the plan commissioner, that the council will vote to remove him - and it will surprise me greatly if they don't."
Miller said she met with Mayor Pro Tem Don Hill on Monday and asked him not to renew Lee, Hill’s appointee on the Plan Commission. Despite her request, Miller said Hill told her he still planned to reappoint Lee.
Hill said Friday he was not aware of the mayor’s news conference, or of her plans to put a vote to remove Lee on Wednesday’s agenda.
WFAA-TV's Don Wall and The Dallas Morning News contributed to this report.
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TexasStooge
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Most Lancaster students meet assignment deadline
District suspended hundreds of students on the first day of school
By HERB BOOTH / The Dallas Morning News
LANCASTER, Texas - About 620 of 750 Lancaster secondary students took advantage of an extended deadline to complete a summer reading assignment, school district officials reported Friday.
Students signed a letter in May that required each to read one book during the summer. Students also had to complete five tasks concerning the book. However, after 750 students showed up Monday with no assignment, the district suspended them, then reinstated them and extended the deadline to the end of classes Thursday.
Phillip Randall, principal at Lancaster Elsie Robertson High School, said about 100 students haven’t turned in the assignment. “There were 10 or 15 who turned it in today,” Mr. Randall said. “We are hopeful that we don’t have to suspend that many students. Even if they come in with the project Monday, we’ll accept it.”
Mr. Randall said the district wants the work completed, not student suspensions. He said if students don’t have the assignment Monday, appointments would be made with their parents.
“Most parents came in this morning,” Mr. Randall said. “Most of them didn’t complain about the work, but about the lack of communication.”
That is Beverly Gray’s complaint.
“Personally, I think it was good idea. But I really think it wasn’t executed properly,” said Ms. Gray, who has three children in Lancaster schools. “It infuriated me that there was no communication with the parents.”
Stephaney Norman, Lancaster Junior High School principal, said all 31 of the students that haven’t completed the assignment said they would turn it in Monday.
She said the district isn’t taking points off for turning in assignments late. She said the assignment grade is equal to a major test grade.
“We are offering tutoring, after-school help, staff is staying late and we’re keeping the library open so students can finish the assignment,” Mr. Norman said. “I’m expecting 100 percent compliance. We want them to do the work.”
Students who are new to Lancaster school district have a later deadline, the principals said.
District suspended hundreds of students on the first day of school
By HERB BOOTH / The Dallas Morning News
LANCASTER, Texas - About 620 of 750 Lancaster secondary students took advantage of an extended deadline to complete a summer reading assignment, school district officials reported Friday.
Students signed a letter in May that required each to read one book during the summer. Students also had to complete five tasks concerning the book. However, after 750 students showed up Monday with no assignment, the district suspended them, then reinstated them and extended the deadline to the end of classes Thursday.
Phillip Randall, principal at Lancaster Elsie Robertson High School, said about 100 students haven’t turned in the assignment. “There were 10 or 15 who turned it in today,” Mr. Randall said. “We are hopeful that we don’t have to suspend that many students. Even if they come in with the project Monday, we’ll accept it.”
Mr. Randall said the district wants the work completed, not student suspensions. He said if students don’t have the assignment Monday, appointments would be made with their parents.
“Most parents came in this morning,” Mr. Randall said. “Most of them didn’t complain about the work, but about the lack of communication.”
That is Beverly Gray’s complaint.
“Personally, I think it was good idea. But I really think it wasn’t executed properly,” said Ms. Gray, who has three children in Lancaster schools. “It infuriated me that there was no communication with the parents.”
Stephaney Norman, Lancaster Junior High School principal, said all 31 of the students that haven’t completed the assignment said they would turn it in Monday.
She said the district isn’t taking points off for turning in assignments late. She said the assignment grade is equal to a major test grade.
“We are offering tutoring, after-school help, staff is staying late and we’re keeping the library open so students can finish the assignment,” Mr. Norman said. “I’m expecting 100 percent compliance. We want them to do the work.”
