Latest news with #Holladay
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Southlake Carroll announces new high school principals
Two educators with years of leadership experience in the Carroll school district were chosen to replace two high school principals who left for other jobs after their contracts were not renewed beyond 2026. Shatina Lewis, who was principal at Carroll Middle, was named principal at Carroll Senior High School and Patrick Holladay, principal at Johnson Elementary, is now principal at Carroll High School. Lewis replaces Ryan Wilson, who was hired last week as the principal at Sagniaw Boswell. Holladay takes over for Christina Benhoff, who was hired May 15 as the principal at Keller Timber Creek High School. Superintendent Jeremy Glenn announced the leadership changes during Monday night's school board meeting. 'Changes in school leadership are unsettling,' he said. 'We recognize that transitions can create uncertainty,' Glenn said. Lewis was principal at Carroll Middle School for over three years. During her time as principal, she fostered academic excellence and strong community partnerships, the district said in a statement. Before becoming principal at Carroll Middle, Lewis was an assistant principal at Dawson Middle School. She began her career in the district in 2014 as an English teacher at Carroll Senior High. Holladay taught high school math for 20 years throughout North Texas. Holladay was assistant principal at the Mansfield school district's Donna Shepard Intermediate Leadership Academy for six years before coming to the Carroll school district. Glenn also announced that Stefan Benadetti, teacher of the year in 2023, is the district's choir director.
Indianapolis Star
4 days ago
- Business
- Indianapolis Star
A new hotel on Monument Circle? Developers want to turn Art Deco tower into a Marriott
Another hotel conversion project is brewing in downtown Indianapolis — this time right on the city's focal Monument Circle. Holladay Properties, a South Bend developer, plans to spend $40 million to convert 11 floors of the historic Circle Tower at 55 Monument Circle into a 175-room AC by Marriott hotel, according to plans filed with the city's Metropolitan Development Commission. Developers are planning a rooftop terrace on the 11th floor, offering views of the city's skyline and Monument Circle. The first three floors of the tower, which has ground floor tenants such as Command Coffee and the Rocket Fizz candy store, would be left alone. Built in 1930, the Circle Tower is one of the few Art Deco buildings remaining in Indianapolis. Egyptian motifs adorn the building as a nod to the country's obsession with Egyptian history and culture in the 1920s. Holladay said in records that the company would preserve the architectural history of the building. Holladay is seeking a 10-year tax abatement from the city for the project. As part of the economic incentive package, Holladay would donate $50,000 to the Monument Circle Public Space Activation Initiative annually. With high interest rates, expensive materials and low office vacancy rates, conversion projects are picking up momentum to bring new life to dense city centers. Down the street, Holladay is converting the office tower at 130 E. Washington St. into 180 apartment units. A Holladay Properties vice president did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday afternoon. Downtown Indianapolis is experiencing a boom in hotel construction that will likely not slow down as the city's tourism industry continues to hit new records. Nearby, The InterContinental opened in the historic Illinois Building, located steps off the circle with 11th-floor terrace views, earlier this year. An Aloft Hotel recently opened at 136 E. Market St. The Circle Tower project would be one of a handful of downtown hotel projects expected to come online in the next few years. Others include:
Irish Examiner
08-05-2025
- Irish Examiner
Cliona Ward 'in her own bed' as family thanks 'humanity' from supporters
The Ward family has thanked supporters for their 'humanity and kindness' after their sister Cliona was released from a US immigration detention, where she had spent more than two weeks imprisoned. Cliona's sister, Orla Holladay, said that her sibling was 'finally in her own bed' after an experience which had left her 'in shock' and 'traumatised'. Ms Holladay said Cliona's release represents 'an absolute and beautiful success'. In an update to the GoFundMe campaign set up to help with Cliona's legal bills, her sister said that all contributors 'have literally helped to save Cliona's life as she knows it and we love you for your humanity and kindness'. The GoFundMe campaign had raised $47,755 at the time of writing, though Ms Holladay noted that the full cost of Cliona's legal representation — which amounted to separate legal counsel in both Seattle and her hometown of Santa Cruz — had yet to be determined. She said that the GoFundMe campaign would remain open to allow Cliona to deliver a message of her own to her supporters before being shut down. Post-conviction relief Dublin-born Cliona, 54, a resident of the US for more than four decades, was taken into detention by American immigration and customs enforcement (ICE) officials on April 21 on foot of a number of decades-old criminal convictions which she believed had been expunged from her record. Earlier this week, she was granted post-conviction relief within Santa Cruz. This cleared the way for those convictions to finally be overturned. When Cliona appeared before a judge in Seattle on Wednesday morning, she was informed that the case against her had been dropped and that she would be released that afternoon. Ms Holladay said that her sister had been 'very hungry' when she finally emerged from the Tacoma detention centre. 'It's an absolutely surreal experience,' she said of what her sister had been through. 'She is in shock, filled with emotions, traumatised, full of gratitude.'
