Staff News

Wilmer-Hutchins Elementary School teacher James Mims’ life calling is supporting marginalized communities, specifically students receiving special education services who are also English language learners.

Seeing that these students were often overlooked, Mims transitioned four years ago from a general education classroom to become a special education teacher helping English language learners.

“For me to have the skills and passion that I have, it was an easy change to make,” Mims said. “And I haven’t regretted it for one day ever since.”

To help support educators like Mims, Dallas ISD has partnered with Southern Methodist University for a $3 million endowment to provide a full scholarship for identified teachers to get their master’s degree in Special Education with an emphasis in Bilingualism or ESL and Foundational Literacy. The scholarship was created by Kathryne and the late Gene Bishop to support Dallas ISD teachers pursuing master’s degrees. The couple worked together as longtime supporters of children’s health and education, among other philanthropies.

Mims is in the first cohort of Bishop Scholars and is set to earn his master’s later this year. He calls the Bishop Scholars program a game changer.

“SMU designs their lessons to create real-world, practical scenarios that you can bring to the classroom,” he said. “It really is a degree designed for teachers. I’m incredibly thankful to Dallas ISD for providing me this opportunity.”

Dallas ISD Special Education Services and the Dual Language/ESL Departments worked with SMU to develop the curriculum. Dallas ISD is now recruiting eight K-5 teachers for the second cohort of Bishop Scholars program. The district has two upcoming information sessions for interested educators to learn more.

The information sessions are scheduled for Jan. 18 and Jan. 25 from 5:30–6:30 p.m. Educators can click here to register.

“This is an exciting opportunity for Dallas ISD educators who are passionate about helping kids,” said Michelle Brown, Dallas ISD executive director of Special Education.

Mims has seen the real-world impact the Bishop Scholars program is making. Using techniques he’s learned in the program, he’s had students go from failing to mastering the STAAR within a year, for example.

“To take these amazing research-based practices and apply them in my classroom and to see these students grow is an incredible feeling,” Mims said. “I feel like the students don’t know what they are capable of until someone brings it out of them. And at the end of the day, look at the data, and the data shows that this program works.”

Welcome back to the spring semester! With the recent COVID level status for Dallas County changing to red and the increase in COVID positive cases in the community, Dallas ISD wants to remind staff to stay safe by maintaining district COVID safety protocols: wearing masks, social distancing and taking advantage of vaccination opportunities. Contact your health care provider if you feel ill or exhibit any symptoms.

Dallas ISD is offering staff a central testing location, which has shifted to an appointment-only facility at 3609 Botham Jean Blvd. (formerly Lamar St.) on Tuesdays and Thursdays. As an added convenience for school personnel, campuses have testing supplies available for both students and staff to get tested on campus. Campus staff are encouraged to see their nurse or principal on how to get tested at school.

Visit https://www.dallasisd.org/stafftesting to learn more about testing offered by the district and to fill out a consent form.

Dallas County Health and Human Services is offering free COVID testing at Ellis Davis Field House, 9191 S. Polk St. Appointments are preferred at Ellis Davis, but walk-ups are also accepted. Make an appointment for Ellis Davis at testing.nomihealth.com/signup/texas.

Please email EmployeeTesting@dallasisd.org with any questions.

Learn how to prepare for retirement with a variety of virtual resources so your retirement years can be all that you hoped for.

The Benefits Department and the Dallas Retired Teachers Association are hosting webinars to provide information on retirement and answer questions. All webinars will take place from 5 to 6 p.m. Click on your preferred date to register to attend. Once you register, you will receive a confirmation email with the link to join.

Tuesday, Jan. 11

Tuesday, Feb. 8

Tuesday, March 8

Retirement financial planning

Trusted Capital Group (TCG) has created a Dallas ISD landing page that contains videos about retirement savings and other personal finance topics.  This can be found at tcgservices.com/dallasisd and the district’s Benefits website.

TCG virtual retirement planning webinars.  Available on both TCG and Benefits Websites.

• Tuesday, Jan. 25, at 12 p.m. and 4:30 p.m.
• Thursday, April 7, at 12 p.m. and 4:30 p.m.

To improve overall IT Security, Dallas ISD will require two-factor authentication for all Office 365 systems for all staff—central and campus—starting in January. During the week of Jan. 10, all Dallas ISD teachers and staff will receive a registration email from Duo, the Dallas ISD-approved two-factor provider, requiring they register and set up of two-factor authentication. To learn more about Duo, visit. https://www.dallasisd.org/Page/77504

Effective the evening of Jan. 18, teachers and other staff will be required to use two-factor authentication when not on the district’s network (wired or wi-fi) to access Office 365 products (Outlook, OneDrive, Teams, etc.). Staff who have not completed the two-factor registration process will not be able to access Office 365 systems from outside the Dallas ISD network until they have completed the Duo registration. Even if registration is not completed in advance, users will still be given the opportunity to register for Duo when they try to access the system. Please contact the Service Desk at 972-925-5630 between the hours of 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. for assistance.

