Staff News

It’s been said that a place without art is a place without an identity. That’s not the case for Moisés E. Molina High School where artwork, images, murals, and 3D sculptures can normally be seen throughout the school.

Visual arts teachers like Melissa James and Miriam Montaño Perez have made these displays possible with the aim of helping students develop a strong sense of identity.

The visual arts program at Molina High School is so successful that students recently took home 18 regional medals at the Texas High School Visual Art Scholastic Event (VASE). This weekend, three of the students’ works will be competing in the state competition in San Marcos, Texas. 

“Every art communicates some kind of message—whether it’s expressing culture or pride, and you’ll see that in the artwork of the students who went to VASE, because they were very personal pieces of art,” said James. 

The students who have advanced to state are: Diego Duran, a sophomore, and Jessica Martinez and Kevin Cecena, freshmen.

“Most of my students that went to the VASE competition were freshmen,” James said. “They were so proud of themselves and were able to experience and look at all the beautiful work at the event.”

“They had to speak to a juror and tell them their artist statement,” she added. “They had to explain what it meant to them personally, and explain the art element and design principles, which was part of their score.”

Beyond the classroom and competitions, Montaño Perez feels that art plays another important role in students’ lives.

“Art has really helped our students find their own identity, and has helped them express their emotions,” she said. “As they’re working through their art work, they visualize what they’re feeling and it helps them better understand themselves. Art plays this role for a lot of students.” 

Both Montaño Perez and James attribute much of the success of the visual arts program to their principal, Jacob Núñez, who has helped them find new spaces for art to exist in the school. 

“We had this empty wall and our principal, Mr. Núñez, suggested that it would be a good place to have a mural, and he helped to fund the materials,” Montaño Perez said. “We had a group of students who painted the mural, and we guided them whenever they needed help.”

The mural was inspired by Vincent Van Gogh’s iconic “Starry Night” painting and represents both Molina and Starry Night. It fuses a sense of pride that says, “That’s my school displayed in my artwork,” she said.

Not only has art in the school inspired the students, but it’s inspired team members as well.

“Art in the school really raises morale,” James said. “I’ve had so many compliments on the 3D sculptures throughout the school, and I’ve received requests from people wanting those word sculptures above their doors. It’s bright and colorful and it gives us a platform to show our students work.” 

Outside of the school, students have also had the opportunity to show their work in community spaces, including the Kiva Gallery at Mountain View College and a Día de Los Muertos exhibition at Arts Mission Oak Cliff.

“It was nice for students to see a part of themselves in their art,” Montaño Perez said. 

Both James and Montaño Perez hope that collaborations for students to showcase their artwork in the community continue, as they both see the impact that organizing exhibitions can have on the students, school, and community. 

“It gives students the opportunity to have their artwork out there for others to see,” Montaño Perez said. “It will really motivate them and encourage them, and they will take what they learned here at Molina and use it beyond high school.” 

Master Principal Brittany Thompson has spent 11 years in education, all at Dallas ISD. Originally from Chattanooga, Tenn., she was placed in Dallas with Teach for America at J.L. Long Middle School, where she quickly stepped into leadership roles. 

Thompson was subsequently promoted to instructional coach at John Quincy Adams Elementary School and then became assistant principal there and at Thomas C. Marsh Preparatory Academy. While at John Quincy Adams, she led the mathematics department, realizing double digit gains before ultimately moving to Lakewood Elementary School as principal. 

Thanks to her commitment to working alongside those she leads in order to make a lasting impact, Thompson was among the top 10 percent of Dallas ISD principals to be awarded the Master Principal designation for the 2022-2023 school year. Learn more about her outlook on leadership below. 

What drew you to education? 

The desire to have an impact on students, their lives and futures—and the joy I feel on campuses—inspired me to become an educator! 

What qualities make a great principal? 

Great leaders I admire are decisive, good communicators who value relationships and their people and always put students at the forefront of their work. 

What is your educational philosophy or a motto by which you work? 

My philosophy is students first. When struggling with a difficult situation, we always ask ourselves, “What is in the best interest of the students?” 

What inspires you about your position? 

The people I get to work with inspire me: the teachers in the classrooms who pour their hearts into their classes, the students and their ability to exceed expectations and show such kindness and empathy, and the community members I work with who move mountains for our students. 

Jazmin Mier, instructional coordinator in the World Languages Department, is a citizen of the world. She has visited over 30 countries and uses this knowledge to help teachers in the district. So when she saw that the World Affairs Council of Dallas/Fort Worth was offering an opportunity for 12 educators to participate in a United Arab Emirates Educator study tour this past spring, she jumped at the chance to go. 

