Inside Dallas ISD

Culinary students from across Dallas ISD participated in a healthy foods cook-off hosted by the Diabetes Health and Wellness Institute on April 9 at the Latino Cultural Center. The event promoted healthy ways of preparing food and featured high school students, college students and chefs at the professional level. One Dallas ISD high school that participated was Wilmer-Hutchins High School. The students at Wilmer-Hutchins are part of a culinary program that teaches students how to prepare for their future after they graduate by teaching them how to be chefs. The three Wilmer-Hutchins students that are competing made creative cupcakes using…

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…