Extra Credit

Fort Worth students receive four-year scholarships

Seven Fort Worth seniors received the Chesapeake Scholarship awards this week worth a combined $56,000. Each scholarship is renewable up to four years as long as students remain eligible.

The student winners are Raul Dominguez (South Hills), Elizabeth Ellis (Paschal), Tilija Stanojevic (Paschal), Aurora Perez (South Hills), Alexis Cotton (Southwest), Veronica Valles (Pashcal), Christian Castaneda (Polytechnic).

At right is a picture of the scholars with Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price. The Chesapeake Scholarship fund was created in 2007. Awards haven been given to 63 Fort Worth and Dallas students in that time.

-Eva-Marie Ayala

Photo courtesy of Chesapeake 

Fort Worth teen who drowned identified

A teen who drowned while swimming at an area lake was identified by the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's office as Bobby Miller, 18.

The teen had been swimming with friends Sunday evening at Casino Beach Park when he went missing. Divers recovered his body later that night.

Miller was a junior at Diamond Hill-Jarvis High School, where grief counselors were on hand this week. The teen was a popular student who played basketball and football, officials said.

"It has been very difficult, but we are a family at Diamond Hill," Principal Gayla Dawson said. "We are doing our best to hold each other up and cling together in our time of need."

-Eva-Marie Ayala

Grapevine-Colleyville CFO moves on - to Mansfield

Grapevine-Colleyville school district is searching for a new chief financial officer - again.

Elaine Cogburn is already settled in at Mansfield ISD as their associate superintendent of business and finance. She came to Grapevine-Colleyville in the summer of 2010 from the Dallas school district, and before that she was CFO of the Frenship district near Lubbock.

DaiAnn Mooney, Grapevine-Colleyville's financial services director, will serve as interim CFO, a role she performed in transition between former CFO Hank Johnson and Cogburn. Johnson left the district for the CFO post in Fort Worth district in January of 2010.

Grapevine-Colleyville's preliminary budget for the 2012-13 school year is almost complete, district officials report.

_Shirley Jinkins

Reception for Fort Worth's Rangel is back on

A week after canceling a reception for former Fort Worth school board president Juan Rangel, organizers say the party is back on again.

Rangel was the first minority to officially serve as school board president, though some have done so in an unofficial capacity. He was elected by the board in February. But a complex series of events meant the board had to revote on officers, and Rangel was bumped from the position last week. T.A. Sims was then selected president, the first African American to hold that position.

Meanwhile, various Hispanic organizations had already planned a reception in his honor set for May 23. After Rangel was ousted as president, organizers cancelled the event. Then this week e-mails were sent inviting guest back to the reception.

"We’re going to honor Juan for being the first Hispanic and the first minority board president and for his service as a trustee," said Fernando Florez, one of the organizers. "I've had a real good response from people excited to go and many are looking forward to it."

--Eva-Marie Ayala

Families turn out for annual Fort Worth school district walk

Despite cloudy skies, many made it out to this weekend's seventh annual Fort Worth ISD District Walk, which was held at each of the 13 traditional high schools.

 

Officials hope to encourage families and the community to adopt healthy habits and get more active. Prizes were given to schools and student groups with the most participants.

 

Here are some pics from the event. Top right is a picture from O.D. Wyatt High's walk. At left are participants from W.J. Turner Elementary School, which had the most participants at North Side High's walk. Below is a scene from Carter-Riverside High.

-Eva-Marie Ayala

Photos courtesy of the Fort Worth school district

Reception for Fort Worth's Juan Rangel canceled

The party was over before it got started. Local Latino groups -- including the Fort Worth Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, area LULAC chapters and the Hispanic Women's Network of Texas -- had a VIP reception planned for May 23 to honor Juan Rangel being selected as the first minority school board president a few months ago.

But last night those plans were thrown off course when Rangel was suddenly ousted as president and the board named T.A. Sims as the new president.

Fernando Florez, who helped organize the reception, wrote to invitees: 

A few days ago, I invited many of you to a reception for Juan Rangel who until last evening was the president of the FWISD School Board. That reception, which was scheduled for May 23,  has been cancelled. Dr. T. A. Sims is the new president of the FWISD Board of Education.

Florez told the Star-Telegram that he received many calls this morning from those upset about last night's events. "Mr. Rangel had been doing a good job," Florez said. "If he hadn't that would be different."

Tune in to tomorrow's story on how the turn of events could affect relations between Hispanics and African Americans.

--Eva-Marie Ayala

Fort Worth school board to reelect officers tonight

The school board is set to elect officers once again tonight. The board has had several changes in recent months after the unexpected resignation of former board President Ray Dickerson, who stepped down in December citing health concerns.

Juan Rangel was named president shortly afterward. But trustees still had to fill the vacancy remaining on the nine-member board. Last month, Joe Ralph Martinez was appointed by trustees to fill the one year remaining on the District 8 seat. State law requires the board to reelect officers after a new member is appointed or elected.

In other business, trustees are set to approve the summer school schedule that will include cuts to elementary school offerings and will vote on whether to increase school lunches from $1.90 to $2.05.

-Eva-Marie Ayala

Fort Worth area students get out of the classroom and play in nature

Today in the Star-Telegram we tell how programs are working to connect the youth with the outdoors.

Don Young, co-director of the Friends of Tandy Hills Natural Area, said Fort Worth students are paired with a master naturalist who teaches them about the 160-acre prairie on the city's east side. "We are training young people to understand and appreciate how special this green space is," Young said. 

Young shared this picture with us of students from the Young Women's Leadership Academy's recent tour.

This week students from Fort Worth's St. Paul Lutheran School attended the outdoor education program at Camp Fire USA's Camp El Tesoro just outside of Grandbury where they learned how to survive in nature.

 

Students from Alvarado Elementary North participated in a nature challenge that included sorting fossils by touch.

 

-Eva-Marie Ayala

Fort Worth school officials correct name of elementary

A far southeast elementary founded in 1937 was originally named Sunrise School after the housing development nearby. But in 2003-04, district officials renamed it Sunrise-McMillian to honor the first teacher of the school, who eventually became its principal.

But it wasn't until recently that a family member of Mary Collins McMillan let the district know there was an extra "i" tacked onto the name. Today officials announced they were correcting the spelling and updating all related websites and brochures to reflect the change.

"In the meantime, there’s an extra vowel looking for a home," district officials noted in their news release.

You can learn more about the school's history -- including how the school moved to what was once called "The Chicken Garden" after a 1942 fire destroyed the original building -- here.

-Eva-Marie Ayala

Former Fort Worth schools chief Carl Candoli: 1925 - 2012

Carl Candoli, who served as superintendent of the Fort Worth school district from 1980 to 1986, has died, the school district announced. He was 86. 

According to an obituary in the Austin American-Statesman, Ialto Carl "Ace" Candoli died on April 29.

Here's a little bit about Dr. Candoli, from a May 2011 Star-Telegram piece by Eva-Marie Ayala about the district's leadership.

"After a long search, Candoli, a University of Kansas professor, was named to replace retiring Superintendent Gerald Ward, making him the first "outsider" to lead the district.

"Candoli's forceful management style was seen as the antidote to a district that was "riddled with felonious activity," according to then-school board President Richard O'Neal.

"Later, though, that same management style led to run-ins with trustees, employees and the media. Candoli resigned in 1986 after a school board ultimatum that he alter his "one-man-show" style."

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/05/19/3089465/johnson-resigning-after-6-years.html#storylink=cpy

Visitation: 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Friday at Gethsemane Lutheran Church, 200 W. Anderson Lane, Austin, followed by a memorial service.

Jessamy Brown