June 2021

Dallas ISD’s Central Staff Leadership Development team is providing online summer professional learning opportunities for central staff supervisors. While the training is designed for supervisors any central staff member can register to attend.

To participate in Thinking Thursdays, sign up in Cornerstone for any of the upcoming live online learning sessions on Thursday mornings from 10 to 11:30 a.m.

Keys to Influencing Others – July 15 or 22

Mindset in the Workplace – July 29 or Aug. 5

Facilitating Quality Check-ins – Aug. 12 or 19      

Providing Actionable Feedback – Aug. 26

With summer vacation and more people going out, it’s a good idea to keep safety in mind. Below are some tips for summer safety around vehicles and activities for children.

Remember not to leave valuables or cash in your car, and if you must leave them in the car, lock them in the trunk. Never leave children and pets in a locked vehicle and always check when you exit your vehicle. Temperatures in a vehicle during the summer can climb to dangerous levels in just minutes.

With children out of school, it’s more likely they will be walking in the neighborhood or playing outside. Drive safely and slowly around parks and playgrounds, and keep an eye out for children and pets, especially when driving in residential areas. Children and pets may be more concerned with catching a ball, staying on their bike or running after their dog than watching for vehicles coming toward them.

It’s a good idea that parents, especially when working outside the home, provide a list of phone numbers of neighbors, family and friends that children can call in an emergency.

Require your children to check in before leaving the house and when returning home. It’s also recommended that parents know the route children will take to and from a given location, such as summer camp, the park, the store or a friend’s house. If there’s an emergency, knowing the route and where children should be will make a difference if there is an emergency.

When going to summer camp, the park, the store or a friend’s house, remind your children that there is safety in numbers and that it is best to be with a group of friends. And make sure that they know to call 911 or contact a responsible adult if the feel unsafe or see something that makes them uncomfortable.

If they are riding a bike, make sure they have a helmet and wear as well as brightly colored or reflective clothing.

Summer break also means more time on the internet, so parents should remind their children to never give out personal information on the internet, whether it’s on social networking sites or interactive games.

The LegalLine E-Clinic provides access to volunteer attorneys with the Dallas Bar Association, who will answer legal questions at no cost from 4 to 8 p.m. on Wednesdays in July.

To participate, complete the online form found at https://tinyurl.com/DBALegalLine for the upcoming LegalLine. This month’s LegalLine E-Clinics will take place July 7, July 14, July 21, and July 28. A volunteer attorney will call participants who have registered to provide up to 15 minutes of free legal advice. Space is limited, and registration will close at noon on the Tuesday prior to the legal clinic date.

Please note that the volunteer attorney will remain anonymous. Participants should watch for a call from an unknown number that should be labeled “No Caller ID” or something similar. No attorney-client relationship will be established. The legal clinic cannot guarantee that the attorney will speak any language other than English. Individuals may also receive referrals to local, legal, or social service agencies.

For legal assistance any time, contact the DBA’s Lawyer Referral Service at www.dallasbar.org/index.cfm?pg=LawyerReferralService.

Among this year’s Dallas ISD Athletic Hall of Fame class are two track Olympians, including a four-time gold medalist; a pair of top-four NBA draft picks with 18 all-star game appearances between them, including a back-to-back NBA World Champion; a PGA Championship winner; two NFL Pro-Bowl selections, including a Super Bowl champion; a first-round WNBA draft pick; a four-sport prep athlete that helped lead his baseball team to a state championship; and, a baseball coach that guided his teams to 32 consecutive playoff appearances.

The 10 inductees slated to join the 2021 Athletic Hall of Fame include: LaMarcus Aldridge, Chris Bosh, Don January, John Jefferson, Johnny Wayne Johnson, Michael Johnson, Stone Johnson, Mike Livingston, Andrea Riley and David Shepherd.

This impressive list of individuals constitutes the fourth class of the Dallas ISD Athletic Hall of Fame, an initiative designed to recognize and honor individuals who have made significant contributions to the district’s athletics programs. The 2021 class will be inducted into the Dallas ISD Athletic Hall of Fame virtual induction ceremony on Monday, Dec. 6.

To be selected for the hall of fame, individuals must exemplify the highest standards of sportsmanship, ethical conduct, and moral character.

Inductees were selected due to their striking accomplishments and undoubtful impact while advancing school athletics. Their successes, however, are not limited within Dallas ISD borders, but have reached recognition in local, state, national, and in some cases, international levels.

Meet this year’s class:

LaMarcus Aldridge excelled for the boys’ basketball team at Seagoville High School and was selected the Class 4A Boys’ Basketball Player of the Year as a senior in 2004. A highly recruited player, he signed with the University of Texas. He earned first-team all-conference honors in 2006, the same year he was named the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year. After two seasons in Austin, he declared for the NBA Draft and went as the No. 2 overall pick. The seven-time NBA all-star averaged 19.4 points in a 15-year career that began in Portland and continued in San Antonio before ending with Brooklyn this year.

Chris Bosh helped the boys’ basketball team at Lincoln High School win the Texas Class 4A State Championship in 2002. He was named the High School Player of the Year by Basketball America and was the PowerAde Player of the Year in Texas. Bosh spent one season at Georgia Tech and was the No. 4 overall pick in the 2003 NBA Draft by the Toronto Raptors. He was the NBA Rookie of the Year in 2003-04 and spent seven seasons with the Raptors, but played the final six seasons in Miami, where the 11-time NBA all-star won back-to-back NBA Championships in 2012 and 2013.

