Take note of news from local schools: French lessons at Geneva Heights & Lipscomb, Juliette Fowler partners with Bezos Academy & more

There’s so much going on with schools these days and still so little time. We wouldn’t blame you for not being caught up. Check out these stories about recent education-related happenings in our neighborhood. And don’t worry, we won’t test you.

Spanish World School’s new frontier 

Spanish World School plans to open its southwestern campus, located in the former Skillman Southwestern Branch Library, next year after the building is renovated.

The private Spanish immersion school’s founders, Catherine Wallace and Luis Martinez, bought the building at a live auction earlier this year for $3.3 million, according to The Dallas Morning News. The library closed last year because of lack of City budget funding.

“It’s been a meaningful location in the city, especially for those of us who grew up in the area,” Wallace says to the Advocate. “I grew up in Lake Highlands, so I passed by that building my whole life. It served the community in really important ways as a library, and I know that Spanish World School will keep using it in a positive and purposeful way as a preschool. It’s a visible and accessible building, and I think it’s going to help us open the doors to a lot of new Spanish World School families.”

Located near The Village, the building is 13,200 square feet and will serve nursery and preschool-aged children from 3 months to 5 years old.

Manuela Ortega, admissions and communications director, says the new campus will meet a need by making more room for interested families, about 200 of them. She says the old library building was the right space to continue reaching Lakewood families, but also those in Lake Highlands and Highland Park.

“We were looking for a new spot for, I think I would say, over a year, and this just came our way, and it was just like the perfect location,” Ortega says.

Even preschoolers who are not enrolled at Spanish World School may be able to reap the benefits of after-school Spanish classes from this new campus, Ortega says.

The renovation is expected to include 15 classrooms as well as outdoor play areas, a gym and offices. Construction is expected to start this fall and be done by the summer.

Making Juliette proud

A partnership that was announced two years ago is on its way to fruition.

In 2024, Juliette Fowler Communities officially linked up with Bezos Academy to establish a tuition-free, full-day preschool for 60 children at its campus on Abrams Road.

Founded by former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, the preschool is inspired by the Montessori method of education for children ages 3-5 from eligible families (determined by income and age). Giving access to a service that families couldn’t otherwise afford and committing to the Montessori model is what attracted Juliette Fowler Communities.

“There’s a lot of synergies of the Montessori-based educational model with the trauma-informed care model that we use for our Ebby House young women and our Youth Support Center,” says Nicole Gann, Juliette Fowler Communities CEO and president. “Also, Montessori is very aligned with dementia programming that we run for our elders who are living in our memory support neighborhoods.”

Based on the vision of the nonprofit’s namesake, Juliette Fowler Communities has a mission to connect with both young and older folks and help them thrive. Services for children and youth focus on those who have been through tough times.

“Because of our work with The Ebby House and the Youth Support Center and getting young people that have been through traumatic events, whether it’s displacement through the foster care system and multiple placements or homelessness or couch surfing, we know that the more we can influence people earlier in their lives, the better chances they are of avoiding events that may lead them to those services,” Gann says. “So early childhood development became a significant part of the conversation.”

Bezos Academy at Juliette Fowler has three classrooms, a workspace for educators and an outside play area, representative of an investment just under $4 million. Construction has been completed, and classes are expected to start this fall after some administrative processes are wrapped up.

Merci, Madame Miller

One of Kathy Miller’s students was putting the teacher’s lessons to good use over the summer.

“The kids that took French last year, they’re speaking to me in French,” Miller says. “One of them said they went to Paris, and her dad told me, ‘Yes, she was talking to the taxi, the Uber driver, and she helped us order food at the restaurant.’ And that’s just thrilling that elementary school students can do that. I really get encouraged by that.”

Miller is the only elementary school French teacher in Dallas ISD, and she instructs 824 children from kindergarten through fifth grade at Geneva Heights and William Lipscomb elementary schools.

These classes are part of the International Baccalaureate (IB) program, which includes foreign language courses from kindergarten through 12th grade. The goal is that the students will be fluent in three languages by the time they graduate high school, Miller says.

The teaching veteran has been employed at Dallas ISD for 15 years and mainly taught at Emmett J. Conrad High School in Lake Highlands. Before then, she lived in France and taught English to elementary students there. This is her third year instructing elementary students in the States.

“(Younger children) are so curious and want to learn, and they want to know everything about the language, the country, everything,” Miller says. “That desire to learn is just so prevalent in elementary school, and I missed that. And I missed their hugs. They give you a lot of hugs, too, and they’re funny.” On that last note, she recalled a student who forgot her name, addressing her as, “Hey, lady who speaks French.”

Miller’s French classes include not only instruction on the language but on culture as well. This year, she tells the children about monuments in Paris and recounts stories and fun facts for each of them.

“The more we get to know about people in a foreign land or people that are foreigners, the more we realize that they cherish the same things we do, like our family time together, good food, and we realize that people that you would think were different than us that they’re really just the same as us, and they want the same things that we want,” she says. “And French class kind of helps you see that.”