From audience members to performers and stagehands, Functional Living Skills students at Robert T. Hill Middle School are taking the stage for the first time during a holiday showcase. “Through this program, our kids have really experienced a sense of belonging with their general education peers working closely together,” said Cristina Rachuig, FLS teacher. For the first time, FLS students are enrolled in theater as an elective, an opportunity that marks a shift in access to fine arts for students who previously had only art or physical education as elective options. The elective brings FLS and general education theater students…

Sometimes, a student’s first experience with flight doesn’t happen thousands of feet in the air. It begins right in the classroom. “I used to live near the Dallas Executive Airport,” said Juan Q. “I liked going outside and seeing the small airplanes landing and taking off.” Juan, now an aviation student at Career Institute South who hopes to become a private pilot, was inspired to join the pathway by an older classmate. A four-year program, the aviation pathway gives students the opportunity to explore everything from flight operations to aircraft systems. It is part of Dallas ISD’s broader effort to…

When a student told Honesty Lewis they wished she would coach cheer at Franklin D. Roosevelt High School of Innovation, she realized this was her opportunity to make a meaningful impact on her community. “If I had one word to describe what I love about cheer, it would be fire. I’m so passionate about cheer that sometimes it can make my head hurt,” she said. “I’ll want to randomly make up a dance, and I know it’s making my head hurt because it’s hard, but I’m so passionate about doing it. When I think about cheer, even though now I’m…