Inside Dallas ISD

As a young man, Roberto Garcia, Spanish teacher and wrestling coach at Thomas Jefferson High School, often got in trouble for fighting in school.  Though he chalked it up to low impulse control, he now views it as an early foreshadowing of his passion for wrestling. Garcia’s early years were marked by family, transitions, and challenges. In 2005, his family immigrated to Dallas in pursuit of better employment opportunities. His mother, who taught embroidery to low-income women, and his father, a government employee in Durango, Mexico, sought a new beginning.  The crossing itself was arduous for his mother and brother,…

Eight talented young orators will showcase their talents in the 34th Annual MLK Oratory competition, co-sponsored by Foley & Laudner LLP and Dallas ISD. And their sponsors will be there with them, supporting their performance as they have all year.  The competition was established in 1993 and is hosted each year in conjunction with Martin Luther King Jr. Day to encourage the community to remember the legacy of the civil rights leader. The competition will start at 11 a.m. on Jan. 16 at the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre at the AT&T Performing Arts Center. For those who can’t attend…

For most people, a drop in temperature means grabbing a coat. For Duran Hargest, director of Fleet Services, it also means mobilizing a team of 56 technicians to ensure that over 1,000 vehicles — including nearly 900 school buses and a new fleet of 17 electric buses—are ready to hit the road. Dallas ISD’s fleet operation goes beyond just transporting students. Whether it’s repairing a police cruiser’s flat tire or switching a bus to winter mode, Hargest sees his department as the backbone of the district. “My team supports the whole district, from HVAC and maintenance to IT and the…

One of the most important rites of passage in a young person’s life is the ability to do mental math without conscious effort. Children begin training for this process, known as automaticity, in the first grade and continue through elementary school. But as curriculum coordinators visit classrooms throughout the district, they’ve identified a recurring challenge: students lack the immediate recall of basic facts necessary for higher-level problem-solving, according to Aaron Daffern, director of mathematics in Academic Services. “It used to be that there was this false dichotomy: you either memorize everything but don’t understand what it is, or you go…