Staff News

Nearly 30 million children throughout the country participate in the National School Lunch Program each day, and to recognize the importance of the program, Dallas ISD is celebrating National School Lunch Week Oct. 9-13.  

“Level Up with School Lunch” highlights the importance of a healthy school lunch to a student’s success both in and outside the classroom. Dallas ISD students have access to nutritious free school breakfast and lunch.

National School Lunch Week will highlight the nutritious foods available daily in district cafeterias with fun activities for students, healthy meals, and fun challenges and giveaways. 

“Thanks to government waivers, school meals are free for all students all school year, so it’s a great time to give school lunch a try,” said Debi Rowley, interim executive director of Food and Child Nutrition Services. “National School Lunch Week helps us educate parents and students about all the wonderful benefits of our lunch program.” 

For more information about national School Lunch Week visit www.Dallasisd.org/fcns.

Dallas ISD is helping to give breast cancer the boot during October—Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Pink out days for Dallas ISD will take place Thursday, Oct. 19, and Friday, Oct. 20, to bring additional awareness to the need for regular check ups, mammograms and other prevention tips. Employees who wear pink on these days will be able to wear jeans on one of the days. 

Information regarding prevention and support will be shared in The Beat during the month. The Benefits Department is distributing pink lapel ribbons to all campuses, service centers and central departments. 

If you are a breast cancer survivor or someone who has supported a survivor, we want to hear your story and share it with others throughout the month of October. If you want to share, please, fill out this form. For additional tips and information about breast cancer, download the flier.

When Claudio Urbina, athletic coordinator, and head football coach at W.H. Adamson High School, first learned about being named the new athletic coordinator for his alma mater, it was a powerful moment for him. Dallas ISD is celebrating coaches like him on National Coaches Day on Oct. 6 and throughout the month.

“Even now when I drive into work, it’s still somewhat surreal,” Urbina said. “I can’t believe this is what I do for a living. I really enjoy what I do, and I know what we’re doing has a direct impact on the kids in this community.” 

For Urbina, who attended Dallas ISD schools from kindergarten to Adamson High School and has taught for 16 years in the district—Dallas ISD is home. 

“I’m a product of Dallas ISD and Adamson High School, and what better platform is there to be able to teach and guide students,” said Urbina, who graduated in 2000. 

Before his position at Adamson, he was football defensive coordinator and head boys soccer coach at Wilmer-Hutchins High School, where he spent the last nine years until January, when he accepted his current position. Prior to that, he was at Pinkston High School where he was the boys soccer head coach and football coach for six years. 

For Urbina it’s been a journey that led him exactly to where he wanted to be. He had originally wanted to be a professional football player in the National Football League, but his dream changed along the way. Part of this shift stemmed from having had many great teachers and coaches and knowing the impact they had on him growing up. 

“There are students who are looking for somebody to look up to and that pushed me a lot,” Urbina said. “Being Latino and being from this community, many of my students can identify with me. I let them know that they can achieve their goals.”

Urbina has always valued and prioritized his passion for education and sports. He attended Paul Quinn College where he was captain of the football team and received his Bachelor of Education degree in 2005. He also has a master’s degree in educational leadership from Lamar University. 

National Coaches Day recognizes the important role coaches play in their schools and communities. They often have to play multiple roles as teachers, mentors and sometimes advocates—roles that Urbina knows well. 

He says the goal for him and his staff is helping students grow up to be productive citizens, guide them to make the right choices, and help lead them in the right direction. One of the valuable lessons that Urbina says students get out of being athletes is learning time management skills and discipline, skills that will help them for the rest of their lives.

Urbina attributes part of his success to his uncle, Roberto Urbina, who was one of his role models growing up. His uncle was a coach at Adamson while Urbina was a student, and his uncle continues to be the boys track and cross-country coach at the school.

“As kids, we have dreams and aspirations and seeing someone that grew up in the same neighborhood and kind of from the same background, it gives you a little bit more motivation and makes you feel like you can accomplish your goals,” Urbina said.  

While many former students didn’t become professional athletes, Urbina says he sees them doing great things in the community, such as being teachers, doctors, or working in other professions, including coaches. And that’s what’s important to him.

“Being a servant leader is what this position really is,” Urbina said. “You’re working with the coaching staff, administration, and this community. Parents sometimes need guidance as well—so the main thing is practicing empathy and to serve.”

