Inside Dallas ISD

As someone who grew up without much money, Dallas ISD Police Officer Omar Sepulveda knows what it’s like to be a kid in a family that depends on donations for Christmas presents. Sepulveda, who now serves as an officer at Pinkston High School, has a simple motto: “Every kid deserves a present on Christmas.” Sepulveda is in his fourth year of hosting a toy drive to make his mission come true. “When I started this toy drive four Christmases ago, I thought, ‘I’m not rich, but I think I can make a difference,’” Sepulveda said. “I’m trying to give back…

The co-founders of Dallas ISD’s CityLab High School are being honored this week for their vision and creation of the school with an Urban Design Award from the Greater Dallas Planning Council. Peter Goldstein and Lorena Toffer were honored on Dec. 4, 2018. Goldstein is a licensed architect and teaches architecture at CityLab, while Toffer is an architect based in Dallas. CityLab opened for the 2017-2018 school year in the district’s Pegasus Building, a few blocks from the Dallas City Hall and the heart of downtown. The high school literally uses the city as a lab to study urban planning, environmental…

When it was time for the football team to run practice drills, the South Oak Cliff (SOC) High School team couldn’t hustle out to the field behind their school. That’s because since January 2018, the school has been housed at Dallas ISD’s Village Fair facility while the original campus is being renovated and expanded a few miles away. There’s no space for practice, so the team has been bused to one of six district stadiums to prepare. But that logistical hurdle hasn’t slowed a team that has defeated all 11 of its opponents on the field so far. They face…

The silence in the hallway is shattered by enthusiastic chanting and singing as a class at C.F. Carr Elementary School prepares for another day of learning. Students are having fun before tackling the work of the day. Principal Carlotta Hooks, in her second year at Carr, said that strategy is just one teachers are using to engage students and build genuine relationships with them to foster an environment that expects and rewards academic success. Carr is one of 13 Dallas ISD schools with improvements significant enough to remove it from the state’s list of low-performing campuses. Some of those 13…