THE market

Makers Connect

Find locally made gifts from over 80 artisans

10242 E. Northwest Highway (next to One90 Meats) Dallas, TX 75238 972.803.8890

Custom creations are possible if you inquire early! Also, craft workshops offered weekly. See schedule at www.makersconnect.org/classes facebook.com/MakersConnectDallas/

Sunstone Fit

Yoga, Pilates, Barre, Cardio

1920 Skillman Live Oak Dallas, TX 75206 214.764.2119 x 113 sunstoneFit.com/slo

Arrive 30 minutes before any class to earn your One Free Class, become acquainted with our studio and staff, and receive exclusive special offers for our first-time students.

Wild About

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9005 Garland Rd. Suite100 Dallas, TX 75218

214-238-3022

WildAboutFlowersLakewood.com

Let Wild About Flowers be your first choice for flowers. Flowers For Any Occasion - Weddings, Events, Parties, Anniversary, Prom, Gift baskets, Birthdays, Sympathy or Just Because that East Dallas students dominate the pool — from Lakewood Elementary especially, followed by children zoned to Stonewall and several other neighborhood schools.

Another cause for the disparity is the district’s so-called “siblingrule,” which trustees were addressing at press time.

After desegregation, magnet parents advocated for changes to

Dutch Art Gallery

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10233 E. Northwest Hwy Dallas, TX 75238 214-348-7350 dutchartgallery.net admission policies that would give preference to siblings of current students. Families should stick together, the parents reasoned, and the district agreed,

Master’s of the Fall Juried Art Exhibition Nov. 5, 2016-Jan. 31, 2017. Meet the Artist & Awards Reception on Sat. Nov. 5th at 2pm. Complimentary wine & hors d’ oeuvres.

“[Parents] told us, ‘I need my kids to go to the same school. I can’t drop them off at five different schools and get to work by 8 o’clock,’ ” Crowder-Davis says.

Area private schools use such preference in their admission policies, she says. The board bought into this approach, formalizing the policy in 2010 and giving siblings an edge when applying to elementary and middle school magnets. The policy decrees that famililial ties factor into TAG and Montessori admission decisions — trumping both scores and feeder patterns.

This is a problem in the eyes of Dan Micciche, an East Dallas trustee who brought the sibling policy before the board last spring.

“A lot of people think it’s just a tiebreaker for kids with exactly the same scores,” Micciche said at the meeting. “It’s actually more than that — it’s a preference.”

To some of his colleagues on the board, however, the problem was not a broken admission process but a lack of seats.

“Why not replicate it?” asked trustee Joyce Foreman, who represents Southwest Dallas and favored keeping families together. “Those schools have all of that interest because it’s working.”

At the heart of their debate lay the issue of why, and especially for whom, Dallas ISD’s magnet schools exist.

Are they for the district’s best and brightest children who may languish at their neighborhood schools but excel in a different academic setting?

Are they for families seeking a different option who want to invest in a single school community?

Are they for students of

THE EFFECTS OF DISD’S ‘SIBLING RULE’ IN 2015-16

all ethnicities, classes and backgrounds to mingle together and find equal footing, which is the reason Dallas’ magnet schools formed in the first place?

At press time, trustees were planning to discuss and possibly change the sibling rule. The overarching question, however, seems far from being settled.

Populations of particular home schools have been compounding quietly at magnets for years. What triggered the more recent awareness was a board policy tweak in June 2015 based on the complaint of a Lakewood parent. One of her twins had been accepted to Travis. The other was first on the waitlist because other students’ siblings had taken precedence. The board responded by expanding preference to siblings who apply simultaneously.

