Author: The Hub

Connecting you to the personalities, places and perspectives of Dallas ISD

Kiest Elementary hosted a community garden and school spruce up on Oct. 22. The school was awarded a Lowe’s Toolbox for Education Grant for $2,000 to implement its Birds, Butterflies, Bees and Trees Garden. Teachers, students and volunteers installed a butterfly-shaped garden addition to the existing vegetable garden. The butterfly garden will grow plants that attract butterflies. Volunteers also planted trees, shrubs, and other plants that enhance the ecosystems to sustain butterflies, birds, and bees. Volunteers sowed wildflower seeds and prepped the vegetable garden beds. They will install five birdfeeders and birdhouses at a later date. The community came together…

Read More

A school for girls to imagine, explore and create: the future is happening now at one of Dallas ISD’s Public School Choice campuses. Solar Preparatory School for Girls at James B. Bonham opened its doors in August 2016 with 198 scholars in grades K–2. Solar Prep will be add one grade level each year until reaching eighth-grade and will serve more 1,100 girls. Solar Prep embraces performance-based learning, which allows students to explore their learning in a different variety of ways. Solar Prep also uses a blended learning model, in which lessons are taught in small groups. Students learn from…

Read More

The Dallas ISD Police Department announced its first female command staff officer in the history of the department during a promotion ceremony on Thursday, Oct. 20. Terri Thomas officially received the promotion from sergeant to lieutenant. Thomas began her career in Dallas ISD in 1994 as a truancy officer and later elevated her role within the force as a police officer in 2000. Lt. Thomas comes from a family of law enforcement officers one of which includes her mother, Mattie Thomas, who is also noted for making history in policing. Mattie Thomas was the first female deputy for the Dallas…

Read More

Career certifications skyrocketing, a donation to help fund school field trips, and a Cowboys player serving as a Principal for a Day were among this week’s highlights. Watch the above video, or read below, to learn more! Career certifications skyrocket Recently released data shows that the number of career certifications received by Dallas ISD students through the CTE program has increased by more than 3,500 percent since 2009-2010. (Learn more) Eagle Scout project beautifies Franklin Middle Gio, an eighth-grader at Franklin Middle School, used his Eagle Scout Project to paint and beautify parts of his school. (Read this) Outdoor garden and…

Read More

Conn’s HomePlus has donated a new Samsung washer and dryer set to Roger Q. Mills Elementary, and staff, students and parents are thrilled. Conn’s HomePlus, a furniture and specialty home goods retailer, celebrated the donation on Oct. 20 with a fun and interactive laundry lesson to teach students a lifelong skill. The students also participated in a fast-paced laundry relay race. “This donation will ensure our students have a resource to clean clothes,” Mills Principal Tonya Clark said. “We want our students to be able to come to school not worried about their clothes and whether or not their clothes are…

Read More

Thanks to the Dallas-based Essilor and Essilor Vision Foundation, hundreds of Dallas ISD students had their vision examined by local optometrists and eye care professionals free of charge. The students also received free glasses. All of the students were pre-screened by school nurses, who determined they may need glasses. Essilor hosted the event during World Sight Day, a global happening that focuses attention on blindness and vision impairment. World Sight Day occurs the second Thursday of October. Watch the above video to learn more.

Read More

As part of World Sight Day, more than 400 students from Dallas ISD and Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD received free eye exams and glasses from Essilor Vision Foundation. The participating students had been pre-screened by their nurse for poor vision. The Dallas Morning News has the full story here. Photo courtesy Dallas Morning News. 

Read More

The Dallas Holocaust Museum/Center for Education and Tolerance, in partnership with the Dallas Independent School District (ISD) and Hold On To Your Music, is sponsoring the first-ever City-Wide Read and Performance this fall for approximately 12,500 fifth graders, as well as students from several of the city’s Jewish schools. Students will read The Children of Willesden Lane, a true story of inspiration and perseverance in a time of war, and attend a musical performance by the author, Grammy-nominated classical pianist Mona Golabek. The Children of Willesden Lane tells the story of Golabek’s mother, Lisa Jura, a 14-year-old Jewish musical prodigy…

Read More