A rendering of the 40-foot cross that will soon join Prestonwood's Campus.

Sometimes when I’m writing a story, everything goes as it should. People answer the phone. I get the information I need by deadline, and all is right with the world. Other times, the sources and photos come crashing in days after the article goes to press. And a slim percentage of the time, I never hear back at all. While it was too late to include in this week’s paper, I’m happy to report I have some new information on the plans for a cross on the Hillcrest Road campus of Prestonwood Baptist Church. Read More…

D Magazine’s Candy Evans will be on Channel 11 tonight at 6 p.m. to discuss the potential de-annexation of Preston Hollow. She has written about the subject at length on her blog and in the Oct. 1 edition of Preston Hollow People. But you, anonymous blog and print reader, have gone radio silent on the subject. So, whatcha think?

Classic Tobacco offers a variety of products and services to its customers at Inwood and Lovers. In addition to selling hookah, electronic cigarettes, and premium cigars smokeable from the comfort of an in-store leather couch, the staff at Classic Tobacco will unlock your iPhone while you light up. Conveniently, government rules announced Monday, July 26, made the  ”jail-breaking” of iPhones legal. This combination of services could take relieving the stress of dropped calls to a whole new level.

If you’ll recall, last month the City Council denied the application by Hillcrest Church to house Coram Deo Academy, the part-time Christian school currently located a half mile down the street. Church and school officials were none too happy with the decision, nor was Liberty Institute attorney Hiram Sasser, who had strong words for the council during the hearing. (“You’re required to pass this SUP,” Sasser told the council. “There’s really no choice to be had.”)

At the time, Hillcrest, Coram Deo, and Liberty were discussing their options for a next step. Still are. But John Fowler, the attorney who represented Hillcrest Church at the Plan Commission hearing, said today that a decision is likely one or two weeks away.

“We’re still waiting on a decision from Coram Deo,” Fowler told me today. “I expect there will be a federal lawsuit.”

The Lamplighter saga continues. The school, along with trustees Karen Pollock and J. David Miller, last week filed a counter-claim (which can be found here) against now former headmaster Arnold Cohen. The basic outline of the story is no surprise, as Cohen’s suit and subsequent announcements by Cohen and Lamplighter trustees have painted a picture, however hazy, of how the formerly amicable relationship came to legal blows, but the response, at times almost novelesque, gives a very detailed,  point-by-point recap (from the perspective of the school and trustees, of course) of how things have gone down.

The response portrays Cohen’s behavior in the weeks following his decision to dismiss longtime teacher Sheila McCartor as volatile and erratic, claiming that he “engaged in conduct that might varyingly be described as reckless, inconsistent, insubordinate, malicious and even outright dishonest” including “several obscenity-laden rants.” Furthermore, the original lawsuit is fabrication; Cohen “concocted a story where day is night and black is white.” The response detailed the response by Cohen during a one-on-one meeting with Miller when the trustee proposed keeping McCartor with the school in a non-teaching capacity:

“Dr. Cohen erupted. ‘You know, I am done, I don’t need this job.’ He then began yelling. ‘You can raise the f***ing money yourself, f*** you.’ Mr. Miller sat silently as Dr. Cohen got out of his chair, placed all of his weight behind it and then slammed it into the desk. Dr. Cohen leaned over the desk as if looking for something to throw, and then walked to his office door. He then told his long-time friend, ‘And as long as I am the head of this school, this is my office. Get the f*** out of here.’”

The school denies Cohen’s charges of interference with personnel decisions, breach of contract, and defamation and makes a few charges of it’s own: That Cohen abrogated his contractual obligations; that, by releasing the name of Pollock’s daughter in regards to test performance, he breached his fiduciary duty to the school; and that he damaged the school’s reputation with the suit and his subsequent behavior. The school is seeking unspecified damages for all three. It also claims that, because Cohen violated his employment contract, he was fired with just cause and, thus, is not entitled to his two years remaining salary ($222,268 in 2008, according to filings with the IRS) or to his deferred compensation ($33,405 in 2008).

Way out on the very southwestern tip of our coverage area, on Northwest Highway just east of its intersection with Lemmon Avenue, there is a mixed-use, residential/retail development I’ve been curious about for a long time, mainly because, well, it’s empty.

Not quite empty–a State Farm agent has an office upstairs, there is a place called DFW MRI tucked away in a corner, and the stalwart Bugatti Ristorante tucked into another corner–but the vast, vast majority of the 43,000-square-foot retail and office space is vacant.

It’s certainly emptier than it was in November, when Eco Cleaners, which has since moved to Hillcrest Crossing, was starting to set up shop. But then, according to a lawsuit filed by property owner Archstone Bluffview LP (a subsidiary of Archstone-Smith, which was taken over by Lehman Brothers in 2007), the owners skipped out on their lease.

According to the suit, filed last week in county district court, Pushpa and Chatankumar Patel signed a lease on April 13, 2009. But they never opened, racked up quite a bit in unpaid rent, and failed to maintain the property, which is why they were locked out of the space in December. All this even after Archstone had paid for that Eco Cleaners sign for them.

The suit seeks more than $175,000 in unpaid rent between when the lease was signed in April and its expiration five years later, plus attorney’s fees and court costs.

I’ll link to a digital copy of the suit when I can get one.

If you’ll recall, back in May, in the before-time of the Lamplighter suit, another prestigous North Dallas private school was sued. The Episcopal School of Dallas was sued by parents of a former student who accused the school of not doing enough to stop a 7-month-long sexual relationship between history teacher J. Nathan Campbell and their underage daughter, then kicking the daughter out once the affair was discovered.

