We've received a report that we can't independently verify, but since the allegation is so sleazy, we wanted to make sure to cover this:

Supposedly an unsolicited text message was sent to the mobile phones of voters in the area around Forestwood Middle School in Lewisville ISD, claiming that some Lewisville candidates for school board want to re-zone them to another school.

This is not the first time this rumor has come up, but it is FALSE. Candidate Brenda Latham reiterated today once again that she supports neighborhood integrity, and has never said anything about rezoning anyone anywhere. Rather she thinks that schools should be tied to neighborhoods. Latham, as well as Jeff Knapp and Julie Foughty - running as the KnFL team have stressed the importance of equity within the schools, ensuring that each school offers all opportunities to all students, regardless of the socioeconomic status of the neighborhood where they are located.

Nothing in any of the candidates platforms involves any sort of re-zoning, bussing, or lowering any standards or opportunities anywhere. All of the candidates, as far as we know, want to improve those with performance issues, and add opportunities where there are some missing.

Back in December, we told you about a "Rumors" page that Lewisville ISD started. At the time, we were frustrated because despite having documented evidence and the actual statutes of the law LISD trustees broke by holding their retreat without properly announcing it, LISD essentially posted an entry on the "rumors" page saying "nuh-uh, we didn't".

The group of Frisco residents within the LISD portion of Frisco, "We Are Frisco" has launched a new page on their website meant to counter what they believe are more misleading entries on LISD's rumor page.

Check out We Are Frisco's Rumor Page.

At the urging of a reader, and for my own interest, we decided a couple of months ago to request information from Lewisville ISD regarding incidents of bullying in the district. This wasn’t specifically in response to the suicide at Stewart’s Creek Elementary. Some folks naturally speculated at the time that perhaps bullying was involved. There have been some high-profile news stories about it. We didn’t cover the story because the mainstream media had it well covered.

Still, we thought it would be good to get some information from the district to see whether any particular schools had a worse problem than others. The middle school that my son feeds into next year was of particular concern based on some parent comments that we heard. But you know how those things go – if a parent has a problem with their kid, there’s a bullying problem at the school. Anecdotal evidence is enough to scare someone, but empirical facts are ultimately more useful.

Knowing that school districts generally keep a lot of records on discipline issues, and that districts sometimes have to report statistics to the federal government, I decided to try to find out what kind of information there might be. Keep in mind, at this point, I just wanted information about the information, and if any reports had been made to the federal government, I wanted copies. I didn’t have a specific data request, but mostly wanted to know what records were kept. Understand that I’m not implying there’s a problem, or there’s not a problem – I’m just looking for information.

So, I submitted an open records request on February 19th, asking for this:

Please note: This election already occurred. This is not current location information, and is only available for archival purposes.
This year, voters in the Lewisville ISD will elect three school board members in places 3, 4, and 5 of the seven member board. More about the candidates

Early Voting - April 26th - May 4th

Lewisville ISD's Board of Trustees are still dragging their feet on making official videos of their meetings, so WhosPlayin is committed to filling the gap and increasing transparency with LISD. We bring you these videos, essentially unedited.

Last night's LISD Board meeting, the last meeting prior to May elections and early voting, proved to be a convenient time to invite hundreds of kids and their families in to do some awards. And guess which trustees were available to help pass them out? If you guessed the three trustees up for re-election, then you get a cookie.

The first few segments were awards and recognitions, then regular business.

At tonight's LISD Board meeting, the trustees have on their agenda a one-line item to discuss passage of "TASB Update #87", a massive 264 pages of updates to 65 different areas of Lewisville ISD policies. LISD did not provide a link to the updates on their agenda packet.

We have reminded the trustees and administration once again that this non-specific listing of such a massive update violates both the letter and the spirit of Texas Open Meetings Laws.

We've also obtained a copy of the updates through an urgent public information request, which is attached here.

When the Lewisville ISD Board of Trustees meets tonight, one of the topics they will consider is whether to eliminate the controversial "zero tolerance" policy on drugs, alcohol, and inhalents. The policy had required expulsion for a minimum of 45 days.

The policies have been under fire because they often result in extreme punishment for very minor infractions where discretion should have been used.

WhosPlayin published an article about these policies last month where we questioned not only whether LISD's policy was legal, but whether it was wise.

LISD Board of Trustees will meet tonight in the Board Room of the William T. Bolin Administrative Center, 1565 W. Main St., Lewisville, at 7 p.m.

Patrick Kelly, who is running for LISD School Board, Place 5 has put together this spreadsheet comparing the tax rates and per-student expenditures of LISD versus other area districts. Lewisville ISD seems to be right around the median in both per-student expenditures and tax rates.

Submitted Item:
Lewisville Resident Melissa Elias is hosting a candidate meet and greet at her home this Sunday.

Please Come!

LISD School Board Candidate

MEET AND GREET

for

Brenda Latham

Jeff Knapp

Julie Foughty

2054 Briarcliff Road
Lewisville

Sunday, April 11 - 2:00-3:30 PM

WFAA is reporting that a Lewisville ISD teacher resigned on Friday from Indian Creek Elementary School in Carrollton amid accusations of choking a student.

I wonder if it is true, and what would happen to cause a teacher to do such a thing?