Waters to Teach HPHS to Sing

Mrs. Waters will be taking the reins of the Highland Park High School Choir. From the district:

Natalie Waters has been promoted to Highland Park High School’s choir director effective Aug. 18. She has served as assistant choir director at HPHS since 2005 and as Highland Park Middle School’s choir director since 2007. Waters previously served as assistant choir director at Abilene High School. (more…)

Cassie Clark: Knife-wielder?

Ace Park Cities reporter Cassie Clark is working on a story about the controversy surrounding Officer’s Elwonger former television aspirations, something Elwonger’s none to happy about. (more…)

Re:SMU, You May Want to Call Your Lawyers

The comment-posting Overheardian “Tri Delta Lady” already said this, but the Mustang Realty pony doesn’t face the same way as the SMU one. The SMU mustang faces right. The Ford mustang points left,

And by the way, poster “JC,” you’re wrong about SMU taking the logo from Ford. They took it from us. [Sorry, it's a .pdf, but scroll down or search "Ford Mustang" in the document, you'll get the story]

Also, I don’t think SMU will be putting its lawyer pants on to fight Mustang Realty, they’re a pretty big athletics sponsor at the school.

Breaking News: SMU Athletes Can Read

From our good friends at Southern Methodist University:

The SMU Athletic Department and the University Park Library will host a “Story Time With The Mustangs” on Tuesday, June 17, at 6:30 p.m. at the U.P. City Library near the corner of Hillcrest and Daniel. SMU’s DeMyron Martin, Thomas Morstead, Emmanuel Sanders and Andrew Galloway will read stories and sign autographs for the children in attendance.

Sorry for the late notice, if anyone wanted to attend, but I just received this release a few minutes ago myself.

Crossing Guards Out of Work

We mentioned this a couple weeks ago, but check out the story Cassie Clark got about why some crossing guards at Bradfield and Armstrong elementary schools may not be back in the fall.

Should there be an age limit?

Today in the Park Cities

Wednesday’s are slower now — school’s out, matinees are fuller, the pool line’s longer (a future Merritt column, I’m sure) and Mockingbird construction continues. But here’s some news nuggets to start your day at 10:20 a.m. (a bit late? Perhaps, but we did say it’s slower today):

1. There were two fire trucks (my favorite, the hook-and-ladder, was there) and three police cars on the southbound Central Expy. access road just south of Mockingbird this morning around 9 a.m. Couldn’t tell if it was a fire or a car accident they were addressing, as the road was closed and traffic was diverted back onto Abbott. Anyone got details?

2. Remember last year’s rainy June? According to official totals, Dallas got 11.1 inches of rain this month last year, far above our 100-year average of 3.23 inches in June. It had been 25 years since Dallas saw more rain in a single month, and 80 years since we saw a rainier June. Heck, the Trinity River was five feet above its flood stage on June 30, 2007. Isn’t the Trinity flooding over the levees one of the seven signs of Armageddon? Granted, its June 4, but for the record, Dallas has a rain-meter reading of 0.00 so far this month.

3. How about an update on the SMU men’s basketball team, which went on a safari yesterday in South Africa’s Pilanesburg National Park are part of their 15-day trip to Africa and the hometowns of three of its players — Papa Dia and Bamba Fall (both from St. Louis, Senegal), and Mouhammad Faye (Dakar, Senegal). Monday they visited Soweto, South Africa, the hometown of Nobel Prize Winners Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu. The whole team took a 3-hour anthropology class called People of Africa in preparation for the trip. They return home from Johannesburg tomorrow. A chronicle of the trip and player diaries are here.

4. Five day after HPHS graduation and nothing has shown up on the local police reports about any house-party busts or underage drinking. After a busy May with multiple stories on underage drinking, it’s a welcome change. We have enough other things to report on.