Students who are new to Lancaster school district have a later deadline, the principals said.
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TexasStooge
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Man held in 2 slayings in Krum
By DONNA FIELDER / Denton Record-Chronicle
KRUM, Texas – Authorities arrested a 42-year-old man Friday night in connection with the shooting of three people, including two fatally, at a house north of the Denton County city of Krum.
Sheriff's deputies took Kenneth Keller into custody about 10:30 p.m., said Tom Reedy, a spokesman for the Denton County Sheriff's Office.
About 8 p.m., a motorcyclist passing a house on FM 2450 north of Hopkins Road was flagged down by a woman who had a shotgun wound to the head, Mr. Reedy said.
The motorcyclist notified authorities, and the injured woman was taken by helicopter to John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth. Her condition was not known.
Investigators discovered two bodies on the property. A woman's body was found in the yard, and a man's inside the house. Both suffered shotgun blasts at close range, Mr. Reedy said.
The injured woman gave officers a description of the shooter, including his first name and the type of car he drove, and she said he lived in the area, Mr. Reedy said.
By DONNA FIELDER / Denton Record-Chronicle
KRUM, Texas – Authorities arrested a 42-year-old man Friday night in connection with the shooting of three people, including two fatally, at a house north of the Denton County city of Krum.
Sheriff's deputies took Kenneth Keller into custody about 10:30 p.m., said Tom Reedy, a spokesman for the Denton County Sheriff's Office.
About 8 p.m., a motorcyclist passing a house on FM 2450 north of Hopkins Road was flagged down by a woman who had a shotgun wound to the head, Mr. Reedy said.
The motorcyclist notified authorities, and the injured woman was taken by helicopter to John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth. Her condition was not known.
Investigators discovered two bodies on the property. A woman's body was found in the yard, and a man's inside the house. Both suffered shotgun blasts at close range, Mr. Reedy said.
The injured woman gave officers a description of the shooter, including his first name and the type of car he drove, and she said he lived in the area, Mr. Reedy said.
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TexasStooge
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44 arrested in raids on parlors, bathhouses
Dallas: Investigators suspect prostitution
By HOLLY YAN / The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS, Texas - Dallas police and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officials raided 12 massage parlors and bathhouses Friday, arresting at least 44 people.
"We're looking at massage parlors and bathhouses to determine what kind of criminal activity might be going on," Dallas police Chief David Kunkle said. "We're looking at issues of prostitution, money laundering and human trafficking."
Police say the majority of those arrested came from eight businesses in northwest Dallas. Six are in the 11400 block of Emerald Street near Interstate 35E and Royal Lane – the Tokyo Spa, Ginja Spa, Jackpot Spa, Pretty Women Spa, Ace Palace and Venetian Spa.
Also raided were the Ruby Spa in the 2600 block of Walnut Hill Lane and the Palm Tree in the 2000 block of West Northwest Highway.
Dallas police Lt. Jan Easterling declined to identify the remaining four businesses, citing ongoing investigations.
She said the investigations started in December 2004 from prostitution investigations at the businesses. Those detained Friday were being interviewed by immigration officials to determine whether any administrative charges can be filed for being in the country illegally.
In addition to the arrests, two automated teller machines, safes, computers and about $310,000 in cash were seized.
Staff writer Tanya Eiserer contributed to this report.
Dallas: Investigators suspect prostitution
By HOLLY YAN / The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS, Texas - Dallas police and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officials raided 12 massage parlors and bathhouses Friday, arresting at least 44 people.
"We're looking at massage parlors and bathhouses to determine what kind of criminal activity might be going on," Dallas police Chief David Kunkle said. "We're looking at issues of prostitution, money laundering and human trafficking."
Police say the majority of those arrested came from eight businesses in northwest Dallas. Six are in the 11400 block of Emerald Street near Interstate 35E and Royal Lane – the Tokyo Spa, Ginja Spa, Jackpot Spa, Pretty Women Spa, Ace Palace and Venetian Spa.
