Fort Worth Weekly Classifieds // March 13-19, 2024

Each month you’ll find something different—from performances, artist talks, and unique tours to art making, music, and films.

LETTERS

FWISD Kowtowing to Christian Nationalists?

The Fort Worth school district has adopted a sex ed curriculum that excludes Spanishspeaking families — and uses COVID relief funds inappropriately.

This is another instance of board trustees and the administration placing the concerns of non-stakeholders, particularly Christian Nationalists, above the needs of the student population, likely out of fear and from being reactive rather than responsive.

I don’t envy the trustees’ positions. I see the tremendous amount of work they do, but I cannot comprehend how a vendor lacking full Spanish translation managed to pass through the committee (other than that the law didn’t require the committee to have expertise).

This is where the board could have monitored the process and stepped in to

and brown students, yet their actions contradict this claim. They advocate for the ban of culturally relevant books and educational resources, oppose initiatives for mental health support like social-emotional learning, and protest funding for programs designed specifically for Black and brown students such as My Brother’s Keeper, My Sister’s Keeper and Girls, Inc.

Because trustees reacted to non-stakeholder concerns, they again failed in the process and our emergent bilinguals will not be supported. As long as board members continue to disregard the needs of Black and brown students, Black and brown students will continue to struggle. Early in the vetting process, the district should have stepped in and disqualified any vendor that was not fully translated.

support our emergent bilingual students. The trustees believe they didn’t have a choice. I disagree. While the law requires abstinence-centered education, it does not prevent the board from adopting a more comprehensive model with a better teaching methodology. It just has to be abstinence-forward.

Last year, FWISD purchased a sex ed curriculum that was fully translated into several languages and was abstinence-forward. ETR HealthSmart was an eight-year adoption, meaning the district would not need to purchase another curriculum for eight years. HealthSmart could have been supplemented to cover all state requirements for less money.

While the law requires the district to adopt a curriculum that covers the state requirements (TEKS), it doesn’t specify that it needs to through a singular vendor. It specifically says “curriculum materials,” plural.

The board could have balanced fiscal concerns with equity and supplemented ETR HealthSmart to cover all the TEKS for less money. Additionally, using COVIDrelief funds for a purchase that will need to happen again next year and does not serve all students as intended is inappropriate.

This decision was made reactively and in deference to our local Christian Nationalist groups. Christian Nationalists frequently assert their concern for Black

The committee was not qualified to see that problem in the first place. This is what happens when you reject expertise. While that rejection came from the state level, we need local leaders to do better.

Sabrina Ball

Tarrant County Chair, Defense of Democracy

This letter reflects the opinions and fact-gathering of the author(s) and only the author(s) and not the Fort Worth Weekly. To submit a letter, please email Editor Anthony Mariani at Anthony@FWWeekly.com. He will gently edit it for clarity and concision.

Look Again

Happy Hour in the Kimbell Café

EVERY FRIDAY, 5–7 pm

Live music | Beer | Wine | Food

Admission to the permanent collection is always free. View the full schedule of exhibitions, events, and programs at kimbellart.org

Did FWISD bow to the vocal minority?

Courtesy ETR HealthSmart

LEARNING LOCAL

Overthrowing the Demagogue Pimps and Propagandists Through Reading, Writing, and Thinking

By Bob Scranton

In the fourth chapter of Focus: Elevating the Essentials to Radically Improve Student Learning by Mike Schomokr, the author reflects on the current state-mandated curriculum and local teaching practices that damage, hinder, and impede the learning process. Students quite often fail to gain insight into the deeper stratum of knowledge presented because too much attention focuses on terminology, memorization, and testing scores. Strong evidence shows that a complete overhaul of the current English Language Arts (ELA) education practices should begin immediately.

This reorganization has its basis in historical practices existing prior to the acceptance of standardized testing. This reorganization will not, as is shown, be difficult to implement, and, in fact, it could take as little as one semester.

“Too long have we ignored our children while we patted ourselves on the back for what we took to be success when, instead, it was abuse.”

Overhauling the ELA education system by moving it toward a truly functioning method of instruction must include several key factors.

This new system will focus on frequent and diverse reading of texts, the basics of writing, and the analysis of literature for character, theme, and culture. This new system will lead to students coming to understand the many aspects of literature. This new system should also have purpose-driven prompts for reading that guide students toward a deeper understanding not only of the characters present in the novel but also as a way to link the events in the novel to actual-world issues.

Revamping the ELA curriculum so that it is substantive and valuable through these methods brings substance to the ELA

programs that make all its aspects hold value, realism, and truth instead of the current illusionary practices that value all show but no substance.

