Staff News

Several Dallas ISD departments offered a helping hand to families displaced by Hurricane Sally who have been staying in Dallas hotels. The staff who visited the hotels offered help with enrollment for about 150 children, uniform assistance for those who will be attending school, snacks, laptops, social emotional learning support, and parent workshops.

According to staff who worked with families, students who enrolled in Dallas ISD are excited and ready to attend school.

Representatives from Centralized Enrollment, School Leadership, Campus Data Support, Early Learning, Information Technology, Parent Engagement, Food Services, Operations, Transportation, Mental Health, Special Education, Translations Services, Bilingual ESL, Reading , STEM, CTE, Advanced Academic Services, Computer Science and Technology, World Languages, and Social Services were at three Dallas hotels to help families—Anatole, Hyatt Regency Downtown, Crown Plaza Downtown.

A new online assessment tool developed by School Leadership, Information Technology and Evaluation and Assessment will make monitoring student progress easier.

The new districtwide assessment platform—Dallas Assessment Navigator (Powered by School City)—will be used to administer and score district assessments online. The system eventually will allow for more teacher collaboration and provide easily accessible data so schools can make necessary changes to improve student outcomes.

It will also help students get used to taking assessments online as the State of Texas of Academic Readiness, or STAAR, will continue to shift away from paper assessments.

District assessments will be available through the new platform, which will be on Clever and accessed through the single sign on.

The Dallas Assessment Navigator also allows users to easily create a variety of other assessments. Students may take assessments online in the student portal. The platform can be integrated with most learning management systems as well as Google Classroom, so teacher generated assessments and reports can be launched right from the digital classrooms.

Training sessions for teachers to learn the new platform will be available in the coming weeks. To access Dallas Assessment Navigator, visit dallasisd.schoolcity.com and log in with EAD Credentials.

For a look how the Dallas Assessment Navigator will work, watch this video.

Through the Theory of Action Standards of Service, the Language, Literacy, and Social Studies Department offers professional development, instructional partnerships and consultations upon request for social studies and reading in grades third through 12 and all languages-other-than-English courses. Specific support may include:

• job embedded instructional coaching based on individualized campus action plans derived from data analysis to target core needs
• instructional coaching through a coaching cycle, professional learning community support, co-teaching/modeling and ongoing professional development
• sessions on curriculum and instructional pedagogy

For additional information, contact Arlena Gaynor, Executive Director of Language, Literacy, and Social Studies at agaynor@dallasisd.org.

The Dallas ISD has adopted a systemic approach and organizational philosophy that will bring consistency and excellence across the district. This Theory of Action (TOA) will govern how we make decisions that ultimately impact student achievement. The TOA clearly describes which functions are managed by central staff, which levels of autonomies are given to schools, and the structure and boundaries for those autonomies.

Great schools that guarantee equity and excellence for all students require strong leaders. To ensure Dallas ISD has the strongest leaders for each school, the district has developed a robust, rigorous principal selection process that includes several stages for those applying for principal positions. The application window for the 2021-2022 Principal Candidate Pool is now open through Oct. 9 in TMS.

The selection process for principal candidates will include multiple application stages and various types of assessments. Only applicants who are successful during all stages of the selection process will enter into the Principal Candidate Pool and be eligible to interview for school-specific principal openings. Although there is not a guarantee of obtaining a principal role, individuals in the Principal Candidate Pool will be the only candidates considered for 2021-2022 principal positions.

For questions or additional information email LEAD@dallasisd.org

Dallas ISD employees are eligible to participate in additional, money-saving benefit programs that are especially designed to help protect the financial security of you and your family. These options are provided in addition to core benefits. Download the flyer for more information and visit benefits.dallasisd.org to enroll.

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Have questions? Contact Corestream customer care at customerservice@corestream.com or (855) 909-7700.

The arrival of fall brings with it flu season. Seasonal flu mimics many of the same symptoms as COVID-19, which can make it difficult for patients and providers to tell the difference between the two illnesses. Getting a flu shot is an important step we can all take to protect ourselves and our families.

Dallas ISD has partnered with CVS Pharmacy to administer flu shots this year. The district and CVS will be taking extra steps to ensure employees feel safe with receiving a flu shot by introducing new on-site drive through locations and door-to-door, classroom to classroom services. The high dose flu shot for employees over the age of 65 or at high risk will be offered on-site as well.

The district would like to provide you with a convenient service of getting your flu shot while at your work location or a nearby location. Please assist us with providing you the best services by completing a. survey through the link below.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/disdfluclinics

Procurement Services is removing the blanket requirement for Assignments of Work, Customized Supplemental Services Agreement, and routing forms in an effort to continue to streamline the procurement process. The blanket requirement for these forms will be replaced with a quoting process that will include a Statement of Work for Awarded Suppliers checklist that end-users fill out and attach to requisitions when they are submitted for review and processing.

The new process will begin in late September after recent awards of services for district approved proposals. End users can go to the district’s Procurement website to obtain the awarded supplier’s contact information. The end-user will use the new Statement of Work checklist to determine what documents are needed. End-users who need help with this process can reach out to the assigned buyer based on the category codes listed on the procurement website.

Procurement will use the approval routing hierarchy, budgetary features, and document attachment elements contained within Oracle to replace the current process.  Documentation that needs execution should still be routed to Procurement Services via Docusign.

The Statement of Work checklist can be found on the Procurement Services website.

District guidelines call for everyone—employees, visitors, vendors, parents, tenants, etc.—who is in a district facility wear a mask. Employees are expected to use their personal face masks that cover their nose and mouth, but the district will provide one if needed.

Personal face masks must adhere to the following guidelines:

• Fit snugly over the nose bridge, mouth and chin.
• Be secured to minimize the need to adjust frequently.
• Be work-appropriate, non-offensive, not considered derogatory or otherwise disrespectful to team members or visitors. Logos, graphics, and designs must be professionally appropriate as outlined in the district’s dress code policy. (This includes, but is not limited to, vulgar slogans/designs/graphics, profanity, etc).
• Not be loose material that could get caught in machinery or cause injury.
• Be worn prior to entering the building at all times.

Some recommendations:

• Masks do not need to be medical grade.
• Masks or respirators with exhalation valves are not recommended, since they are not effective as source control and decrease protection of persons around the wearer.
• Gaiter type neck fleece are not advised as face coverings for COVID-19 prevention, as there is evidence they offer little protection, and may increase transmission and dispersion of small droplets.
• Personal face masks should be placed in a bag or bin until they can be washed