Staff News

Over summer break, Dallas ISD teachers and other team members explored the world and rediscovered home, returning with experiences that will inspire students and enrich classrooms. 

Maria Teresa Malana, a math teacher and science coach at J.L. Long Middle School, has a passion for teaching her students about endangered species native to different regions of the world. This summer, she traveled to Bohol Island in the Philippines, where she visited a sanctuary for the endangered Philippine tarsiers. Malana flew 8,000 miles to see her favorite endemic species in person and captured rare photos to share with her students. At the sanctuary, she saw 14 of these tiny primates with her family and high school friends, an experience she described as both exciting and unforgettable. 

Damita King, a culinary trainer for Child and Food Nutrition Services, spent 10 days in Italy with her church choir, performing and exploring Florence, Verona, Venice, and Lake Garda. She also visited historic cathedrals and saw Michelangelo’s David at the Galleria dell’Accademia Museum. 

“We sang songs in English at two churches,” King said. “At our last performance, people on the streets heard us and came inside. When we looked up, we were surrounded by people clapping, swaying, and enjoying the concert. We all left in tears.” 

Kerrie Pegues, a teacher at Moisés E. Molina High School, spent her summer fulfilling a lifelong dream. She created an app for students to share their talents with others online and even submitted her creation to the SXSW EDU Conference. 

“I learned that I’m never too old to follow my dreams,” Pegues said. “I created something out of nothing.”  

Jody Martin, originally from Australia and a registrar at the School of Health Professions at Yvonne A. Ewell Townview Center, returned home for the summer, traveling from Melbourne to Adelaide along the Great Ocean Road, a scenic coastal highway in Victoria. She camped in a koala sanctuary, saw albino kangaroos and checked a major item off her bucket list: visiting the Twelve Apostles, a group of towering limestone sea stacks along the coast. While in Australia, Martin also spent two weeks visiting her hometown of Airlie Beach, catching mud crabs in crocodile-infested waters and enjoying fireside picnics at sunset with family. 

Jenna Widby, a Career and Technical Education teacher at George Bannerman Dealey Montessori and International Academy, spent her summer traveling through Europe. She visited several cities and countries including Turin and Milan, Italy; Helsinki, Finland; Stockholm and Malmö, Sweden; and Copenhagen, Denmark. She also visited Amsterdam, Netherlands, and met up with her students at Dealy Montessori who also happened to be studying abroad.  

Widby rounded her trip out at Rugby and London where she reconnected with old friends, including her high school best friend. She also attended a professional development event called the U Teach STEM Educators Conference in Austin, which focused on teaching computer science to middle school students. 

Betza Mata, a second-grade bilingual teacher at Seagoville Elementary School, spent her summer resting, reconnecting and exploring new places. She joined a mission trip to Madrid where she and her church served Moroccan families by teaching the children English, playing games, and sharing in their traditions and cultural meals.   

“While working with the Moroccan children during my mission trip, they learned that I was born in Mexico and that Spanish was my first language,” Mata said. “They began asking me all kinds of questions about Mexico. That exchange reminded me of the incredible power of language to connect people, spark curiosity and build bridges across cultures.” 

Mata also took a road trip with her family and her dog, Peter, traveling to Wisconsin and Illinois before heading south to Mexico to celebrate the 20th anniversary of her college graduation. Between travels, she completed professional development sessions, deep-cleaned her garage, and made time to recharge. 

 “I especially cherished my trip to Mexico; the crisp mountain air, vibrant flavors, and breathtaking scenery were unforgettable, but the true treasure was celebrating with my old friends and reliving memories from our college years,” she said.  

Genevra Buchanan, a literacy acceleration specialist at Whitney M. Young Jr. Elementary School, also spent her summer doing mission work and traveled to India and Southeast Asia. 

“My favorite part of the trip was sharing the gospel and providing clothes, food, toiletries, books and toys to people who lived in remote villages across India,” Buchanan said. “I witnessed people who had no lights, no running water, no stable shelter but they were happy and grateful for life. It gave me a new perspective on what is really important in life. I will remember to count my blessings daily.” 