Too long have we ignored our children while we patted ourselves on the back for what we took to be success when, instead, it was abuse. Abuse of our children, abuse of our teachers, abuse of our citizens, abuse of truth, abuse of substance, and abuse of knowledge encompass much of the totality of that which is wrong in current educational trends. It was an abuse born out of fear that far too many politicians and administrators feel when challenged because far too often they have no real understanding, no substance, no knowledge of anything except perhaps doublespeak, though they are in charge, and thus they are incapable of repelling those individuals who would seek to rise beyond their station through trickery and lies–experts.

Read more at bit.ly/CatchAFallingSTAAR.

The work cited in this article is Focus: Elevating the Essentials to Radically Improve Student Learning (2nd edition) by Mike Schomoker.

Courtesy Amazon

Viral Me, Elmo

The timing of an unflattering video by an ex-zoo employee is

METROPOLIS

dramatic video taken at the zoo more than four months earlier on Oct 20, 2023. The reason? White has said that he was browsing through his reels and stumbled upon the footage of a musclebound gorilla barreling around a habitat with two zookeepers mistakenly inside.

The viral video captures the heart-stopping moment when a zookeeper slams a plastic tub of vegetables on the ground and flees after realizing that the zoo’s 420-pound silverback is charging in her direction from a cave. Elmo sprints across the habitat, toppling the tub

Zoo guests are heard praying aloud in the video, saying things like “God, help her.”

Although the count is still rolling, the video has over 170 million plays on White’s TikTok page alone. On Monday, White posted a Cash App link with a statement that any donations would go to “gorilla conservation.” He also asked viewers to send memes of the zoo incident.

White did not film the clip. A zoo visitor shared the video with him to help assist the zoo with its review of the incident, said Avery Elander, the Fort Worth Zoo’s director of marketing and public relations. She also explained what happened that day: “Every day, the zookeepers shift the gorilla troop into their indoor habitat so that keepers can place the animals’ lunch in their outdoor habitat. Due to keeper error, staff entered the yard unaware that the silverback was still in its habitat. The zookeepers work with and train these animals every day, and thanks to their knowledge and expertise, they navigated the situation calmly and were able to exit the yard safely.”

Elander added that White was “employed for about seven months and his last day was in February.” She also said zoo security employees are not required to sign nondisclosure agreements.

The closeness of White’s departure and the subsequent decision to release the footage is odd at best.

The video came out not long after the zoo received a flurry of accolades for the emergency delivery of a baby gorilla via c-section after the mother experienced life-threatening pregnancy complications. Both Mom Sekani and Baby Jameela are doing well. However, Jameela’s future at the zoo is in question as both Sekani and a would-be surrogate mom, Gracie, have not stepped in full-time to raise her. As we said last week, the zoo has said it wants Jameela to be raised by gorillas, not people. One of the options under consideration is moving her to another zoo if that is deemed to be in Jameela’s best interest.

If the video only received dozens of views instead of millions, would national and local media have picked it up? No chance.

Another question is the level of privacy employees and others should expect, even in a public setting. No one would enjoy having a bad day on the job filmed and played for millions of viewers. Plus, the error may not have even been the fault of the two zookeepers in the video.

Most importantly, no one, including Elmo, was hurt in what could have been a dire situation. At the end of the video, the striking 34-year-old gorilla almost seems remorseful as he picks up a bucket left behind by one of the keepers and gently carries it as he walks toward the door where they made their exit. l

This column reflects the opinions of the editorial board and not the Fort Worth Weekly. To submit a column, please email Editor Anthony Mariani at Anthony@ FWWeekly.com. He will gently edit it for clarity and concision.

EMPLOYMENT

Progress Rail Locomotive Inc. has an available position of Director of Artificial Intelligence, Automated Train Operations (ATO) in Fort Worth, TX. Although the Director of Artificial Intelligence, ATO will work in Fort Worth, TX, the Director of Artificial Intelligence, ATO will be required to travel 25% of working time to customers & trade shows throughout North America, South America, & Australia. Position requires a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering or Software Engineering or Electrical Engineering & 48 months experience as a mechanical engineer &/or software engineer &/or electrical engineer. Position also requires: Exp. must include: 1) 12 mos. exp. developing & reviewing AI/ML (Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning) models; 2) 24 mos. exp. developing software products for railroad operations; & 3) 24 mos. exp. architecting & developing train simulation software. Exp. reqs. may be met concurrently during the same time period. Job duties: Manage & direct a team of data scientists, data engineers, & ML engineers to develop & maintain infrastructure & tooling to develop & deploy AI models to the field. Direct Corporate activities in three areas: 1) Freight train operational planning; 2) Developing strategy for autonomous freight trains; & 3) Freight train physics/dynamics. Direct & architect simulation train engine that includes in-train forces, air brake, tractive effort, & braking efficiencies that serve as the lab environment for testing & to generate data to train driving AI/ML models. Use knowledge of railroad operations & in-train force dynamics to build an AI/ML model to drive freight trains in a safe & efficient way. Supervise 5 to 15 data scientists, data engineers, & software engineers, as needed. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, protected veteran status, or disability status. We maintain a drug-free work place & perform pre-employment substance abuse testing. Qualified applicants should e-mail resume & verification of reqs. to Ami Cerullo, HR Manager, Progress Rail Locomotive, at acerullo@progressrail.com

