It's unfortunate that one unbalanced parent has decided to target this school.

It appears to be a personal vendetta.

Now this parent is complaining that her child was rejected from Travis.

I wonder why? Could it be because she feels that her targets will be attacked on this web page.

It's yellow journalism at best.

Attempting senior school administrators is too easy: they a difficult job.

Instead of attacking, have you considered supporting?

[Ed Note: Absolutely! There are several senior administrators at various schools I support 100%. I would wager that the previous poster probably echos the same. Also remember: these are reader's opinions that do not necessarily reflect mine. You can read a story I wrote about Hill MS here. You're welcome to take issue with anything published here.]

Have you been to Hill Middle school lately? My mom used to teach there when Rex Cole was principal.

At that time, teachers were enthusiastic to teach because of his leadership. He led by example, not by intimidation. My mom left because of the way teachers and children are now treated.

I applaud this parent for standing up for the teachers and the kids. You, too, should applaud her.

It's true that Rex Cole was an inspirational leader who focused on students.

He was dedicated to their success and supported them as well as successfully balancing his support for the community and his teachers.

Yes, we were his teachers and gave 100% to do our best for the students and for him.

He led with integrity, was honest with you, and performed his duties effectively and successfully on behalf of the students.

Our hats off to him because we are truly grateful for having worked for a great administrator and friend.

[Ed Note: This is one of about 50 "we miss Mr. Cole" comments we've gotten in the past week. This sums it up nicely.]

Not everything at Hill is as bad as it seems. There are some very good people too.

The most prominent of these is Vice Principal Keith Evans and the great job he does (which goes largely un-noticed).

If there is any one person responsible for holding the school together, it is Mr. Evans.

DISD could not find better leadership than Mr. Evans.

The staff, kids, and neighborhood owe him a big "thank you".

[Ed Note: Mr. Evans is a dedicated educator and leader. He works long hours, has the support (and attention) of the students as well as the teachers.]

Schools should have many people to thank. Not just one.

The reason why schools, such as Hexter Elementary, are great is because of the team of teachers, leaders and parents and the caring and love for the kids.

I do not know much about HILL but I do not hear great things about it at all.

Where is the buzz about this school?

It is true that Hill has its problems.

If the incoming principle will do the right thing with the staff and try to get the community involved it can be again a great school.

The problem has been the previous administration.

We have a lot of good people at Hill who know what to do but have been unable to perform their jobs.

The people that live here all want Hill to be a great school that they can send their children to without resorting to private school.

I would hope the staff and community will rally around the new principle to rebuild this once great school.

GO HILL!!

He listens, he works and he cares. Loved working with him and can't thank him enough.

It is NOT a personal vendetta.

Many in DISD know about the problems over at Hill, but there is fear that replacing an administrator based on how he or she treats teachers is not supporting other administrators in general.

So, let the school go down hill (pun intended), and pretty soon, the kids from that school will be just as ganged-up as the ones who come out of Gaston.

At one time, kids from Hill would show up at BA ready to learn. Now, they argue, cuss and act like gang-banger wanna-be's.

That is the dirty little secret about DISD middle schools.

They can push them off on the high schools, even if they fail the TAKS, whatever.

Heck, BA even gets incoming freshmen who are PREGNANT!

Blame the parents of course, but school leadership could quell a lot of it. Hill's leadership and staff keeps turning over.

That isn't just one "unbalanced" parent.

Lions and tigers and bear...oh no!

Pregnant girls at BA...oh no!

Gang-bangers at Hill...oh no!

Who is the hateful poster behind the curtain? Is it the parent of the student rejected from Travis? Perhaps not, but the attitude to attack is certainly there.

Changes are in the horizon, and when they do, will you support the new administration? Or will you continue to "hunt" the lions, tigers and bears you perceive to be below par?

Maybe you prefer to bus these children and administrators to another part of town?

[Ed Note: Opinion noted. You believe that gangs at middle schools, and pregnant high school freshmen are a boost to the district. I'd be interested in knowing how you believe these fit into your vision for a quality district by 2010.]

