Author: The Hub

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…

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…