Inside Dallas ISD

When Adam Garcia attended a Dallas ISD job fair last year, he didn’t know the path he was about to take would not only transform his life but also the lives of dozens of students. “It all happened so fast,” said Garcia, now a theater teacher at Young Men’s Leadership Academy at Fred F. Florence Middle School. “It just seemed like it was meant to be. All the chips lined up. I had just literally gotten off a plane from Florida, where I was previously working [in the theater industry], but for whatever reason, I had the strength to go…

At Dallas ISD, all-stars work among us; sometimes literally. Shantell Grant, the executive director of Board Services, is one of them. Grant is a familiar face during school board meetings, but her legacy and her contributions to Dallas ISD began when she was a student. Grant, who started working for the district in 2006, was a track and field star for David W. Carter High School. As a student, she advanced and won state in the long and triple jump categories and in team relays. She was also a 200-meter sprinter and went to regionals in that category. Working for…

D.A. Hulcy STEAM Middle School teacher Rebekah Jean thought she wanted to be a doctor until one student changed her life forever. She was volunteering in preschool classrooms during college when she met a child who she said had “a lot of anxiety with reading and writing—to the point that he would start throwing things and running away anytime you would put a pencil or a crayon anywhere near him.” Jean patiently worked with him, and by the end of the year, he wrote her a letter and was able to spell his name. “The fact that he was finally…

Assistant Principal David Fifield centers all of his work at W.E. Greiner Exploratory Arts Academy around the motto “You only succeed when they do,” and it shows. He can often be found building rapport with students in the hallways or the cafeteria, practicing the Core 4 culture tenets of being fast, focused, flexible and friendly to accelerate learning and reduce disciplinary issues. “At such a large school, we have to have the Core 4 in place so everyone feels like they are welcomed and like they are not just a number,” Fifield said. “They are all individuals, and their needs…