Wow, reading this now makes me want to scrape up some more money to send my child to private school--and that makes me sick.

Reading your harsh words to the parent concerned is not the kind of example I want my children to learn from.

Is this typical of the type of parents from Hill?

Another concerned parent: we care that's all.

Maybe just back up with good things about Hill: are there articles I should read that give us a reason to send our children there?

Oh, do not be so naive as to think that private school parents are all gems. They can be just as cut throat and egocentric as their plaid wearing kids.

In other words, it takes all kinds. And we have all kinds in Far East Dallas.

Hill has its problems. What it needs are parents to hang tough and make the adminisration there do better. That school was great only a few years ago. It can be again, but the community has to beat feet inside its walls on a regular basis.

Its TAG program that feeds into Bryan Adams' AP program is fairly good. Again, all school things must be valued by parents to do any good for kids.

I'm still waiting on that explanation as to how gangs and pregnant kids are a good thing in DISD.

The gangs are bad for the district but parents have to take some blame.

For the girls that are having babies you don't discourage them from going to school what kind of person are you.

If we had more caring parents and school staff maybe these things wouldn't be happening.

What are you doing to better the school district!

[Ed Note: I have an alternative approach: why don't we discourage gang participation (getting downright nasty if needed) and discourage high school girls from having babies? In some parts of our culture, it is socially acceptable to do both. If you want it to stop, you need to find a way to quit approving, communicate your disapproval of it, and make it unacceptable.]

Absolutely, parents are to blame. I wonder if some encourage it!

When I was in high school, (granted it was almost 20 years ago) it would have been completely unacceptable (not to mention embarrassing) to be pregnant in high school.

I have heard its cool to go to a baby shower in high school.

What? Cool?

Cool is passing a TAKS test and going to college or some form of higher training--not having a baby shower!

Do these kids actually think that having children is easy?

I have 3 and it's the MOST DIFFICULT job I do daily!

Maybe these parents need to step up and be parents, not the caregiver for these teenage girls' babies.

[Ed Note: I'm also worried about the children of children. I know when I was 16, I wouldn't have been ready to be a parent. Heck, at 40, I'm not even sure I was ready!]

Well, you see, we have to have programs in Health Class that promote abstinence. Can't really talk about how to prevent a pregnancy. The studies show that abstinence only programs do NOT lower the pregnancy rate. In fact, they can make it worse. By not informing the kids how their bodies work--and how to handle it in all cases--- you are leaving them ignorant. You do not want to know what sexual urban legends these kids believe.

Oh, and many girls think that having a baby is just natural. After all, mama was 16, grandma was 15 when she had her first.

Yet, DISD refuses to admit how many HUNDREDS of pregnant students we have in the district. When they give birth, they automatically miss six weeks of school. Many drop out because nobody will take their kid while they are in school. Their children are being raised in the exact same environment the mother came from, problems and all.

If the public would stand up to the religious right and DEMAND a comprehensive and honest sex ed class, some of this would decline. But as long as people want to deny that poor kids have sex and make more poor kids in the process, well....

You are so correct when you say that many girls think that there is nothing wrong with being pregnant at 14, 15 & 16.

The girls walk around proudly, announce their baby showers and after giving birth they bring the babies to the school as if they have something to be proud of.

Telling young people not to have sex is a good idea however, I have 3 boys and I have decided that it's best for me to teach them how to be safe and that there is far more that can happen as a result of unprotected sex than just making a baby.

Since a great deal of dating takes place at school, DISD does need a better sex ed program.

There is so much attention being focused on so many other issues in DISD that very few seem to realize how many young girls, not boys have and will continue to fall through the cracks as a result of pregnancy.

I think that sex ed must begin primarily with our young ladies since many of them are often left being single parents.

I pray that one day soon more mothers of young men will step up and demand that their sons take financial responsibility for the babies that they create.

I must also say that it's not just poor girls having babies, this problem has crossed the economic barrier. We have to start to focus our attention on the problem of babies having babies and the economical impact that this wide spread problem has on Dallas.