Lakeysha Specks, a teacher at Mark Twain School for the Talented and Gifted, spent her summer close to home, relaxing at a lake and fishing. She used her summer months to spend time alone and reflect.   

“Even the fish were on vacation from work this summer,” she said. “I didn’t catch a thing!” 

October is National Principals Month, and The Beat is sharing profiles of some of Dallas ISD’s outstanding principals to recognize the work they do in leading their schools and students to success.

Every morning, the principal and teachers at School for the Talented and Gifted in Pleasant Grove welcome students with music. Principal Reymundo Cervantes-Guajardo curates playlists based on seasons—Mariachi for Hispanic Heritage Month, thrillers for Halloween, holiday classics in December. Teachers exchange high fives or fist bumps with the students and interact with parents. With a megaphone in front of him, Cervantes calls out greetings in both English and Spanish and urges dawdling students to move along. 

For Cervantes, the morning arrival period is the most important part of the day. It not only sets the stage but also reflects the school’s culture: welcoming and fun. 

Since becoming principal in 2022, three years after TAG opened, Cervantes has led the school to become the fourth best middle school in Texas and the 17th best elementary school in the nation, while also distinguishing itself for its customer service. The school’s team members fully embrace the district’s Core 4 tenets of Flexible, Fast, Focused, and Friendly when interacting with others. Based on the principles of customer service, the tenets are recognized Oct. 13-17, Customer Service Week.

“We are here to serve; yes, we can be friendly, flexible, focused, and fast. But it’s also about the entire experience—it’s about how we, as adults, interact with each other,” said Cervantes. “That positive interaction is what we pass on to the students and their parents throughout the school day.”

Cervantes said that he and the school’s team—including custodians—gather for weekly huddles to discuss how best to welcome students, parents, and guests to TAG. He likes to remind them that they are like a thermostat: They regulate the campus atmosphere through their words, mood, and crisis management skills.

“Despite what is happening in the world, we have to make sure that we are centered and focused on our role in the environment we create,” he said. “The culture we build together is what makes the difference in student learning.”

A strong customer service culture, according to Cervantes, starts with leadership, positive energy, genuine smiles, and building trust within the school community. A smile, he said, is particularly important because it costs nothing and has the power to turn around someone’s day.

But Cervantes takes it one step further. He keeps a binder with the headshots and names of every student so he can address them by name, and even makes sure to wish staff and students a happy birthday.

“I’ve always been very clear about the type of culture I want in this school, and knowing everybody’s name was the starting point,” Cervantes said, “Because sometimes you go to a school and hear, ‘I don’t know who is on my eighth-grade team.’ No, we have to know. That’s how you establish trust and that’s how you start to build bonds.”

Cervantes encourages his teachers to document their successes as well as those of their coworkers on social media. He believes it serves a dual purpose, keeping parents informed and boosting camaraderie.

“This year, I challenged staff to use their own planning periods to go see what their colleagues are doing and give them shoutouts,” Cervantes said. “When parents or the public start reading what we post, they can basically see what happened from Monday to Friday.”

Parents also benefit from Cervantes’ warm personality and his efforts to make TAG inviting for every visitor. Opportunities for engagement abound, he said, from eating pan dulce with the principal to becoming a volunteer,  planning Hispanic fiestas, or even offering ESL classes. 

“We have a close relationship with our PTO president and the whole board. They’re here every Wednesday to run snack fundraisers. Right now we’re testing, which is why you likely don’t see a lot of parents, but on a regular day, you see parents coming in and out of the library,” he said. 

Above all, Cervantes said the customer service approach at TAG is about always maintaining high standards and treating others with genuine goodwill.

“We have to be very honest and walk the walk. I can say, ‘I love everyone,’ or I can high-five everyone, but if I don’t mean it, people will feel that,” he said. “Establishing a great culture starts with us being authentic.”

The week of Oct. 15-17 will be a passport to taste as Dallas ISD Food and Child Nutrition Services celebrates National School Lunch Week. This year’s theme, “Texas Taste Tour: Your School Lunch Passport,” invites students to discover the benefits of balanced and nutritious meals while spotlighting the farmers, crops and local products that make their way into student lunches. 

