Inside Dallas ISD

Kendall Stafford, senior Teen School Board representative for Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, has been on the board since her junior year. As a student in the theater conservatory at Booker T, her concentration is on stage management, playwriting, directing and design. “I’m really focused on the technical aspect and production aspect of theater, but I like to dabble in everything,” she says. Once in college, Kendall would like to study cultural anthropology, because, as she describes it, “The major allows flexibility for an emphasis on arts, information, history, and culture, all meshed together…

On May 7, the Booker T Washington mock trial team placed fifth out of 46 at the 2022 National High School Mock Trial Championship.  And, in her role as an attorney, Abby Chapman was named one of the “top ten lawyers in the country.” Alessia Chavez-Flores, of Creekview High in Carrollton, claimed second place in the courtroom artist category. The seven members of the mock trial team competing at Nationals were led by co-captains Abby Chapman & Zoë Gameros, who along with sophomore Isabel Gameros, competed at Nationals in 2021. First-year mock trial team members included junior Claire Taylor, sophomore…

Carmen Jones, a fifth-grader at Barbara Jordan Elementary, was one of the presenters at the Texas Bluebonnet Luncheon during the Texas Library Association (TLA) Conference in Fort Worth recently. Every year, a representative from each TLA district attends the luncheon where the author and illustrator of the Bluebonnet Award are announced. This year’s Bluebonnet Award winner is The Oldest Student: How Mary Walker Learned to Read, written by Rita Lorraine Hubbard and illustrated by Oge Mora. A total of 6,780 students from the district voted on this year’s winner. Carmen, born in Alabama, enjoys singing, dancing, and playing volleyball and…

David Lee, principal at Hector Garcia Middle School, has been an educator in Dallas ISD for most of his professional career. In a district where Asian Americans make up 2.18% of the staff and 1.11% of the student population, Lee is no stranger to setting the standard and redefining what it means to walk in your own uniqueness in spaces where the majority does not look like you.  Born in Seoul, South Korea, Lee emigrated to the U.S. with his parents and younger brother and settled in the Dallas area when he was two years old. Growing up, Lee recognized…