Last spring, Dallas ISD Chief of School Leadership

Stephanie Elizalde presented the consequences to the school board: of 66 available seats for fourthgraders at Travis, the board’s policy required that 50 spots go to siblings. At George B. Dealey Montessori, another sought-after kindergarten through eighth-grade

Dallas Academy

950 Tiffany Way, Dallas 75218 / 214.324.1481 / dallas-academy.com Founded in 1965, Dallas Academy’s mission is to restore the promise of full academic enrichment to students with learning differences in grades 1-12. A meaningful connection with each student is established to overcome barriers to success. Dallas Academy offers students an effective program and strategies to meet the special educational needs of bright students with learning differences, while including the activities of a larger, more traditional school. Classes are small, with a student-teacher ratio of 6 to 1 where students are encouraged, praised, and guided toward achieving their goals. Diagnostic testing is available to students throughout the community.

Highlander School

9120 Plano Rd. Dallas / 214.348.3220 / www.highlanderschool.com Founded in 1966, Highlander offers an enriched curriculum in a positive, Christian-based environment. By limiting class size, teachers are able to build a strong educational foundation to ensure confidence in academics, athletics, and the creative and performing arts. Highlander offers a “classic” education which cannot be equaled. Monthly tours offered; call for a reservation.

Lakehill Preparatory School

Leading to Success. 2720 Hillside Dr., Dallas 75214 / 214.826.2931 / lakehillprep.org

Spanish House

Four East Dallas Locations / 214.826.4410/ DallasSpanishHouse.com Spanish Immersion Program in East Dallas! Nursery, Preschool, Elementary and Adult Programs available. Our new dual-language elementary campus is now open at 7159 E. Grand Ave. Please visit our website at DallasSpanishHouse.com for more information.

White Rock North School

9727 White Rock Trail Dallas / 214.348.7410 / WhiteRockNorthSchool. com 6 Weeks through 6th Grade. Our accelerated curriculum provides opportunity for intellectual and physical development in a loving and nurturing environment. Characterbuilding and civic responsibility are stressed. Facilities include indoor swimming pool, skating rink, updated playground, and stateof-the-art technology lab. Kids Club on the Corner provides meaningful after-school experiences. Summer Camp offers field trips, swimming, and a balance of indoor and outdoor activities designed around fun-filled themes. Accredited by SACS. Call for a tour of the campus.

Zion Lutheran School

magnet school in Preston Hollow, 15 of 33 open seats were claimed by siblings, and at Harry Stone Montessori in southern Dallas, it was 29 of 45.

At Travis, the numbers were particularly striking in terms of how many qualified students were shut out: The 61 students on the waitlist had higher scores than 33 of the 50 siblings who were accepted.

This didn’t sit well with Travis parent Mita Havlick.

“There were kids with a 97, 98 on the wait list,” Havlick says, referring to the 100-point scoring system Travis uses to determine

Kindergarten through Grade 12 - Lakehill Preparatory School takes the word preparatory in its name very seriously. Throughout a student’s academic career, Lakehill builds an educational program that achieves its goal of enabling graduates to attend the finest, most rigorous universities of choice. Lakehill combines a robust, college-preparatory curriculum with opportunities for personal growth, individual enrichment, and community involvement. From kindergarten through high school, every Lakehill student is encouraged to strive, challenged to succeed, and inspired to excel.

The Lamplighter School

11611 Inwood Road Dallas TX 75229/ 214-369-9201/ thelamplighterschool.org

Lamplighter delivers serious education wrapped in the wonder of childhood. The Pre-K through fourth grade years are fleeting, but filled with pure potential. What we, as parents and educators, ignite in these primary years establishes the trajectory of a child’s future. Lamplighter helps set children on a path toward rewarding lives as forever learners. The independent, co-educational school promotes academic excellence through innovative curriculum that merges fine arts with language arts, math, environmental science, social studies, physical education, and Spanish

6121 E. Lovers Ln. Dallas / 214.363.1630 / ziondallas. org Toddler care thru 8th Grade. Serving Dallas for over 58 years offering a quality education in a Christ-centered learning environment. Degreed educators minister to the academic, physical, emotional, social, and spiritual needs of students and their families. Before and after school programs, Extended Care, Parents Day Out, athletics, fine arts, integrated technology, Spanish, outdoor education, Accelerated Reader, advanced math placement, and student government. Accredited by National Lutheran School & Texas District Accreditation Commissions and TANS. Contact Principal Jeff Thorman.

