April 2025

Assistant principals play many roles on a campus, and the week of April 7—National Assistant Principal Week—offers the opportunity to recognize their work and thank them.

On April 7, vertical team executive directors will deliver the Assistant Principal Award of Distinction, which recognizes an assistant principal with exceptional dedication and achievements within the various regional vertical teams. This educator has fostered collaboration and innovation, and their exemplary leadership has significantly enhanced performance and positively impacted the school community.

Between Friday, April 4, and Thursday, April 10, team members, parents, students, and the community will have the opportunity to vote for their favorite assistant principal. The prize for the winner will be delivered on April 11. To vote for your favorite principal, click here.

Assistant principals are the boots on the ground at schools, dedicated leaders who prioritize student success and empower teachers daily. Celebrate them by recording your best version of “Boots on the Ground.” Post your video on X, tagging @LEAD_DallasISD and using the hashtag #BootsontheGroundAPWeek. The video with the most likes wins!

Below are some outstanding principals from across the district.

Emily Brokaw
North Lake Early College High School  

Emily Brokaw oversees teachers in all content areas and helps manage partnerships with Dallas College, supporting the school’s early college high school curriculum.  

“The great thing about being a part of such a small school is that you get to have a wide variety of experiences. I get to learn more about each subject area and help support our students and teachers with an understanding of the entire school,” she said. 

A Dallas ISD alumna from Irma Lerma Rangel Young Women’s Leadership High School, Brokaw believes successful school leaders have a passion for creating opportunities and changing the lives of their students and staff. As an assistant principal, she has a love for learning and a passion for engaging her school in high quality professional development experiences.  

“Something I learned when I came out of the classroom and stepped into school leadership is the difference in balancing your schedule,” Brokaw said. “You go from following a structured weekly schedule to having many things of equal importance happening at the same time. You learn to juggle your responsibilities in order to make sure everything falls into place.” 

Maria del Pilar Davila-Lopez
Oran M. Roberts Elementary School 

Maria del Pilar Davila-Lopez supports prekindergarten through second grade in all subjects and assists upper elementary grades with reading, taking pride in increasing the school’s academic performance. 

She received a master’s degree in literacy from Southern Methodist University and is passionate about supporting the diverse population of Hispanic students on her campus. She believes in having a shared vision with her principal and commits to building relationships with other teachers. Davila-Lopez believes that leaders in education have the ability to believe the best in people and are always seeking knowledge. 

“As instructional leaders we must be in the classrooms. Here at Roberts our office is on wheels. We are in the hallways with the teachers and close to the students. We like to be visible and available,” she said.  

Sasha Hampton-Rounds
Downtown Montessori at Ida B. Wells Montessori 

Sasha Hampton-Rounds has the unique experience of being an assistant principal at a Montessori school in the middle of downtown. She believes the school fills a need for families within Dallas ISD who live in this most urban area of the city. With 11 years of teaching experience Hampton-Rounds supports the reading department at her school. She believes a successful educational leader will love working with people and have the tools to navigate working with all personality types.  

“We have a little over 330 children. There’s a complete mindset shift at Montessori school that is separate from traditional school. At Montessori school we focus on teaching the whole child,” she said. 

Hampton received a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Texas, as well as a master’s in business administration from Texas Woman’s University and a master’s in educational leadership. She believes her experience in leadership and business prepared her for not only instructional leadership but coaching others.  

“I think a great leader should be able to interact with a range of people from prekindergarten students all the way to a superintendent. Figuring out what people need and finding ways to meet those needs is key,” Hampton said. 

Patrice Ruffin-Brown
South Oak Cliff High School 

Patrice Ruffin-Brown is a proud product of Dallas ISD and graduate of A. Maceo Smith High School. She believes in pouring back into the community that gave her guidance, mentorship and investment as a student, which led her to become an assistant principal in the district.

Ruffin-Brown supports the English language arts and writing departments at her school and also leads the grow language teachers, school counselors, the attendance office and the 12th grade administrators. 

“I believe that leaders in education should be adaptive servant leaders with compassion and empathy. We should seek to understand the unique needs of diverse learners,” Ruffin Brown said. She believes successful school leaders are courageous and have the fearless ability to speak up for others that don’t always feel that they have a voice.  