Also raided were the Ruby Spa in the 2600 block of Walnut Hill Lane and the Palm Tree in the 2000 block of West Northwest Highway.
Dallas police Lt. Jan Easterling declined to identify the remaining four businesses, citing ongoing investigations.
She said the investigations started in December 2004 from prostitution investigations at the businesses. Those detained Friday were being interviewed by immigration officials to determine whether any administrative charges can be filed for being in the country illegally.
In addition to the arrests, two automated teller machines, safes, computers and about $310,000 in cash were seized.
Staff writer Tanya Eiserer contributed to this report.
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TexasStooge
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University Park girl killed in lake accident
Collision of personal watercraft also injures second teenager
By HOLLY YAN / The Dallas Morning News
UNIVERSITY PARK, Texas - The four girls were taking one last vacation before starting high school together. They went with one girl's family to Cedar Creek Lake in Henderson County and zipped around in a couple of personal watercraft.
But the two crafts collided Wednesday, killing 14-year-old Sally Ann Smitham of University Park and injuring the girl riding with her. The girls on the other craft were not injured.
Sally's mother, Pamela Smitham, said the accident was filled with irony as well as tragedy.
"It's heartbreaking all around," Ms. Smitham said. "The girls all had conversation about songs they wanted played at their weddings and funerals. Sally gave me a CD with the song she wanted playing at her funeral."
The girl who was injured suffered broken ribs and was taken to East Texas Medical Center in Tyler. She was expected to recover.
Cedar Creek Lake is in Henderson and Kaufman counties about 55 miles southeast of Dallas. The accident occurred about 1:45 p.m. near Tool, Texas, located on the western shore of the reservoir.
Lt. Pat McWilliams of the Henderson County Sheriff's Department said that the collision appeared to be an accident and that no charges were expected.
Lt. McWilliams said there have been several other watercraft accidents this summer, but this was the first fatality of the year.
"This is a problem we see on all our public lakes," Lt. McWilliams said. "People don't realize these Jet Skis aren't like four-wheelers. Once you lose power, you can't steer around."
He said state law requires users of the crafts to stay at least 50 feet from other watercrafts and swimmers.
Ms. Smitham said she is trying to determine what to do with Sally's fashion sketches, which she drew in hopes of being a clothing designer. Sally had done commercial modeling and acting for about seven years.
Her song – Aaron Carter's "Girl You Shine" – will be played at her funeral, Sally's mother said.
In addition to her mother, Sally is survived by her father, Craig Smitham; her brothers, Craig Jr., Frank, Bubba, Colin and Jack; and her sister, Claire.
Visitation will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Sunday at Eastgate Funeral Home, 1910 Eastgate Drive in Garland.
A memorial service will be at 11 a.m. Monday at Fellowship Bible Church Dallas, 10310 N. Central Expressway in Dallas.
A private burial is to follow.
Collision of personal watercraft also injures second teenager
By HOLLY YAN / The Dallas Morning News
UNIVERSITY PARK, Texas - The four girls were taking one last vacation before starting high school together. They went with one girl's family to Cedar Creek Lake in Henderson County and zipped around in a couple of personal watercraft.
But the two crafts collided Wednesday, killing 14-year-old Sally Ann Smitham of University Park and injuring the girl riding with her. The girls on the other craft were not injured.
Sally's mother, Pamela Smitham, said the accident was filled with irony as well as tragedy.
"It's heartbreaking all around," Ms. Smitham said. "The girls all had conversation about songs they wanted played at their weddings and funerals. Sally gave me a CD with the song she wanted playing at her funeral."
The girl who was injured suffered broken ribs and was taken to East Texas Medical Center in Tyler. She was expected to recover.
