News

PERRIN – Students here will be going to school an additional 13 minutes per day starting Monday.

During Tuesday night’s regular school board meeting, Superintendent Cliff Gilmore explained the reasons why. Perrin had a surplus of 720 educational minutes during the 2017-18 school year. Because the school was closed unexpectedly for one day to clean and disinfect due to the flu and two days lost to weather last week, the district had a choice.

Editor’s note: This is the first in a three-part series looking at armed teachers and security measures in Jack County schools.

While many in the country are debating President Donald Trump’s suggestion of arming teachers, there are classrooms in Jack County that have been lead by armed teachers for years.

Most recently, Jacksboro ISD adopted a policy last year to allow for armed staff members. That policy was put into practice Nov. 6.

Oncor crews have been chasing downed power lines since Wednesday afternoon. Thursday has only yielded numerous more including one affecting more than 1,000 customers.

Jacksboro City Manager Mike Smith said he got a call from Oncor around 12:30 p.m. Thursday and was told there was a main line down that was impacting about 1,300 customers between Graham and Jacksboro.

“It’s a priority because it impacts critical facilities like the hospital and the wastewater treatment plant,” Smith said. “They’re on generator power right now.”

The flu season has hit one Jack County school especially hard. Perrin-Whitt CISD closed Monday to disinfect the school.

Superintendent Cliff Gilmore noticed a sharp decline in the attendance for the first two days of February making the call to not hold school Monday.

“We had a big drop off in the attendance,” Gilmore said. “Friday, Feb. 2 attendance was 79.44 percent for the elementary. We wanted to make sure if we took off to tie it into a weekend to extend the time that the students were away from each other.”

Wise County Crisis Center – Jack County is offering a fun way for people to win a gift basket worth more than $700 at tonight’s Jacksboro-Boyd basketball games.

A paper airplane toss will be held with the plane closest to the pizza box or in it winning the basket which has a thermos and other items as well.

Tickets are $5 each or three for $10. Sales will begin around 4 p.m. with the contest going on sometime during the boys game.

BRYSON – A new system for judging teacher performance is in its second year statewide and Bryson teachers are succeeding under it.

Principal Eric Wilson told board members at Monday night’s meeting the district is in the second year of the state program for judging teachers called Texas Teacher Evaluation and Support System (T-TESS), which goes into greater detail than the prior PDAS system. The scale still judges teachers on a 1-5 scale but is tougher on what judges look for in teachers.

Some of Jacksboro’s talented athletes competed along with thousands of others from across the Lone Star State last week and came out fourth in their division.

The Jacksboro High School varsity cheerleaders competed Thursday, Jan. 11 for their first time in the UIL Spirit State Championships held at the Fort Worth Convention Center. 

The state competition is a 3-day event in which more than 500 teams and 10,000 participants compete. 

While much of Jack County rang in the new year staving off the bitter cold, Perrin residents did so without water.

An estimated 330 residents lost water service sometime after midnight New Year’s Eve and as of Friday afternoon, they continue to have no water.

Residents said calls to Texas Rain Holdings, the private company that owns and operates Perrin’s utility, went unanswered.

County leaders were surprised to learn Thursday morning Perrin had been without water for most of the week.