3 November 27 - December 3, 2025 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents Saved by the Bill A group of Oak Cliff neighbors says an illegal school is operating at the end of their street. A pandemic-era state law says otherwise. BY ALYSSA FIELDS T hick mud squelches under the nails of the sticky fingers of ar- chitects molding the day’s mud pies. The sun beams down on the children, ages 3 to 11, play- ing in the backyard of the house at the end of Alden Avenue in a quiet corner of Oak Cliff. Later in the day, under a canopy of trees in the backyard, the 13 children will extend their small and dirt-speckled hands to the sky, before folding flat at the waist, keeping their vertebrae in line, and finally heaving forward with sighs, catching them- selves on their tiny palms and moving their sitting bones towards the sun. The chil- dren, under the instruction of the on-staff yoga teacher, have become miniature yogis themselves. On other days, they will receive lessons in natural fiber dyeing, where they will wring cloth until it takes on new colors. They’ll learn herbal remedies based on Eastern medicine, also known as Ayurvedic well- ness. They’ll roll in the dirt in jiu-jitsu self- defense courses. They’ll hopefully learn all the obvious cruxes of a well-rounded pri- mary education and key elements of their holistic learning environment. The children, with no open spots for more, attend Caleidos, a $15,000 experi- mental learning environment, legally desig- nated as a “learning pod,” and specifically designed to comply with minimum home- schooling requirements, and little else. There, they learn the types of skills that are often not taught to kids. Monday through Thursday, from 9 a.m. to 2:50 p.m., the back door revolves as children rush in and out between three blocked “na- ture play” sessions and basic lessons in math and grammar, complemented by integrated artificial intelligence lessons infused with an outdoorsy feel. It’s all part of the curriculum, “rooted in connection and nature,” according to the school website. The children won’t take standardized tests, and they don’t have grade levels either. Their academic success and progress are measured by a “child-cen- tered” approach that recognizes their “unique learning journey,” in their words. Just a block away, women convene on a porch, whispering about the learning pod they believe is operating illegally as a mi- croschool at the end of the cul-de-sac, strat- egizing their next move to shut it down after all their previous attempts have failed. What about calling the fire marshal again? Is it worth contacting their City Council mem- ber? Did anyone hear back from that state representative? And what can we do to get these people out of our neighborhood? Caleidos doesn’t claim to be a school, and legally, it isn’t doing anything wrong. An education law passed during the pan- demic offers it immunity from the stan- dard protocol of city zoning regulations. Still, a diligent group of longtime neigh- bors that desires to keep their streets strictly residential wants to see the end of Caleidos. But state law has tied the hands of local elected officials. That likely won’t stop the team of neighborhood sleuths from exhausting every resource they have, even if it means years of work, until school’s out forever. THE LONGEST SPRING BREAK EVER At thousands of schools across the state, the bell rang on Friday, March 13, 2020, and a spring break that seemed to have no end be- gan. COVID-19, still in its early stages, was sweeping the globe, and the conveniently timed break from school was an exciting re- prieve before the maddening, systemized isolation would begin. At that point, no one yet knew that in-person classes would not resume for the remainder of the school year. No one knew that, even for just a few weeks, every student would be isolated from their peers, without extracurricular activities and recreational opportunities. As the spring of 2020 rolled toward the summer, some parents found alternative routes to enrich their children: learning pods. The family-led organized meetings in- tended to share academic resources and pursue tutoring helped establish some sense of normalcy for children in unprecedented times. Learning pods functioned | UNFAIR PARK | Jessica Patrice Turner >> p4 Frustrated neighbors voice opposition to Caleidos ‘learning pod’ with yard signs.
