Inside Dallas ISD

Several Dallas ISD schools have new focuses this year, from becoming Montessori or Personalized Learning schools to seeing their existing choice school expand physically to accommodate a growing enrollment and additional activities. See a rundown below: • Two years after Solar Preparatory School for Girls opened at the former James B. Bonham Elementary School, staff and students celebrated the completion of a 44,000-square-foot addition on Oct. 5. Read the story here. • On Monday, Oct. 15, students, staff, and district and community leaders celebrated the official transition of Onesimo Hernandez Elementary School to the Montessori Academy at Onesimo Hernandez. At the beginning of…

Students, parents, staff and district officials dedicated the new Solar Preparatory for Boys at John F. Kennedy Learning Center on Tuesday, Oct. 23. This year brings a new program to the school, which transforms the campus from a comprehensive, coed elementary school to an all-male elementary that incorporates elements of leadership training into the curriculum. Much like its sister school, Solar Preparatory for Girls, which opened in 2016, the school’s open enrollment is balanced to provide ethnic and socioeconomic diversity. Also like the girls school, Solar Prep for Boys has opened with grades pre-K through second. Principal Adriana Gonzalez thanked…

The daughter of Billy Earl Dade encouraged students at her father’s namesake middle school to thrive at a special pinning ceremony. Billie Sanford Dade hosted an award pinning ceremony at Dade Middle School to celebrate the many students demonstrating excellence at the school. Dade traveled from Atlanta to Dallas for the ceremony. Dade said the pinning ceremony was just the start of a partnership to support students at the school. “My father was a person who believed that everyone should have a good education, regardless of where they live,” Dade said. “I know if my father were alive, he’d be…

“When the universe talks, you should listen!” This statement is one of the themes from this year’s Newbery Award winning book, “Hello Universe,” by Erin Entrada Kelly. Rebecca McKee, librarian at Herbert Marcus Elementary School, followed the story’s advice, and now some lucky fifth-grade students at Marcus will have the chance for some personal face-to-face time with the author. “When I read ‘Hello Universe’ over the summer, I immediately fell in love with Valencia, one of the characters in the story who is deaf,” McKee said. “Then, I landed the library job at Marcus and learned that many of the…