Inside Dallas ISD

Editor’s note: During the Thanksgiving holiday, The Hub will take a look back at some of the best and most popular stories from our first semester. This story was originally published on Sept. 11, 2014. The opening day at the John Leslie Patton Jr. Academic Center’s Drop-In Center started early. A resource for homeless students to pick up food, hygiene items, diapers and milk, the drop-in center also offers a bit of encouragement to help the students push through another day. Patton Community Liaison Saundra Staton-Dillon and several of her colleagues are busy moving about the room, focused on counting inventory, organizing stock and…

Editor’s note: During the Thanksgiving holiday, The Hub will take a look back at some of the best and most popular stories from our first semester. This story was originally published on Sept. 17, 2014. Students learn better when they’ve had nutritious meals throughout the day.  This year Dallas ISD is offering meals to all of its students at no cost.  The healthy, nutritious food includes a variety of fruits and vegetables and whole grains. The district’s Food and Child Nutrition Department is nationally recognized for its Breakfast in the Classroom program. The program has been available in elementary schools for several years and…

Nancy Bernardino, principal of John Quincy Adams Elementary School, was recently recognized at a special reception honoring Dallas ISD’s top principals. This year as part of the district’s new pay for performance initiative, Bernardino was one of 184 principals who received an increase in pay under the new system that is based on a combination of performance measures and student achievement results. With the new compensation plan, the higher the principal effectiveness, the higher the salary. On average, principals received a $9,164 increase in pay. The average salary for the 2014-2015 school year is $100,300 up from $91,136 in the…

Dallas ISD is committed to involving those for whom the Teacher Excellence Initiative was designed – the teacher. Also known as TEI, the plan is the district’s new system to identify, support and strategically compensate effective teachers. During its development, the plan received a high level of interest and teachers were given the opportunity to have an active voice in the process. Teachers such as Jacqueline Martinez asked her fellow educators to give the system a chance. Now that the plan is in full motion, teachers continue to play an active role. Nearly 500 teachers (two or three per campus)…