Mier and 11 other educators from around the country visited the cities of Abu Dhabi and Dubai March 11-18 to make connections between classrooms in the Emirates and the United States, and for educators to share what they learned in their classrooms. 

Participants had the opportunity to interact with top UAE government officials, visit internationally renowned museums, participate in cultural activities, and visit schools and universities. 

Mier said she learned a lot about new initiatives that the Emirates has related to education. She was able to see some things in common between classrooms there and in Dallas ISD.

“I saw a lot of independent work,” she said. “It was not a traditional classroom where they have students sitting on their desks and working.” 

“Students were very self motivated, and I can already see that in our schools. I don’t know if it was because of COVID, but I saw a lot of similarities like that and students were eager to learn,” she added. “They really were working on their assignments, as independent learners. That’s one of the things that really reminded me of our schools.”

Mier is using this new knowledge to work on lessons for district teachers to use in their classrooms. The trip was so impactful to Mier that she and Amy Anderton, director of the World Languages Department, are working on bringing Arabic classes to schools, as Arabic is one of the top five languages spoken in the district. 

“We really want our students to be global citizens and for them to be aware that there are different languages out there that they can learn,” she said. “It’s very important to encourage them to be open to other cultures.”

Anderton agrees: “I clearly see how her service helps our teachers. If she can go and serve our teachers by opening new opportunities to them and opening doors and perspectives–even windows to look out of, she’s done her job. All of these world travels have done that.”

During the tour, Mier also had the opportunity to visit different places related to industries like artificial intelligence.

“They are focusing towards the future,” she said. “When we think of the Persian gulf, we think of the natural resources that they have such as petroleum. But their goal is to not be dependent on oil in 20 years.”

From what she saw, the country is building its technology, industry, and education systems to expand into other fields like artificial intelligence, she said. Another one of the takeaways from the trip was the role women play in government.

“They are intentional in having a certain number of representation of women in their government,” she said. “Not only did we meet brilliant women in government roles, we met artists, writers and teachers. It was very eye opening and motivating.”

Mier, who began working for the district in 2001 teaching Spanish at Moises E. Molina High School and then at Trinidad “Trini” Garza Early College High School at Mountain View, has always had a passion to learn about geography, language, and culture. 

“When I was little, I Ioved to look at maps,” she said. “I didn’t study geography because they didn’t have a geography major at my university, Texas Wesleyan University,  but I took all the geography classes. I love learning about maps and about the people.”

As far as next steps, Mier has already begun her work in creating lessons to share with teachers of the district, which is aligned with the mission of the department—to provide instructional support to all world languages teachers through coaching, professional development, and the design of curriculum and assessments.

Part of this mission is for every student to graduate with the ability to communicate in a language that they didn’t originally come to the district with, according to Anderton. 

“She has the heart of a public servant and I really see how her service to the district really helps our teachers and will have a long lasting impact for years to come,” said Anderton. 

The district has opened hotspot requests not only to students but also to all campus and central team members, thanks to a partnership with T-Mobile to support internet access needs at home.

The hotspots will be activated under T-Mobile’s Education plan, which includes free mobile internet with content filtering. All content accessible via these hotspots will pass through a content filter that blocks access to any form of inappropriate content and is compliant with the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA).

Central employees who need internet access at home can request one by submitting a service request for a hotspot device through Support Hub. Download this guide of the process for additional help. 

Campus team members can take advantage of this resource by completing this form with recipients’ information and return to Thross@dallasisd.org by May 12. 

All devices can be kept through the tenure of Dallas ISD employment or enrollment. 

Once the request is submitted, additional information will be shared. For additional information, questions, or concerns, contact thross@dallasisd.org. 

Alternative Certification interns could be eligible for reimbursement of their program fees if currently enrolled in an Educator Preparation Program.

The Alternative Certification reimbursement incentive was designed to support teachers during the 2022-2023 school year. Those who are eligible could be reimbursed up to $4,000 contingent on Human Capital Management approval and the availability of funds. This does not apply to Dallas ISD Alternative Certification program interns, whose tuition and fees have been waived. 

To be eligible for the reimbursement:

• You must be a teacher during the 2022-2023 school year.
• Your intern or probationary certificate must be posted on the Texas Education Agency (TEA) website no earlier than January 2022.
• You must submit an official statement from your Alternative Certification program reflecting fees incurred and paid during the 2022-2023 school year.

Please click here for instructions on how to submit your official statement. 

Please click here to sign-up for an Alternative Certification Reimbursement information session.

