Following the Oct. 20 tornado that damaged the original Walnut Hill Elementary and Edward H. Cary Middle School facilities beyond repair, trustees unanimously approved a plan to build a consolidated pre-K through eighth-grade campus to serve those school communities. For the first step, district officials and architects hosted public meetings to gather community feedback and ideas on the new school facility. The architects used the ideas and feedback to create initial dozens of concept drawings to open discussions about design for the new school. Community leaders at a March 4 design charrette provided feedback on the concepts presented, helping further…

A special celebration on Tuesday night recognized top-performing principals for the work they do supporting students and their schools. See photos from the celebration here.  As part of an ongoing effort to identify and reward top educators and campus leaders, through the Theory of Action, Dallas ISD relaunched its Master Principals program last school year. The Master Principals program was in effect during Hinojosa’s first term as superintendent. https://youtu.be/izfNiMrPG8c At the March 3 celebration held at the Dallas Arboretum, Superintendent Michael Hinojosa, Chief of Strategic Initiatives Brian Lusk and Chief of School Leadership Stephanie Elizalde personally thanked the Master Principals…

As an industry partner with the South Oak Cliff High School P-TECH, PepsiCo and Frito-Lay are showing students great potential opportunities available to them after high school. PepsiCo and Frito-Lay have developed and implemented programming with the SOC P-TECH that covers careers, college, communication, leadership, collaboration, time management, public speaking, resumes and interviewing. PepsiCo and Frito-Lay have hosted college and career fairs where more than 150 associates mentored 300 students by sharing their college experiences. Also,  PepsiCo and Frito-Lay launched a mentorship program that has 20 mentors/mentees and hosted three summer interns as part of the Dallas Mayor’s Intern Fellows…