Throughout the week, cafeterias will feature special foods, events, and activities designed to help students make healthy lunch choices and experience the diversity of global cuisines. Interactive educational activities are available for all grade levels, giving students the chance to explore Texas agriculture, from Fredericksburg peaches to fresh tomatoes farmed in Marfa. 

Dallas ISD’s free lunch program plays a vital role in student success, ensuring every child has access to nutritious meals that fuel learning and growth. Established in 1946 to fight childhood hunger and support U.S. farms, the National School Lunch Program celebrates National School Lunch Week each year. More than 30 million children nationwide eat school lunches every school day.  

To stay updated on campus events and educational resources, please visit Food and Child Nutrition Services.

When Yennifer Reyes, Mexican-American history teacher at Seagoville High School, announced to her class that they would be making tortillas as part of their lesson on Mesoamerica civilizations and to kick off Hispanic Heritage Month, one of the new students perked up. 

The student, Reyes said, did not speak much English but she didn’t need to in this case—she understood the language of tradition. Reyes remembers the student saying, “Yo sé hacer tortillas,” and Reyes knew then that would be her student’s moment to shine, to bring to class something that meant so much to her.

Since she began teaching Mexican-American studies last year, Reyes has emphasized in her classes the importance of being seen. For her, culture is about global interconnectedness, the realization that paths meet in one way or another. 

“In ethnic studies, there are many opportunities for students to relate to the material and to each other, which helps them feel connected and allows them to understand each other better,” Reyes said. 

A Judge Barefoot Sanders Law Magnet graduate, Reyes served as community liaison at Seagoville for two years before transitioning into teaching. She first taught economics, but took advantage of the opportunity to teach ethnic studies when the position became available because it held special significance to her, the child of Salvadoran immigrants and wife to a Mexican-American. 

“I have seen both cultures, and of course, being American as well, I understand what it’s like to adapt and find a sense of belonging. I feel that’s what I bring into my classes,” she said. 

Seagoville’s ethnic studies program offers two tracks: Mexican-American studies and African American studies. Both courses are popular, Reyes said. Students who have taken African American studies note frequent similarities between African and Hispanic cultures.

“When students discuss Mesoamerican tribes, they’re able to connect African civilizations to Mexican civilizations and realize that we are very much alike. This process brings a sense of belonging for everybody, and they get to learn a little bit of history from one another,” Reyes said.

For Hispanic Heritage Month, Reyes said she collaborates with the Spanish National Honor Society to organize a program featuring student-led skits about famous Hispanic figures, dances, and music performances. 

She is planning a Día de los Muertos event where students create altares, participate in a gallery walk, distribute pan de muerto to teachers, and include music and dance performances, often involving the school band or folklorico dancers. 

“The spooky season is popular with our students, and I plan to use it to incorporate classroom lessons into activities that we can share with the rest of the school,” Reyes remarked. 

As a teacher, Reyes said she takes pride not only in introducing the richness of Hispanic culture to her students but also in making them feel seen. With roughly 150 students taking her class, she thinks it is important her students feel valued and included. She said. 

“I’m very big on mental health. I try to integrate that into the classroom to ensure every student feels seen, because it’s difficult when you have 150 different students to make each one feel welcomed, seen, and understood,” she said. 

Reyes believes the commitment to visibility and belonging extends beyond her own classroom, crediting the district for creating an environment that supports this type of work. 

“I want students to remember me as someone who created a safe space—a classroom where they felt a true sense of belonging—and who maintained a universally positive culture,” she said.

Housed in the brick building of the former Stephen J. Hay Elementary School, Dallas Hybrid Preparatory Academy may seem like another neighborhood school but it’s far from traditional. When it opened in 2021, with only 68 students, Dallas Hybrid became the first public school in Texas to offer a hybrid model that allows students to attend classes virtually and in person.