For more information about Dallas ISD Athletics Recognition Weeks, download this flyer. 

The Dallas ISD Board of Trustees has approved the 2023-2024 school year budget that includes a 2% raise for exempt campus and central team members, a 3% raise for support staff, increases in select tiers for the Teacher and Assistant Principal Excellence Initiatives, and an increase to $16 an hour for the district’s minimum wage.

These increases amount to $47.4 million in the 2023-2024 budget and focus on the district’s compensation priorities: market competitive salaries, advancing equity, strategic compensation and high priority and retention stipends.  

Trustees also approved setting the minimum teacher salary at $61,000 and adjusting the new hire schedule for teachers to match market rates. 

“We are grateful that the Board of Trustees supports our recruitment and retention efforts through this approved budget,” said Chief of Human Capital Management Robert Abel. “These salary increases and incentives have been crucial in attracting and retaining teachers to the district. In fact, this May alone, we have had a total of more than 6,000 teacher applications, more than any May in the past five years, allowing us to provide our principals with a high quality candidate pipeline to fill their classrooms.”

Proposed 2023-2024 TEI Compensation Levels

Returning teachers will receive a projected average teacher salary increase of approximately $2,200 or 3.3%, based on the greater of three increases:

• Change to effectiveness level
• Change to compensation level value
• Board approved differentiated salary increase

Proposed 2023-2024 TEI Compensation Levels

High priority campus stipends

The board also approved $4.1 million to fund an expansion of eligibility for high priority campuses as well as an increase in stipend amounts for other levels. Teachers in the Proficient I effectiveness level will now be able to receive a $4,000 stipend for working in a high priority campus. Proficient II or TIA Recognized teachers will see a $2,000 increase in the stipend they receive for working at an HPC.

Increases for Excellence Initiatives

The budget also includes increases for other employees who are evaluated through an excellence initiative—assistant principals, principals, executive directors.

Minimum wage and other central increases

The approved budget increases to $16 per hour the minimum wage, which places Dallas ISD as a regional leader in minimum wage among area school districts and primarily impacts support and operations team members.

Non-Excellence Initiative employees will see the greater of two increases:

• Minimum wage adjustment to $16 per hour
• 3% of the midpoint for support (non-exempt) employees and 2% of midpoint for professional (exempt) employees

Non-excellence-initiative campus and central team members will see their compensation increase starting in September if they were hired before Dec. 31, 2022.

Retention incentive

The district has established another round of retention incentives for the 2023-2024 school year using $63 million in Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds. Employees who are not on an excellence initiative or who have no level in an excellence initiative will receive a $2,500 incentive to come back next year while those in excellence initiatives will receive amounts depending on their level ranging from $2,500-$4,000. To be able to receive the incentive, employees should have been working in Dallas ISD no later than May 1, 2023. All eligible employees with at least five years of service with Dallas ISD as of Sept. 1, 2023, will get an additional $1,000. For more details on the 2023-2024 retention incentive, click on the link.

USBs are susceptible to viruses and malware, which is why the district moved to cloud storage to safely store data and information. Learn more about the benefits of using cloud storage:

• Cloud storage allows you to access your documents anywhere.
• You never have to worry about your data getting infected or corrupted.
• Cloud storage facilitates consolidating all your documents and information in one place for easy access.
• Safely share documents through links instead of with documents or attachments that could get infected.
• Dallas ISD provides team members with unlimited storage for OneDrive and Google Drive.

For more information on how to use OneDrive and Google Drive, visit Cornerstone.

The last designated fall semester professional development day for campus Dallas ISD team members will take place remotely on Tuesday, Nov. 7. Campuses will be closed that day, and non-teaching employees will receive instructions from their supervisors or departments about training modules.

Nov. 7 will be a regular workday for central employees on work calendars 226 or more work days.

Campus exempt employees will have through Nov. 7 to complete the remote training modules designated by their principals, which will combine asynchronous and live virtual modules.   

Non-exempt employees will need to earn eight hours of comp time from Oct. 1-31 by completing the assigned asynchronous training after normal assigned duty hours and before Nov. 7. Team members can use the table below to figure out how many hours they need to work to earn eight hours of comp time to cover the professional development day.

https://www.dallasisd.org/cms/lib/TX01001475/Centricity/Domain/20/CONVERTOVTTOCOMPTIME.xlsx

Non-exempt team members (those paid hourly) will not be able to sign in and out on Nov. 7, which means that if they do not accumulate the necessary comp time, they will need to utilize PTO. Exempt employees will have to complete the assigned modules by Nov. 7. Failure to complete the assigned professional development hours will result in use of PTO.

