The week before Thanksgiving, more than 200 students took home backpacks full of donated food for their families. The distribution was just one of the types of projects the Peace Pantry at Woodrow Wilson High School does during the school year. The Church of the Incarnation Academy in Uptown Dallas donated the backpacks, and families took them home and returned them full of food. Some of the bags were filled from stock at the Peace Pantry. In just its second year, the pantry’s reach is growing through work by parents and students who have gotten involved. Brooke Varner, a science…

This week is an important time for Dallas ISD eighth-graders: they are in the middle of selecting a career endorsement that will guide the courses they take in grades 9-12 and, possibly, where they attend high school. The Pick Your Path process began on Monday with middle schools staffs escorting eighth-graders to visit exhibits and talk with high school representatives to help students choose one of five career endorsements. Legislation known as HB 5 requires students entering ninth grade to select an endorsement in Arts and Humanities; Business and Industry; Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM); Multidisciplinary Studies; or Public Services. Students’…

Dallas ISD is hosting another two community meetings this week to discuss proposed attendance boundary changes that could impact two sets of schools. A meeting is scheduled on Tuesday, Dec. 1, from 6–7 p.m. at William Hawley Atwell Middle School, 1303 Reynoldston Lane, regarding proposed feeder pattern changes for Birdie Alexander and Ronald E. McNair elementary schools. Meanwhile, the district is also hosting a meeting on Wednesday, Dec. 2, from 6–7 p.m. at Oran Roberts Elementary School, 4919 Grand Ave., to discuss proposed attendance boundary changes of the school’s feeder pattern, which includes Roberts Elementary, Billy Earl Dade Middle School, J.L.…

As of Nov. 20, more than 78 percent of Dallas ISD seniors had applied to at least one college. Dallas ISD Goes to College Week, a weeklong push from Nov. 16–20 that encouraged district seniors to apply for colleges and universities, helped the district surpass a goal of having 70 percent of seniors apply to at least one college by Nov. 20. In addition to emphasizing that it pays to go to college, Dallas ISD Goes to College saw central staff volunteer to share their college experiences with seniors. Oscar Rodriguez, a Dallas ISD Educational Technology employee, volunteered at Dr. Wright L. Lassiter…