Making a life-long commitment to Dallas ISD

When most people think of Dallas ISD, they picture classrooms, teachers, and students. Jermauld Cobbs, director of Fleet Services, thinks about trucks, fuel, ice melt, work orders, and pallets of supplies having to move before sunrise.

Cobbs is a homegrown leader—a graduate of David W. Carter High School, he pursued engineering studies at Prairie View A&M University. Cobbs came back to Dallas ISD as an employee, and next month, he marks 30 years with the district, the only place he has worked. 

“I started with the district back in 1996 and have been here ever since,” he said. 

Today, Cobbs oversees the Service Center and warehouses that power the district’s operations. His job, as he describes it, is logistics in its broadest sense. His team supports every corner of Dallas ISD—schools, administrative buildings, non-instructional sites, even emergency response locations like Dallas ISD Police.

“Everything we do reflects upon our organization,” he explained. “My role is the logistics of Dallas ISD. My team and I are the ones responsible for delivering necessary things.”

On any given day, his operation is moving instructional materials, desks and chairs, cleaning supplies, technology, records, mail, and countless other essentials. The goal is for most people never to think about how anything arrived—only that it did.

Cobbs doesn’t do it alone. One of the first principles he mentions is his reliance on people who are experts in their fields and genuinely invested in the work.

“I surround myself with subject matter experts and people who are dedicated to their job skills and their position in my organization,” he said. “When they’re successful, the team is successful, and when the team is successful, the entire organization is successful.”

Cobbs’ approach to leadership is shaped by his engineering background, which didn’t just give him a degree, it also rewired how he thinks about problems. He describes his mind as constantly in motion, running parallel tracks of thought. Even while he’s talking, he’s thinking ahead to schedules, routes, and contingencies, he said.

“I’m a great problem solver,” he said. “Half of my brain is talking to someone, answering questions, while the other half is three or four steps ahead. I’m always thinking about the what ifs.”

That way of thinking becomes especially critical when the district faces emergencies. During the recent winter storm that shut down schools for days, Cobbs’ world moved into overdrive. His warehouse was the central storage point for ice melt, and he and his team quickly shifted from routine deliveries to crisis response.

“We’re in the service center, but we’re still a part of the Maintenance and Facility Services,” Cobbs said. “We’re not on an island by ourselves. We’re all one big happy family, and I do mean happy.”

Fleet Services sets up teams to pull orders and stage materials for pickup. Grounds crews came in to load ice melt and distribute it to maintenance barns and campuses. Maintenance staff turned to the warehouse for materials to repair burst pipes and damaged classrooms. While much of the region stayed home, Cobbs and his colleagues across maintenance, grounds, custodial services, and transportation were on the ground, trying to make sure the district could safely reopen.

“But that Thursday before schools reopened, we knew we were in crunch time. We did assessments, we did site visits, and we still had ice on the ground,” Cobbs said. “Service Center and warehouse staff drove heavy trucks over ice to break it up. Drivers and maintenance crews spread ice melt and repaired damage. Grounds personnel scraped ice and spread ice melt in parking lots.”

It was not glamorous work, but it was essential, Cobbs said.

That word—essential—is one Cobbs returns to often. He is clear about the fact that if his team stops being dependable, someone else can be brought in to do the job. That awareness fuels his insistence on customer service as a non-negotiable value.

“The biggest thing that I stress here at the Service Center is that we provide customer service, and we’re graded on how we provide it,” he said. For Cobbs, customer service is not just for principals or department heads.

“Everyone is a customer,” he said. “The people we’re providing a service for, the people we work with, the people we work for, the people we work around. If I’m delivering you a package, you are my customer. If I have a helper in my truck, he’s my customer because he’s getting knowledge from me.”

That philosophy extends beyond the district. He recalls a day when a Dallas Fire Rescue employee showed up at his site, desperate for help for her special needs daughter. She saw the Dallas ISD sign and walked in, not knowing where else to turn. Cobbs and his staff sat down with her, got on the phone, and called “everyone outside Jesus Christ Himself,” he said, until she had the contacts and answers she needed.

Moments like that are part of why Cobbs has stayed for three decades with Dallas ISD. He sees his work as a way to pay forward the investment others made in him.

“If it hadn’t been for my father, my family, and my support team, I never would have gotten here,” he said. “Dallas ISD made me the person I am, and I’m just trying to give back.”

He is uncomfortable with praise and prefers to stay out of the spotlight. What matters to him is doing his job well, he said.

“I don’t like the kudos. I don’t like the affirmation,” he said. “I might not teach the students, but I’m happy delivering their textbooks.”