Ruffin-Brown received a bachelor’s degree from Jarvis Christian University, a master’s in educational leadership from Prairie View A&M, and pursued doctoral studies in educational leadership at National University.  

The Human Capital Management Compensation Department, in collaboration with district leaders, has finalized the 2025-2026 Calendar Start and End Dates document. 

Highlights

• Principals return July 14, 2025
• Assistant principals return July 21, 2025
• Returning teachers will have the opportunity to engage in 14 hours of professional learning during the summer that can be used towards flex participation in the scheduled Oct. 13 and Nov. 4 professional development days.
  • Pathways to Excellence (PTE) team members will receive supplemental pay for attending professional learning during the summer. They are expected to work all professional development days scheduled during the school year. They are not able to participate in the professional learning flex option.
• 191-day teachers, media specialists, speech therapists/assistants, and nurses return on Tuesday, July 29, 2025
  • Friday, Aug. 1 will be a non-working day for these individuals.
  • These groups will be required to work 1 ½ days on Sept. 18, 2025, and Feb. 19, 2026, with .5 of the day designated for Staff Development
• Campus based professional staff will receive 1 full day in the fall, and 1 full day in the spring credit for Parent Teacher Conference.
• Employees with duty periods of 185 to 221 will receive a fall break on Thursday, Oct. 9 and Friday, Oct. 10. They will not receive a Fair Day for the 2025-2026 school year.
  • Head athletic trainers (215-day) and athletic trainers (205-day) are required to work during the fall break and will receive a Fair Day.
  • Employees working 226 days or greater will continue to receive a Fair Day.
• President’s Day (Feb. 16, 2025) will be a board approved holiday for the 2025-2026 school year.
• The district will be closed Dec. 22-Jan. 2 for winter break
• The district will be closed June 29-July 3 for summer break
• 226-day central employees will receive three non-duty days
• 235-day Police and Security employees will receive six non-duty days

For a group of third and fourth graders at C.A. Tatum Elementary School reading during spring break paid off big time, and not just in the skills that they gained. Some who accumulated 400 minutes of reading in iReady also got a bicycle thanks to a donation from a community partner.

Deloitte Big Give, a program of the Deloitte Foundation, gave Tatum Elementary School bikes, reading blankets, teddy bears and 75 backpacks stuffed with school supplies for the readers. A program representative also brought the fun during a special assembly to celebrate the students’ achievement with music and games before the prizes were handed out.

Students who participated in reading tutoring got a bear that came with a special certificate and a note. Students who participated in spring break reading camp and accumulated at least 300 minutes of reading and 10 lessons in iReady got a certificate and a reading blanket or a teddy bear.

Those who read at least 400 minutes and more than 10 lessons—one student read 500 minutes and completed 14 lessons—also got a bike.

Renata Verástegui, the fourth-grade teacher who led the spring break reading camp, it was wonderful to see the students get the rewards because it was somewhat of a competition. 

“We worked with the parents, and they were enthusiastic, too,” she said. “Students were able to bring their computers home with them during spring break and were able to do both instruction and the fun part.”

Marisol González, who teaches third-grade bilingual reading, was also at the presentation and knows that the rewards go beyond the prizes the students received that day.

She started using iReady back in August with after-school tutoring to help students practice and develop different skills to improve their reading—foundations, comprehension, understanding different parts of the text, expanding vocabulary, different subjects, she said.

iReady offers the opportunity to go below grade level to meet the students where they are with lessons that help them develop skills by creating tracks that are unique to them based on their needs, González said.

It lets teachers use lessons from lower grade levels to help students develop foundational skills when they are more than one grade level below expected, before moving up to the skills at the higher levels, Verástegui said.

“iReady supports the skills the students need to gain to read at grade level,” she said.

According to González, at the beginning of the school year, of the 34 students in her Spanish/bilingual class, 23% met grade level in reading, 65% partially met grade level (they were one grade level below), and 13% did not meet, which meant that they were at least two grades below grade level.

By the middle of the year after using iReady, 56% of those students met grade level and 44% partially met grade level, she said. She estimates that by April or May, most of them will be at grade level.

