Inside Dallas ISD

With Week One in the rearview mirror, the Dallas ISD has many successes to celebrate surrounding the start of the 2014-2015 school year. Staffing One of the largest successes was starting the school year with 10,600 qualified teachers. This year, the Dallas ISD made history by filling 99.9 percent of the district’s teaching positions before the first day of school. Human Capital Management’s focused efforts on recruiting and hiring placed a teacher in all but 14 classrooms across the district at the start of the school year. Call Center Operators for Dallas ISD Connect, the district’s call center, ended the…

It’s no easy task for a teacher to keep her skills when moving from her native country to another one thousands of miles away. But that’s what teachers Sonia Medina Rodriguez and Silvia Lozano Rodriguez, originally from Albacete, Spain, have done. They are two of more than 60 teachers from Spain who have decided to take a leap of faith and travel to Texas to teach for the Dallas Independent School District. “In the beginning, it’s a little difficult because it’s different than Spain,” said Medina Rodriguez. “You’re far from your family, your friends and everything is new, but then…

When tragedies happen at district schools, a cadre of specially trained staff stand ready to step in to comfort, reassure and counsel students, staff and families. A death or other tragedy involving a student or school staff member brings with it the same grief felt by a family when one of its members is stricken. In a school setting, that might mean upwards of 500 staff and students need help grappling with loss or trauma. While the school counselors represent the front line in this process, the district’s Psychological and Social Services Department is staffed with 37 full-time licensed counselors,…

For children new to the United States, the first step in the process of becoming a Dallas ISD student puts them in a safe environment surrounded by smiling faces. In its second year, the Margaret and Gilbert Herrera Student Intake Center assesses immigrant children and registers them for school. As of last week, the center has aided more than 1,000 families since July. Many families arrive at the center after being referred by the schools in their new neighborhoods. Marlene Yépez-Porras, parent/community liaison specialist, has been with the center since it opened last year. “We believe it’s something that’s very…