Dallas ISD Superintendent Michael Hinojosa will give his annual State of the District address on Friday where he will discuss the challenges and triumphs the district faced in 2019 and the plan for 2020.
“We are going to have 500 kids graduating with an associate’s degree,” Hinojosa said. “People are going to see that within a few years, we are going to have every year 1,500 of our seniors graduating from high school with an associate’s degree.”
Hinojosa said there are also challenges the district must address to better serve its students.
“Over 40% of the kids don’t go to the school that they are assigned. They pick another school,” he explained. “So, we are going to announce some very exciting partnerships with some very prominent communities, businesses and partners that are going to help us design schools of the future that our students will have a choice.”
“We want them to pick their neighborhood schools, but if they don’t, we want to give them other options. So, they still pick Dallas ISD,” Hinojosa said.
Looking back on 2019, Hinojosa said the biggest challenge was the tornado that destroyed or damaged three schools.
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“That tornado was nowhere on my calendar when it hit,” he said. “Trying to all of a sudden pivot everything to make sure that those schools have what they need was obviously our biggest challenge.”
“We need to be mindful that a lot of these students are still going through a lot,” Hinojosa added. “We need to be respectful of what these families are going through. We have a plan, but it is still going to be two and a half years out. We need to acknowledge that there are going to be some difficulties along the way.”
