Education

Lake Air Montessori Magnet School dedicated an ‘outdoor classroom/learning environment’ in front of the school last week in honor of Robin McDurham, former principal of the school and a former Waco mayor.

West Independent School District’s board of trustees broke ground on Jerry Mashek Drive on Thursday for the new combined middle and high school campus in what Mayor Tommy Muska calls the final benchmark in the town’s rebuilding efforts since the April 2013 West Fertilizer Co. plant explosion.

Apple Inc. awarded new products to four Waco elementary schools for the spring semester as part of the federal government’s nationwide ConnectED program, which encourages businesses to provide more technological opportunities for students of low socioeconomic means.

West Independent School District is breaking ground Thursday on its new combined campus that will hold both its middle and high schools after its former schools were destroyed in the West Fertilizer Co. plant explosion in April 2013.

The Waco Independent School District board of trustees committed money to transform the old Viking Hills Elementary School into the Greater Waco Advanced Health Care Academy on Thursday as part of an ambitious list of maintenance and repair projects in the upcoming year.

“FIFI,” billed as the last flying B-29 bomber in existence, is in Waco as part of the Commemorative Air Force AirPower History Tour at Texas State Technical College Airport this weekend.

Local philanthropist Audre Rapoport has volunteered to personally pay at least $5,000 to save a local spelling bee that was threatened to be canceled because of a lack of a sponsor.

Tablets and e-readers soon will be among the items patrons can check out from the Hewitt Public Library as the center turns to technology to meet members’ needs.

A University High School student faces expulsion after giving another student synthetic marijuana Friday afternoon, leading to that classmate’s hospitalization.

Baylor University’s W.R. Poage Legislative Library opened an exhibit of “unusual” treasures from its vaults Wednesday in celebration of National Archives Month and the Poage’s 35th anniversary.

For the fourth year, Family Health Center partnered with Waco Independent School District to hold free dental exams for all elementary school students who ask for one.

Competitors will rappel down Baylor University

’s new McLane Stadium. The event will raise money for Communities in Schools of the Heart of Texas.

The McLennan County Challenge Academy soon could become an authorized High School Equivalency Program after it was discovered last year that the center never had applied for the distinction.

The use of electronic cigarettes is officially banned in Lacy Lakeview on city or school grounds.

Waco-area principals hope to improve their state accountability ratings with a program that uses mentor teachers to provide instructional and classroom-management techniques to teachers.

The Waco Independent School District board of trustees was divided Thursday over whether redrawing attendance zones to level student enrollment numbers at University and Waco high schools is necessary.

Waco Independent School District officials are looking to join with the city — which could expand its private clinic to provide more preventive care — in an effort to drive down the district’s health insurance costs.

Waco Independent School District teacher Jennifer Kunz said remembering the poverty she endured as a child and the abandonment it caused gives her the resolve not to let her students feel as unloved as she did.

WAXAHACHIE — Authorities say 12 elementary students suffered minor injuries when their school bus overturned between Waxahachie and Boyce when their driver became distracted.

The Waco Independent School District board of trustees unanimously approved a slightly lowered tax rate Wednesday after a public hearing in which no one contested the decision.

Indian Spring Middle School teachers come into this school year with some new priorities and prepared for the first day of school with a week of in-service training, resulting in a calm start to the 2014-15 school year for the campus Monday.

Figuring out the number of calories in a meal could soon become as simple as pushing a button, thanks to a new calorie-counter machine GE is developing with Baylor University.

Waco Independent School District human resource officials on Thursday recommended United Healthcare as the district’s new health insurance provider after its former carrier, Humana, asked for a 48 percent increase to renew with the same employee coverage.

Waco Independent School District officials have often pointed to poverty as one of the hindrances to raising academic scores in the region, but board President Pat Atkins said poverty isn’t an excuse for poor state-mandated accountability ratings.