Of the 52 districts in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, nearly 40% gave employees no raises for this school year. Steven Poole, the association’s executive director said school districts are cash-strapped. The ones who did give raises had to dip into reserves. Some school districts just couldn’t even do that. District leaders say they are working with strained budgets in part because the Legislature hasn’t increased the base amount of funding provided per-student since 2019. In places that prioritized raises, leaders made tough decisions. In Richardson, for example, school trustees voted to close four campuses to deal with their financial strain; In other news, President-elect Donald Trump said on Tuesday he had picked former director of national intelligence and former Texas Congressman John Ratcliffe to serve as director of the Central Intelligence Agency; a North Texas imam known for leading online Quran education programs was arrested on child pornography-related charges on Oct. 30; And Nick Jonas is ready to help the struggling Fossil brand and its new leader. Jonas, the singer and all-around celebrity, has signed a deal with Fossil, the watch and accessories company based in Richardson.

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