“We have seen tremendous growth from the beginning of the year to now,” she said. “It’s also happening with the little ones.”

Each year on April 7, World Health Day highlights a global health issue, and in 2025, the World Health Organization is focusing on prioritizing long-term health. Dallas ISD’s Health Services is sticking to the theme of “Healthy beginnings, Hopeful futures” by taking steps to ensure families within the district receive intentional care through immunization and health resources. 

Sylvia Torres, a registered nurse in the department, is working to improve students’ long-term health and plays a key role in the enrollment process for those who are new to the district.  

“Since many families are new to the country, I try to find economical, low-cost clinics. I am doing what I can to get them the services they need to help them in the long run,” Torres said. 

In partnership with Parkland Health, the district offers free vaccinations for children without insurance, as well as free tuberculosis testing through the Dallas County Health Department.  

The Parkland Health vaccination truck—which parks in the administration building lot—was launched during the 2022-2023 school year and vaccinated 195 students in two visits. The following year, the partnership expanded to the truck visiting twice a month, which led to vaccinating more than 600 students.  

“We have seen an increase in numbers. My hope is that we become a regular place for people to seek assistance and care,” Torres said. “I want them to know that the district is another option, because there can be language and transportation barriers for parents.” 

This school year, the department has successfully vaccinated more than 1,000 students and now provides services through its partnership with Parkland Health every Wednesday. 

Jennifer Finley, executive director of Health Services, is leading the district’s efforts in community support, focusing on maternal health, child abuse awareness, immunization, and other resources that address children’s overall wellbeing.  

One of the district’s newest partners is Vision to Learn, the nation’s largest school-based vision provider. This month, the Health Services Department will distribute glasses to students at J.P. Starks Math, Science and Technology Vanguard. 

“Whenever we get those types of services, we make sure that we try to distribute them equitably across the district and not just focus on one area, for instance. We always try to spread resources as geographically as we can,” Finley said.  

In January 2018, Martha Thomas and her family experienced the unthinkable—their daughter, Ella Elizabeth—dies by suicide. Since then, Thomas; her husband; and their son, football player Solomon Thomas, have learned not only to deal with their loss but also to help others develop strategies to prevent facing the same tragedy by establishing The Defensive Line organization.

And on April 26, Thomas will share her family’s experience, tips on how to talk about suicide and mental health with youth, and resources with district parents at the Dallas ISD Empowering Families forum, which marks the end of Stress Awareness Month in April and the beginning of Mental Health Awareness Month in May. 

The forum will be held at Emmett J. Conrad High School and is organized by Dallas ISD’s Mental Health Services and Parent Advocacy and Support Services to provide parents a safe space to discuss mental health topics and learn how to help their children deal with stress and other challenges. Experts from community organizations like The Defensive Line will be at the forum.

“We are very frank and honest about what happened to us,” Thomas said. “Aside from being a multiracial family, we were a pretty standard family who ate together, prayed together, supported each other. I knew Ella was struggling. We loved our kids and thought that was enough.”

The Defensive Line organization empowers adults to connect with young people over their shared humanity and the shared hope that things do get better; that life is worth living. The organization teaches adults about the urgency of the national suicide crisis, about warning signs and risk factors, as well as how to apply that knowledge to their everyday lives with young people. It also bridges the gap between existing mental health resources to the young person in a mental health crisis by teaching all the adults about how they can talk about hard things and connect to resources.

After the forum, Thomas and The Defensive Line will collaborate with Dallas ISD Mental Health Services to train team members and parents in schools on how to recognize signs of stress and how to address them.

“We have a workshop we do for schools,” she said. “A lot of times we work with the coaches and talk to staff; we lead with our story because people connect. Then we talk about the warning signs, crisis intervention, and walk through an action plan. People seem to get it. We also do a talk for parents, and we are doing that as well with the district.”

When they attend forums like the one on April 26 or resource fairs, Thomas talks about  having conversations about mental health, using feelings, using tools, she said. 

“Just like you would talk to your kid if he came home with a sprained ankle, asking how the ankle was, how you would help them feel better, take them to the doctor, that is how you start having a mental health conversation,” she said. “Have a frank and honest conversation without judgment, asking questions without trying to solve the problem. Just asking how that makes them feel.”

