Author: The Hub

To hear Dallas ISD alum Lorena Watson tell her story during a TEDx talk, you’d never know that she overcame incredible odds as a high school student who, in addition to being homeless her senior year, was searching for her voice and place in the world. During her TEDx talk, she commands the stage with great poise and confidence and engages you right away. It’s easy to see she’s a real person of interest and clearly destined for success. Today, this David W. Carter High School alum (2010) is working her way through grad school. AlumNow, a Hub feature that checks in…

The Dallas Morning News profiled how Dallas ISD police officers are trained in verbal judo, “a method used to de-escalate conflicts with verbal techniques.” Dallas ISD Police Chief Craig Miller said in the article that verbal judo is a way to defuse, and not escalate, a situation, according to the article. Click here to read the full article. Photo courtesy Dallas Morning News 

Starting Wednesday, July 29, shoppers can visit any North Texas Kroger to donate a pre-packaged Backpack Boosters school supply kit for $7 featuring pencils, markers, notebook paper and other classroom essentials. Kroger shoppers also have the option of donating $1 via a scan card at the register to help Dallas ISD students have a great school year. The 19-day collection drive, which runs through Aug. 16, is hosted by Kroger, FOX 4, My 27, iHeart Radio, Coca-Cola and Vitaminwater. The collection drive aims to equip thousands of children with the necessary tools for the 2015-2016 academic year. “We recognize having the proper school…

Brenda Benitez, a senior at Skyline High School, spent the summer as a Mayor’s Summer Intern with the Dallas ISD Food and Child Nutrition Services department. She wrote the following blog post. I always assumed our school meals program focused on preparing and serving foods that would get us through the line quickly, not caring if it was good or not.  Of course, I didn’t try everything and I did have some favorites on the menu, but this was my train of thought. I wasn’t concerned about who fed us. I, like many of my friends, just thought the school…

With the Teacher Excellence Initiative, Dallas ISD has created an innovative pay-for-performance evaluation system that identifies, supports and rewards effective teachers. In creating TEI, Dallas ISD faced the challenge of designing an evaluation system that was equally rigorous for all teachers. Put another way, TEI had to ensure the evaluations of a second-grade teacher and a high school English teacher would be equal and fair. The solution to this challenge is what the district calls a “target distribution.” Because the target distribution model is new to Dallas ISD, the Hub has compiled a Beginner’s Guide to help bring people up…

Make recycling at home an easy part of your daily routine. Dedicate an area in your home as a recycling station. Placing containers with handles near doorways will make it easier to grab on your way out. Have children draw plastic bottles or cans outside of bins for creative labeling. It is also a fun way for children to identify which bin to place their recyclables.

Texas Department of Agriculture representatives joined officials from Australia on July 23 in touring the Dallas Independent School District’s successful summer meals program. The Australian delegation is touring five states in search of program initiatives that are successfully implemented and maintained. The group included the Honorable James Chown, parliamentary secretary to the Minister for Transport; Paul Miles, state member for Wanneroo; and Angela Olige of the Texas Department of Agriculture Commission. While in Dallas, the group visited the Maria Luna Food Service Facility to view the central kitchen and food service preparation. Afterwards, the delegates traveled to Jack Lowe Sr.…

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…