The highlight of last Tuesday’s Highland Park ISD Board of Trustees meeting was a discussion of proposed changes to the district’s GPA policy. The discussion was tabled until the board’s curriculum and instruction training session, which begins at noon tomorrow. But the board has called a meeting for 1:30 p.m. tomorrow, when they will presumably vote on the changes.

Here’s a quick(ish) summary of the proposed changes:

1. Juniors and seniors who have completed their P.E. requirements for graduation will be able to take additional athletics or dance (read: Highland Belles) courses on a pass/fail basis, if they declare their intent to take the course on that basis on the first day of the semester. Students could do this for only two courses, and only one per year. Why would a student want to do this? Well, I’m told there are academically gifted athletes and Belles whose schedules are filled with classes that are graded on the 4.5 and 5.0 scales. Getting perfect scores in P.E. classes, which are graded on the 4.0 scale, actually lowers their GPAs.

2. Currently, seniors can take performing arts, journalism, and Academic Decathlon courses on the 4.5 scale. The proposal would add debate to that list, and it would extend the program from the senior year to the junior year.

There are at least a couple of parents who want these changes to retroactively affect the seniors who will graduate this Friday night. Principal Walter Kelly is against that, and trustee Sam Dalton asked him why. I’m paraphrasing here, but Kelly basically said that the graduating seniors knew what the policy was when they signed up for their courses over the last four years.

Grand Prairie Police arrested a man believed to be involved in the recent Katy Trail robberies Saturday, after pulling him over for speeding on Interstate 20.

Dominique Trevun Thornton, 22, of Dallas  is currently housed at Lew Sterrett Justice Center and has been charged with three counts of aggravated robbery, jail records indicate. A second suspect is still at large.

Thornton has previously pleaded guilty to misdemeanor drug, trespassing, and evasion charges, court records indicate. No word whether the $5,000 reward for information played a role in Thornton’s arrest.

You'll have to take my word for it, but there was a Hyer banner too.

I spotted these banners when leaving Highland Park High School on Friday. All of them say that photo shoots are scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Wednesday. Memo to whoever is taking those photos: I’d love to publish all four of them in the June 1 edition of Park Cities People. But to do so, I’d need them by Friday afternoon.

For the third straight season, Frisco Wakeland has eliminated Highland Park from the Class 4A state baseball playoffs.

The Wolverines won, 4-3, after nine-hole hitter Dan Harrington belted an RBI double in the bottom of the sixth inning of Game 3 of a Region II quarterfinal series with the game tied.

Highland Park led 3-0 after the top of the first, but Wakeland got two runs in the bottom of the first, along with one in the fifth.

Frisco Wakeland’s Willie Schwanke pitched a complete game to lead the Wolverines to a 4-2 victory over Highland Park on Friday night at QuikTrip Park in Grand Prairie.

The win evened the best-of-three series at a game each. The rubber game is at 1 p.m. Saturday at the same site.

The only runs for the Scots came off a two-run double by Matthew Milburn in the fourth inning.

Interstate 30 is closed at Hampton Road due to a fatality accident. Find an alternate route to Quik Trip Park.

Former athletic director Steve Orsini has been fired, effective immediately. Photo Credit: bizjournals.com

Only a few weeks after welcoming new head basketball coach Larry Brown, SMU athletic director Steve Orsini has been fired, effective immediately.

Regardless of the part Orsini played in revitalizing the once stellar SMU football program, SMU president R. Gerald Turner said this in a press release about Orsini being removed from the university.

“After several discussions over the last few weeks, it became apparent to me that it was necessary to make this change. While we both are committed to the support of our student-athletes and coaches, a unified effort is required for future progress in our athletics programs.”

The next step is to put senior associate director of athletics for external affairs Tim Leonard in as the interim director and start a national search for a new director.

Hopefully, the move is for the best. But I wonder what the “discussions” Turner and Orsini had were about?

DPD is investigating nearly a dozen robberies that have recently occured in Uptown, and are offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest. Since I live there, I will definitely be keeping my eyes peeled this weekend.

They’ve narrowed the suspects down to these two men, who are on the loose and considered dangerous.

They believe the first suspect is a black man between 20 and 30 years old, 5’8 to 6’2, and weighs 150-160 pounds. He’s been armed with a blue steel semi-automatic handgun.

The second suspect is a black man between 20 and 22 years old, 5’8 to 5’10, and weighs about 160 pounds. He may have a gold tooth and moles near his eyes. He’s been armed with a silver semi-automatic handgun.

If you find the guys, call Crime Stoppers at 214-373-8477 or the Central Investigative Unit at 214-670-4414.

In this week’s Park Cities People, I wrote about Tiffany Houghton and her homecoming concert scheduled for Monday night at the House of Blues. Before you see the former Highland Belle’s show, I thought you might want to watch a video for her song “House on Normandy.”

The new clubhouse at the Dallas Country Club is a sight to behold. (Photo: Shirley Macatee)

In today’s edition of Park Cities People, we published the third of three columns by Buddy Macatee on the Dallas Country Club. In case you missed the previous two, here they are:

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