As I do with each Woodrow Wilson High School feeder pattern school, I sat down with the principal to chat about the school, learn more about the campus and educate myself as a community member and Realtor®. The principal, Mr. Will Smyth, is in his first year at Mockingbird! He recently served as the Assistant Principal at Smith Elementary in Mesquite and is in his 16th year in education.
Mockingbird was built in 1938 and currently serves as the regional campus for deaf students. The Dallas Regional Day School Program for the Deaf is a program that serves students with varying degrees of hearing loss that severely affects their processing of linguist information. This can obviously adversely affect the student’s academic performance, so this program is vitally important for the deaf population within Dallas ISD. Currently there are approx. 60 students in this program at Mockingbird, and the school employees a self-contained deaf-ed teacher and an interpreter for each class.
The school serves approx. 650 students and has 80 staff members. Their curriculum runs from Kindergarten through Fifth Grade, so there is no Pre-K program at Mockingbird. The school is currently at capacity, which means they are closed for transfer students, unless they are a native Spanish speaking student (or emerging bi-lingual student). They have a very strong dual language program at the school, which features Spanish as the second language. Mockingbird is well rated and ranked amongst other Dallas ISD elementary schools. According to U.S. News & World Report, out of all traditional elementary schools which run through 5th grade in Dallas, Mockingbird Elementary is ranked #4 out of 159 schools!!
In addition, the school recently put on their annual “Passport” event, which showcases a country the teachers pick for the students to learn more about. This year, the featured country was Vietnam. The kids learned more about the culture, heard from featured speakers and got a chance to eat authentic Vietnamese food!
One of the most exciting things Mockingbird has to offer is their garden. The garden is supported exclusively by the PTA and has become integral to the experience of all students at the school. They even give tours to other schools in the area so that they can learn how to replicate what is going at Mockingbird! When I toured the school, I even saw a chicken coup! Outdoor learning is an important part of the Mockingbird culture.
I’m excited to serve on Mockingbird’s SBDM Committee as a community member at large and be a small part of the exciting things going on at this great East Dallas school!