Cathy Bryce Takes Over YWCA

The Highland Park ISD superintendant has just been named president of the Metropolitan YWCA’s board of directors. The release:

The YWCA of Metropolitan Dallas Board of Directors recently elected Dr. Cathy Bryce, superintendent of schools for the Highland Park Independent School District, as its 2008-2010 board president. Dr. Bryce succeeds Ka Cotter, retired Staubach vice chairman, who will remain on the board and executive committee as immediate past president.

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Re: HPHS Grad with a 4.0 GPA Good Enough?

HPISD sends this update to the post regarding a HPHS student with a 4.0 GPA not accepted to Vanderbilt.

Dear HPISD Parents & Friends,

Last night’s WFAA-Channel 8’s 10 p.m. newscast included the story we’ve been waiting to see about Sam Davison being wait listed at Vanderbilt. In the end, Sam was accepted to Vanderbilt, so congratulations are in order.

This story has been on hold for more than a month, so we were glad to see it air. To watch the story, click here: http://www.wfaa.com/video/index.html?nvid=251163 (There will be an ad before the story, so hang in there!)

Way to go, Sam!

HPHS Grad with a 4.0 GPA Good Enough?

Well, it’s not a big enough deal for Vanderbilt and it doesn’t guarantee him a spot at U.T. either. That really stinks.

Have The Crossing Guards Been Crossed?

We have received word from an Overheardian that all of the crossing guards at Bradfield and Armstrong Elementary schools have been let go. Other words were used for “let go,” but at best they were not “rehired.”

The district, the Overheardian says, claims to be “going in a different direction.” Word is that the guards were not giving any advance warning, nor were the principals at those respective schoos who had to issue the dismissals.
Parents are upset . . . stay tuned.

Preston Center Dance Recital

From Merritt:

Graduation events are over and the parties have started. But I’m sweating my ass off because I ran (along with hundreds of other moms)straight to dress rehearsal for tonight’s Preston Center Dance recital. You can tell the private school girls from the HPISD kids because the public schoolers didn’t have time to put on the costume, very rebel looking.

It Was a Field Day at Hyer

Here are a few photos from the Hyer Field Day yesterday.  They are kindergarten-through-second-grade-centric, because that’s where the photographer was located.

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Re:Today in the Park Cities

More importantly, have today’s elementary school kids ever seen a film strip?

And the fact that you never had field day as a kid explains a lot, Jason.

Today in the Park Cities

It’s a busy day, the last day of school before the summer:

1. Armstrong Elementary is having their field day at 9 a.m. I don’t remember getting a field day on the last day of school in elementary. Our special treat was getting to stay inside and watch movies. Remember when movies were only watched on VHS? Do today’s elementary school kids know of a time before DVDs?
2. UP Elementary fourth-graders are graduating at 12:30 p.m. Whatever that means.
3. Merritt says she’ll be too busy to blog because she’ll be at the fourth-grade graduation. Whatever that means.
4. The real graduation is taking place at Moody Coliseum, as the Highland Park High School seniors walk across the stage before retiring to Dallas Country Club for an all-night party. Let us hope no golf carts end up in the creek.

Father’s Day?

Overheard at Hyer Field Day, from a mom: “Look at all the fathers who are here.  Don’t they have jobs?”

Pictures of Field Day will be posted later.

Hyer Field Day Lunch Instructions, It Takes a Village

A Hyer mom forwarded me this blast e-mail yesterday from the school regarding today’s Field Day events. She was amused by the suggestion to have a another parent bring lunch for your child if you can’t be there yourself. Anyway, don’t forget your sack lunch. Charles, can you take lunch for the 1st and 4th grades while you’re picking up the teacher’s fav meal?

Dear Hyer Parents,

Please note that the Family picnic is still scheduled for tomorrow along with field day.  If you were planning to bring a lunch but can’t now due to the date change, please consider sending a sack lunch with your child.  Our cafeteria will not be prepared to accommodate everyone.  Donna usually orders less food on picnic day.  You may also consider having another parent get your child’s lunch.

