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Eanes
August 10, 2009
Eanes trustees appoint trustee
The Eanes school board voted 6-0 to appoint James “Kal” Kallison to replace former trustee Gail King. Kallison was among nine applicants and will serve until the next regularly scheduled election in May 2010.
King (pictured) resigned because her family is moving out of state.
Trustees in June decided to appoint someone to fill board member Gail King’s vacant seat. Trustees could have called an election to replace her.
According to the Westlake Picayune, the other applicants included:
Two former Eanes school board presidents — Brad Shields, who served on the board from 1994-2003, and Beverly Thomas, who served from 1977-1986 — Sally Theodosis, Robert Wayne Holland, Wesley G. Ritchie, Pamela R. Horn, Ronna Martin and Sharman Reed.
Reed ran unsuccessfully for a school board seat in May against incumbent Paul Stone. Hundreds of local residents submitted an electronic petition to school board members asking for the appointment of Reed after the announcement by King that she was moving out of state.
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June 12, 2009
Eanes Trustee Gail King has resigned
FROM A DISTRICT ANNOUNCEMENT TODAY:
School board member Gail King has submitted a letter of resignation from her position on the Eanes Independent School District Board of Trustees because her family will be relocating out of state.
King (pictured at right) has served on the EISD Board of Trustees since May of 2003 and has been the board’s vice president since May of 2007. Her current term is set to expire in May of 2012.
In her letter, King stated “It has been a pleasure serving the Eanes community and being part of a team dedicated to educational excellence and continual improvement, while staying studentcentered and working to balance various needs and demands to achieve the community’s common goals.”
According to board policy, trustees may fill a vacancy by appointment until the next regular board election or may order a special election to fill the vacancy for the unexpired term. A vacancy must be filled within 180 days after it occurs. After submitting a resignation, a board member may continue to fulfill his/her duties until the vacancy is filled by a successor.
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May 7, 2009
Family sues Eanes district over accessibily issues
The mother of an Eanes Elementary School student filed a class action lawsuit in U.S. District Court against the school district today. The suit says Eanes school district officials are violating her daughter’s civil rights and discriminating against those with mobility impairments because the district is not ensuring school facilities and programs are in compliance with state and federal laws.
In the lawsuit, Cheryl Fries says the Eanes district has failed to fix architectural problems, including buildings without accessible safety exits and ramps that are too steep and lack safety features for people who use wheelchairs, including her daughter Claire (pictured at right in March of 2008), or have other mobility impairments.
Eanes Superintendent Nola Wellman today said, “We have not been served or reviewed the lawsuit that we have been informed has been filed.”
Fries is the only plaintiff named in the suit, but she is asking a judge to categorize it as a class action. Fries’s suit also claims that most of the district’s playgrounds, some performance stages and nearly all its secondary sports facilities are inaccessible.
“I never dreamed that asking for safe ramps and access to a playground would drown me in a bureaucratic vortex of delays, denials, excuses and endless studies,” said Cheryl Fries, who added that she’s been trying to work with the district for about seven years. “When I went into this, there was a $53 million bond on the table and an architect’s quote of $4 million to fix the most serious problems districtwide.
“But instead of doing the work, they commissioned more studies,” Fries said. “For the amount of money the school district has spent on consultants, studies and lawyers, we could have built the access that would have prevented this lawsuit.”
District officials said they have been working on bringing their facilities into compliance with disability laws but can only move so fast. They argue that all school districts are continuously working on compliance issues and said that Eanes has done more to try to prioritize than most.
In an interview last year, Wellman said that the district is committed to having a systematic approach to achieving full compliance but that it would cost at least $10 million and could take seven years.
District spokeswoman Dale Whitaker said today, “We are looking at a shorter timeline based on the progress that has been made and the continued focus, but (that) will depend on a future bond program and if it is approved. I believe our goal is to be able to include enough in the next bond program to achieve universal accessibility” as early as 2010.
In 2008, the district put $1 million in interest earnings from their 2006 bond election toward repairs that either posed the biggest safety dangers or were easiest to fix, Whitaker said.
