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A big thanks to the Frito Lay employees who volunteered to help improve our East Dallas campus.
Thanks to organizations like Frito Lay and United Way, we are able to do things that otherwise, might not be possible.
This year’s newsletter is out, and it’s the best one yet.
Download the pdf for the full newsletter, view the pictures or read the highlights below.
…continue reading 2011 Summer Newsletter
Story by Meg Fullwood – Aug 4, 2011 – North Texas e-News
Bachman Lake Community School is being hailed as a model institution for providing parent education and early literacy training to poverty level families using Montessori-style instruction. Early childhood educators from around the world will tour Bachman Lake Community School from 9:30 a.m. until 2:00 p.m., on Friday, August, 5, 2011.
The school is located at 3108 Valley Meadow Dr. #E110, Dallas, Texas 75220. Teachers, therapists, community organizers and humanitarians using the Montessori teaching method are in North Texas for the Educateurs sans Frontières (Teachers without Borders) Third International Assembly, taking place at the University of Dallas in Irving, Texas through August 11, 2011.
Bachman Lake Community School is one of three institutions operated by East Dallas Community Schools. The school has an outstanding record of educating children from primarily low income families of diverse cultures for more than 30 years.
“In the Bachman Lake neighborhood, the high school graduation rate is less than 50%,” says Bachman Lake Community School Executive Director Terry N. Ford. “Children who attend East Dallas Community School through the third grade have increased high school graduation rates of 94%, with 88% of those graduates attending college.“
Bachman Lake Community School programs are funded by the Zero to Five Funders’ Collaborative, the Rainwater Charitable Foundation and Early Head Start.
Founded in 1999, Educateurs sans Frontières (EsF) is a group of Montessori educators who apply child development knowledge and the internationally recognized principles of Montessori education to help refugees, homeless youth and children living in poverty in countries all over the world. More than 70 participants from as far away as Tanzania, Australia, Japan, and India are attending the EsF conference. They will spend two weeks attending workshops, discussing, reflecting, and exploring ways to bring the Montessori approach to children and families in need outside the traditional school framework. Participants include teachers, infant mental health specialists, community organizers, child and family therapists, and humanitarians who are working with refugee children in Kenya and villagers in Uganda, Aboriginal children in Australia, impoverished children in Haiti, and homeless children and immigrant families in the US.
Dallas Cityscape, a massive replica of the Dallas skyline built entirely with LEGO® bricks and elements, opened to the public for its second year Saturday, July 30 at a new location: the Museum of Nature & Science, located at 1318 S. 2nd Ave. in Fair Park. It will run through August 28.
“This is an ideal collaboration,” said Terrell Falk, chief operating officer for the Museum of Nature & Science. “It’s a chance to educate children (of all ages!) about construction and engineering while showing them fun, LEGO® versions of familiar landmarks in Dallas. It will also provide a unique view of the future by showcasing the LEGO® representation of the forthcoming Perot Museum of Nature & Science, now under construction.”
Dallas CityScape is an annual exhibit benefiting East Dallas Community Schools (EDCS), a nonprofit organization which operates early childhood learning centers with programs to meet the needs of children from birth to age nine. EDCS has provided kids from low income families a high-quality, Montessori school environment for more than 30 years.
The exhibit premiered in July 2010 at NorthPark Center and attracted approximately 5,000 visitors, raising more than $80,000, helping to finance a new learning lab.
“We are thrilled about our new partnership with the Museum of Nature & Science,” said Veronica Minier, director of development for Dallas CityScape. “They do such great things for the Dallas community and we’re honored that they like what we do enough to offer their world-class facility as our new home. This also allows us greater freedom to expand and develop the exhibit over the coming years, and to continue improving the visitor experience.”
Dallas CityScape evolves from year-to-year with new structures created by brick artists, new robotic elements and creative updates to the overall presentation.
The exhibit features LEGO® recreations of landmarks such as: American Airlines Center-Victory Park, Reunion Tower and the Nasher Sculpture Center, and a Kids Construction Zone where children have thousands of LEGO® bricks to play with and create their own masterpieces.
…continue reading Dallas CityScape Opens for the Second Year.
Austin, Texas – May 4, 2011 – With more positive public charter schools bills moving through the 82nd Legislature than at any other time in state history, more than 1700 parents of charter students returned to the Capitol Wednesday to encourage lawmakers to complete their work and send the bills to the Governor’s desk.
Bills to lift the state imposed cap on new charters to allow for managed growth, to grant charters access to state backed bond guarantees for school construction, and to support dropout recovery charter schools have all passed the Senate.
“We are here today to encourage House members to finish the job, and pass these reforms to help my daughter. There is nothing more important to me to be here today fighting for charter schools because I’m lucky my child got into one, but not everyone is as lucky. We have to raise the cap so more students get this chance,” said Cassandra and Freddy Rodriguez from San Juan, Texas. Their daughter is a first-grader at IDEA Public Schools in the Rio Grande Valley.
