Inside Dallas ISD

Representatives from an engineering firm donated 30 backpacks with school supplies to students at Elisha M. Pease Elementary School. Three representatives from the Harambee leadership team handed out each backpack to a student on Friday. Harambee is the African-American employee network of Jacobs Engineering Group, a global engineering firm with headquarters in Dallas. Harambee hosted its yearly summit in August, where their members decided to do a backpack and school drive. The representatives contacted Dallas ISD’s STEM department. Both entities collaborated to find a campus that had a high African-American student population and a high concentration of underprivileged families. “We wanted…

Dallas ISD’s Racial Equity Office (REO) is currently seeking dedicated community members to serve on its advisory council. The group’s goal is to advise and support the work of the Racial Equity Office as it seeks to advance a culture of racial equity until race is no longer a predictor of student outcomes. To date, each of the nine members of the Dallas ISD Board of Trustees have selected one at-large member to serve. The REO is seeking 13 additional community members to become part of this committee. Go here to signup. Volunteers will be responsible for: Advising and providing…

The Dallas ISD Food and Child Nutrition Services is rolling out four new delicious food items this year! “Menus are created with input from students taste-testing at multiple events over the school year,” said Betsy Wooldridge, Dallas ISD Menu Planning Supervisor. “We also look at the results from our Food Festivals and see what other districts around the country are serving and see what’s popular among the students. After gathering all this data, we have an overall picture of what we want to serve.” These are four new food items that students will be able to try in their school…

A local attorney donated $50,000 to build a food pantry at Esperanza “Hope” Medrano Elementary School on Friday. The Tracy Law Firm focuses on vehicle crashworthiness lawsuits. Its offices are near the Dallas Medical District, only two blocks away from Medrano. Todd Tracy, the head attorney, wanted to do something for young residents of this neighborhood. He contacted Principal Mario Mondragón, who suggested building a food pantry at the school to support the families with limited financial resources. “Children are precious,” Tracy said. “They’re our future! And many of them are going to do great things. But you need to…