Designed for third through eighth grades, Dallas Hybrid is the brainchild of Chief Academic Officer Angie Gaylord, who noticed high levels of anxiety among students, especially coming out of the pandemic.  While this model is not suited for every family, it serves students with social or emotional needs who may not thrive in a conventional five-day-a-week classroom setting, said Dallas Hybrid Principal Lucia Salinas. 

“Many of our kids have previously been homeschooled. About 20% of our students have special needs, including a large percentage with autism,” Salinas said. “We’ve had so many stories about kids who were not thriving in other campuses, and they’re thriving now.”

For parents like Wendy Caltrone, whose son James A. is now an eighth grader, Dallas Hybrid is “the next step up from homeschooling—a gentle transition into a mo

re conventional form of schooling and even college.” 

James has made so much progress at the school, Caltrone said, that he was named the most improved student in seventh grade last year. 

“It just made my heart full,” Caltrone said while remembering her son’s recognition. “It’s the most eclectic group of kids you’ll ever see all over the place, and they just mesh well.” 

Salinas, who has been in her current role since 2023, said Dallas Hybrid also imitates a university model, with children working synchronously remotely on Mondays and Wednesday, in person on Tuesday and Thursday, and asynchronously remotely on Fridays. 

“On Fridays, the kids work asynchronously, which gives them flexibility, because we have kids involved in sports and hobbies or who meet with their therapists,” said Salinas.

On days students attend in person, the day begins in the student hub known as the Maker Space where they socialize and eat breakfast. Elementary and middle school students enter through different areas and have separate spaces. All students then spend the morning in lessons, covering the four core content areas while the afternoons are reserved for electives. 

“This is another piece of innovation we offer here at Hybrid, connecting learning to real-life projects,” said Salinas. “We have everything from Creative AI to CSI in the classroom. We even have a sports franchise elective that looks at everything that happens behind the scenes, from talent management and uniform creation to stadium design.”

The academy adopted a robust STEM-heavy curriculum as one of its primary innovations.

“We have a STEM focus. Each student has engineering for sixth, seventh, and eighth grade, and we also have tech courses like drones, robotics, and problem-solving,” Salinas said.

Even classrooms do not follow a traditional arrangement. With its variously shaped furniture, the flexible seating aims to create a comfortable learning environment where students are expected to self-regulate, self-monitor, and develop self-efficacy, according to Salinas.

Because the turnover rate at the school is low, students often progress through multiple grades alongside the same classmates, creating lasting relationships. This strong sense of community is also supported by the school’s intimate size, 140 students.

“We have fewer discipline issues also because our kids own their learning,” said Salinas. “Our kids love the model and they want to stay here, so they are intentional about developing traits of accountability.”

Special education teacher Charie Malik expressed a similar sentiment: “This is like a training ground for the children to become more responsible, more accountable for their actions, and more independent.” 

The uniqueness of the hybrid model can present challenges. Unlike teachers at traditional schools, Dallas Hybrid teachers must adapt their lessons for multiple delivery modalities. 

“The lesson planning load is heavier because they have to make sure that they implement a curriculum that is state and district adopted, but also virtually friendly and adaptable,” Salina said. “They have to make adjustments and accommodations.”

Christian Weinke, who teaches technology, said student teaching in Indiana prepared him for his experience at Dallas Hybrid. 

“I did student teaching on a full campus, but it was already a hybrid schedule for me: three days of direct teaching and two days of college course work. The structure here at Dallas Hybrid fits that modality well,” he said. 

Weink said the dual environment gives him the facility to design digital curriculum on days students are not on campus. 

“The virtual days kind of gave me the stepping stone I needed to get used to the new technology and to design work there,” he said.

To William Broughton, a parent whose three children all have attended Dallas Hybrid, the teachers’ dedication is obvious. He said teachers genuinely care about their students’ success, helping them fill academic gaps and supporting them holistically. Teachers, he noted, actively work alongside parents to ensure student growth and success.

“The teachers are genuinely invested. I would say they take on the role of what a responsible parent should be,” Broughton said. “I’m a big fan of supporting the teachers, because I understand how hard it is just to manage my three children sometimes, and they are asked to deal with 20 or 30.”

