25 Mar 2005
Community Leaders and School Officials Joined for the Ceremony
DALLAS–Community leaders joined Dallas Independent School District Interim Superintendent Larry Groppel and other school district officials Friday morning for the re-naming ceremony of the district's Student Intake Center.
The center was re-named after Margaret and Gilbert Herrera. Mrs. Herrera was director of the district's counseling services department for 18 years and before that she was a school counselor at North Dallas High School.
Herrera dedicated her profession to promote programs for immigrant students and their families. Her husband, Gilbert, is also a former district employee who served as a teacher and school administrator. In addition to their work for the school district, the couple volunteered time to help immigrant families in Dallas.
"The Margaret and Gilbert Herrera Student Intake Center is a very special part of our district because it is not only an assistance center to many immigrant students, it also becomes their first home when they arrive to this country, said Groppel.
Since the center opened in July 2003, it has enrolled almost 5,000 students from North, Central and South American countries as well as from the Eastern Continent. Some of the services offered at the center include tutoring, orientation and vaccinations.
"The center provides a warm welcome to immigrant and refugee students", said the center's director, Judith Tomes. "Their families also receive orientation that helps them adapt faster to their new life in the United States".
During the ceremony, the Herrera family was presented with a special key to the Margaret and Gilbert Herrera Student Intake Center.