Booker T Washington HS (school, kids, accepted)

[rabbit33]

Originally Posted by platon20

What happens if I put a Dallas county post office box as my address? They gonna check it? LOL

After looking at the portion of my property taxes that goes to DISD, I do not appreciate you sponging off MY tax bill.

You want to take advantage of DISD, come live in the district and pay the bill.

[EDS_]

Originally Posted by rabbit33

After looking at the portion of my property taxes that goes to DISD, I do not appreciate you sponging off MY tax bill.

You want to take advantage of DISD, come live in the district and pay the bill.

I think the other guy's post was satirical.

[75214Dad]

Originally Posted by Runner2000

The application requires you to attach a copy of a current lease, mortgage statement, or utility bill. Sadly, some people are not honest about those documents. At one of the meetings they said that the district is going to be double checking residence for all qualified students who did not attend a DISD middle school.

A certain county elected official got around that by having his cousin get his kid into Dealey for 8h grade. Hmmm…

[pisekar]

Originally Posted by platon20

What happens if I put a Dallas county post office box as my address? They gonna check it? LOL

yes they will check it

[JenG1974]

As a current Booker T Parent (and board member of one of the Guilds) - the school is amazing. These kids eat, breathe, and live the arts and so do the instructors. Most of the Conservatory Faculty are working artists in their respective fields. The school is bolstered by the Dallas Arts District and they often hire students for talent. They have a unique program where they bring in recruiters from all over the US to come and see these kids perform, interview them, do callbacks, have workshops, etc when they are seniors. They call it Showcase and it is a sight to behold. Every recruiter walks out impressed and with a long list of kids they WANT at their schools. My child was one of those that 'didn't really fit in' - until she went to Booker. It has been THE best experience for her and for our family. BUT - I do want to say - if your kid goes to Booker - so do you! It is a family commitment. (and academics - those are pretty fantastic as well). We have a US Presidential Scholar winner in the Sr Class right now.

So in a nutshell - if your kid is talented enough to make the cut - then they should go. Good luck at Auditions this week and next!

[Runner2000]

Thank you for your post, JenG - very helpful! I was hoping to get this type of information from a current parent. We are definitely willing to make the family commitment and support the school community if we get in. Fingers crossed for next weekend

[JenG1974]

Of course and best of luck! It’s an amazing school.

[vidly]

I may get booed off this thread for this but I would like to point out a couple of downsides that I wish I had known before switching my child from a competitive Dallas private to BTW. (current parent of an 11th grader). While I agree with all of the positives mentioned, (super talented arts faculty, cool and talented student body, enthusiastic and involved parents), I am a little disappointed in the academics. Some of the academic teachers are really not that great. Like coming back from retirement to teach a subject they have no experience in as a teacher. There has also been a sub with zero teaching credentials for almost a year in one of their classes, and that has been tough. There are no labs offered in science, so no dissections in Biology and (to my knowledge) no AP BIO. There are other AP courses available (AP history offered all years) and there is an AP Physics. You can argue that the students who go here are not going into science careers generally, but some of them certainly could! I want my kid to have a well-rounded education in addition to the fabulous arts one. And BTW is slightly less well-rounded than I had hoped. The college counseling support is also very limited- they just have too many kids with too few counselors. I think this may be the first year there will be a dedicated person in the role of college counselor for many years. Recently it has just been the regular school counselors doing their best/wearing many hats. For sure the college support is excellent if you want to pursue an arts college and career. The truth is many of the kids who go here do not end up attending an arts college. That's a hard thing to predict when your child is in 8th grade! My impression is the parents do a lot of the work in this regard (and I know many hire outside college counselors). The arts teachers do excellent work helping kids with their arts portfolios, however.
I also agree with the poster who mentioned frustration at only being able to choose one art. At a typical school kids can explore drama and visual arts and be in the choir. At BTW, although you technically can take some classes in other concentrations in the upper grades there are not a lot of opportunities to do so and your main arts cluster also has many requirements for graduation, not leaving a ton of time to explore the others. Also, as with all magnets, there are no sports or physical education if your kid isn't a dancer (you can belong to a team at your home high school technically but the logistics of that are hard to imagine). I believe there is a semester (or year?) of PE required for graduation so they offer yoga but there is no room for that in the early years due to required courses for your arts concentration.
The spirit of the school and its community are top notch! My child is also so much happier socially around this group of kids, and that is ultimately so much more important to us than the academics - I know they will get what they need academically in college (we are also going to supplement over the summer with things not offered or difficult to squeeze in during regular school year). But I thought I'd be up front about the tradeoffs involved with a school that is so focused in one direction.

[Runner2000]

Thank you, vidly. This is very helpful. I agree that a lot of 8th graders do not know what they want to do long term, and it is important to be well-rounded and have a solid academic foundation. What we like about BTW is it has a special and unique vibe, the electives are interesting, and it allows students to develop their artistic talents in a way that other schools can't. I don’t mind having to outsource things like college counselors but you can’t really do much if the core academic classes are not what you want them to be. I have heard mixed things about that from several people, which may also reflect their expectations/experiences at other schools. My son does not know what he wants to do as a career and is a strong student at a highly regarded private school. We are happy with the teachers/students/academics at our current school. So if we are lucky enough to earn a spot at BTW, I want to make sure it is the right fit.

[DoodleMom74]

Originally Posted by JenG1974

As a current Booker T Parent (and board member of one of the Guilds) - the school is amazing. These kids eat, breathe, and live the arts and so do the instructors. Most of the Conservatory Faculty are working artists in their respective fields. The school is bolstered by the Dallas Arts District and they often hire students for talent. They have a unique program where they bring in recruiters from all over the US to come and see these kids perform, interview them, do callbacks, have workshops, etc when they are seniors. They call it Showcase and it is a sight to behold. Every recruiter walks out impressed and with a long list of kids they WANT at their schools. My child was one of those that 'didn't really fit in' - until she went to Booker. It has been THE best experience for her and for our family. BUT - I do want to say - if your kid goes to Booker - so do you! It is a family commitment. (and academics - those are pretty fantastic as well). We have a US Presidential Scholar winner in the Sr Class right now.

So in a nutshell - if your kid is talented enough to make the cut - then they should go. Good luck at Auditions this week and next!

Does anyone know the likelihood of getting in when you are on the waitlist? Just curious about what percentage of waitlisted kids actually end up getting in. Thank you!!