Irish Examiner
02-05-2025
- Politics
- Irish Examiner
Detainee Cliona 'building community' with women in Washington centre
Irish detainee Cliona Ward has been 'elevated and empowered' by the support she has received since being arrested by US immigration and customs enforcement officials last month, according to her family. Cliona's sister Orla Holladay, who also lives in the US, said Cliona is 'building community and support' with the women she has been detained alongside, and that she 'wants to help all of them'. In an update to a GoFundMe launched on Cliona's behalf, Ms Holladay said that her sister has been moved from the holding cell, where she had been held since her arrest on April 21, to a pod in the detention centre itself in Tacoma, Washington state. Ms Holladay said that she is working with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), one of the largest unions in the US with whom Cliona holds membership, so that protests take place on the date of Cliona's preliminary court hearing. That hearing had initially been scheduled for May 7. However, the latest information received by the family indicates it may well now not happen for a number of weeks. Ms Holladay is set to attend the hearing in person to support her sister. Cliona was initially detained in Seattle after returning from visiting with her father, who lives with dementia in Cork. She was held on foot of a number of criminal convictions she had received between 2007 and 2008. While those convictions had been expunged from her record at a state level, it appears the fact they had not been vacated at a federal level is the reason Cliona came to the attention of US immigration and customs enforcement officials. Valid green card Cliona is the holder of a valid green card and has lived in American for more than 40 years. 'She has urged me to tell you that the service people in the facility are being really nice to her — the people who serve the food, who escort her to go get a shower, who make sure she has clean clothes,' Ms Holladay said in her update. It's strange that access to a shower [and] clean clothes is a blessing, but right now it is Cliona's older sister Tracey Ward, who lives in East Cork, told the Irish Examiner of the frustrations the family has experienced with the detention centre, a system run by corporations on a for-profit basis. 'Orla is talking to Cliona every other day, and they can't hear each other properly because the phones in the detention centre don't work very well. There are a number of phones that just don't work, which isn't great because we've to pay for the phone, and it isn't cheap,' she said. They try to make money every way they can, so we're paying for these expensive phone calls where my sisters can't hear each other and end up getting frustrated She said the mostly Latino women who are detained with Cliona have told her that they are consistently moved from centre to centre across the US, without ever actually being processed. 'Their children have been taken from them and moved to detention centres in Florida or the other side of the country, and they don't know where they are. When they ask about them, they're just told 'they're ok, they're ok',' Ms Ward said.
Irish Examiner
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Irish Examiner
Family fear 'depressed and scared' Cliona Ward could be detained in US 'for months'
The family of a "depressed and scared" Irish woman being detained by the US immigration service fear their sister could be imprisoned 'for months' as her legal team tries to secure her release. Cliona Ward, the 54-year-old Dublin-born woman in question, has been held at a US immigration and customs enforcement (ICE) detention centre in Tacoma, Washington state, since her arrest on April 21 at San Francisco Airport. While Cliona has been living in America for more than four decades and has a valid green card, her arrest appears to have been predicated upon two criminal convictions she received in the 2000s for drug possession – convictions which she had believed had been expunged from her record. Now, in an update to a Gofundme launched to aid Cliona in securing legal counsel in Seattle – roughly 1,500 miles from her hometown of Santa Cruz in California – her sister Orla Holladay said that '(I ) wish I had something positive to update but unfortunately I don't'. 'The harsh reality is that Cliona could be held prisoner for months while we plea for her release,' Ms Holladay said. She said her sister 'is depressed and scared' and that communication has proven difficult as 'every time we talk the connection is so bad that we can barely hear each other'. 'We eventually give up ending the call, defeated and frustrated and sad." Ms Holladay said that it had come as a relief for Cliona when she had found out that legal representation had been secured for her, but said that the conditions in which she is being held are extremely inhospitable. 'The water is undrinkable, the food is not fit to eat, and her biggest consolation today was that her lawyer was able to bring her a pen,' she said. The Gofundme had raised $37,755 against a target of $40,000 at the time of writing. Ms Ward, the latest high-profile victim of the Trump administration's hardline crackdown on alleged illegal immigration, had first encountered issues with the system when returning from Ireland after visiting her ill father in Cork on March 19, when she was detained for several days in Seattle. She was subsequently released and told to present evidence that her previous criminal convictions – which date from 2007 and 2008 – had been expunged. It was when attending that appointment at San Francisco Airport on April 21 that she was taken into ICE custody. It's believed that the issue which has brought her into the administration's sights is that her convictions had been removed from her record at a state level, but not at a federal one. An employee with a non-profit Christian charity, Ms Ward ordinarily serves as a full-time carer for her son, who is living with chronic Crohn's Disease.
