Norm Uhl

HISD Spokesperson Norm Uhl Fired

Norm Uhl will no longer be spinning HISD.​Winner of Best Flack in last year's Best of Houston® issue, Houston school district spokesman Norm Uhl is now out of a job. He was fired by the district. We gave the award to Uhl, a former KHOU reporter, because he seemed willing to battle what had ... More >>

HISD Adds Transgender Category To Its Anti-Discrimination Policy

HISD specifies transgenders as protected​The Houston school district has added categories for transgendered individuals to its policy against discrimination. In addition to the already existing "sexual orientation," HISD has added "gender identity, and/or gender expression" to its list of cat ... More >>

Obama's Desperate Commencement-Speech Offer: At Least One HISD School Takes Him Up On It

Official Whote House photoAnyone want a speaker? Anyone?​A news item today, gleefully highlighted by the Drudge Report, noted an internal Obama administration memo bemoaning the lack of offers from high schools for the president to give the commencement speech. We're thinking this probably fa ... More >>

HISD Cancels All Soccer Games This Week

Snowmageddon cometh​Get ready for snickers from the Midwest and Northeast, if they possibly get this news through the tons of ice and snow they're buried under: HISD is canceling all soccer games for the rest of the week. Soccer is the only outdoor sport going on now, and afternoon temps migh ... More >>

HISD To Consider All-Girls School

An all-girls' school for HISD?​The Houston school district is considering a school limited only to girls, a district spokesman says. A public meeting Monday night will discuss the possibility, Norm Uhl said. The district already has an all-boys charter school, but an organization called The ... More >>

HISD & No Child Left Behind: Still Not There, But Making Progress, District Says

Some being left behind​Another week, another bunch of statistics and reports on public school district performance.Today it's a report on how districts are doing in making progress towards a 2014 deadline to meet standards in the No Child Left Behind Act.For two years, the Houston school district ... More >>

Lee High School Is Sinking!!

Photo courtesy wikipedia Lee High School: Bricks started falling from the facade​Lee High School is almost 50 years old, and it doesn't seem to be aging well.In fact, it's sinking.Worse, the two distinct parts of the building are sinking at different rates."The building has been declared sa ... More >>

Book 'em, Danno

Constables go after HISD students' unreturned books

Crime Sweep Or Courtesy Visit: Uniformed Deputy Constables Go After Missing Textbooks

The long arm of the law is coming for you​Irma Alvarez was at work on Thursday, June 17 when her cousin called her to say a uniformed officer was at the door, demanding the return of the textbooks Alvarez's son still had after the end of the school year. Alvarez had received notice by mail that p ... More >>

HISD's Maintenance Department: Where's the Can Do?

HISD's maintenance department needs some fixing up​Houston ISD's maintenance department, officially known as the Construction and Facility Services Department suffers from low morale, a lack of any kind of plan, and hasn't had an appraisal review for more than two years. Some "interim managers" h ... More >>

Terry Grier's Breakfast in the Classroom - Food For All or an Enormous High Caloric Dump Site?

Holly Gologhtly wouldn't throw out the food HISD does​As Breakfast in the Classroom spreads across the breadth and width of the Houston ISD, Superintendent Terry Grier has announced he's been getting some "push back" from parents and educators who aren't embracing the plan.Critics -- most from som ... More >>

Mario Gallegos Continues His Anti-Terry Grier Letter Writing Campaign

Gallegos is writing, but he's not hearing back from Grier​State Senator Mario Gallegos has continued to dictate letters since calling for Houston ISD superintendent Terry Grier to leave in an earlier letter, saying Grier was going to ruin the lives of students here.In his latest set of letters -- ... More >>

Fire At LyondellBasel Plant Won't Affect HISD

Few details are available on the blaze right now​There's a smoky fire at the LyondellBasel plant southeast of town, and most educational experts that learning shouldn't take place next to a smoky fire at a chemical plant.As many as eight HISD schools could be affected by fumes, depending on which ... More >>

Semi-Comeback for the Tower Theater

Plus: Rites of Bellaire - It's not hazing, it's fun

High School Girls Wrapped In Plastic And Slathered In Whipped Cream & Chocolate: Just Fine With HISD

Welcome to the Bellaire High volleyball team!​Here's what you need to bring if you go to the annual Bellaire High School girls' freshmen volleyball team sleepover: Whipped cream, chocolate pudding, a plastic tarp and plenty of Saran Wrap. No, you sick bastard, not for any immoral purposes, bu ... More >>