Contact the certification department for any additional questions or concerns at (972) 925-4260 or certification@dallasisd.org. 

Dallas ISD is launching a new portal that will make it easier to access district resources and will eventually create a single place to access all applications and reset user passwords.

While some team members will be able to claim their new portal access in May as part of the system’s pilot, the full portal will be available in late summer in preparation for the start of the 2023-2024 school year. The first phase of implementation will include the most popular applications in the district, and the Information Technology team will continue to add new ones during the school year.

All staff are encouraged to “claim” their account before the start of next school year. Information on how team members can claim accounts will be shared in the upcoming weeks before the end of the school year.

“We are excited about how this new portal will simplify how we access all the resources we need to do our work in the district,” said Jonathan Hurley, assistant superintendent of technology. “The ultimate goal is to simplify the digital learning experience, which will support student success.”

The Dallas ISD Portal will make users’ school network login the only one they need without sacrificing security, Hurley said. In fact, the new portal will strengthen the protections of sensitive information and access to digital systems while enhancing ease of use.

The Dallas ISD Portal will provide multiple types of user authentication methods—password, QR code, pictograph, etc.

If you want to check out the new Dallas ISD Portal, visit https://portal.dallasisd.org. The portal will be operational in May. 

District and community leaders, parents, and other stakeholders have come together for interactive and informative budget meetings—focused on the 2023-2024 budget planning and assumptions—being held in different locations throughout the district. 

Chief Financial Officer Tamika Alford-Stephens has been leading these community meetings with activities to help attendees better understand the budget planning process. Two meetings remain:

• Tuesday, April 25, at Hillcrest High School
• Thursday, April 27, at Seagoville High School 

Both sessions begin at 6 p.m.and interpretation services are provided. 

“We are currently having community meetings throughout the month of April and are carefully monitoring the legislative session,”  Alford-Stephens said. “In May we will begin making adjustments to our assumptions and will still continue to monitor the legislative session.” The board is expected to adopt the budget before June 30. 

The budget planning process consists of:

• determining projected enrollment to calculate campus staffing
• hosting principal meetings to identify individual campus needs
• calculating projected revenue
• determining and communicating budget assumptions
• developing a proposed budget
• hosting community budget meetings
• incorporating legislative updates as applicable

Those who have attended the meetings have had the opportunity to do a hands-on activity in a small group called “show me the money,” which gives them a visual of a dollar bill representing a $1.8 billion dollar budget. The dollar bill has different labels such as salaries, contracted services, debt services, etc., and attendees are instructed to put the dollar together like a puzzle. They then align the percentage pieces with the dollar bill. 

“Salaries are a big chunk of the dollar, more than three quarters,” said one of the attendees at the meeting that took place at W.H. Adamson High School earlier in the month.

Part of the assumptions in the budget that is currently in development includes raising the minimum teacher salary to $61,000. For more information on the district’s budget meetings, visit  https://www.dallasisd.org/budgetmeetings.

When Tracey Brown and other members of the district’s Mental Health Services team work with students who are using drugs or other illicit substances, they always go beyond the addiction to see what has caused that child to turn to drugs.

And it is what they want parents and other adults to take away from this Saturday’s “Dallas Fights Fentanyl” Parent Education Forum at Yvonne A. Ewell Townview Center. The event, hosted by Dallas ISD, the City of Dallas, and several partner community agencies, starts at 8 a.m. and will offer a variety of resources and expert advice from mental health, parent services, medical, and law enforcement representatives.

“We want parents to understand how to connect with their child and let them know they are listening. This is one of the most effective ways to reach students who are using drugs or thinking of using drugs,” said Brown, Executive Director of Mental Health Services. “Our students need to feel a sense of connectedness and belonging to their families and school communities. That connection creates a sense of trust and openness to share their thoughts, feelings, and experiences around drug use and the decisions about whether or not to use drugs. That’s what this whole forum is about. We want our parents to know that they are not alone in this fight. Parents, we are with you, we are here to support you and, not just Dallas ISD, all of these agencies who will be joining us on Saturday.”

For Deborah Purge, who manages the Seagoville Youth and Family Center, information is key to help parents connect with their children and keep them from drugs like Fentanyl, a prescription drug that has been turning up more and more in illicit drugs in concentrations high enough to be deadly.

“Kids are hurting and facing situations that are difficult for them, and they turn to drugs as a way to cope,” Purge said. “In Dallas ISD, we focus on the whole child. We work with families to recognize what issues are impacting the children’s ability to learn and address them with their families.”

