Links for Wednesday Night

I'm back on the road this week, and had such a day today, that I needed a beer. I found a little hole-in-the-wall here in Piqua, Ohio that serves a bucket of Yuengling for just $5. That's more than I normally care to drink, but I gave it the college try.

It was one of those kinds of days at work where every thing seems to go wrong, and at every turn, when you think it can't get worse, it does. Nevertheless, I got a fleeting glimpse of productivity today at around 4:50 p.m., right before everyone got the heck out of there, and my last bit of brain power oozed out of my ears. Technically, I'm supposed to be teaching this week, but that's sort of gone out the window as my students and I have been trying to fight fires and beat them back long enough to make some forward progress on our project.

Anyhow, here's some news:

LISD Notes:
The Lewisville ISD Board met Monday night. I tried to follow along with the webcast, but there were some technical difficulties with the feed.

There were a few things I was interested in, and since I'm short on time to really go into detail on them, I'll just share some documents and info.

1. LISD Strategic Plan: It was approved by the board. I'm happy with this. Here's more info, including an initial implementation timeline. Here's our initial write-up.

2. Board reorganization: Carol Kyer is President of the school board again. Jeff Knapp is Vice President, and Julie Foughty is secretary.

3. SB.1557 Application. SB 1557 allows high-performing schools to join a consortium that will lead in the transformation of public schools in Texas. Schools like LISD, if accepted, can apply for exemptions to some of the various state and federal laws and mandates that stand in the way. Dr. Waddell was excited about the response by the district's Principals, most of whom are interested in having their schools in the program. Here's more about the district's application, which the board approved. This is exciting stuff, and it fits in really nicely with our strategic plan.

4. LISD Faculty and Staff pay plans: The board approved a fundamental shift in how teachers and staff are paid. Although, I don't think the word itself is used, it seems to be more about merit, and market-based compensation. Pay scales have been wacky, and inconsistent between years of experience, from what I've seen. What it looks like they're going to do is set a midrange, minimum and maximum based on each position, and pay people in each position based on their experience in that position. Here's the agenda item. After a year of no salary increases due to last year's uncertainty over how bad the legislature would stick it to public schools, this year we at least know how much. So there will be a general raise of about $1,600 for teachers, and 3% to the midpoint of other positions. We'll keep an eye on the budget and see what this means. At any rate, the district has a web page with some documents to explain the changes.

Water Articles:
We had some good rain early this Spring, and it lulled some folks into thinking that we're all good with water for this year. Others seem to be predicting a long-term drought trend, with water becoming more scarce as our region's population grows. The Texas Tribune has a good set of articles on the subject, and I highly recommend reading them for a good feel of how it impacts around the state.


- How do Texas cities stack up against other major cities in terms of water usage and cost of water?

- More about how some Texas cities are raising water rates to encourage conservation as long-term forecasts show a shortage.

- Texas' Water Woes Spark Interest in Desalination

- Recycled Water

And a few more links:

- Unintended consequences of making something beautiful

- Crews found the bodies of two drowning victims from this past weekend.

- Three-alarm apartment fire in Lewisville

- Lewisville will soon welcome some employees of Air Evac Lifeteam, an air medical transportation provider .