Speaking of Opportunity, A Trilingual Preschool Gives Kids A Head Start

Five-year-old Chhon Chho-euth and his mother, Mao-Srey, live in a tiny one-bedroom apartment in a run-down building on Annex Street. Still, it’s paradise compared to the crowded, disease-infested refugee camp in Thailand where Chhon was born in 1982 and where his father remains today, “There is no hope in camp. No education for my son. No future.” says Mao-Srey. twenty-five.

But things will be different for Chhon when he attends Open Door Trilingual Preschool in September. He will learn English, and more than likely pick up some Spanish as well, since many of his classmates will speak only Spanish. The school, located in the basement of Grace United Methodist Church on Junius Street, has enrolled about a dozen Cambodian students and a dozen Hispanic students in a social experiment that makes Open Door unique.

“There is a great incentive to Thumbs up to city council members Al Gonzalez and Craig Holcomb for spearheading the meetings during the weekend of July 18-19 that brought about a much-needed, agreement on one of the most important zoning changes in Dallas’s history. Now we can get on with remapping Dallas in patterns that: will protect neighborhoods without forfeiting the potential for growth that will take Dallas into the 21st century.