Since then, she said, about 1,200 problems have been fixed but another 1,000 items still need attention, including many that will require architectural design and engineering. Whitaker said another $1 million was approved in March for additional improvements districtwide.
The lawsuit says that Cheryl Fries has been asking for accessibility improvements to be made since 2002, when her daughter Claire was first enrolled in the Eanes Elementary School preschool program, and that the district has made only “minimal efforts” to address barriers and dangerous conditions since then.
Claire is now 10 years old and will attend Hill Country Middle School in the fall. The suit says the campus has limited accessibility to its eighth-grade wing and sports fields.
Eanes also plans to improve playgrounds at Forest Trail Elementary, build an accessible route to the playfields at West Ridge Middle School and build a ramp to the cafeteria stage at Valley View Elementary School, Whitaker said. A wheelchair-accessible ramp to the eighth-grade wing of Claire’s new middle school is among the projects planned for this summer.
“I was told for two years in a row that they were going to fix those ramps at Eanes Elementary,” Cheryl Fries said. “Look, they’ve had 20 years (since disability access laws were passed). It seems to be asking a lot to say ,‘Oh, be patient for another four or five years.’ We’ve now had generations of kids who have grown up and been excluded.”
Patrick Fries, Claire’s father, said the district’s spending on other projects from the 2006 bond show a disregard for their obligations to ensure access to people with disabilities.
“If they can fast-track the construction of a $3.4 million practice field, a $400,000 girls softball batting cage and $700,000 in top-of-the-line HD cameras to film football games and performances, then they can find a way to engineer sidewalks,” he said.
The suit says that when Cheryl Fries asked to see plans for improvements under the Texas Public Information Act in February, the district requested a state attorney general’s opinion to keep it confidential.
“Why won’t they just communicate: ‘Here’s the timeline, and here’s the to-do list,’ ” she said. “This is an issue of a missed opportunity. They could be working with disability advocates in a way that builds trust and faith that all of this is going to get done. They only thing I can do is make sure that my daughter has the legal protection so that she isn’t secluded and isolated and segregated during her secondary years.”
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April 27, 2009
Eanes' Westlake High School experiments with Twitter
Westlake High School is “experimenting” with Twitter, the social networking and micro-blogging service, principal Linda Rawlings writes in her weekly campus email:
This Twitter account will be managed by Dustin Windsor, Campus Tech Coordinator, and Carolyn Foote, Campus Lead Librarian. All communication regarding the Twitter account should be directed to them.
This Twitter account should not be used in lieu of the Principal’s weekly email, the Eanes ISD Listserv, or the WHS webpage. Its sole purpose is to provide reminders of campus events, highlight educational projects, and post helpful links and research from some of the leaders in educational theory and practice.
To receive instant updates to your Twitter account from WHSChaps, click the Follow link at http://www.twitter.com/whschaps. If you do not have a Twitter account and choose not to get one, simply check this page often to receive the latest updates and information from Westlake High School.
The Westlake library already has a Facebook page.
What other Central Texas schools or school leaders have Twitter accounts?
(You can see the folks, in Central Texas education and elsewhere, that I follow at http://twitter.com/M_Bloom.)
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December 15, 2008
Eanes schools cancel some after-school activities
From West Ridge Middle school:
Due to the inclement weather and risk of some freezing precipitation, we are canceling ALL after school activities this Monday evening. The basketball games both versus and at Dripping Springs have been canceled as well as the band rehearsal for this evening. All after school tutorials at West Ridge have been canceled.
Please stay tuned to your local news for any announcements regarding late starts or school cancellations for tomorrow.
Updated, 4:14 p.m.:
Eanes district spokeswoman Dale Whitaker says that Hill Country Middle School has also canceled basketball games and that Community Ed classes have also been canceled.
From Valley View Elementary School:
With the threat of wintry weather over the next few hours we’d like to take this opportunity to remind you that any announcements regarding school delays or closures will be sent out via listserve email after 5:00 AM and will also be available on local television/radio stations. AT THIS TIME THERE ARE NO PLANS TO CLOSE OR DELAY SCHOOL TOMORROW, but please check for email announcements and stay tuned to local television/radio stations for any updates.
