Inside Dallas ISD

Rosemont Upper, the building hosting Rosemont’s older student body, has become a cornerstone of the Kessler neighborhood throughout its 100-year history. This K-8 neighborhood school housed one of the most active parent committees across Dallas ISD schools throughout the last century and is known to attract neighboring professionals into serving their community as teachers. Rosemont Lower and Upper School is a two-way dual language kinder-through-eighth campus that was established in 1922. The school consists of two buildings: the Chris V. Semos Primary Campus, which opened in 2005 and houses pre-k-through-third grade in addition to the original building which hosts students…

During the fall football season, varsity cheerleaders received help promoting school spirit from various elementary cheer squads at Friday night football games across the district. Known as minis, these fourth and fifth graders are members of the elementary cheer teams for their respective high school local feeder pattern. This year the Student Activities Department rolled out an elementary cheer program, and high school game nights were one opportunity for the minis to perform with their high school counterparts, said Shenita Jones, Student Activities coordinator. “We have 63 elementary campuses with more than 1,200 students participating in the cheer program,” Jones…

Arthur Ybarra is a proud product of Dallas ISD and a third grade math and science teacher at Winnetka Elementary School, but his path to success has not been easy.  “I sit here all the time and look at this classroom and say, ‘I really shouldn’t be a teacher. I really shouldn’t be in this room,’” Ybarra said. “But my family really pushed me to succeed. Everything I do is for them—every single thing for my wife, my four kids, my house.” Ybarra, who is Comanche, struggled to make it through school as a teenager. He dropped out twice, once…

Every time Tracy Palmer, a specialist with Dallas ISD’s American Indian Education Program, sees a Native student graduate, she is glad she chose a career where she can help transform the lives of students like her. Growing up in Oklahoma, Palmer remembers not being able to read or write because she did not have American Indian educational support, so seeing Native students graduate is “one of the greatest moments,” she said. “Once I knew who I was and where I was, I felt like I had a big moment in life—that ‘ah ha’ moment,” said Palmer, who has been with…