David Dunn, executive director of the Texas Charter Schools Association said, “Charters have come a long way in a relatively short time, and the amount of legislation we have moving in both Houses is an indication of that. Since last legislative session the financial and academic news about Texas charter schools has been strong. And since last session, our grassroots support has grown steadily.” …continue reading Rally Draws Charter School Supporters to the Texas Capitol
From Left: Candice Kuzov, Meghan England, Terry Ford(EDCS), Nikki Miller (OLPH), Charlotte Hudson, Cathy Vance (OLPH), Owen Hannay CEO of Slingshot, Chairman of the Board for the Foundation, Principal Daniel Quill (OLPH), Steven Offield(EDCS)
The Slingshot Charitable Foundation, a new 501c3 organization dedicated to supporting local groups that believe in the importance of early intervention and breaking the cycle of under-achievement by at-risk and underprivileged students, gave its two first gifts of $10,000 each this week. The two recipients, East Dallas Community Schools and Our Lady of Perpetual Help School, are both focused in the early education of Dallas inner-city students from low-income families.
The money from the Foundation will go to support EDCS’s Reading Program which helped 99% of the students pass the high-stakes state reading competency tests and garnered the school Gold Performance rankings by the state. The school boasts a 94% high school graduation rate from its alumni with 88% of those students going on to college. In contrast, the local high school graduation rate averages less than 50%.
Our Lady of Perpetual Help School will use the money for tuition assistance. Approximately 86% of OLPH students receive some form of financial aid as the majority live at or below poverty level according to federal government guidelines. The University of Dallas MBA program conducted a study of students who graduated 8th grade from OLPH between 2000 and 2006 and found that 98% of those students went on to graduate from high school. …continue reading New Foundation Gives Money and Support to Educating Dallas’ Youth
Read the original article here.
One thing is clear about the impending state budget cuts to public education: No single school district, certainly not a large urban one such as Dallas ISD, can raise enough revenue locally to maintain current programs. A penny added to the property tax rate for Dallas schools yields about $7.1 million in revenue. If taxpayers could be persuaded to pay 5 cents more — a very big if — the amount of money raised for our schools, $35 million, would not even come close to making up for the $250 million in state cuts projected in the worst-case scenario.
It is generally agreed that the school finance gap originated in the 2006 “tax swap” of state property taxes for the business franchise tax. The change was supposed to be revenue neutral, but actually resulted in a shortfall of almost $10 billion. This deficit and the decrease in revenues due to the recession have combined to threaten every student in Texas with larger classes, fewer teachers and diminished futures — unless we act.
Instead of accepting massive educational cutbacks as inevitable and seeking ways to lessen the harm to our children, instead of accepting that we cannot afford good schools for our kids, we must demand that Democrats and Republicans strike a “grand bargain” to save Texas schools. Elements of such a bipartisan agreement could include: …continue reading EDCS Board President John Fullinwider offers solutions to save Texas schools
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The appointment of five new members to Parkland Memorial Hospital’s board of managers will create the first minority-dominated panel in the hospital’s 117-year history.
“They’re going to bring a great perspective to the board,” said chairwoman Dr. Lauren McDonald, a board member since 1999.
McDonald, who is black, was joined last week by Eddie Reeves, a communications consultant, and Patricia Rodriguez Gorman, who runs a construction consulting firm. Reeves is black, and Gorman is Hispanic. …continue reading EDCS board member, Eddie Reeves, appointed to Parkland board of managers
Maintaining our leadership in research and technology is crucial to America’s success. But if we want to win the future – if we want innovation to produce jobs in America and not overseas – then we also have to win the race to educate our kids.
Think about it. Over the next ten years, nearly half of all new jobs will require education that goes beyond a high school degree. And yet, as many as a quarter of our students aren’t even finishing high school. The quality of our math and science education lags behind many other nations. America has fallen to 9th in the proportion of young people with a college degree. And so the question is whether all of us – as citizens, and as parents – are willing to do what’s necessary to give every child a chance to succeed.
That responsibility begins not in our classrooms, but in our homes and communities. It’s family that first instills the love of learning in a child. Only parents can make sure the TV is turned off and homework gets done. We need to teach our kids that it’s not just the winner of the Super Bowl who deserves to be celebrated, but the winner of the science fair; that success is not a function of fame or PR, but of hard work and discipline.
Our schools share this responsibility. When a child walks into a classroom, it should be a place of high expectations and high performance. But too many schools don’t meet this test. That’s why instead of just pouring money into a system that’s not working, we launched a competition called Race to the Top. To all fifty states, we said, “If you show us the most innovative plans to improve teacher quality and student achievement, we’ll show you the money.” …continue reading Excerpt on Education from President Obama’s State of the Union on January 25, 2011
Tuesday’s garden kick-off party was a huge success. The Parent Organization would like to thank all those who came to help and join in the fun. We also want to offer a special thank you to Mark Ingraham and Leigh
Ann Romack, our garden committee chairs, for their tremendous efforts as well as Mr. Loew and Mr. Gordon for the many arrangements they made to make this happen.
Carolyn Perna arranged for the beautifully rich dirt to be donated and the neighbor association of Hollywood Heights also made a large donation that made the purchase of the untreated cedar wood for the beds possible. Thanks again to all those that played a part.
It was very rewarding to watch the children of LPCS enthusiastically fill their buckets and move all the dirt needed to fill our fine garden boxes. Oh the happiness…well done everyone!
Here’s a recap of the day…
Many handy and even the not-so-handy parents came out early to construct the beds. The whole school gathered and braved the cold for the garden ceremony.Rudy, a 3rd grader, shared a garden poem. Ms. Sandya’s class sang a few garden songs.
Three children from each class came and filled a bucket full of dirt for the ceremonial first dirt drop into the garden boxes.
After the first dirt drop all the children returned to their classes and then throughout the day each class returned to the garden and spent some time filling buckets and moving dirt until…
the boxes were…all full.Bravo!