Of All The Middle Schools For A Stabbing, You Wouldn't Expect Pershing

​Pershing Middle School is not exactly in one of the Houston school district's most rugged areas -- it's near West U, for crying out loud. But Pershing was the location for a relatively rare middle-school stabbing between two students today.Before school this morning, in the schoolyard, we had two ... More >>

Seven-Year-Old Nabbed For Weed At HISD School

​You knew something like this was gonna happen as soon as Obama was elected: There is a drug epidemic among seven-year-olds. You have to define an epidemic as "one kid," but still, that seems like one kid more than we would have guessed would be picked up for weed possession at an HISD school ... More >>

HISD Rejects Another New Source of Revenue, For Now

Photo courtesy HISD​Is the Houston ISD Police Department about to expand its drug interdiction efforts to include the seizure of teachers' and students' cars and trucks? No, HISD has no plans for that, a laughing district spokesman Norm Uhl said this morning. Last night the board approved two m ... More >>

More Personnel Moves In HISD's TAKS-Cheating Investigation

​There's been more fallout from the Houston school district's investigation into whether a principal at Key Middle School may have improperly tampered with TAKS scores and then tried to cover it up.HISD spokesman Norm Uhl tells Hair Balls six district employees have been reassigned since the Thurs ... More >>

All Is Not Sweetness And Light At Reagan High School -- UPDATED

​Further discussions of what organizers are calling "systemic illegal referrals of students to CEP/alternative disciplinary education on the basis of forged government documents" at Reagan High School will be just one of hot-button agenda items tonight at a suddenly called meeting of "over 100 ... More >>

One More (Depressing) Statistic On That Very Controversial "Stay In School" Presidential Speech

​The Houston school district provided some anecdotal evidence of how many parents ordered their kids not to watch President Obama's speech on education (Westside represent!!), but we wondered if there was a little more info to be gleaned.The district put up on its website a link to a form that cou ... More >>

Millions & Millions On School Improvements Getting Voted On Today: You Getting Any?

Photo courtesy HISD​The Houston school board plans to vote later today on $121.5 million in school improvements over and above the projects approved in the 2007 bond election.Because each of the nine trustee districts has exactly the same amount of overcrowding/undercrowding and facilities in need ... More >>

How Many Brave HISD Parents Refused To Let Their Kids's Brains Be Rotted By Obama? Not Many

​HISD is releasing some scattered statistics on how many parents sent in "opt-out" forms so their children could remain God-fearing Americans instead of becoming Communist by listening to a president tell them to stay in school.District spokesman Norm Uhl  says no survey of the district's 300 ... More >>

HISD About To Hire Its Superintendent, And Some Critics Emerge

​We have word from HISD spokesman Norm Uhl that the district might officially name the new superintendent at 2 o'clock. If the choice is Terry Grier, as it's been reported, some people are already unhappy. (Update: It is.) "I'm very disappointed in the board," State Sen. Mario Gallegos, who serves ... More >>

Learn Valuable Skills At Home!! Through HISD!!!

HISD is expanding its at-home learning program, whereby kids from across the state (mostly home-schoolers) can get a tuition-free educational curriculum monitored by a certified teacher via computer and phone.The district partners with the Texas Connections Academy to offer the program, which is the ... More >>

Saavedra Tells HISD When His Last Day Will Be, By E-Mail

Turns out, Houston ISD superintendent Abe Saavedra sent out an e-mail to district administrators last Friday, giving them his last day news. HISD spokesman Norm Uhl found out about it Friday afternoon and planned to release the news today, "but the Bellaire Examiner got a tip and scooped me. G ... More >>

Travis Elementary -- A/K/A Swine Flu Central -- Reopens

Travis Elementary's swine-flu heyday came just as the topic was losing its national cachet, but the school made the most of it -- closing completely after days of frantic parents keeping their kids home, leaving the school a ghost town.At first HISD said a weekend scrub-down would be enough to set t ... More >>

School's Out For Summer: Travis Elementary Closes For Rest of School Year

Photo courtesy of WikipediaTravis Elementary, the school where one kid after another was coming down with or thinking he was coming down with swine flu, was supposed to open next Tuesday to finish out the year in some sort of style. That's not going to happen now, Norm Uhl, spokesman for the Houst ... More >>

Travis Elementary: Flu Central (For Kids, Not Teachers)

