25 Aug 2008
New School Year Off to Promising Start
DALLAS—The Dallas Independent School District began the 2008-2009 school year with a number of changes including one new school opening, an increase in menu prices and the addition of two new programs designed to improve student achievement.
Francisco "Pancho" Medrano Middle School made its debut as Dallas ISD's only new school opening this fall. Medrano is a 178,900 square-foot facility in northwest Dallas designed to accommodate 1,224 students. In addition to standard academic and special education classrooms, Medrano includes a career education classroom, science labs, media center and space for performing and visual arts as well as alternative education. It has a 450-seat auditorium, a gymnasium and outdoor playfields. It is the district's first geothermal heating and cooling facility and the final building in the 2002 bond program.
The new school is named for Francisco "Pancho" Medrano, the Dallas activist who worked alongside Cesar Chavez and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
When students visit the cafeteria at Medrano and at cafeterias throughout the district, they will find different menu prices from last year. Dallas ISD increased meal prices at the schools adding an extra 25 cents bringing the cost to $1 for breakfast and $1.50 for lunch. Students participating in the free and reduced lunch program will pay the same price as last school year, 30 cents for breakfast and 40 cents for lunch.
In addition to the new school and the menu prices, six high schools have been redesigned to provide academic pathways for students. Ninth-graders from Bryan Adams, W.H. Adamson, David W. Carter, L.G. Pinkston, W.W. Samuell and H. Grady Spruce high schools will be the first students to experience the district's redesign initiative taking place under Dallas Achieves!
Under the redesign effort, students will choose areas of study based on pathways determined by the school. Each school selected one or more areas of focus that include health science, architecture and construction, communications, law, information technology, business, education, hospitality and tourism, automotive technology, or the arts.
H. Grady Spruce received the most extensive redesign as the school reorganized and transferred its 10th- and 11th-graders to Lincoln or Madison high schools. Spruce 12th-graders have the option of finishing their senior year at the school while its ninth-grade students get to choose from four academic pathways including engineering and information technology; health and human services; business and financial management; and automotive technology.
Through high school redesign, schools follow a more rigorous curriculum established by the state and the Dallas ISD, but with some modifications for specialized instruction within the context of the pathways offered.
Also new to the district is the Parental Public School Choice program which gives parents or guardians the opportunity to choose their child's school and career pathway when the student is preparing to enter the ninth grade.
Only students attending the eighth grade during the 2008-2009 school year may apply to the program for the 2009-2010 school year. The options will be limited to the career pathways offered at the six redesigned schools and Emmett J. Conrad High School.
Parents will be able to place their child in a lottery for career pathways at these schools by completing an application. Parents may also opt to send their child to their neighborhood high school.
"All of our new programs are components of Dallas Achieves!," said Superintendent of Schools Michael Hinojosa. "We are putting students at the forefront of all our planning efforts as we look at ways we can help improve student achievement."
Dallas Achieves! is a communitywide initiative to graduate all students college and workforce ready and make Dallas ISD the best urban school district in the country. Through the efforts of this comprehensive plan, TAKS scores improved significantly in 2008, and 103 schools are now rated exemplary or recognized by the Texas Education Agency.
For more information on the Dallas ISD and the Dallas Achieves! initiative, visit our Web site at www.dallasisd.org.