Richardson ISD fifth-graders will visit JA BizTown, a miniature version of the city designed for experiential economic learning. [Photo: JA Dallas]
A simulated Main Street in Richardson will help local students gain some sense about dollars.
The new JA Discovery Center at the Greenwood Hills Learning Center houses the mini-Richardson, complete with storefronts and landmarks. The center opened Aug. 27. Starting Sept. 15, students from the Richardson Independent School District will learn about financial literacy and career readiness in this real-world setting.
Sponsors of the storefronts include Richardson ISD, Toyota, State Farm, FedEx, CORE Construction, the Credit Union of Texas and Glenn Partners.
Hands-on economic and financial lessons
Richardson City Hall in JA BizTown [Photo: JA Dallas]
After studying business and economics in the classroom, RISD fifth-graders will visit JA BizTown. There, they will apply for jobs, run stores, open bank accounts, pay taxes, handle payroll, and take out and repay business loans.
Next spring, JA Finance Park will open at the JA Discovery Center. In this program, seventh-graders will build a personal budget using hypothetical figures, evaluate financial choices and manage real-life scenarios.
“It’s about a fifth-grader realizing they could own a business someday, and a seventh-grader understanding that the smart financial choices they make today can shape the life they build tomorrow,” Chris LaTurno, president and CEO of JA Dallas, said at the event.
The program will serve more than 5,000 RISD students in its first year and about 7,000 at full capacity, JA Dallas said.
‘New generation of dreams’
The JA Discovery Center occupies the former Greenwood Hills Elementary, which closed as part of RISD’s recent school consolidation plan. The BizTown component harkens back to a similar program, Enterprise City, which opened in 1985 at Canyon Creek Elementary School but has since ended.
Richardson ISD Superintendent Tabitha Branum said in a statement that shutting down Greenwood Hills represented one of her “most difficult moments” on the job.
“But we delivered a promise that we were going to continue to invest in it and make it something special for their students and for generations to come,” she said. “We have taken a space that, if we allowed, could be empty of dreams, and instead it hosts a whole new generation of dreams.”
More on JA Dallas and RISD
Richardson ISD, which encompasses 49 schools and 35,000 students, is among several Dallas-area districts that participate in JA Dallas. During the 2025-26 school year, JA Dallas served more than 28,000 students, aided by nearly 1,800 volunteers, the organization said.
Over the past 70 years, JA Dallas has reached nearly 1 million students through financial literacy, workplace readiness and entrepreneurship education.
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