The Pleasant in the Grove...

Last night I had the opportunity to attend a community meeting at The Way of Truth Church in Pleasant Grove. The meeting centered around the beautiful new extension campus of Eastfield Community College being built in the heart of Pleasant Grove. The "community campus" is located on Buckner Blvd and is a wonderful addition to our community! There will even be a community room for groups in the community to meet and host functions.

One of the large concerns in the City of Dallas, even moreso in the Pleasant Grove area is that of education. What better way to bring some concentrated attention and help with education than to put a first class educational institution right in the midst of the community. Two of the three high schools out here have either been re-organized or shut down as a result of low performance. I believe this is an excellent opportunity for the Community College District to embrace the community and the community to embrace the Community College, thus resulting in a magnificent educational love affair! I look forward to more high school students taking advantage of the dual enrollment option and the possibility to complete college coursework (and receive credit) while in high school! And the DCCCD offers these classes to the students for FREE!!!

The extension campus will offer certificate programs, continuing education classes and basic college courses (i.e. reading, writing, math). The hispanic population in Pleasant Grove is greater than 50 percent and the DCCCD system recognized this and will asl have a heavy concentration on ESL and ESOL classes. The administration is very open to the community's input and have formed an advisory committee comprised of members from the committee. The first meeting will be held in a couple of weeks and if you are interested please contact Mr. Javier Olguin, Executive Director, if you are interested in serving.

The chancellor of the DCCCD system spoke at the meeting as well as the interim President and the Executive Director of the campus. They are very excited about being in the Grove and it is my hope the we too, will get behind the project and support it! I too plan to take a class or two at the campus! We must applaud and support good business that cares enough to invest in our community!

Thank you to Dallas County Community College District for investing in our community, thank you to Pastor Hodge and his wife for hosting the meeting and thank you to everyone from the community that showed up to attend the meeting!
Let's Go To Work!