Year in review: Ethan Couch, new school superintendent, a new medical school, Radio Shack, Barnett Shale

Last in a series about the top local stories of 2015

Ethan Couch flees to Mexico

In 2013, Ethan Couch was a top local story when he was sentenced to 10 years’ probation for driving drunk and killing four people. In the punishment phase of his juvenile court trial, a psychiatrist used the word affluenza in describing Couch as an affluent child who was not taught right from wrong.

The word affluenza seized media and social media attention for several months. But his notoriety had subsided until this month when Couch, now 18, and out of intensive psychological treatment, missed a meeting with his probation officer.

After about three weeks, he and his mother were tracked down in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, where they were detained by Mexican authorities.

The story continued to develop Wednesday night and clearly was going to extend into 2016. See a report on page 1A, and for latest developments, go to star-telegram.com. — Star-Telegram

Fort Worth school superintendent named

After a year and a half without a permanent leader, the Fort Worth school district named a bilingual educator as superintendent in 2015.

Phoenix Union High School District Superintendent Kent Paredes Scribner, 49, was chosen from about 60 applicants. He took over Oct. 15.

“I’m extremely optimistic about the future of FWISD,” Scribner said. “We have a very talented faculty, staff and administration.”

Trustees took their time selecting the new superintendent. An initial search that began in summer 2014 flopped when the finalist — Santa Fe, N.M., Superintendent Joel Boyd — withdrew at the last minute after some trustees questioned his record on student achievement.

Trustees kicked off a new search in May. On Aug. 11, they unanimously named Paredes Scribner the sole finalist.

He has vowed “to hit the ground listening” and work on strategies to improve student test scores.

Twenty-one of 29 schools in Tarrant County rated “improvement required” are in the Fort Worth school district, according to the state’s 2015 accountability ratings. Schools repeatedly rated “improvement required” face federal and state sanctions.

After he was named sole finalist, Paredes Scribner told trustees he did not believe in an educational model that labels students in categories based on school and academic performance.

“I look at students not as problems that need to be solved,” he told trustees. “Our students are assets that need to be invested in.”

The board agreed to pay Paredes Scribner a base salary of $330,000 a year, starting Oct. 15 and continuing until Oct. 14, 2018. His car allowance is $1,000 per month and he is eligible for $10,000 annual performance bonuses.

The new superintendent has a son who is a freshman at Arizona State and a daughter who is a sophomore in high school. — Yamil Berard

Fort Worth lands a medical school

A new medical school is coming to Fort Worth, under an agreement between TCU and the University of North Texas Health Science Center.

The two universities entered a memorandum of understanding to create the new medical school, which will be a “collaborative, forward-thinking, innovative” effort, said Dr. Michael Williams, president of the health science center.

“It’s an extraordinary opportunity to strengthen Fort Worth and enhance the value of the comprehensive healthcare education that TCU and the health science center already offer,” Williams said. “This is a school that we all are going to be proud of.”

A nationwide search for a dean is underway. Senior leaders from both organizations are heading up the search under the guidance of Korn Ferry, a national search firm.

A management committee headed by provosts from both institutions has formed several teams to tackle various operations at the new school, including curriculum, admissions, financial affairs, research and student affairs.

Startup costs will come from private donations to the M.D. programs. Long-term funding will come from tuition, fees and private support. New buildings won’t be needed, as classrooms, research and administrative space at the health science center will be used.

The health science center, which has been home to the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine since 1970, sought approval of a public program but met resistance from the osteopathic physician community. The new program will exist alongside the D.O. training. D.O.s will continue to be educated on the health science center’s campus just west of downtown.

“I haven’t been bashful in talking about the need for an M.D. school in Fort Worth,” Williams told the Star-Telegram Editorial Board in July. “There is nothing wrong with having two medical schools in the same town.”

The first class will have 60 students, who are expected to start classes in fall 2018. The two universities estimate they will have an enrollment of 240 students by academic year 2021-22.

