DALLAS – Having earned more than $100,000 in grants thus far, The International Leadership of Texas (ILTexas) receives yet another grant in the amount of $35,000 from the Hillcrest Foundation, Bank of America, N.A., Co-Trustee. The funds will be used for to purchase a 33-passenger minibus to help transport kindergarten through twelfth grade students from the two ILTexas Garland campuses to events both within and outside of the district such as academic and athletic competitions, ILTexas-related events, and temporary transportation for ILTexas international faculty members.

"I am excited for the transportation opportunities this bus will bring to our students,” shares Dallas County Area Superintendent Dennis Taylor. “Aside from the pressure it will relieve from parents to get students to and from off-campus activities, it will also serve as a conduit for promoting unity and camaraderie among the students and faculty. The additional time spent with their teammates and coaches while traveling to represent their school allows them to create and foster relationships with individuals from diverse backgrounds."

With more than 60 percent of families in the United States having employed parents, it’s no surprise that most students lack access to reliable transportation to off-campus activities, competitions and events. Often access to transportation via a school-owned and operated vehicle is the only way ILTexas students are able to participate in off-campus activities. The newly purchased bus will serve approximately 200 students and 100 faculty members two times per week during the 2017-2018 academic year, for an average of 80 trips per year.

Since 2013, the district has grown from two schools in North Texas to 10 schools in Tarrant, Dallas and Harris counties with expansion plans for five campuses by the start of the 2017-18 academic year. ILTexas Garland High School (GHS) is one out of ten schools within the ILTexas Charter School District that recently placed #78 out of 2,300 schools on the annual Washington Post list ‘Most Challenging High Schools in the United States’. This weekend, GHS will commemorate its second graduating class that has received more than 260 college acceptances and accumulated more than $5 million in scholarships and grants.

Founded in 2012 by former Dallas Independent School District high school principal Eddie Conger, ILTexas opened its first school in 2013 with over 2,500 students, making it the largest first-year charter in the history of Texas. As the largest Chinese curriculum in the nation, ILTexas provides a trilingual, college preparatory education that requires students to master the English, Spanish and Chinese languages with opportunities to study abroad, participate in competitive athletics and graduate with an associate’s degree. For the 2017-2018 school year, ILTexas will grow from serving more than 10,000 students to an estimated 15,000 with five new campuses opening in Fort Worth and Houston. For more information, visit iltexas.org.