Two weeks ago (June 11, to be exact), ESD filed a response to the suit. Not surprisingly, the school “denies each and every, all and singular, the allegations,” according to the court filing, arguing that Campbell’s alleged actions were “outside the scope and course of Campbell’s employement.” You can read the entire response here.

Also of note: ESD has a new attorney. Chrysta Castaneda of Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell replaced Don Godwin about a month ago. She said in an e-mail that she was enlisted by the school’s insurer. I don’t have the legal acumen to know how significant this is (if it is indeed significant). But it did happen.

This no doubt will not be the end of the Lamplighter saga with the ongoing lawsuit and what not, but it certainly has a ring of finality: The school’s board of trustees issued a statement last night announcing the termination, effective immediately, of Headmaster Arnold Cohen. The vote was unanimous. From my inbox at 8:41 p.m. last night:

On June 25, 2010 the Lamplighter School Board of Trustees notified Dr. Cohen of his termination as Head of School effective immediately.  The vote to terminate Dr. Cohen was unanimous.  We are disappointed that Dr. Cohen’s repeated breaches of his employment contract forced this action to be taken to protect the School, its students and its Community. The Board has initiated the process to identify an interim head for the upcoming school year and expects that process to conclude soon.

After Liberty Institute director of litigation Hiram Sasser made his appearance on behalf of Hillcrest Church and Coram Deo Academy at yesterday’s City Council meeting, I did a quick search of federal lawsuits in which he is an attorney. As I mentioned, Sasser and Hillcrest Church pastor Mark Brand say they are discussing their options. Sasser had several federal suits, most of them closed, and I didn’t have time to look through all of them. But here are the ones still pending (including a familiar one from Plano):

Jonathan Morgan, et. al. v. Plano Independent School District, et. al. (2004): Objects to the “continual efforts to ban Christmas” from Plano schools. Students were prohibited from distributing “The Legend of the Candy Cane” message and pencils that said “Jesus is the Reason for the Season.” Red and green colors and religious symbols were banned from PISD schools, according to the suit. The suit claims the prohibitions were unconstitutional.

Evelyne M. Shatkin and Linda Shifflett v. University of Texas at Arlington, et. al. (2006): Shifflett and Shatkin, over-40 UTA employees, were fired for praying in the cubicle of another employee, according to the suit. Shatkin dabbed olive oil on the cubicle in accordance with Bible passages. Another employee who prayed with them, a man under 40, was not fired. The suit claims religious, sex, and age discrimination.

Paul T. Palmer v. Waxahachie Independent School District (2008): Claims WISD violated a student’s constitutional rights when it punished Waxahachie High School sophomore Paul “Pete” Palmer for wearing a t-shirt with “John Edwards ‘08” emblazoned across the chest. School district rules prohibited students from expressing messages that don’t “concern ‘WISD clubs, organizations, sports, or … spirit … [or] college[s] or universit[ies]’ on their t-shirts.”

Yesterday, the Lamplighter board of trustees sent out a missive to parents and faculty laying out their side in what is becoming a very bitter fight. Contrary to what the trustees claim, Cohen never asked to be bought out and will fulfill the remainder of his contract, Cohen writes. The settlement talks were a result of attempts by trustees to force him out, and the signature on the retirement announcement was, indeed, forged. But here’s the note in full:

Dear Lamplighter Community:

I was appalled by the notice that was sent to all of you yesterday by the Lamplighter Board of Trustees.  It not only discusses confidential conversations had in an effort to resolve the dispute between two individual board members and me, but it also is a gross distortion of the facts.  Thus, I feel compelled to set the record straight.  Here are the facts.

It is simply not the case that I asked to be bought out of the last two years of my contract with the School.  I have never resigned my position as Head of School at Lamplighter.  To the contrary, I have consistently informed the new Board chair that I am ready, willing, and able to fulfill the remainder of my contract with the School.  Of course, I do insist that the Board abide by its contractual obligation not to interfere with my administration of the School and its faculty.

It was only after certain members of the Board interfered with decisions I made in the best interests of our School and its students that a controversy arose.  It is important for you to know that when I would not accede to their demands relative to personnel matters, I was informed by Mr. Miller and Ms. Pollock that they wanted me “gone!”
As such, I entered into confidential settlement negotiations in an effort to resolve the current dispute.  But no mutually agreeable settlement agreement was ever reached.

However, that did not stop certain members of the Board from attempting to orchestrate my departure from the School – while confidential settlement negotiations were still ongoing.  Hours after the close of business on Monday, June 14, 2010, counsel for the School sent an e-mail to my counsel informing him that the School would release my alleged “retirement announcement” the following morning.  At the time, I was in Virginia attending my daughter’s wedding.  By the time my counsel notified the School’s counsel that I had not resigned and the release of the draft retirement announcement was not authorized, the School had already disseminated it to the School’s faculty and others in the independent school community.  In fact, the School distributed the announcement before 8 a.m. on Tuesday, June 15, 2010.

To be clear, not only did I not authorize the release of the disseminated “retirement announcement,” I never signed it.  As unbelievable as it may sound, my signature was affixed to the announcement without my knowledge or consent.

Needless to say, I am shocked by the overt attempts to mislead you regarding the facts.  I stand by the claims made in my lawsuit.
Finally, I have never failed to maintain the confidentiality of any student academic records, or to uphold my commitments to the School and the education of its students.

Sincerely,

Arnie