News Briefs

The gates are open for the 2016 State Fair of Texas at Fair Park, offering family fun, fantastic exhibits, learning opportunities and the flavor of the Lone Star State through Oct. 23. Find information on planning your visit, buy tickets and coupon vouchers online and see activities scheduled for each day at bigtex.com. This year, Dallas ISD elementary schools will be closed for a Fair Day on Friday, Oct. 14, and middle and high schools will be closed for a Fair Day on Friday, Oct. 21. Last year, the State Fair of Texas launched an educational component for students in…

More than 100 students at Bryan Adams High School Leadership Academy recently spent part of their day donating blood to the American Red Cross. All together, Bryan Adams donated 89 pints of blood! Watch the above video to see some of the reasons students decided to donate.

What would your reaction be if your hero moved into your neighborhood? The 2016 Dallas Celebration of Reading Student Essay Contest is posing that question to DFW area 4th – 8th grade students. In The Hero Two Doors Down, bestselling author Sharon Robinson, who also happens to be the daughter of baseball legend Jackie Robinson, shares the story of the friendship that developed between her father and a neighborhood boy when Robinson moved in two doors down. It was a dream come true for young Steve Satlow when his hero, Jackie Robinson, became his neighbor. The essay contest asks students…

Among the 81 million people who watched the first debate between U.S. presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were Jo Rodhe’s debate students at Dallas ISD’s North Dallas High School. Theirs was a homework assignment, and they discussed what they saw the next day in class as they prepare for their first debate tournament of the year on Saturday. Watch a great story from CBS 11 on what students thought here.