Looking for yet another way to stay connected to your child’s school news? If e-mail, PTA, Parent Portal, and teacher conferences aren’t satisfying your compulsive curiosity, then perhaps Twitter will. As far as I can tell, there are seven area schools with accounts. Jump with me to see if yours is on the list.

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If you read the Dallas Morning News story about 42 DISD campuses named in the “Worst Schools in Texas” list, you probably scrolled down to see Franklin Middle School and Hillcrest High School mentioned amongst the masses. Well, it’s not as bad as it seems.

I did a little searching around and found this document, which shows Franklin and Hillcrest are on this infamous list for past transgressions. Schools are put here for low test scores (less than 60 percent passing in Math, for example) or for an ‘unacceptable’ rating any year since 2008.

Franklin earned an ‘academically acceptable’ rating in 2010, but it’s 2009 ‘unacceptable’ rating sticks around for three years. For the purposes of this list, anyway. Hillcrest was deemed ‘unacceptable’ in 2010, so it will be considered one of the state’s “worst schools” until 2012, future performance notwithstanding.

The significance? Students who attend schools on this list are eligible to transfer to another campus as part of Texas’ Public Education Grant program.

While this careful reading of the fine print doesn’t turn the news from bad to good, at least it puts it into context. There’s nothing new that Franklin or Hillcrest failed at to land on this list. It’s merely a continuation of the sanctions for ‘unacceptable’ schools in the last three years.

6331 Tulip Lane (Staff Photo: Chris McGathey)

Compared to many homes in Preston Hollow, mine is woefully under-dressed. At 6331 Tulip Lane, life-sized likenesses of Santa, reindeer, and Frosty the Snowman make an appearance.  Our own reporter/dynamo Claire St. Amant wrote a front-page story about the many painstakingly (and sometimes professionally) decorated homes in the ‘hood.

To see more, check out this week’s issue of Preston Hollow People.

Sarah Boehner, a Les Jardins Estates resident and the reigning Miss Dallas USA, graces the pages of Preston Hollow People this week. We took her picture at Mi Cocina, because she mentioned in her “Deep in the Hollow” questionnaire that her family ate there every night when she was growing up. When photographer Chris McGathey asked what I had in mind for the photo, I suggested Sarah hold up a Mambo Taxi. No dice; her contract precludes her from drinking the hard stuff. Hence this Coca-Cola-centric picture.

We already told you that Hillcrest and Thomas Jefferson took home awards from Saturday’s Academic Decathlon competition. But Hillcrest has proof.

Pictured front row left to right: Coach Amanda Ashmead, Sarah Fife, Stephen Ashworth, Nicholas Osborn, Darian Connor. Back row: Coach Merri Lynn Alexander, Jazmin Jasso, Stephanie Gore, Alejandro Hernåndez, Surata Kloss, Lilly Muhlenbruch, and Emmanual Oyedapo.

Lynn Berman and Sara Berman Popek package some cookies. (Staff photo by Chris McGathey)

Back in September, we brought you the story of Lynn Berman and Sara Berman Popek, a mother-daughter team from Crest Meadow Estates who launched a baking delivery business called Nothing Like It. A couple of days ago, they sent us a sample from their new gluten-free menu. My sons are on a gluten-free diet, so I’ve tasted plenty of awful gluten-free desserts. But let me assure you: Nothing Like It’s gluten-free strawberry cake is … well, nothing like those disgusting “treats” my boys get. More, please.

Hockaday apparently is cool enough to have its own official crest-stamped Christmas chocolates. The school’s communications department sent these over today — and if the photo’s too fuzzy for you to catch every detail, worry not.They’re all going to the same place.

Movie buffs, take note: Arts patron/Preston Hollow resident/bigwig Realtor Dave Perry-Miller has just been named board president of the USA Film Festival.

“As a film fan and arts advocate … [I] look forward to an exciting year of film programs in Dallas,” Perry-Miller said in a press release. “I am honored to serve such a long-standing and prestigious organization.”

In other news, Kidfilm, the nonprofit’s arts-in-education program for families and students, was named recipient last month of a $10,000 grant from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The money will help underwrite outreach programs for thousands of DISD students and educators, Perry-Miller said, as well as promote free public programs. Cheers!