EMPLOYMENT

GM Financial currently has openings in these positions in Arlington, TX:

DATA ENGINEER II, responsible for contributing to the evaluation, research, experimentation efforts with batch and streaming data engineering technologies in a lab. Bachelor’s in computer engineering, computer science or related field plus 5 years of related IT experience required. Reference DEII-DA1.

SOLUTION ARCHITECT II-DIGITAL, responsible for defining the technical and architectural vision for the solution under development by technical trade-offs and analysis alternatives. Bachelor’s in computer science, computer engineering, or related field plus 7 years of related business and systems experience required. Reference SAIID-PP1.

All positions are hybrid office/home based. Send resume to recruitment@gmfinancial.com or by mail to Y. Castillo Valdivia, HR, 801 Cherry Street, Suite 3500, Fort Worth, TX 76102.

NOW HIRING IN HOUSTON, TX

SAFETY COORDINATOR

Position summary: The primary duty and responsibility of the Safety Coordinator is to manage/oversee the onsite Health and Safety of our team members at our Houston facility and providing safety oversight and leadership to team members at other ISCO facilities and jobsites throughout the United States & Canada.Frequent travel (2 weeks per month) to conduct annual safety facility audits, meaningful positive touch visits, employee mentoring and project site visits.

• Understand, execute and display behaviors in the Health and Safety Program

• Build positive relationships with operational counterparts across all levels of the company

• Assist in development, implementation, training employees and/or lead company-wide safety initiatives

• Conduct regular walk through inspections and provide safety oversight for all daily functions at home facility

• Identify, document and recommend resolution of hazardous and potentially hazardous conditions

• Recognize and implement principles associated with audits/inspections

• Provide oversight for ongoing employee education

• Assist in incident investigations

Equal Opportunity Employer/

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EMPLOYMENT

Operations Research Analyst: Manage & collaborate with team members including developers, project managers, associates, operations analysts, account executives, & logistic coordinators to develop business. Develop methods for data collection from primary & secondary sources regarding market conditions for the procurement, transport, sorting, processing, & pricing of scrap ferrous and non-ferrous metals. Observe the current system in operation & gather & analyze information about each of the component problems, using software applications & websites such as 21CP ROM software, QuickBooks, Tableau, American Metal Market (AMM), DavisIndex, LME, COMEX etc. Require: Master’s degree in Mathematics, Computer Science, or Business Administration with concentration in Analytics or Operations Research, & 1 yr. of work exp. as an Operations Analyst, ferrous &non-ferrous metal recycling. Work exp. Should include work with Recycling Operations Management Tools: 21CP ROM Software, QuickBooks, and Tableau. Gold Star Metalex, LLC has 1 full time position in Fort Worth and Tarrant County, TX areas. Email resume to paresh@goldstarmetals.com

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HISTORIC RIDGLEA THEATER

THE RIDGLEA is three great venues within one historic Fort Worth landmark. RIDGLEA THEATER has been restored to its authentic allure, recovering unique SpanishMediterranean elements. It is ideal for large audiences and special events. RIDGLEA ROOM and RIDGLEA LOUNGE have been making some of their own history, as connected adjuncts to RIDGLEA THEATER, or hosting their own smaller shows and gatherings. More at theRidglea.com

LEGAL NOTICE –

The business records of the following customers of ACCESS INFORMATION MANAGEMENT (or any affiliates of ACCESS) located at 630 N. Freeway, Suite 300, Fort Worth, TX 76102 have been abandoned: CATHEDRAL

ROCK MANAGEMENT, LP. All records will be shredded 16 days after publication of this notice. Anyone claiming to have an interest in the records should contact Access Information Protected in writing at the following address: 4 First Avenue, Peabody, MA 01960, Attn: Legal Department, Tel. No. (888) 869-2767 (Client Support); email: Collections@accesscorp.com.

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