Para la mayoría, una baja en la temperatura significa echar mano de un abrigo. Pero para Duran Hargest, director de Servicios Vehiculares, significa movilizar a un equipo de 56 técnicos que se aseguran de que más de mil vehículos, incluyendo los casi 900 autobuses escolares y un nuevo conjunto de 17 buses eléctricos, estén listos para salir a la carretera. Las operaciones vehiculares de Dallas ISD hacen más que transportar estudiantes. Ya sea reparar la llanta de un carro patrulla o preparar un autobús para el invierno, Hargest considera a su departamento un pilar importante del distrito. “Mi departamento apoya…
Author: Gema Guevara
For most people, a drop in temperature means grabbing a coat. For Duran Hargest, director of Fleet Services, it also means mobilizing a team of 56 technicians to ensure that over 1,000 vehicles — including nearly 900 school buses and a new fleet of 17 electric buses—are ready to hit the road. Dallas ISD’s fleet operation goes beyond just transporting students. Whether it’s repairing a police cruiser’s flat tire or switching a bus to winter mode, Hargest sees his department as the backbone of the district. “My team supports the whole district, from HVAC and maintenance to IT and the…
One of the most important rites of passage in a young person’s life is the ability to do mental math without conscious effort. Children begin training for this process, known as automaticity, in the first grade and continue through elementary school. But as curriculum coordinators visit classrooms throughout the district, they’ve identified a recurring challenge: students lack the immediate recall of basic facts necessary for higher-level problem-solving, according to Aaron Daffern, director of mathematics in Academic Services. “It used to be that there was this false dichotomy: you either memorize everything but don’t understand what it is, or you go…
Cuando los Dallas Cowboys lanzaron una liga élite de fútbol bandera para chicas, se hizo historia en Dallas ISD. Pero en ningún otro lugar se sintió el impacto tanto como en Dr. L.G. Pinkston Sr. High School, cuyo equipo ganó el campeonato de la división. Nicole Stovall, directora deportiva adjunta y técnica del equipo de Pinkston, dijo que estaba emocionada por dejar un legado que su equipo se atribuiría para siempre y dar inicio a algo significativo para las jugadoras y la comunidad. “Sinceramente, ser parte del personal inaugural en Dallas significa mucho”, dijo Stovall. “Esto va a ser muy…
When the Dallas Cowboys launched an elite girls flag football league, history was made across Dallas ISD. But nowhere was the impact felt more deeply than at Dr. L.G. Pinkston Sr. High School, whose team won the division championship. Nicole Stovall, assistant athletic director and lead flag football coach at Pinkston, said she was excited to create a legacy her team could claim forever and to help start the beginning of something bigger for her players and the community. “Honestly, just being a part of the inaugural staff in Dallas meant a lot,” Stovall said. “This is going to be…
Hay un salón en Margaret B. Henderson Elementary School que se destaca en el distrito, pues con el fin de hacer el aprendizaje más entretenido para sus estudiantes, el maestro de prekínder Ángel Cano decidió transformar su salón en un mundo maravilloso inspirado por Super Mario Bros. De extremo a extremo, cada centímetro del salón es un homenaje al popular videojuego de Nintendo. Cubiertas con cartulina color rojo y azul, la puerta y la pared contigua al salón están decoradas con imágenes de Mario y Yoshi, un tubo de luz multicolor que sale del puño de Yoshi, una bombilla con…
There is one classroom at Margaret B. Henderson Elementary School that stands out in the district, and it belongs to pre-K teacher Angel Cano. To make the foundational learning process more engaging for his students, Cano decided to transform his classroom into a Super Mario Bros-inspired wonderland. From the door to the wall, each inch of the classroom pays homage to the popular Nintendo game. Covered with red and blue construction paper, the door and wall adjacent to Cano’s classroom feature cutouts of Mario riding Yoshi, a rainbow LED tube light winding from Yoshi’s fist, Mario sitting on an illuminated…
When Silvia Fields started working as a custodian at the new Henry W. Longfellow Career Exploration Academy 14 years ago, the work was a lot different than it is now. “It’s a much larger building, of course,” she said of the school that opened this fall. “But all operations now are computerized and work off of touch screens. There has been a lot of training to learn how to operate the school.” Roles of custodians like Fields in schools across the district are expanding and adjusting to new technologies for air conditioning, heating, mechanical rooms, and other essential operations that…
Yolanda Cantu, a third-grade math teacher at Whitney M. Young Jr. Elementary School, was set to retire several times, only to be pulled back to Dallas ISD. When she came back from retirement the last time, she pledged not to make any more attempts until her school earned an A rating from Texas Education Agency. Cantu now plans to retire after 41 years, keeping her promise to Principal Shabranda Mathis that she would not leave until they reached that A rating, which the school received for the 2024-2025 school year. Cantu, a member of the first graduating class at Skyline…
Cuando los estudiantes de John Lewis Social Justice Academy at Oliver Wendell Holmes Middle School y de Henry W. Longfellow Career Exploration Academy empezaron clases esta semana, lo hicieron en unos planteles completamente nuevos construidos con propósito. John Lewis Social Justice Academy y Longfellow Career Exploration Academy ahora son edificios de última generación con un costo combinado estimado de $143 millones. Son parte del proyecto de bonos de 2020 del distrito, aprobado por los votantes, que incluye $3200 millones para nuevas escuelas así como reparaciones y actualizaciones de infraestructura a más de 200 de las 228 escuelas del distrito. El…