Professional and Digital Learning team members are developing a variety of modules for non-teaching employees. The modules will be available in Cornerstone. 

For questions about specific professional development or how to connect virtually, team members should contact their supervisors.

Language professionals play an important role worldwide in connecting nations, fostering peace and understanding, and encouraging growth and development. The team of almost 30 translators and interpreters in Dallas ISD who help connect families, students and schools is no different.  

Their efforts toward engagement and understanding and those of interpreters and translators worldwide are celebrated and recognized on Sept. 30 during International Translation Day. The day was established in 2017 through a resolution from the United Nations General Assembly.

“The theme for this year’s International Translation Day is ‘translation unveils the many faces of humanity,’ and that’s exactly what our district interpreters aim to do,” said Adriana Saucedo, director of Translation Services. “We are shining a light on the incredible diversity in our district by being the voice of the district’s students and families who speak different languages,” she said.

The newest member of the district’s Translations team creating opportunities for students and families is Shokria Afshari, a Pashto interpreter. Afshari, who was previously a community interpreter and volunteer helping the Afghan community, recently joined the district as an interpreter and as a tutor, providing academic support to Pashto-speaking students. 

Before her district role, she was already helping community members living in Dallas with the language barrier by assisting with things such as opening a bank account or making a doctor’s appointment. 

Afshari, who moved to Dallas from Afghanistan two years ago, admits that she is still making the transition to adjusting to her new country, and is able to relate to the community she serves. 

Beyond language, Afshari also helps the families and students she serves understand the cultural differences. For example, she says that something simple like smiling at someone could be construed as something negative in her country, but here in the United States, it is a positive thing. 

Afshari, who also speaks Dari and Farsi, learned English in her native country, and was a teacher who taught English and Pashto languages to children. Currently, she is providing academic support for two high school students in the district. 

“I’m very happy because I get to help a lot of Afghan families,” Afshari said. “Many times they tell me that they have challenges finding someone that can translate to English, so they are happy that I’m in this role too.” 

In addition to Pashto, Translation Services provides interpretation and translation services for Spanish, Arabic, Burmese, Chin, Kirundi, Kinyarwanda, and Swahili. Dallas ISD is one of the districts in the state leading the way in bridging the gap of  communication.

Services offered include document translation, meeting interpretation, and the interpreter hotline that schools can access for immediate interpretation needs. Translation Services also offers academic support for students in Arabic, Burmese, Chin, Kirundi, Swahili, and Pashto.

“With the addition of Pashto we are able to serve members of the Afghan community who have resettled in Dallas in the last two years,” Saucedo said. “We saw the need in the district to expand our services and are happy to serve this community.” 

To learn more about the different services offered through Translation Services, visit https://www.dallasisd.org/translationservices. 

While seasonal influenza, or flu, viruses are detected year-round, flu viruses typically circulate the most during the fall and winter, a time that has come to be known as the flu season. 

The exact timing and duration of flu seasons varies, but flu activity often begins to increase in October and peaks between December and February. Since the start of the COVID pandemic, the timing and duration of flu activity has been less predictable. One of the ways to protect against the flu is to get the annual vaccination.

Dallas ISD Benefits Department is coordinating districtwide flu clinics for employees who want to get the flu shot as well as other vaccines available—high dose flu vaccine ( 65 +), COVID vaccine / booster, pneumonia, shingles. Flu clinics start Oct. 3 and registration is required. Visit the Districtwide Datebook at https://www.dallasisd.org/datebook#calendar15152/20231026/month to find the date and location of your choice. To register for a particular date and location, click on the event and then click on register. You may have to sign in using the Dallas ISD Portal to register, and you should receive a confirmation email. 

All levels of BCBS TRS plans are accepted for all vaccines. Scott & WhiteTRS* plans can be accepted for flu and COVID vaccines only. Other Insurance that will be accepted include Aetna Choice, Blue Cross Blue ShieldPPO, Cigna PPO, Humana PPO, Medicare Part B and United HealthCareChoice plans based on plan coverage. 

Employees should bring their insurance card and a photo ID to their appointment. 

For Esmeralda Martinez, a Spanish and leadership teacher at Irma Lerma Rangel Young Women’s Leadership School, paving the way for student success and contributing to a legacy of leadership are her priorities and her passion.