Thomas likes to use a feelings wheel as a tool for parents to start a conversation with their children because it has simpler feelings and more complex ones that helps children vocalize what they are feeling. They can use the feelings on the wheel to become more specific in describing their inner feelings, and “if you can name it, you can tame it,” Thomas said. 

“If you can name your feelings, you can address them,” she said.

Addressing feelings and potential mental health challenges is especially difficult and also necessary in African American and Hispanic families, where society plays a role in pressuring young men and women to be better, be stronger, put on a front, not talk about difficult things. 

“When Solomon was in high school and a dear friend died, he was told to kind of man up, to stop crying,” Thomas said. “That he couldn’t lead if he was vulnerable and sad. He sure could. What a great way to lead. You are not weak. Being vulnerable takes strength.”

That is why when she noticed her son, who was already playing in the NFL when his sister died, was struggling during games, she approached the director of personnel and asked for help. Her son was suicidal, which is very common, but he got help and is now an advocate for mental health issues not just in the NFL but also in the community through The Defensive Line. Players often contact him asking how they can also get help for themselves, their spouses or even their children when they are in crisis.

That is the message that she wants to take to Dallas ISD parents who participate in the forum, that asking for help is a good start. And that a lot of help is available in Dallas ISD, where every high school has a licensed clinician on campus. A student is 80% more likely to receive services if he or she can do it on campus, Thomas said. 

Other resources parents can use are teen crisis lines or suicide hotlines like 988, or 741 741, which can also help identify services and support groups.

“One thing that I didn’t know as a parent is the importance of breathing,” Thomas said. “Taking those deep breaths, five finger breathing, box breathing, before having a conversation with your kids is helpful because you want to be the one who is calm. Lead by example.”

The Dallas Education Foundation’s third-annual Heart of Teaching Grant cycle is now open to applications. The focus for the 2025-2026 grants is Elevating Extracurricular Excellence.

The program will create opportunities for educators to support, enhance, and expand extracurricular activities on campuses. This initiative supports innovative projects that foster student engagement, leadership, and enrichment beyond the classroom. The maximum grant award will be up to $2,500 per project and must be used in the 2025-2026 school year.

The Dallas Education Foundation is accepting applications through April 22 from all Dallas ISD all campus team members who serve students, including but not limited to, teachers, administrators, librarians, and support employees seeking to develop or enhance extracurricular activities. Grant applications may focus on launching new student organizations, strengthening existing programs, or introducing innovative initiatives that support student involvement. Follow this LINK to apply. 

Key Dates:

• March 31 – Application opens
• April 22 – Application deadline
• May 15 – Awardees announced
• Aug. 1- Sept. 30—Grant disbursement

Libraries are at the heart of every school and serve as a hub for knowledge. April celebrates School Library Month by recognizing librarians and their contributions to student success.  

From fostering a love for reading to integrating technology, librarians play a crucial role in academic experiences on their campuses. Led by Director of Library Services Patricia Alvarado, the department supports 200 librarians across the district as they promote a culture of literacy and learning. 

“School librarians are excellent classroom teachers because they have the responsibility of being teachers of the largest classroom in their school, which is the library,” Alvarado said. 

Also called media specialists, librarians have received a master’s degree in library sciences and earned their school librarian certificate from the Texas Education Agency, which requires at least two years of teaching experience to complete.  

School librarians follow the district’s standard of service, which focuses on four categories—a culture of literacy, family and community partnerships, student inquiry, and literacy instruction. 

Many of Dallas ISD’s school libraries are infused with technology and STEM components like 3D printers, robotics, and green screens for podcasting. 

“School librarians are proficient in technology and are taking the lead in [artificial intelligence]. We encourage them to use it to draft engaging lesson plans and to analyze their library collections,” Alvarado said. “School librarians focus on digital literacy so that students are successful in their reading experiences.”  

According to Alvarado, successful librarians should be flexible in order to support the needs of the principal and their campus. They are often customer service oriented with a love for sharing information and a passion for creating relationships with their campus teachers.  

“It is important to us that we provide students with a luxurious public-school experience. We are working hard to remove the digital divide that exists and working to make resources available to students that may not typically be available to them in their home,” Alvarado said.