Inside Dallas ISD

The RoboTAG team from the School for the Talented and Gifted won first place in the State Farm Exhibit and Interview Award in the 2020 Texas BEST and UIL Robotics State Championships! The fifth annual UIL State Championship – BEST Robotics Division was held virtually Nov. 30–Dec. 12. The championship was open to high school teams competing in BEST Robotics who are members of Texas’ University Interscholastic League (UIL). On the team’s competition website, RoboTAG said one of the key points of their brand is promoting diversity. “At RoboTAG, our team has a mix of everything: new ideas, detailed models, and great…

The Dallas Education Foundation has received a $200,000 grant to help advance racial equality in Dallas ISD schools. The grant will go towards funding Actively Learn, a highly flexible, pedagogically-sound, cross-curricular platform for grades 6-12 at the Model of Excellence campuses in Dallas ISD for the next three years. Through this generous grant, Actively Learn will be used to drive student and teacher engagement with culturally relevant, digital content across grade levels and subject areas including English Language Arts, Science, and Social Studies. “The Model of Excellence was established to support the students of seven secondary Dallas ISD campuses in…

As a student at Harry Stone, Niki Jones loved spending hours in the library–scanning through the Dewey Decimal System to pick out a new book to read–and performing in the band in the school auditorium. Today Jones walks the halls of what is now called Harry Stone Montessori Academy as the school’s principal, leading the National Blue Ribbon-winning school that offers a Montessori and International Baccalaureate (IB) education in Oak Cliff. And for Jones, her driving mission is the same: inspire Harry Stone students to become the next generation of globally minded leaders. “We are the best kept secret in…

Farrow-Gillespie Heath Witter LLP proudly announced the formation of The Liza Farrow-Gillespie Intrepid Young Woman Scholarship. The law firm is honored to confirm that Jim Thompson, long-time friend and client of Liza Farrow-Gillespie, is the lead donor to the Liza Farrow-Gillespie Intrepid Young Woman Scholarship to be awarded annually to a young woman graduate of the Dallas ISD Barefoot Sanders Law Magnet. The scholarship is given in Liza’s honor to a girl who embodies Liza’s “do anything, go anywhere” spirit. The donor intends this scholarship to be a fair wind in the recipient’s sail and to encourage the young woman…