Even more kids are out at Travis Elementary today, HISD spokesman Norm Uhl tells Hair Balls -- of the 712 registered, 378 stayed home today. Another dozen felt sick at school, went to the clinic and were sent home.Oddly, teachers don't seem to be affected: Only two are out sick. (Another two are hom ... More >>

Travis Elementary Gets Hit With A Wave Of...Something

The hallways are pretty empty today at Travis Elementary near the Woodland Heights. Of the 712 students there, 242 are out sick.It can't be a Senior Skip Day, so what is up, HISD?"Twenty-six additional students at Travis were sent home sick today bringing the total to 242," spokesman Norm Uhl tells ... More >>

Harvard Elementary Kids, Get Your Butts Back To School

Another HISD school has declared total victory in the battle against swine flu (No political correctness here, pork industry!!). Harvard Elementary in the Heights, one of the first district schools to close down, will reopen tomorrow.The city's health department has given the OK for the move, HISD s ... More >>

Swine Flu Closes Three HISD Schools, Episcopal High -- And All Of Fort Worth ISD (UPDATED)

HISD has announced two schools have closed until further notice because of possible -- but not confirmed -- cases of swine flu.Harvard Elementary and Hamilton Middle School, both in the Heights, are the schools."Late last night the City of Houston Health Department informed HISD Superintendent Abela ... More >>

Swine Flu 1, Lyons Elementary 0

Photo by Paul KnightAlejandra Bravo and Alejandra ReyesHISD is working on its first swine flu evacuation, which started with about an hour left of TAKS testing. The students at Lyons Elementary will have to take the whole thing over again, according to district spokesman Norm Uhl. The infected child ... More >>

The Texas Fitnessgram Idea May Not Be As Awe-Inspiring As Our Governor Would Have Us Think

Photo by mikebairdEarlier this week, Governor Rick Perry called a press conference to announce the results of last spring's statewide Fitnessgram assessment of Texas public-school students. According to a press release, the results were based on six tests "taken by more then two million students in ... More >>

The Drug Sweeps Are Ending At HISD (For One Reason Or Another)

The Houston school district is coming under heavy fire for its "no-tolerance" drug-dog searches of school parking lots, mostly because they nabbed a popular West U teacher who is very likely to be proven innocent.West U residents, when they get up in arms, tend to get results. HISD superintendent Ab ... More >>

HISD's Drug-Sniffing Dog Ends Its Slump

It's been a tough time for HISD's drug-sniffing dog (today's name: Cocainey).Even though he's been out every school day since December 11 -- district spokesman Norm Uhl tells Hair Balls more than a third of HISD's parking lots have been searched in that time -- he's been coming up empty.Today, thoug ... More >>

HISD Teachers Now Have The Cleanest Cars In The World, Apparently

Even though our noble effort to get the drug-addled teaching corps of HISD free detailing at Bubbles Car Wash ultimately failed, it appears the need for clean ultimately got through.HISD spokesman Norm Uhl reports that Cracky the drug-sniffing dog (our name for him this week) has searched 58 school ... More >>

Riding To The Rescue Of HISD's Pot-Smoking Image

The bad news: Another Houston teacher has been busted for pot.The good news: Let's look at the media alert from interim spokesman Norm Uhl -- Based on an anonymous tip, HISD PD's K-9 unit searched the parking lot at Woodson MS. One teacher has been arrested for possession of marijuana. I am on my wa ... More >>

Drug Education

HISD has the world's busiest sniffer dog

HISD: Home Of The World's Busiest Drug-Sniffing Dog

Houston school officials want to be very clear -- the latest employees arrested for drugs were not teachers at a northwest side charter school.Their desire to make the point clear is understandable, given that so many teachers and staffers have been nabbed for pot lately.So let's emphasize -- the tw ... More >>

More HISD Middle-School Staffers Nabbed For Pot

What is it with HISD teachers and pot these days? A month ago, a middle-school assistant principal gets nabbed for growing dope in his home. Now, a pair of teachers at Williams Middle School (Northwest side represent!) are making friends in county due to a meddling tipster and a drug-sniffing ... More >>

Cinderella Time At Mount Carmel High

Teacher Of The Year And Hero To Drunk Drivers

Still Hiring – the Houston School District

Selling Kids to HISD

Some HISD Campuses Operating On Generators

No Bus Left Behind

HISD Closed Tomorrow

HISD Cancels Games, Trips This Weekend

The Mean Spirit of Texas?

Two veteran TV news reporters accuse Channel 11 of age discrimination