Cedar Creek Lake is in Henderson and Kaufman counties about 55 miles southeast of Dallas. The accident occurred about 1:45 p.m. near Tool, Texas, located on the western shore of the reservoir.
Lt. Pat McWilliams of the Henderson County Sheriff's Department said that the collision appeared to be an accident and that no charges were expected.
Lt. McWilliams said there have been several other watercraft accidents this summer, but this was the first fatality of the year.
"This is a problem we see on all our public lakes," Lt. McWilliams said. "People don't realize these Jet Skis aren't like four-wheelers. Once you lose power, you can't steer around."
He said state law requires users of the crafts to stay at least 50 feet from other watercrafts and swimmers.
Ms. Smitham said she is trying to determine what to do with Sally's fashion sketches, which she drew in hopes of being a clothing designer. Sally had done commercial modeling and acting for about seven years.
Her song – Aaron Carter's "Girl You Shine" – will be played at her funeral, Sally's mother said.
In addition to her mother, Sally is survived by her father, Craig Smitham; her brothers, Craig Jr., Frank, Bubba, Colin and Jack; and her sister, Claire.
Visitation will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Sunday at Eastgate Funeral Home, 1910 Eastgate Drive in Garland.
A memorial service will be at 11 a.m. Monday at Fellowship Bible Church Dallas, 10310 N. Central Expressway in Dallas.
A private burial is to follow.
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TexasStooge
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City proposes small tax hike
Suhm says $2.18 billion budget aims to boost public safety, economic development
By DAVE LEVINTHAL / The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS, Texas - The city of Dallas' $2.18 billion budget proposal includes a modest property tax increase and service fee hikes but is designed to aggressively improve public safety and foster economic development, City Manager Mary Suhm said Friday.
The proposed tax rate increase is 2.7 cents per $100 in property valuation. That's less than the 3.99-cent projected increase first suggested several months ago, but still more than some council members want.
The owner of a home valued at $139,000 – the city's median price – would experience a $37.53 annual property tax increase under the proposed rate.
Much of the tax increase would be devoted to paying off debt from Dallas' 2003 voter-approved bond program, which funds projects such as street repairs.
Ms. Suhm, whose staff prepared the proposal, submitted copies of the budget Friday. It will be officially presented to the City Council on Monday.
The Dallas Police Department would gain 50 new officers under the budget proposal. The budget also includes $4.8 million – funded by public notes, which are similar to bonds – to replace Dallas' outdated fleet of police helicopters with three new craft – two pursuit choppers and one SWAT-team transport.
The budget also provides for 298 new police cars and a better-funded recruitment program.
Sources of revenue
Where does the city plan to get its money?
The bulk – $385 million – comes from property taxes, according to the budget proposal. Sales tax revenue accounts for $208.8 million, followed by service charges ($105.1 million), franchise fees ($101.2 million), interfund revenues ($41.3 million), fines and forfeitures ($34.6 million), other unnamed revenues ($25.7 million) and one-time income ($3.3 million).
Interfund revenues include money that flows into the general fund from service fees charged to city departments.
Broken down, about $1.66 billion of the total budget falls within the city's general fund budget, while $529.8 million is contained within its capital budget
Mayor Laura Miller indicated she believes the budget proposal, while solid, needs amending.
"The city manager has worked extremely hard on this budget and has brought us a tax hike recommendation that is only slightly higher than the 2.25 cents we told the voters about when they approved the 2003 bond program," the mayor wrote in an e-mail Friday.
Ms. Miller, however, said she and several council colleagues, whom she did not name, are working on a proposal to cap the property tax increase at 2.25 cents per $100 in assessed value.
The proposed budget also includes sanitation fee increases of 75 cents per month, and a water/wastewater fee increase of 7.3 percent. City storm-water fees would remain unchanged.
The fee increases are necessary, in part, because of increased fuel and energy costs, Ms. Suhm said.
In terms of its format, this budget is a dramatic departure from previous ones.