She moved to the United States when she was 5 years old and recalls translating for her mother from Mexico and her father from Colombia as she grew up learning English as a second language. Combined with her positive experiences with teachers in her Dallas ISD schools and her involvement in Skyline High School’s League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) council, Martinez realized she wanted to become an educator and a LULAC sponsor to pour into others the same way people poured into her.

“At Skyline, LULAC was one of our most active clubs,” Martinez said. “I’ve always loved giving back to the community and volunteering, and I found a home away from home. They were willing to invest in me and showed me the ropes in regards to how to obtain a college education, how to go about paying for it, and also seeing other Latinos that look like me in different professional realms.” 

When she joined Irma Rangel’s inaugural team, she knew she was going to help found the school’s LULAC council. Now, she said they have a council with over 160 active students. The students are required to do a minimum of 40 community service or civic engagement hours, and Martinez said she is proud of the work they do together.

Not only has Martinez helped students network, study abroad, and participate in prestigious national programs, but she has also seen graduates go on to start their own LULAC councils at The University of Texas at San Antonio, Southern Methodist University, The University of Texas at Dallas, and more.

“It continues to build that sense that we’re all in it together to better our community and to better each other through education,” Martinez said. “We are fighting for a better society—for Latinos and for the whole. Our students have all been great, because we see that our work has tripled and affects different communities even beyond Dallas.”

Irma Rangel’s LULAC council has also developed an annual tradition of leading their community’s Hispanic Heritage Month celebration. Starting over the summer, they met to plan how they would highlight the month and decided to focus on media representation this year.

Martinez and the LULAC students reached out to Univision and found a speaker to visit their campus in October. Students will also have the opportunity to visit Univision and go behind the scenes to see production and what it takes to put on the news every day.

“Part of creating academic environments where kids feel seen and nourished has to do with us showing appreciation for all the identities they bring,” Martinez said. “I would love to encourage schools that do not currently have LULAC councils and other organizations to create spaces for students to connect with community members who look like them and walk the same paths. There is so much power in walking toward something together. What better way to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month than by creating spaces for our students to thrive?”

Dallas ISD’s Regional Day School Program for the Deaf is built on a foundation of connections and opportunities. The students and graduates the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services team has supported are in every field and industry, thriving as carpenters, culinary artists, cheerleaders, soccer players, nurses, construction workers, and more. September is Deaf Awareness Month.

“We want our students to know they can become anything they want to be,” said Tina Vaguine, manager for the RDSPD. “We want them to believe in themselves, and we want them and their families to know that they can do anything.” 

Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services provides instructional services for students from birth up to 22 years old. The team is made up of about 80 members, including teachers, care professionals, sign language interpreters, communication facilitators, and licensed professional counselors. 

The team members do home visits to help families navigate diagnoses and early childhood care, provide instruction in the student’s mode of communication like cluster sites Mockingbird, where students who use sign language attend, and K.B. Polk, where students who use listening and spoken language attend. While some of their students require full-time specially designed instruction, Vaguine said they work to place students in the least restrictive environment possible. 

About half of their almost 600 students are in itinerant programs and may use hearing aids or only have hearing loss on one side. Those students are at their home campuses, and the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services teams support them as needed, ranging from a few times a year to every week. 

“When we hire, we look for role models for our students,” Vaguine said. “We have several teachers who are deaf and hard of hearing themselves, and they are showing our students that they can go to college and get a career, while communicating with them and understanding their motives. We recently hired a new professional counselor who is also deaf and hard of hearing, so she can relate with the kids. It’s really good.”

Vaguine and her team are hard at work spreading awareness about these incredible students and team members throughout the district. September is Deaf Awareness Month, and Vaguine said they have been proud to shine a spotlight on their “exceptional program, talented students, and dedicated staff.”

Dallas ISD has been serving students through the Regional Day School Program for the Deaf for decades, and Vaguine said she hopes the community and district employees will join her team in gaining a deeper understanding of deaf culture and abilities, and come together to celebrate the outstanding achievements of individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing.

“Do not be afraid to approach these students and talk to them,” said Carol Harris, a member of Vaguine’s team. “They know they’re deaf, but they don’t act like they’re deaf. They act like children, and they talk to everyone. Whether you sign or not, they know they can utilize an interpreter or other resources to communicate and be successful.”