Inside Dallas ISD

The head of Dallas ISD’s Racial Equity Office Leslie Williams is intent on taking action to reverse the pervasive poverty in Dallas’ poorest communities. “We want to address past inequities that are still having an impact on redlined neighborhoods,” he says. Williams is spearheading an effort to assign a portion of the proposed 2020 bond package to correct past inequities that have created a legacy of poverty in communities around Lincoln, James Madison, L.G. Pinkston, Franklin Roosevelt and H. Grady Spruce high schools. He is meeting with parents, residents and elected officials, presenting evidence that the poverty surrounding these schools…

After only winning one in-district game in the 2018 season, the Skyline High School Boys Baseball Team in 2019 made the playoffs for the first time in 11 years. Now as the 2020 season gets underway, the team is traveling to Corpus Christie this weekend to play against some of the state’s best baseball teams in the Mira’s Sports and More South Texas Baseball Classic. The tournament will give the players and team more statewide exposure and experience facing top-level teams. “As the largest school in Dallas ISD, we take it upon ourselves to go out and perform at a…

Through a partnership with entrepreneur and philanthropist Roland G. Parrish and the Dallas Urban Debate Alliance, four Dallas ISD students recently qualified for The Parrish Charitable Foundation’s Public Debate. The four students – selected from the top varsity speakers at the Parrish Charitable Foundation Tournament – will face off in a public debate in April. The topic of the public debate is: Stealing signs has been a part of the rich history of baseball, our national pastime, over a century, without punishment. Now that we are in the digital and electronic age, should heavy penalties and punishment (fines, suspensions, termination,…

Eduardo Mata Montessori School celebrated reaching the halfway point of work on its new 30,000-square-foot school addition with a topping out ceremony. Imperial Construction, the general contractor for the $30 million Bond 2015 project, placed a piece of structural steel in front of the school for current students to sign. The beam was then hoisted into place as staff and students watched from a safe distance along the Katy Trail. In addition to the building addition that doubles as a storm shelter, the scope of work includes replacing the fire alarm and PA system, renovation of administrative areas, select student…