Ikia Harding sat on a bench outside John J. Pershing Elementary School Monday morning with tears in her eyes and watched the students come through the front doors.
She had just dropped off her five-year-old daughter Delilah for her first day of kindergarten at the same elementary school she attended.
“She’s an only child and now she can go out with her friends,” Harding said. “She’s been very excited all week.”
Delilah is one of the 140,000 students Dallas ISD welcomed on the first day of school. In Pershing, the students were greeted by the drumline, cheerleaders, drill team members and other athletes from Hillcrest High School.
Photos: Dallas ISD students at John J. Pershing Elementary were greeted with high-fives and music on the first day of school
Mother Analine Llamas said she was excited for her daughters – a second-grader and a preschooler at Pershing University – to return to school after a summer of painting, swimming and time outdoors.
“It’s the beginning of structure, the beginning of taking responsibility and becoming a member of society and really knowing what that is,” Llamas said.
Pershing is one of 240 DISD schools in the district. All campuses reopened Monday without issues, said Sebastian Saucedo, Dallas schools spokesman.
Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde, who visited Pershing classrooms on Monday, noted that extra security was present at Wilmer-Hutchins High School that morning. District officials took that precaution after a “non-functioning device” was found on campus on Saturday.
“It could never have caused any real harm, but it was very frightening,” she said. “We will be investigating how someone created a device to scare people, because we take this very seriously.”
During a press conference, Elizalde said Dallas ISD has filled more than 99% of its teaching positions. The district had 70 vacant teaching positions as of Monday.
She added that school administrators are working to fill vacant full-time positions for armed officers at elementary schools.
The district hired between 30 and 40 armed officers. Supervisors and patrol officers will rotate through schools that do not yet have an armed police station. The vacancies will be filled within two years, according to Elizalde.