Don January played golf for Sunset High School. He later helped lead North Texas State, now the University of North Texas, win three consecutive NCAA championships. He was a member of the PGA Tour from 1956 until 1976, winning 10 events, including the 1967 PGA Championship in an 18-hole playoff. He added 22 wins on the Senior PGA Tour, becoming the first player to earn more than $1 million in Senior PGA Tour earnings in 1985. He played on the 1965 and 1977 Ryder Cup teams. In 1976, he won the Vardon Trophy from PGA of America for the lowest scoring average on the PGA Tour.

John Jefferson (formerly known as John Washington) was a standout wide receiver on the football team at Franklin D. Roosevelt High School. As a sophomore at Arizona State, he had a great sophomore season in 1975 to guide the Sun Devils to the Fiesta Bowl, where he was named the game’s most valuable player. The two-time All-Western Athletic Conference honoree was a consensus All-American selection in 1977. Jefferson concluded his career with an NCAA record 42 consecutive games with a reception. He was selected 14th overall in the first round of the 1978 NFL Draft by the San Diego Chargers, where he played three seasons. The four-time Pro-Bowl wide receiver also played for the Packers and Browns and was the first player to gain 1,000 yards in each of his first three NFL seasons.

Johnny Wayne Johnson (deceased) was a four-sport letterman at W. W. Samuell High School, where he participated in football, basketball, baseball, and track & field. A three-year letterman in baseball, he helped guide the baseball team to the 1965 State Championship. He was drafted by the New York Yankees out of high school but elected to attend Kilgore Junior College, where he was a member of the 1966 NJCAA National Championship team. He was a three-year starter on the varsity football team and won two letters in basketball and three in track & field. His 440-yard relay team tied the national high school record his junior year and reached the state finals his senior year.

Michael Johnson, who was on the track & field team at Skyline High School, won four Olympic Gold Medals and eight World Championship gold medals setting Olympic and World records in the 200 meters and 400 meters as well as the world record in the indoor 400 meters. Johnson attended Baylor University and won several NCAA indoor and outdoor sprinting and relay titles. He was considered the world’s fastest man in 1996, when the “man with the golden shoes” won Olympic titles in Atlanta in both the 200 meters and 400 meters. He added a gold medal in the 400 meters in the 2000 Sydney Olympics to go with a 4×400 relay gold in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

Stone Johnson (deceased) was a three-sport athlete at James Madison High School in football, basketball, and track & field. James Madison opened in the Fall 1956 and Johnson was on the school’s first teams. He helped guide the football team to the City Championship as a junior in 1957 and guided the team to its first state championship appearance in 1958. He went on to earn a scholarship at Grambling State University, where he played football and ran track. He was a finalist in the 200 meters in the 1960 Rome Olympics. He was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs in the 1963 AFL Draft.

Mike Livingston graduated from South Oak Cliff High School in 1964. He excelled on the gridiron earning a scholarship to play football at Southern Methodist University for the legendary Hayden Fry. He was the fourth quarterback selected in the 1968 NFL draft, going in the second round to the Kansas City Chiefs. During the 1969 season after injuries to two other quarterbacks, Livingston started six games – and won all six – in the Chiefs’ world championship season that eventually saw starter Len Dawson return to quarterback the team to a Super Bowl IV victory. He played 12 seasons for Kansas City and was on the Minnesota Vikings roster in 1980. In 1983, he played for the Oakland Invaders of the USFL.

Andrea Riley played basketball at Lincoln High School, helping guide the school to a 30-1 record and the Class 4A state title as a sophomore. Her junior team finished 29-5 and reached the state tournament. She earned first-team all-district and all-area honors as a junior. She averaged 17.8 point and 3.8 assists as a senior in earning all-state recognition. She attended Oklahoma State University and was second in the nation in scoring, averaging 26.7 points per game, to win the Nancy Lieberman Award as the top female point guard in the NCAA. In 131 career starts in Stillwater, she averaged 21.6 points in her career and totaled 2,835 points to finish as the school’s all-time leading scorer. She was the eighth overall draft pick in the 2010 WNBA Draft by the Los Angeles Sparks. Riley played three seasons in the WNBA, also playing with the Tulsa Shock and the Phoenix Mercury.

David Shepherd was the long-time baseball coach at W.T. White High School. He coached at the school from 1980 until retiring in 2014, guiding the Longhorns to 32 consecutive playoff appearances. “Coach Shep” won more than 650 games and 16 district titles. Eight of his players were drafted by Major League Baseball teams, including first-round draft pick Calvin Murray in 1989. Murray, who played for Team USA in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, is one of four players – along with Trey Beamon, Jeremy Hill and Bryan Holaday – to reach the majors. He coached two All-Americans and mentored another 20 players who earned all-state honors. Hundreds of his players received college scholarships. The baseball field at W.T. White is named for him.

Under Chapter 21 of the Texas Education Code, educators have a penalty-free resignation deadline that falls on the 45th day before the first day of instruction of the coming school year.

For the 2021-2022 school year, that resignation deadline is July 2, 2021.  This date is based on the 2021-2022 base calendar.

Resignations are generally accepted via the electronic submission process, using the Oracle log-in, and must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. on July 2, 2021. The resignation deadline will be enforced, and resignations received after the July 2 deadline will be considered on a case-by-case basis, depending upon the date of submission and the circumstances, and whether the campus has sufficient time to secure a suitable replacement.

For additional Information about how to submit a Notice of Separation, please visit the Retirements and Resignations page at http://dallasisd.org/Page/28102.

References:

• Texas Education Code: §21.105, §21.160, and §21.210
• Texas Administrative Code: 19 TAC 249.15 (b) (5).
• Board Policy DFE (REGULATION)
• Board Policy DFE (LOCAL)