We rightly spend a lot of time on this page praising Dallas ISD for important reforms and innovative programs that have given parents at every economic level greater confidence that their children can get the best possible education in our public school system.
Reforms like the pay-for-performance Teacher Excellence Initiative and programs that have seen school choice expanded throughout the district deserve that praise.
But the reality is that, even as DISD has been reinvigorated as a school system, most of its students largely poor and minority are not excelling academically. And far too many are underperforming. As we celebrate the successes for a relatively small number of students, we have to recognize that the district and all of us who support it still have a lot of work to do to bring those left behind up to speed.
Nine-hole course and nature area make sense, but these East Dallas parks also need better access
After the park board votes Thursday on the Samuell Grand-Tenison master plan, basics such as sidewalks, trails and crosswalks must not be forgotten.
Erosion from White Rock Creek has taken a toll on the Tenison Glen Golf Course at Samuell Grand Park, so the master plan calls for turning it into a 9-hole course and converting the eastern section into a nature preserve.(Lola Gomez / Staff Photographer)
More of us might embrace Samuell Grand-Tenison as the best parks network in East Dallas if it wasn’t next to impossible for users to find and make our way around its green spaces and if its closest neighbors didn’t risk becoming road kill each time we cross the dragstrips that form its perimeter.
KERA
A new plan to make Fair Park more open to the public is underway. Part of that plan includes building a new 11-acre park that s free and community-minded.
A new $39 million park is coming to Fair Park. It ll be free and open to the public. But can it lure people to the grounds year-round?
Dallas’ Fair Park welcomes tens of thousands of Texans to the grounds every fall for the State Fair. And most of the year, it feels closed off to the general public. But there are plans to open up Fair Park to its nearby communities and to make it more accessible to greater Dallas.