If we focus on finances and color we will find ourselves in the same position that has kept the DISD school board members from doing their jobs "Racially Divided".

Ditto!

I'm, too, am still waiting to hear why pregnant girls and gangs are good for the DISD.

Come on over to Woodrow and you will see the Parkland Pregnancy Center.

Oh! My!

Talk about lions and tigers and bears.

What is wrong with our society to believe it's OK for young teenagers to be having children and for the citizens to pay for it?

What changes are you talking about? Do you know something that the rest of us in the East Dallas community do not? Are these changes coming soon, and if so, what are they, so we can credit the correct administrator.

Our tax dollars pay for every misstep teenagers make. WE pay the bills for the babies born at Parkland, the WIC food, the Lone Star card, the free follow up care. WE pay for the gang interventions, the probation department, the juvenile halls, the truancy courts, and more.

Hill M.S. is not unlike other urban schools. Administrators must keep a team functioning well to handle what they see every day.

Our schools have to admit whoever crosses the threshold, and we should!

But we need to be realistic, too. If all the signs point to a bad--or incorrectly placed administration, then fix it!

And, by the way, ATTACK is in the eye of the beholder. To point out flaws in a system and to make observations about failed policies is not an attack.

[Ed Note: I'm still waiting to hear the explanation as to why teen pregnancies and gangs are a good thing at a middle school!]

Without personal attacks, let's honestly look at what is going on there at Hill.

Ask for access to their OHI report to see the staff perception of the administration, look at the turnover rate for staff, look at the current benchmark and ACP results that are now being generated and then compare them to past administrations.

What do the grounds look like? Where is the money being spent?

Is the school child-centered or administrative-centered?

Ask the neighborhood parents if they would send their kids to Hill.

Find out how welcome current parents feel and their perception of the education that their children are getting there.

Unfortunately, I think the TAKS results will decide everything.

For the record, how low to bring someone's child into this discussion like you have.

Very unprofessional if you are an educator and very unethical in behavior.

[Ed Note: I'm sorry, I don't see where you're headed with the "unprofessional" portion. I haven't seen anyone bring someone else's child into the discussion. Further, I thought that the entire discussion about Hill MS centered around kids. Did I miss something?]

I guess I was trying not to say "the parent of the student that didn't get into Travis".

Couldn't that person have just said "former PTA vice-president" or something?

It seemed criticism had moved over that fine line into mean-spirited.

Thanks for asking for the clarification.

I went to: Hexter, Spence (when it was the TAG magnet), and BA.

I currently am a student at SMU and my brother is attending another top 10 university.

What have I learned?

Not only did I get a quality education, but often times I out perform fellow SMU students who attended Jesuit, Hockaday, etc.

My DISD education not only taught me the three Rs, but I learned compassion for others and acceptance of all.

Many students left Hexter, more left after middle school, and a few ended up graduating with me - it was the same situation in the 1990s ("white flight" to Plano or private schools).

Parents were afraid and they took their kids out of DISD. Was it worth it? Not in my opinion.

Taking your kids out of DISD is cowardly and doesn't solve anything - it just teaches them to jump ship when things aren't going well in life.

Stick with DISD, after all isn't the parenting really what matters the most?

Thank you for sharing such wisdom!! You are right. Leaving will not help DISD. We have to support the schools. Your success at SMU or anywhere else you go speaks well for all of Dallas.

It is not cowardly to want the best education for your child. Hexter is a fantastic school but only because the parents have been vigilant and demanded the best from DISD. Unfortunately, the vigilance has not been loud enough at Hill MS and it is not a place to send your student if you expect the best education now. Since you went to Spence for the TAG program, I assume you took the AP path at BA. You were very fortunate. You were probably not in many classes with students who could have cared less about school and didn't have any parental support. You can get a good education in DISD but too many of us almost have to shop around and hope for openings in magnet programs because our neighborhood schools are not as good. The school I sent my son to 10 years ago is not anywhere close to being what it was. I volunteer there but will not send my younger kids there. I DON'T want to live in the suburbs, but if the education market doesn't have what you need, then you go somewhere else.