Ambulance at HP Middle School

A rumor made its way to my inbox this afternoon, about someone at Highland Park Middle School being picked up by an ambulance. The rumor speculated about the reason for the medical call. I will not repeat the speculation here.

For those who’ve heard the rumor, I will share just the facts that we’ve been able to verify, as reporter Cassie Clark has found:

UP fire got the call at 10:41 a.m. today.

They cannot say whether it was a student, or anything else, because it was a medical call.

If your kid was rushed to a hospital for medical reasons, you probably would want the fire department to keep it private too. Not that I’m confirming that it was a kid. I don’t know.

Cupcakes Aren’t Considered Handicapped

This just in from an alert Overheardian:

Merritt, with plenty of parking in front of UP Elementary just now, one mom decided to park in the handicap spot because (choose one)

1.  It’s the last week of school

2.  I’m transporting cupcakes for my child’s classroom

3.  Dr. Carter’s spot was taken

4.  I’ve never done this before

5.  I’ll never do it again

Quite a few excuses.  When will others respect that those spots are there for a reason.  If you’re in it illegally, a person with a handicap cannot be in it legally.  Think about it.

I’ve noticed this happens more often when it’s raining. Just think how much harder it is for a disabled person to get to the building in the rain when there are no designated spaces available.

Stephanie Hutson’s Leaving Us This Week

Krista beat me to this, but I’ll add my one cent’s worth.

The role of an assistant managing editor is a tricky one, and requires someone who can wear many hats. Stephanie helped everyone on our editorial staff make this a better set of newspapers each week, while also being one of our champion bloggers. She is going to be missed by our staff. It’s difficult to show an adequate amount of appreciation for someone’s job well done, and I fear we’ll fall short in recognizing Stephanie today and tomorrow. But if a public ‘thank you’ can suffice for now, you have it here in writing from me on behalf of the rest of the staff.

Thank you for all you’ve done Stephanie, especially for all the little things you did that we don’t know that you did to make these papers get out each week.

Remembering Krissi Holman

In this touching DMN video, University Park resident Susan Holman discusses memories of her daughter Krissi who died in 2004 at age 18. A special HPHS graduation ceremony was held at her home when it became clear she would not make it until the scheduled event.

UP Elementary Field Day Greets First Timer and Old Friend

First grader Gracie Green didn’t get to take part in field day last year due to her overwhelming medical issues. Look at her today. Go Gracie!

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Crass Transportation

From Merritt, by way of an alert reader, comes a query about limousines spotted in front of Hyer during carpool dropoff recently.  I did see a limo yseterday, and although I didn’t see one today, I’m told there was one.  All I saw today was a UP Police SUV parked at the entrance.

So, before we get on our soapbox about the inappropriateness of driving young children to school in limos, does anyone know the story on this?

I Love Rock and Roll

I just saw a magnificent performance by the Hyer Fourth-Graders of a musical revue called “Music Through the Ages.”  The kids dressed in period costumes (also known as the kind of clothes I wore just recently), and sang and danced with gusto.  There is one thing that bothers me, though.  Why was Joan Jett considered an oldie?  She’s just as relevant as she ever was.

HPISD Cinema

A couple of weeks ago one of my kids said they watched the Alvin and the Chipmunks movie at school- the whole thing. Then last night one of the other kids said they watched Where the Red Fern Grows- start to finish. And it’s not even the last day or week of school. That’s awesome.

Cash and Ice Cream

The end-of-school-year field trips continue today as first-graders from Hyer walk over to La Jolla Bank and then Baskin-Robbins.  At the bank, I’m told the kids will be allowed to hold large sums of cash, reportedly $10,000.

I have two thoughts on this: first, I just hope the bank doesn’t try to interest the kids in any sub-prime mortgages, and, second, why exactly do we have a La Jolla bank in University Park?  Isn’t it fair, then, to have a Park Cities Bank in La Jolla?