Five priorities
Instead of doling out money to individual city departments, such as sanitation services or human resources, Ms. Suhm and her team based the budget on the City Council's five stated priorities: public safety, economic development, neighborhood quality of life initiatives, staff accountability and the Trinity River Corridor project.
"We've restructured the budget completely," Ms. Suhm said. "We're all nervous about this. It's pretty scary for all of us. But it's the appropriate thing to do."
One of the most notable increases in city staff would come in Dallas' economic development department, which would contain 45.2 full-time-equivalent positions – a combination of full- and part-time employees who together would equal 45.2 full-time workers.
This is nearly twice the current staffing level – there are 25.1 full-time-equivalent positions in the department this year – and three times the level from the 2003-04 budget year, according to the proposal.
The budget provides money to hire directors to guide southern-sector and center-city economic development, as well as a director to attract foreign investment. In all, the budget earmarks $3.97 million in operational funds for the city's economic development initiatives.
For the second consecutive year, economic development ranks as the council's top municipal priority, as its members determined during a goal-setting meeting.
Although the city is no longer divvying money up by department, Ms. Suhm provided a department-by-department expenditure summary for purposes of comparing the current budget with the proposed budget. She says she will no longer provide such data next year, using only data tied to the council's service priority areas.
Increased allocations
Using this worksheet, the city estimates most departments will have additional money to use over current budget allocations.
The Police Department, for example, would receive $330.8 million in the 2005-06 budget, compared with $319 million in 2004-05. The fire department would receive $180.7 million, compared with $176.5 million, and the Park and Recreation Department would receive $65.3 million, compared with $59.5 million.
City employees will continue to receive raises from a merit-pay system initiated last year. Ms. Suhm estimated that employees would receive a 3 percent average pay increase, although that amount could be more or less based on the quality of their work, as determined by their supervisors.
Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Elba Garcia said she has yet to review details in the proposed budget, but said she is delighted by its emphasis on public safety, especially the addition of the new police helicopters.
She added that she will review whether the council can scale back the property tax increase without harming key city services.
"We're in the ballpark," Council member Angela Hunt said of the budget. "None of us likes the idea of a tax increase. But at the same time, we're trying to make sure we're finding the means to provide the best services we can. When I walk the district, people say over and over again that they want more police officers."
Council member Ron Natinsky, who as a freshman council member will handle his first city budget this year, says his goal is to reduce the tax rate hike to 2.25 cents, too. That may involve increasing other city fees or finding budget areas to cut, he said.
"There's probably something we can do and agree to that'll get it done," he said.
But he, too, agreed that bolstering the Police Department is necessary to combat Dallas' crime rate – among the nation's highest for large cities.
Suhm says $2.18 billion budget aims to boost public safety, economic development
By DAVE LEVINTHAL / The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS, Texas - The city of Dallas' $2.18 billion budget proposal includes a modest property tax increase and service fee hikes but is designed to aggressively improve public safety and foster economic development, City Manager Mary Suhm said Friday.
The proposed tax rate increase is 2.7 cents per $100 in property valuation. That's less than the 3.99-cent projected increase first suggested several months ago, but still more than some council members want.
The owner of a home valued at $139,000 – the city's median price – would experience a $37.53 annual property tax increase under the proposed rate.
Much of the tax increase would be devoted to paying off debt from Dallas' 2003 voter-approved bond program, which funds projects such as street repairs.
Ms. Suhm, whose staff prepared the proposal, submitted copies of the budget Friday. It will be officially presented to the City Council on Monday.
The Dallas Police Department would gain 50 new officers under the budget proposal. The budget also includes $4.8 million – funded by public notes, which are similar to bonds – to replace Dallas' outdated fleet of police helicopters with three new craft – two pursuit choppers and one SWAT-team transport.
The budget also provides for 298 new police cars and a better-funded recruitment program.
Sources of revenue
Where does the city plan to get its money?