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December 4, 2008
Gas line break at Eanes Elementary
Update, 1:17 p.m.:
From Eanes ISD eNews:
Today at approximately 12 noon, a contractor was working on a waste water line and a gas line was hit. Emergency responders were notified and the school implemented their emergency plan and moved the students away from the area. The Westlake Fire Dept. responded promptly and determined the students were not in danger and there was no need to evacuate the school offsite. Texas Gas Service is currently on scene working to repair the leak. Buses will run at their regularly scheduled time.
Update, 12:42 p.m.: The fire department has determined that it’s safe for students and staff to remain in the building, Miles said. Students will return to class shortly. The gas company is on its way to the school to repair the break.
Eanes Elementary School students and staff have been moved to an inside area in front of the school after a gas line break in the area behind the school just before noon today.
Joani Miles in the superintendent’s office said the fire department is currently at the school assessing the situation. Miles said she didn’t yet know the definitive cause of the gas line break, but that it occurred in an area where road work was being done.
All staff and students are safe and sound, she said, and school officials have buses on standby in case the school needs to be evacuated.
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October 30, 2008
Do schools events and election day collide?
I’ve been asked to write a story about school districts scheduling events like band performances and football games on election day and how that might affect parents, teachers, coaches and other Texans of voting age.
So:
Are you a parent worried that attending the UIL State Marching Band Contest at the Alamodome Tuesday might keep you from voting?
Or a parent concerned that enjoying the musical stylings of the Fall String Festival at Zilker Park during your lunch break might prevent you from reaching the polls?
If your kid is supposed to play in an 8th grade away football game Tuesday night, is that going to conflict with you doing your civic duty?
If you’re affected by these scheduling dilemnas, go ahead and weigh in in the comment section below, or email me.
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October 21, 2008
Eanes check register available online
The Eanes Independent School District began posting its check registry online, a move local information open records activists who monitor the district have been pushing for since 2005.
District spokeswoman Dale Whitaker said the information was first posted in March. She said the move was not in response to pressure from anyone in the community.
“We’ve been adding things to our website: bus routes, menus,” she said. “We thought it would be useful.”
Dianna Pharr, who keeps a blog about the Eanes school district and has been requesting the check register on and off since 2005, said she only recently became aware of the postings. She said she stopped requesting the register in March when it got too expensive and called the move “a step in the right direction,” but said she was disappointed that the district’s list does not include accounting codes, descriptions of what was bought and the check number.
“That’s information that we need to have to be an informed public,” she said. “We need to understand the reason the purchase was made.”
Archived check registers from before January 2008 are available on Pharr’s website, www.keepeanesinformed.com. Those registers do include the codes, descriptions and check numbers. In the future, Pharr said she would like to see the district’s salary and stipend information posted online.
“That’s the most popular page on my website,” she said. “It’s information that the public wants to see.”
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October 10, 2008
Rabid bat found at Westlake HS
The Eanes school district announced Friday that a bat found outside Westlake High School on Wednesday has tested positive for Rabies:
At approximately 3 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 8, a bat was found outside Westlake High School at ground level on the south side of the building near the bus lane. The bat was removed immediately by district maintenance and turned over to Animal Control.
The bat was tested by the Texas Department of State Health Services and found to be POSITIVE for RABIES.
There have not been any reports of anyone coming in contact with the bat. However, if you think that you or someone else may have come in physical contact with this animal, please call the WHS Nurse’s Office at 732-9285 AND contact:
Austin/Travis County Health and Human Services Department Surveillance Unit at (512) 972-5555 and the Department of State Health Services Zoonosis Control at (254) 778-6744.
For calls concerning pets, please call 311.
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October 3, 2008
Eanes schools lose phone service
Officials with the Eanes school district report that they are having problems with their phones today. According to a press release:
This morning all schools and offices in Eanes ISD have been experiencing telephone communication problems. The district has identified the cause as originating with the carrier and currently is working with them to resolve it as quickly as possible. All schools have options for emergency communications and can contact other locations within the district.
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