Rousing trumpets and drums played by visiting Hillcrest High school band members welcomed Pershing Elementary students and parents Monday as Dallas ISD’s new school year began.
Returning 2nd grader Ubaldo Cruz was ready for school because he liked his first year.
“The teacher was really nice, and she explained so many things about the school,” Ubaldo said from the back seat of an SUV.
Driving was older brother Ariel, who attended Pershing years ago.
“It’s a great school,” Ariel said. “I mean, we still volunteer here every now and then, and we’re still, like, part of the school.”
Inside Pershing Elementary, Dallas Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde visited several classrooms and greeted students. As Dallas ISD and other North Texas districts begin the new school year with multi-million dollar budget deficits, she said it’s time state lawmakers up the education budget, unchanged since 2019.
“We need everyone’s help to fund schools first,” Elizalde said. “Let’s just focus on ensuring this session that we fund our public schools so that we can continue to do the great work to pay our teachers, to pay our teacher leaders, and to ensure that our students have all of the resources that are necessary.”
Elizalde said for the district to be whole again, it would need $1,100 added to the base allotment of $6,100 per pupil statewide. But, she said, “I am a realist and I don’t expect that.”
But as for teacher vacancies — another concern that plagues districts this time every year — Elizalde said that’s not a problem in Dallas this semester. She said there are only 70 teacher vacancies.
“That’s the lowest that we have since we’ve been keeping that kind of record in the district,” she said. “So 99.4% of our teaching positions are filled. That’s great for kids.”
Elizalde said the district has also added 30 to 40 more security guards to the campus force, approaching the state-mandated requirement of putting an armed guard in every school. She expects the goal will be met in two more years. The state already granted the district – and many others statewide — a waiver to meet the requirement.
Other north Texas districts start school this week as well, including Fort Worth and Richardson, whose first day of school is Tuesday, and Arlington and Highland Park, which both start Wednesday. Meanwhile, some districts, like McKinney, already opened last week.
Bill Zeeble is KERA’s education reporter. Got a tip? Email Bill at [email protected]. You can follow him on X @bzeeble.
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