Inside Dallas ISD

Students at Dallas ISD’s Nancy Cochran Elementary School will have an outdoor classroom and water-conserving garden thanks to Dallas being ranked at the top among large cities for residents pledging to conserve water. Dallas won the 2014 National Mayor’s Challenge for Water Conservation, and among the prizes was a water-friendly pocket garden – one that will be added to the courtyard at Cochran. On Thursday, April 9, Mayor Mike Rawlings, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency lead administrator Gina McCarthy, Toyota Chief Environmental Officer Kevin Butt and nationally renowned muralist Wyland helped break ground on the garden. The artist’s Wyland Foundation, in partnership…

Ask noted Dallas ISD bilingual teacher Irma De La Guardia about the benefits of receiving an alternative teaching certification through Dallas ISD, and she is quick to answer. “It gives you as many resources as possible so you are successful in the classroom,” said De La Guardia, who was named the National Association of Bilingual Educators’ 2015 Teacher of the Year. “The (alternative teaching) certification sets you up for success.” De La Guardia, a third-grade dual-language teacher at Harry C. Withers Elementary, received her Dallas ISD alternative teaching certificate 12 years ago. She said the program isn’t easy, as it…

The Dallas Independent School District Board of Trustees approved a plan to expand more than 20 different schools in the district. Seagoville High School is among the schools listed to receive campus updates. This approval of renovations, known as the Interim Bridge Plan, is part of a Superintendent Mike Miles’ initiative to transform schools under Destination 2020.  Some of these schools are experiencing overcrowding and poor building conditions. The plan will eliminate modular buildings at Seagoville, which has 27 portable at their site. District officials also list Seagoville as a school that needs immediate facility improvements due to overcrowding of…

“It looks like a big bald head!” a student at Charles Rice Learning Center proclaimed as he held a butternut squash during a recent lunch. The exposure to healthy fruits and vegetables in Dallas ISD cafeterias aims to encourage students to make better food choices and lead healthy lives. Besides the squash, students got to see, touch and smell produce such as red cabbage, beets, cantaloupes and pineapples on Tuesday, April 7. Students had the chance to taste arugula and kale. They also met Nancy Brown, CEO of the American Heart Association, and Dora Rivas, executive director of Dallas ISD’s Food & Child…