The bulk – $385 million – comes from property taxes, according to the budget proposal. Sales tax revenue accounts for $208.8 million, followed by service charges ($105.1 million), franchise fees ($101.2 million), interfund revenues ($41.3 million), fines and forfeitures ($34.6 million), other unnamed revenues ($25.7 million) and one-time income ($3.3 million).
Interfund revenues include money that flows into the general fund from service fees charged to city departments.
Broken down, about $1.66 billion of the total budget falls within the city's general fund budget, while $529.8 million is contained within its capital budget
Mayor Laura Miller indicated she believes the budget proposal, while solid, needs amending.
"The city manager has worked extremely hard on this budget and has brought us a tax hike recommendation that is only slightly higher than the 2.25 cents we told the voters about when they approved the 2003 bond program," the mayor wrote in an e-mail Friday.
Ms. Miller, however, said she and several council colleagues, whom she did not name, are working on a proposal to cap the property tax increase at 2.25 cents per $100 in assessed value.
The proposed budget also includes sanitation fee increases of 75 cents per month, and a water/wastewater fee increase of 7.3 percent. City storm-water fees would remain unchanged.
The fee increases are necessary, in part, because of increased fuel and energy costs, Ms. Suhm said.
In terms of its format, this budget is a dramatic departure from previous ones.
Five priorities
Instead of doling out money to individual city departments, such as sanitation services or human resources, Ms. Suhm and her team based the budget on the City Council's five stated priorities: public safety, economic development, neighborhood quality of life initiatives, staff accountability and the Trinity River Corridor project.
"We've restructured the budget completely," Ms. Suhm said. "We're all nervous about this. It's pretty scary for all of us. But it's the appropriate thing to do."
One of the most notable increases in city staff would come in Dallas' economic development department, which would contain 45.2 full-time-equivalent positions – a combination of full- and part-time employees who together would equal 45.2 full-time workers.
This is nearly twice the current staffing level – there are 25.1 full-time-equivalent positions in the department this year – and three times the level from the 2003-04 budget year, according to the proposal.
The budget provides money to hire directors to guide southern-sector and center-city economic development, as well as a director to attract foreign investment. In all, the budget earmarks $3.97 million in operational funds for the city's economic development initiatives.
For the second consecutive year, economic development ranks as the council's top municipal priority, as its members determined during a goal-setting meeting.
Although the city is no longer divvying money up by department, Ms. Suhm provided a department-by-department expenditure summary for purposes of comparing the current budget with the proposed budget. She says she will no longer provide such data next year, using only data tied to the council's service priority areas.
Increased allocations
Using this worksheet, the city estimates most departments will have additional money to use over current budget allocations.
The Police Department, for example, would receive $330.8 million in the 2005-06 budget, compared with $319 million in 2004-05. The fire department would receive $180.7 million, compared with $176.5 million, and the Park and Recreation Department would receive $65.3 million, compared with $59.5 million.
City employees will continue to receive raises from a merit-pay system initiated last year. Ms. Suhm estimated that employees would receive a 3 percent average pay increase, although that amount could be more or less based on the quality of their work, as determined by their supervisors.
Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Elba Garcia said she has yet to review details in the proposed budget, but said she is delighted by its emphasis on public safety, especially the addition of the new police helicopters.
She added that she will review whether the council can scale back the property tax increase without harming key city services.
"We're in the ballpark," Council member Angela Hunt said of the budget. "None of us likes the idea of a tax increase. But at the same time, we're trying to make sure we're finding the means to provide the best services we can. When I walk the district, people say over and over again that they want more police officers."
Council member Ron Natinsky, who as a freshman council member will handle his first city budget this year, says his goal is to reduce the tax rate hike to 2.25 cents, too. That may involve increasing other city fees or finding budget areas to cut, he said.
"There's probably something we can do and agree to that'll get it done," he said.
But he, too, agreed that bolstering the Police Department is necessary to combat Dallas' crime rate – among the nation's highest for large cities.
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