Classes will be taught at both universities. — Diane Smith

RadioShack shrinks in bankruptcy court

RadioShack is back, after a bankruptcy that shuttered more than half its stores. But can it still survive?

That’s the question going into 2016 as a new management team tries to steer the Fort Worth-based electronics retailer through the same crowded competitive landscape that led to its downfall.

In February, the 94-year-old retail icon filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after three years of losses and declining sales in the face of growing competition on many fronts, from Amazon.com to the multitasking iPhone from Apple.

The filing followed another disappointing holiday season and came after the retailer was stymied by creditors that blocked a proposal to close as many as 1,200 of its 4,000-plus stores.

But it didn’t take long to downsize in bankruptcy. By April 1, about 1,400 stores had been closed. The retailer then won a new lease on life when the court approved the sale of more than 1,740 stores to General Wireless, a unit of Standard General, a New York-based hedge fund that had become an emergency lender to the struggling company. The rest closed.

General Wireless inked a deal with Sprint to open wireless stores inside about 1,400 RadioShacks. CEO Joseph Magnacca, who had tried to ignite a turnaround during two years at the top, stepped down and General Wireless hired Ron Garriques, a former executive with Dell and Motorola, to take the helm.

Still based at its downsized riverfront headquarters in Fort Worth, RadioShack spent the last several months putting together a new management team and reorienting its stores. This month, it garnered publicity by hiring actor-comedian Nick Cannon, known as host of America’s Got Talent, as chief creative officer, where he will be involved in product development. — Steve Kaskovich

Barnett Shale slowdown

There was a time no one would have believed it would happen.

In 2008, the Barnett Shale landscape bristled with drilling rigs — by one count there were 200 derricks searching primarily for natural gas in North Texas.

But by one week in March this year, there was only one rig left, seemingly hidden behind its tan sound barrier in an industrial area on Loop 820 in east Fort Worth.

While more rigs eventually moved into the Barnett Shale over the rest of the year, the numbers stayed primarily in the single digits each week as the price of natural gas hit its lowest levels since 1999.

Will Brackett, managing editor of the industry publication Powell Shale Digest, said he was initially shocked that the drilling was gone. Then, after thinking about it, he felt exactly the opposite.

“As much as budgets have been cut this year, and as poor as both oil and natural gas prices have performed, it doesn’t surprise me at all,” he said.

But even as Barnett Shale activity almost petered out in 2015, it drew intense attention from the Texas Legislature.

Lawmakers passed House Bill 40, which reasserts state control over oil and gas drilling by prohibiting cities from banning drilling. Known as the “Denton fracking bill,” it was pushed after Denton voters approved a ban on hydraulic fracturing in fall 2014. The city was sued by the oil industry and eventually had to drop the ordinance because of HB 40.

Local control folks aren’t ready to throw in the towel.

Activists from Denton and around the state helped form the Texas Grassroots Network not only to monitor energy industry activities but also to recruit candidates and influence public policy — locally and statewide — on oil and gas drilling. Protests were held at drilling sites when fracking returned to town.

But Brackett doesn’t see much grassroots activity until the price of oil and gas climbs.

“The Legislature was bound and determined that Denton was going to be the last one to ban fracking and they did,” Brackett said. “It looks like the local control movement has been crushed and for the time being that is an issue that has been settled.”

The price of oil was around $37 this week, far below the $100 a barrel price at the height of the boom. Natural gas prices haven’t fared much better. Trading this week at about $2.22, it’s nowhere near the $12.78 per million British thermal units it was going for in 2008.

Baker Hughes, the Houston-based oil-field services company, said last week that there were 700 rigs exploring for oil and natural gas in the United States — 538 were searching for oil and 162 for natural gas — compared with 1,840 on the same date in 2014. — Max B. Baker

This story was originally published December 30, 2015 at 7:33 PM with the headline "Year in review: Ethan Couch, new school superintendent, a new medical school, Radio Shack, Barnett Shale."