According to call-in counts from schools, approximately 141,857 students were in school on Aug. 24, a decrease of 1,695 students when compared to the first day of the 2014-2015 school year. This year’s total includes approximately 79,339 elementary students and 62,518 secondary students. The district projects to reach a total enrollment of more than 161,000 students. Teacher vacancies Dallas ISD has a current teacher vacancy rate of 1.42 percent. This includes 149.5 vacancies. Overall, Dallas ISD has hired 1,798 teachers for this school year.

When students and parents arrived at the Lincoln High School Communications and Humanities Magnet on Monday morning, they were greeted by doctors, lawyers, judges, counselors, engineers and entrepreneurs. The wide range of Dallas professionals welcomed students at the request of Lincoln’s Head Girls Basketball Coach Carlesa Dixon, a Lincoln alumni turned teacher. Dixon organized the event via Facebook in an effort to involve alumni in welcoming students back to school. Her inspiration came from seeing a picture of 100 men greet students at an all-boys school in Maryland. “I looked at that picture and just thought that those young men were so…

In November, voters can decide whether to approve a $1.6 billion bond program for Dallas ISD that would provide facility improvements across the district and support for growing academic programs. The Board of Trustees today voted unanimously to place the bond program before voters in a November election. Board President Eric Cowan noted Trustees Joyce Foreman and Bernadette Nutall had scheduling conflicts and were unable to attend the called meeting, held at the district administrative building. During the meeting, interim Superintendent Michael Hinojosa thanked the district’s leadership team and the community-led Future Facilities Task Force for their nearly year-long efforts to bringing the…

At the meet-the-teacher night held Aug. 20 at Roger Q. Mills Elementary, parents got a first glimpse at some of the changes the ACE-designated campus is making this year. ACE – Accelerating Campus Excellence – aims to boost student achievement by staffing identified schools with high-performing principals and teachers. This year’s ACE schools are Annie Webb Blanton, Mills, Elisha Pease and Umphrey Lee elementary schools; and Billy Earl Dade, Thomas A. Edison and Sarah Zumwalt middle schools. All seven are designated as Improvement Required by the Texas Education Agency. All Dallas ISD teachers are going through professional development leading up…