This month, Dallas ISD is shining the spotlight on our Superhero Principals and the incredible “superpowers” they use every day to make a difference in our schools. We invite students and team members to join the celebration by submitting photos of their principals in action. Each photo should highlight how the principal demonstrates his or her superpower in one (or more) of the district’s three priorities:

• Student Achievement (e.g., leading a data meeting, celebrating growth)
• Quality of Instruction (e.g., walking classrooms, coaching teachers)
• Climate & Culture (e.g., greeting families, celebrating students, dismissal duty) 

Let’s show our principals the appreciation they deserve and recognize the heroic impact they have on our school communities by submitting a photo using this form.  

Photo Requirements:

• Your principal must be clearly visible
• Candid moments are preferred
• Photo must be from this school year (2025-26)

When submitting the photo, make sure you include the principal’s name and campus and a short explanation of the superpower as well as what is happening in the photo. 

The winner will be announced at the principals meeting on Oct. 22.

When Silvia Fields started working as a custodian 14 years ago, the work was a lot different than it is now at the new Henry W. Longfellow Career Exploration Academy building where she is head facility supervisor. It is even different than when she came to work in Dallas ISD six years ago.

“It’s a much larger building, of course,” she said of the school that opened this fall. “But all operations now are computerized and work off of touch screens. There has been a lot of training with the Bond people to learn how to operate the school.”

As National School Custodian Day is celebrated today, Oct. 2, the roles of custodians like Fields in schools across the district have been expanding and adjusting to new technologies for air conditioning, heating, mechanical rooms, and other essential operations that keep the school running day-to-day. At the same time, they continue to be in charge of making sure hallways and classrooms are clean and sanitized and that the school has a safe and welcoming environment.

“It’s a learning process and it has its challenges, but in some ways it’s easier than the old building because it was falling apart,” she said.

Fields, who manages a staff of three divided into day and evening shifts, does more than that.

“We play a role in student success,” she said. “We are there for students because we have a lot of interaction with them. If they need help with something, we help. Especially now, they ask for help finding where to go, so we show them around.”

Because custodians also work when the school holds parent events, they are a resource for parents and the parent organizations. And they work closely with other school team members to make sure that their needs are met, cleaning spills, moving furniture, opening doors, etc.

She regrets that the new building means she doesn’t get to interact with people as much as she did in the old facility, which was smaller, but she is confident that the new skills she is learning will help her continue to progress in her career. She also likes that in the new building, she has her own office, she said.

“I would tell other custodians that they need to keep learning new things and taking on challenges so they can move up,” she said. “This job offers big opportunities and has its benefits if you take advantage of them.”

The Benefits Department will start “Tuesday Talks: Achieving Your Retirement Goals” for the school year beginning Oct. 7. This initiative provides district employees with essential knowledge and resources to prepare for a successful and secure retirement.

 Navigating the retirement process can be a challenging task, and the HCM Benefits Department is here to help. On select Tuesdays each month, there will be a variety of retirement-focused events to cater to different learning preferences and schedules. The program will include: 

• Virtual seminars: Convenient online sessions providing employees with information and resources for retirement.
• In-person seminars: Interactive face-to-face sessions providing employees with information and resources for retirement.
• Lunch and Learns with Trusted Capitol Group (TCG): Informative lunchtime sessions providing guidance on Social Security, TRS benefits, retirement savings, and more
• Special Seminar with Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS): A comprehensive seminar on Oct. 21, featuring retirement insights from TRS.

Seminars will cover a range of critical topics to help employees prepare for retirement, including but not limited to: 

• Steps to Retirement: Detailed guidance on the essential steps to take as you approach retirement.
• Retirement Service Award: Information on how to receive payment for local days accumulated.
• Retirement Savings Accounts: Insights on different types of retirement accounts and how to maximize retirement savings.
• Eligibility and More: Understanding the criteria for retirement benefits and other important considerations.

Due to limited space, we strongly encourage all employees to register for events as soon as possible to secure their spot. Visit the registration link here: Retirement Registration. For more information email retirement@dallasisd.org. For a list of all events and dates, download Retirement Events and Dates.