Lorenzo Navarette of BWA Architects, the company designing Westwood's proposed 21st century schools, describes the process of working with school districts and stakeholders in the planning phases.

Westwood resident Hattie Kitchens skipped the May election for a proposed $39-million school bond. She didn't feel she knew enough about the plans for the school district's first major rebuilding project in 40 years.

By Lisa Tang

An additional $3 million to Palestine Independent School District, including raises of roughly $5,000 for 300 teachers, is just one of the benefits schools districts statewide will get from a $11.6-billion finance law.

Rev. Jordan Byrd explains how the YMCA is piloting a new program, known as the Character Development Learning Institute, sponsored through a $10,000 grant from the YMCA's national program. Byrd works directly with about 60 kids, ages 8-12, attending the Y's summer camp.

They may not know it, but the 8-12 year old kids attending the Palestine YMCA's Summer Camp are part of something big — the Character Development Learning Institute.

University Academy of Palestine will reach another milestone this week, graduating its first senior class. Fourteen graduates will cross the stage Saturday morning at the University of Texas at Tyler, along with graduates from sister campuses in Tyler and Longview.

The last harvest of the year for students at Elkhart Elementary included 53 pounds of produce: potatoes, kale, onions, green beans, carrots, and mint. The harvest came through an Anderson County Master Gardeners program.

Chanylla Gibson never needed her mom and dad to tell her to finish her homework or get to school. Now she wishes they could.

Steven Bates, a student in Ginny Gayso's Pre-K class at Westwood Primary, reads a booklet with phonetic sounds.

Education innovations don't typically come from federal or state dictates. They come, quietly and without fanfare, from dedicated local school teachers.

Most students find at least one teacher inspiring during their academic career.

A buzz spreading around Palestine’s Northside Primary about the makerspace, a new activity next to the science lab, has grabbed the attention of most of school’s 500 students.

While legislators in Austin, including Palestine’s own Cody Harris, are working to pass measures to increase teacher salaries, the Palestine school board has beat them to the stick, so to speak, as they have already increased teachers’ incomes and incentives by as much as $5,700 per year.

To improve school readiness for all students, the Palestine Independent School District will offer preschool to families of all income levels, starting in the 2019-2020 school year. The free program will apply to all children 4 years old on, or before, Sept. 1, 2019.

The Palestine Independent School District has made pre-Kindergarten education a top priority, with full-day, fully-funded school classes to all four-year-old students who don't qualify for Head Start or other programs. The district estimates it doesn't serve pre-K programs to more than 100 s…

Palestine school board members on Thursday accepted the resignation of Lauren Stewart, a junior high teacher and coach charged with inappropriate conduct with a high school student.

A junior high school teacher is on suspension, awaiting termination after allegations of an inappropriate relationship with an adult high school student were confirmed by district officials.

BY WILLIAM PATRICK

Former language arts teacher Rebecca Huff takes over as principal of Elkhart Middle School, effective Monday. In December, members of the Elkhart school board offered her a one-year probationary contract.

Deputy Sheriff Pat Green travels to schools in Anderson County for 10-12 weeks in the fall and spring to teach elementary students that saying “no” to drugs is in their best interest—and she has no doubt that it works.

A Palestine High School student was injured in the woodshop class Thursday afternoon. The instructor, a certified Emergency Medical Technician, provided immediate care, the student was transported via Life Flight to Children's Medical Center in Dallas.

Most local superintendents oppose the new Texas Education Agency's rating system. By relying too heavily on test scores, they said, it fails to provide a balanced and accurate picture of student learning.

By LISA TANG

Thanks to a bonanza fundraiser, Operation Read has raised more than enough dough — $20,000 — to purchase four books for every pre-K, Kindergarten, first- and second-grade child in Palestine schools, including students in the Palestine and Westwood districts.

Aiden Jackson reads his own comic book replicated from Dav Pilkey's Captain Underpants and the Talking Toilets.

Aiden Jackson, 10, didn't like to read, but he loved to draw. He drew cartoon characters and comics. He enjoyed cutting out paper figures, both in school and at home.

Texas ranks high for student bullying, but it is only one of eight states without both anti-bullying laws and policies. The other states without such policies: Arkansas, Colorado, Hawaii, Mississippi, Missouri, Arizona, and North Carolina.

Most of them were not walking when what has come to be known as 9-11 happened, yet the cataclysm that changed this nation in so many ways has also helped define the post-911 generation.

By LISA TANG

Cayuga schools get tax boost