Celebrating success in Sunny South Dallas

In Sunny South Dallas, the seven legacy schools that make up the Lincoln-Madison vertical team are celebrating a milestone that reflects strong leadership, dedicated families, and a community invested in its own future: a B rating for all of its schools.

Its principal, Jennifer Atkins, who previously led Rice Learning Center in obtaining consistent B ratings, was entrusted to do the same for the new school. 

“When I was an assistant principal, my principal at the time would say ‘my time is going to be up soon, but people like you have to keep it going,’” Atkins said. “The older generation pours into the younger generation, and we keep the cycle going. That is our legacy in South Dallas.” 

Building on Rice’s success, the feeder pattern has reached a unity the community has not seen in a long time.  

Another contributor to the vertical team’s success, Atkins said, is the presence of veteran students, along with veteran teachers, whose impact on children at an early age helped lay the foundation for long-term achievement.  

“When children started at Rice in pre-K and went through fifth grade, there wasn’t a high turnover with students,” said Atkins. “This is what I am trying to do here at Thompson. I want students to continue to come back. We want to keep our students in rotation in our schools in South Dallas.” 

Atkins would like them to come back even after they graduate from college. Today many of those same South Dallas graduates are now teachers themselves, carrying forward the legacy by preparing the next generation academically. 

It’s about community

The commitment to success is shared not only by the principals and team members in the vertical team schools but also by the families and community leaders. 

Stewart understands that student learning can be affected by challenges in their personal lives and is working to provide services to ensure students don’t miss school because of outside barriers.  

Partnerships with local faith leaders and churches, community events, impactful school branding, and educational programming are all catalysts for the schools’ recent success.  

There is also a priority for the emotional well-being of teachers and principals, keeping them uplifted and affirmed as they do the daily work of guiding students, Stewart said.  

For those invested in the South Dallas schools, this moment goes beyond academics, it is a silver lining, a time of celebration, and a glimmer of hope for the community. 

“When I think of our legacy in South Dallas, for me it’s about being a light for our students,” Atkins said. “Because many times they’ve been written off, but it takes leaders like us to keep it going.”