CONSTRUCTION by the numbers

In April 2014, Dallas ISD trustees approved spending $130 million to fix what they deemed as the worst of the district’s facility problems, as well as to overhaul the facilities of new choice schools. Here’s how it impacts schools in our neighborhood: million million

Lakewood Elementary: $12.6 million for an addition with 27 classrooms and an expanded cafeteria, and window replacement in its 1951 building

$5.3 million $5.3 million

Casa View Elementary: $5.3 million for a 12,500square-foot addition

$12.6 million $2.5 million $700,000

Stonewall Jackson Elementary: $5.3 million for a 13,500square-foot addition and updates to the existing 1940 building

Dan D. Rogers Elementary: $2.5 million to transform the 1953 facility into a Dallas ISD choice school focused on personalized learning

Alex Sanger Elementary: $700,000 for a pre-K wing and sixth- to eighthgrade modulars

Construction on all of these projects is expected to begin summer 2016 and finish in time for the 2017-18 school year. The one exception is Sanger, which should begin next April and finish in time for the 2016-17 school year.

Source: Dallas ISD, as of July 10, 2015

There are apparently two ways to convince Dallas ISD to spend $13 million on your elementary school: Knock on the doors of district trustees, or hope a trustee knocks on your door.

A new look for lunch: Goodbye hot Cheetos, hello vegetarian options

Healthy, sustainable items dominate Dallas ISD’s new menus

A green-leaf logo on each day’s menu identifies vegetarian items. New items this year include the “rojo fiesta pizza” (a crust topped with refried beans, salsa and cheese), “vegetarian dippers” (cheese toast with marinara), three-bean chili, and a spinach and cheese flatbread. “We have a fairly large population of people who don’t want to eat meat for all kinds of reasons, and we’re trying to address that,” says Margaret Lopez, Dallas ISD director of nutrition, noting the district’s 75 different home languages that include cultural and religious food parameters, as well as families who are vegetarian for environmental reasons.

Two antibiotic-free chicken options will be featured on this year’s menu: the chicken nuggets and the grilled chicken sandwich.

“Harvest of the month”

menu items are grown by local Texas farmers. September’s menu features watermelon from the Green family in Henderson. Cafeterias feature posters with fun facts about harvest items, such as, “Did you know the vine can grow as much as 8 feet within the first month?”

High school menus are moving from a one-week to a twoweek cycle. Menus already offer eight entrées daily, and add a monthly featured item to the standard menu. In September, the feature is “chic penne” with whole wheat pasta, fresh broccoli florets, a variety of cheeses and grilled chicken. “People kind of get stuck in a rut and gravitate to the same thing,” Lopez says. “This is an effort to put a few more choices out there.”