You Get a Car!
by: C. Martinez
To attract students, charter school operators take to marketing, promotional efforts like a free car for not missing a day.
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Maria Camacho won a car. Now, all she needs is another year and a learner's permit. The 14-year-old freshmen took home a white 2007 Ford Fusion on Friday, May 4th. Camacho won a perfect attendance contest at Faith Family Academy, a charter school in Oak Cliff.
Maria and four other students - including her 11th grade sister were selected as finalists in the contest, held in a common area between buildings before the lunch period. Faith Family high school students with perfect attendance during each of six six-week periods had their names put into a drawing; 131 students got their names in at least once.
After a performance by the school's drumline, Jason Oliver, the school's assistant superintendent of school leadership, had the students pick a key from a basket, then called them up one by one to see if it worked. Even though the drama was gone when she took her seat in the sedan - she was the last of the five to try her luck - Maria still looked shocked when she turned her key and the car started.
Without attendance boundaries that provide a steady stream of new students, charter school operators across the country have taken to marketing and promotional efforts to entice families and students to consider their schools. The perks can be purely academic - 100 percent graduation rates and specialty programs - or purely material: free laptops, uniforms and internet access. Nearly 33,000 students within Dallas ISD's attendance boundaries attend a charter school, mostly in southern Dallas.
Dart's GoPass App is 'Magic'
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Starting Monday, May 14th, users of DART's GoPass app will have new ways to pay for their passes and plan their DART and Trinity Railway Express (TRE) trips.
One new feature is the ability to load value to the GoPass app with cash at area retailers. Learn how to do this in the PayNearMe network at GoPass.org.
The app also contains a GoPass Wallet that stores value that can be used to purchase tickets for use on DART, TRE, Trinity Metro and Denton County Transportation Authority.
Other new GoPass options will allow customers to use "TouchID" for quicker security acceptance, send receipts to an email address, view various events and offers, save their favorite stations and stops, and track buses and trains in real-time.
FWISD Recruits Oklahoma Teachers
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District hopes higher pay will lure educators.
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Forth Worth ISD is hoping to recruit Oklahoma teachers with billboards in Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Norman and Stillwater. "Your future is in a Fort Worth classroom," reads each of the 10 billboards, which went up Monday, May 7th. "Teacher starting salary $52,000."
The billboards come after thousands of Oklahoma teachers rallied for more than a week in April at the state Capitol, demanding higher pay and more support from the state Legislature.
The minimum starting salary for a teacher with a bachelor's degree in Oklahoma is $31,600, more than $20,000 less than the starting salary in Fort Worth.