Inside Dallas ISD

A school for girls to imagine, explore and create: the future is happening now at one of Dallas ISD’s Public School Choice campuses. Solar Preparatory School for Girls at James B. Bonham opened its doors in August 2016 with 198 scholars in grades K–2. Solar Prep will be add one grade level each year until reaching eighth-grade and will serve more 1,100 girls. Solar Prep embraces performance-based learning, which allows students to explore their learning in a different variety of ways. Solar Prep also uses a blended learning model, in which lessons are taught in small groups. Students learn from…

The Dallas ISD Police Department announced its first female command staff officer in the history of the department during a promotion ceremony on Thursday, Oct. 20. Terri Thomas officially received the promotion from sergeant to lieutenant. Thomas began her career in Dallas ISD in 1994 as a truancy officer and later elevated her role within the force as a police officer in 2000. Lt. Thomas comes from a family of law enforcement officers one of which includes her mother, Mattie Thomas, who is also noted for making history in policing. Mattie Thomas was the first female deputy for the Dallas…

Conn’s HomePlus has donated a new Samsung washer and dryer set to Roger Q. Mills Elementary, and staff, students and parents are thrilled. Conn’s HomePlus, a furniture and specialty home goods retailer, celebrated the donation on Oct. 20 with a fun and interactive laundry lesson to teach students a lifelong skill. The students also participated in a fast-paced laundry relay race. “This donation will ensure our students have a resource to clean clothes,” Mills Principal Tonya Clark said. “We want our students to be able to come to school not worried about their clothes and whether or not their clothes are…

The Dallas Holocaust Museum/Center for Education and Tolerance, in partnership with the Dallas Independent School District (ISD) and Hold On To Your Music, is sponsoring the first-ever City-Wide Read and Performance this fall for approximately 12,500 fifth graders, as well as students from several of the city’s Jewish schools. Students will read The Children of Willesden Lane, a true story of inspiration and perseverance in a time of war, and attend a musical performance by the author, Grammy-nominated classical pianist Mona Golabek. The Children of Willesden Lane tells the story of Golabek’s mother, Lisa Jura, a 14-year-old Jewish musical prodigy…