Author: The Hub

The Dallas ISD’s Board of Trustees enacted a policy designed to ensure the inclusion of minority and women-owned businesses in its purchasing and contracting activities. Today, the Dallas ISD Minority/Women Business Enterprise (M/WBE) Department is strategically working to achieve the board’s goals and has received numerous awards and recognitions. Informate DFW, a magazine that promotes advancements in the Hispanic community, recently profiled Latinas in Business Diversity. Tommi Lyle, M/WBE Coordinator, was featured for the excellent work she has done within the community. “We are constantly busy, but it’s worth it because we love raising awareness about the opportunities minority and…

While studying in college at the University of Texas in 2012, Luis Juarez-Trevino was biking to the pawnshop to sell his class ring to financially survive another week when he heard President Barack Obama had announced the creation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) process. DACA allows select undocumented individuals who came to the United States as children and meet several guidelines to legally live and work in the U.S. on a temporary basis. Juarez, an undocumented student whose family moved from Monterrey, Mexico to Dallas in 2004, had gone from speaking no English to being a top student at…

Thousands of Texas PTA parents converged on Dallas July 17-19 for workshops, idea exchanges, and how-to sessions in search of ideas on how to help schools and PTAs better support families in the coming school year. The occasion was the Texas PTA Summer Leadership Seminar, the state’s largest gathering of PTA representatives. The staff of Dallas ISD’s Office of Family and Community Engagement drew a crowd for its workshop, “Re-engaging the Disengaged Parent,” which featured tips to help PTAs attract hard-to-reach parents. Among the workshop’s topics were how to build effective relationships with parents, how to sell school parent involvement…

The Jazz Singers from Dallas ISD’s Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts are no foreigners to the stage, but on Thursday, July 23, they will sing one of jukebox hero Foreigner’s most famous songs alongside the band. Foreigner and the Grammy Foundation have partnered to help raise money for high school music programs across the country, an urgent need. At every concert, a local high school choir is chosen to sing “I Want To Know What Love Is” live with members of the rock band. Booker T’s Jazz Singers, led by Kent Ellingson, will perform…

With its successful offering of $75 million in bonds earlier this month, the Dallas Independent School District was able to obtain funds for repairing, equipping and replacing existing school facilities while saving taxpayer money. The proceeds from bond financing, known as Multi-Modal Limited Maintenance Tax Notes, will finance some of the improvements outlined in the $148 million Interim Bridge Plan approved in March by the Board of Trustees. Potential improvements under the full plan include classroom and campus renovations, heating and air conditioning system improvements, and the renovation of instructional and instructional support facilities. Due to its strong financial position,…

In late March, the Dallas ISD Board of Trustees approved a plan to invest approximately $148 million into addressing critical needs at district schools. In August, four new schools funded by the Bridge Plan, as it is called, will open or reopen to students. Ed Levine, Dallas ISD executive director of Construction Services, said the district has been diligently working to adhere to the aggressive construction schedule that will open or reopen the four schools less than five months after trustees passed the Bridge Plan. “It is taking a lot of work, but the schools will be ready for students…

In just four short years, Adan Gonzalez has journeyed a long way from the halls of W.H. Adamson High School, where he served as president of his senior class and the Dallas ISD Teen Board. When AlumNow, a Hub feature that checks in with district alumni to see where they are now, caught up with him, Gonzalez was traveling to Washington, D.C. to receive the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal, which is just one of the many accomplishments he’s racked up over the years. A short time later, he was dining with Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. While he has traveled many miles along…

TV commercials are starting to feature back to school clothing ads, a sure sign that the 2015 school year is just around the corner. With just over a month until students start school on Aug. 24, the annual rush to get kids ready for the new school year has officially begun. In anticipation, the organizers of the Dallas Mayor’s Back to School Fair are gearing up for the city’s largest one-day school supply distribution effort on Aug. 7, from 8 a.m.—2 p.m., at Dallas Fair Park. The annual event is a welcome bonanza for thousands of cash-strapped parents looking for all…

About 67,000 Dallas ISD students are designated as English Language Learners, those who do not natively speak English. That represents more than 40 percent of the district’s total student population of 160,000 students. This week, Dallas ISD English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers are taking time out from summer break to better prepare for the coming school year. For the first time, a special training designed to address challenges unique to their classrooms. The training, conducted at Sam Tasby Middle School, included guest experts who presented information to attendees. Tuesday morning’s first session focused on how social-emotional learning affects…

How does the brain acquire language? What are some best practices to help learners become proficient in a new language, whether the language is English, Spanish, or even Japanese? Dallas ISD’s World Languages and Bilingual/ESL departments will explore these questions and provide teachers and administrators with new tools and the latest research in language learning at their first-ever Language Acquisition Symposium, which is July 29 and 30. Conference organizers say the need is greater than ever to employ more effective methods to help learners acquire languages. If students are to successfully compete in a global marketplace, they will need to become…