Inside Dallas ISD

Supporting each other and paving the way for student success are integral parts of Dallas ISD’s culture and the work educators do every day. For two librarians, this work also has been a journey of discovering new careers and rediscovering their friendship. Louise Wolff Kahn Elementary School’s Brenda Vargas and Henry B. Gonzalez Personalized Learning Academy’s Yolanda Rosa first met in January 2012 when Vargas took a long-term substitute position at Kahn. Vargas said Rosa “took me under her wing right from the beginning” and became first her mentor in the classroom and then her good friend. “I started at…

When it comes to softball legends, Coach Tim Taylor from Moises E. Molina High School will forever be etched in the Dallas ISD history books as the first coach to record 500 wins. “I want it to be on the record that Coach Taylor is the GOAT—the greatest of all time—of softball coaches and you won’t find anyone better,” said Athletic Coordinator Lance Bruner, beaming with pride. On a night filled with anticipation and home runs, Coach Taylor and the Molina Jaguars defeated Arlington Seguin by a score of 14-5 last month and earning the legend his 500th win in…

Ramona Soto, Dallas ISD’s general counsel, is approaching her fifth anniversary with the district, leading a team of attorneys, who advise school leaders, help them make sound legal decisions, find solutions and pursue options. And she says she has enjoyed every moment. Soto did not initially intend to practice school law, but when she started working in private practice, she had Dallas ISD as a client and said she fell in love with the work. She transitioned to Fort Worth ISD for about four years before coming full circle to serve Dallas ISD as in-house counsel. “I love doing school…

It’s not every day that students are on camera reporting live from a teleprompter and shouting, “Action!” But third- and fifth-graders from Montessori Academy at Onesimo Hernandez got a chance to do just that as they tried their hand at video, audio, and post-production at the Dallas Schools Television (DSTV) studio.  Getting a sense of what it’s like to be in a real broadcast studio, the students were also taught how to use state-of-the-art, Canon EOS C500 cameras similar to the ones used to record Marvel Studios’ “Avengers: Age of Ultron.” Each area of the DSTV studio was split into…