Inside Dallas ISD

The Margaret Hunt-Hill Bridge never tasted so good. Well, at least that’s possibly true of the miniature structure made out of gingerbread, marshmallows and icing by students at Dallas ISD’s Multiple Career Magnet Center (MCMC). It’s part of a baked and candy-bedazzled cityscape that includes a rendition of the school, a skyscraper and will eventually feature Big Tex and the Cotton Bowl. Chef Stephen Drake, who leads the culinary cluster at the school, has used the gingerbread-building lesson when he taught culinary arts at Roosevelt, Lincoln and Townview Center. Students bake the gingerbread, help plan the structures and then assemble…

Principal Onjaleke Brown found orange peels everywhere in the classroom. Normally, such as mess would be frustrating, but the fruity remains were evidence that first-graders at N.W. Harllee Early Childhood Center enjoyed tasting the fresh satsuma mandarin oranges trucked in this morning from Sturdivant Farms near the Texas coast. The “Harvest of the Month” is an ongoing program by Dallas ISD Food and Child Nutrition Services (FCNS) that highlights a locally grown produce item. Students get to sample the produce and learn facts about it and, in the case of Harllee, sometimes meet the farmers behind the food. Christopher Sturdivant…

As a 25-year law-enforcement officer in Houston, Sarah Cortez knows her way around police work. As a poet, she attempts to give readers an insider’s view of her job. Lord, take from meher dark blue eyescloudy with fearstaring in a hospitalroom beyond me, beyondmy uniform, nameplate, clipboard. On Tuesday, Dec. 11, Cortez visited Towniew Center and discussed her poetry with Humanities classes comprising students from Business, Health, Law and Education magnets. Her visit was coordinated in partnership with the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture. She has received many distinctions as a poet, writing books, sharing her knowledge as an educator…

When Julia Ford was preparing her song at the Texas Thespian Festival in November, she was facing a serious problem. “My voice had left me, and I’m singing, and I thought, ‘This is not going well,’ ” recalled Ford, a junior at James Madison High School. She quickly made some adjustments to her performance and starting drinking hot tea to soothe her vocal cords. When it came time for her to perform before the judges, they knew she was struggling a bit but commended her for making the changes and overcoming her vocal hurdles. That performance of “I’m Here” from…