ST. JOHN’S EPISCOPAL SCHOOL

848 Harter Rd., Dallas 75218 / 214.328.9131 / stjohnsschool.org admission. In contrast, a large number of the accepted sibling applicants had scores in the midto low-80s.

Founded in 1953, St. John’s is an independent, co-educational day school for Pre-K through Grade 8. With a tradition for academic excellence, St. John’s programs include a challenging curriculum in a Christian environment along with instruction in the visual and performing arts, Spanish, German, French, and opportunities for athletics and community service.St. John’s goal for its students is to develop a love for learning, service to others, and leadership grounded in love, humility, and wisdom. Accredited by ISAS, SAES, and the Texas Education Agency.

Havlick later entered the race for Dallas ISD District 2 Trustee, which represents both the Lakewood and Stonewall communities, as well as several affluent areas of Preston Hollow whose residents often pursue spots at Dealey or Travis. She didn’t win the election; the seat went to Dustin Marshall, who says he didn’t take a stance on sibling preference. Havlick, however, vocalized her disagreement.

The purpose of a magnet school, she says, is to give children who have displayed a need for academic rigor the opportunity of a different academic learning environment. The argument for giving preference to siblings is that it creates a greater sense of community, but “to me, that’s why you go to a neighborhood school.”

In a way, a magnet school lopsided with East Dallas students solves problems for the district. Lakewood and Stonewall Jackson are both overcrowded elementary schools, so siphoning off 150 or so fourthand fifth-graders eases the burden. Lakewood has eight classrooms of third-graders but drops to six in fourth-grade and five in fifthgrade. So many Lakewood children attend Travis that it requires two school buses to ship them back every afternoon.

Plus, one of the district’s goals is to attract the middle class back to its schools. As Elizalde said of magnet school parents at the spring board meeting: “We have lost populations we don’t want to lose. They have options, and they’re choosing DISD.”

That’s the population the board is catering to with its sibling policy — middle- and upper-class parents who likely have the option to send their kids to private schools. These are the families who dominate the district’s top magnet schools, and the trustees, as stated in one of their goals this year, are eager to keep them in DISD.

Micciche also believes in the power of middle-class parents and the importance of schools that attract them.

“When you have an active PTA and parents who are active in the school, they lift the whole school up,” he says. “They contribute to the success not only of their own children but all the children in the school. They supplement the educational and extracurricular activities that go on in the school, and it makes a huge difference.”

That statement, however, was made in reference to Alex Sanger Elementary, a 68 percent Hispanic and 81 percent economically disadvantaged neighborhood school in East Dallas that is gaining traction with middle-class families.

By comparison, Travis is 58 percent white and 20 percent economically disadvantaged. It’s also full of students and families who compete to attend the school, and it offers top tier educators and additional resources due to its magnet status.

Interestingly, taking away sibling preference altogether may not significantly alter Travis’ population. On the waiting list last year behind 30 accepted Lakewood and Stonewall students, many of them siblings, were another 26 Lakewood and Stonewall students, none of them siblings.

In contrast, 111 of the district’s 152 elementary schools didn’t send a single fourth- or fifthgrader to Travis last year. This year’s incoming class of fourthgraders represented only 28 home schools.

That number increased to 32 when Elizalde made the decision over the summer to admit half the students on the waiting list. It was a stopgap measure until the board weighed in with an official vote. That decision ballooned the school’s population from roughly 400 to 500, which likely eliminated the possibility of future students testing in as sixth-graders — a longstanding Travis tradition that tends to cast a wider net than its fourth-grade applicants.

TOP 10 SEAT-FILLERS AT TRAVIS SINCE 2000

The dynamics that led to Travis’ present-day make-up aren’t black and white. It’s a complex issue that can’t be solved with a simple policy change, and the conclusion could have a large impact on Dallas ISD’s future and how the district is perceived with middleclass families.

“A magnet school should be a meritocracy,” Havlick says. “They are coveted spots, and to reserve them because of birthright, it’s not equitable.”