By Bill Zeeble, KERA News
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-898146.mp3
Dallas, TX – The Dallas Independent School District has broken ground on a new school that will be named for retired school board member Kathlyn Gilliam. The school will be the District's first stand-alone early college high school. KERA's Bill Zeeble has more.
The groundbreaking was a celebration of Kathlyn Gilliam's 23 year service on the DISD board. Several hundred people erupted in cheers as the woman of the moment entered.
The new school, named for DISD's first African American female trustee, will be called the Kathlyn Joy Gilliam Collegiate Academy. When complete in the fall of 2011, it'll be the first home of the district's early college high school now housed in the DISD's Nolan Estes Plaza. Dallas Superintendent Michael Hinojosa says it puts low income students on a fast college track.
Hinojosa: It gives the students opportunity to get their high school diploma and an associates degree while they graduate from high school. So it gives them a jump start.
Early College High School 10th grader Shawnta Brinkley has her eyes on that associates degree and the bottom line.
Brinkley: The higher the education the more money we make.
Students in the program give up some of a more typical high school experiences. There's no music or sports teams. That's ok with 9th grader Henry Williams, who admits the program is a challenge.
Williams: Some classes are very difficult. I have to work hard every day to pass with an "A."
This early college high school concept is 7 years old in Texas, which now boasts 41 such schools statewide. The DISD's Michael Hinojosa says there's interest in another such school for Pleasant Grove, but it's only an idea at the moment.