Beyond the usual lessons taught in the classroom, Dallas ISD students are diving into something new—learning life-saving water safety skills. “Safety practices are taught to students in physical education. In partnership with school leadership, the health and physical education department determined that second grade was optimal to offer water safety classes,” said Lisa Whitaker, director of health and physical education at Dallas ISD.   Chiniqua Varner-Busby, principal at William B. Miller Elementary School, said second grade is the perfect age to learn about water safety. “Second graders are mature enough to understand the basic foundation, and understand it’s not just play…

Nearly 19,000 students across Dallas ISD are embracing opportunities to engage in academic and competitive extracurricular activities. The district offers 12 extracurricular programs to elementary and secondary schools. These include cheer, chess, debate, decathlon, Designation Imagination, esports, and UIL academics, to name a few. The number of students signing up for after school programming has steadily increased over the last few years, said Leonidas Patterson, director of Student Activities. This is due, in part, to the department’s focus on expanding programming for elementary students, he said. “As a result, most of the districtwide programs sponsored by the department are vertically…