Dallas ISD has one of the largest comprehensive mental health services programs in the country with the goal of eliminating the disparity gap in access to services that many communities of color encounter, Purge said. This weekend’s forum is one more avenue to help families find resources to help their children establish positive and constructive ways to cope with what they are facing.

“It’s important for us to help kids understand they have the power to make decisions that will help them feel good about themselves and their choices in life. We want to help them identify healthy coping strategies to deal with the many stressors and pressures they experience in life,” Brown said. “Children don’t realize they are in the decision-making process all the time. We want them and their parents to know we are here to help them walk through the journey of life and they are not alone.”

The parent forum will focus specifically on informing parents about fentanyl and ways to  prevent overdoses through education (prevention), to intervene by offering mental and physical health services (intervention), and to get back on track if drugs become an issue of concern (interdiction). 

“Many times parents are at a loss and don’t know how to talk with their child about these kinds of serious issues,” Brown said. “We want to equip them with the knowledge, skills, and resources to connect with their child and prevent substance use and unintended overdoses from this deadly drug.”

Partnership and Volunteer Services was recently awarded the Tammy Richards VOLY.org Impact Award from VolunteerNow, one of the largest volunteer centers in the country. With over 1.3 million volunteer service hours on record with VolunteerNow since the partnership began in 2017, the department was recognized for its dedication to Dallas ISD’s mission of educating all students for success.

Candace Sledge, director of PVS, said her team has seen “a huge surge in volunteers coming back, being engaged and being involved on campus” following recent years’ COVID-19 restrictions. 

Last year volunteers logged about 30,000 hours, the equivalent of about $920,000, while this year the department already has more than doubled that number with about 65,000 volunteer hours logged so far, with a value of about $1.9 million.

Those volunteers have included parents, guardians, alumni, businesses and nonprofits that have had opportunities to make an impact on various school communities through a prom dress giveaway, coffee with the principal events, All Pro Dads, the district’s first African American Parent Involvement Day, the MLK Oratory Competition and more. 

“Parents and guardians are always our first priority,” Sledge said. “When students see them on campus serving in a volunteer capacity and being engaged where the students spend most of their days, it really helps them shift gears. Then outside of that, the business community and the nonprofit community learn more about our district and our schools and see what opportunities they have to make an impact and help turn some things around, be it student achievement or day-to-day operations.”

The Partnership and Volunteer Services team received the award during VolunteerNow’s annual Hearts of Texas Luncheon on Thursday, April 20, alongside other fellow award recipients Lynn McBee and Dallas CASA. 

Learn more about the award by visiting https://www.volnow.org/heartsoftexas, or visit https://www.dallasisd.org//Page/79906 to find out how you can get involved with Partnership and Volunteer Services.

They support office environments, manage clerical work, communicate with clients, make sure everyone gets paid, and more to keep day-to-day operations running smoothly. And on April 26—National Administrative Professionals Day—their contributions are celebrated and appreciated everywhere. 

Dallas ISD is home to a variety of administrative teams across campuses and departments, and their Core 4-driven work is critical to the district’s mission of educating all students for success. 

Financial clerk Vanessa Gutierrez wears many hats to support her team at K.B. Polk Center for Academically Talented and Gifted, and she said she loves what she does. Each day, she comes to work with a smile in place, ready to provide fast, flexible customer service to anyone who needs it.

“I’m super friendly,” Gutierrez said. “That’s just how I grew up. My mom and my brother work for Dallas ISD as well, and everybody knows us as always smiling. I do my best to always be positive and have a good attitude, and I feel like the students and the team see that, and it makes them feel more comfortable.”

Gutierrez, who first came to Polk as a teaching assistant in 2018, can often be found helping with arrival and dismissal, creating the school’s newsletter, communicating with parents and the community, scheduling tutoring sessions or field trips and getting the word out about the fine arts magnet’s upcoming shows and events. 

While her weeks often get busy, Gutierrez said it is worth the effort to help keep Polk on track and contribute to the front office’s positive environment. Her hard work has not gone unnoticed, according to Berta Alvarado, Polk’s office manager.

“Ms. Gutierrez works in the front office applying the Core 4 every day when communicating with parents and campus team members,” Alvarado said. “She deserves to be recognized for her commitment to creating a welcoming atmosphere for all visitors and volunteers, as well as for her dedication to our team and willingness to go above and beyond to complete a task.”

But for Gutierrez, it is all in a day’s work as an administrative professional. 

“Our office team does a lot behind the scenes that isn’t always known, but it is noticed,” Gutierrez said. “We make sure each day runs smoothly, whether a teacher needs coverage, copies or help with a student. They know they can give us a call or send a student down, and we will make sure they have everything they need. We’re here for them.”