Dallas ISD is joining other school districts throughout Texas to celebrate January as School Board Recognition Month.

School board members are elected to establish the policies that provide the framework for public schools and serve as a link between the community and classroom. Trustees serve as unpaid volunteers.

Dallas ISD will be celebrating School Board Recognition Month throughout January. Join in by using the hashtag #SchoolBoardMonth on social media.

Learn more about Dallas ISD trustees on the district website here.

The trustees are:

• President, Ben Mackey, District 7 (North Central Oak Cliff, Cockrell Hill, and parts of West Dallas)
• 1st Vice President, Edwin Flores, District 1(Northwest Dallas, including North Dallas, Addison, parts of Carrollton and Farmers Branch)
• 2nd Vice President Maxie Johnson, District 5 (Oak Lawn, West Dallas, Wilmer, Hutchins and portions of East Oak Cliff)
• Secretary, Joe Carreón, District 8 (Northwest Dallas, Love Field, and parts of East and West Dallas)
• Dustin Marshall, District 2 (North and Near East Dallas)
• Dan Micciche, District 3 (Northeast Dallas)
• Karla Garcia, District 4 (Southeast Dallas, Seagoville, Balch Springs)
• Joyce Foreman, District 6 (Southwest Dallas)
• Justin Henry, District 9 (South Dallas and parts of Downtown Dallas, Pleasant Grove, Deep Ellum, Uptown, and East Dallas)

Dallas ISD recently announced a teacher retention incentive for the 2022-2023 school year that ranges from $2,500 to $3,500, depending on the teacher’s effectiveness level. This incentive is one of the many initiatives Dallas ISD’s Human Capital Management has been implementing to retain and recruit the best staff for Dallas students.

Non-teaching staff who return for the 2022-2023 school year will also receive an incentive of $2,500. 

Through the years, the district’s teacher retention efforts have proven successful. Each year, the Texas Education Agency publishes data on teacher attrition through the Texas Performance Reporting System (TPRS) and Texas Academic Performance Reports. TPRS data shows that Dallas ISD retained teachers at a higher rate than the state and Region 10 districts and had the lowest turnover rate among market peers in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, said Robert Abel, Chief of Human Capital Management.   

While data recorded in these reports on turnover reflects a lag year, it gives HCM a consistent measure of teacher turnover against the district’s peers across the region and state. The 2020-2021 TPRS data, published earlier this week, captures teacher attrition from 2019-2020 to 2020-2021, the first academic year impacted by the ongoing pandemic. While teacher turnover decreased across many districts, TPRS data shows that Dallas ISD retained teachers at a higher rate than the state and Region 10 districts and had the lowest turnover rate among DFW market peers.   

It is important to note that the state’s methodology includes in the turnover, or attrition, rate those teachers who remain employed in the district but who have transitioned to non-teaching positions, such as counselors or campus leaders.  

Further analysis of the figures shows differential retention to be a continued strength in Dallas ISD, where retention of teachers rated Proficient I and higher exceeds 90% in all years since TEI was first implemented, he said.

“With a combination of the retention incentive for staff who return for the 2022-2023 school year and other initiatives supporting teachers and campuses, we believe that our retention rate will remain strong, and we will be able to provide the stable learning environment our students deserve,” Abel said.   

Employees are reminded that the destruction of district records is the sole responsibility of the Districtwide Records Management Department. Documents containing personally identifiable information (Social Security number, date of birth, home address, etc.) must be securely destroyed.

District employees are expected to maintain the records in their care and carry out the preservation, microfilming, destruction, or other disposition of the records in accordance with the policies and procedures of the district’s records management program. Destruction of district records contrary to the governing legal provisions is a Class A misdemeanor and, under certain circumstances, a third degree felony (Penal Code, Section 37.10). Anyone destroying local government records without legal authorization may also be subject to criminal penalties and fines under the Texas Public Information Act (Government Code, Chapter 552).

For information, about records storage, training, and records center tours, contact the Districtwide Records Management Department at (972) 925-7840, e-mail districtwiderecords@dallasisd.org.

During the last few weeks, employees of Dallas ISD’s Operations Division—bus drivers, cafeteria and maintenance workers and custodians—collect items for the district’s homeless students through a districtwide donation drive.

Items ranging from face wash, hand sanitizer, hair products and cosmetics bags to coloring books, journals, socks, gloves, scarves and even earbuds and cable protectors have been donated at seven service centers and Operations facilities.

“It’s incredibly generous of our population in Operation Services who really make the least amount of money in the district, yet are providing donations to help those who are in need, especially during the holidays. It just goes to show how big their hearts are,” said Jaime Sandoval, executive director of Student Transportation Services.

All of Operations—over 1,000 employees in Transportation Services—as well as Food and Child Nutrition Services, were involved in the effort, Sandoval said.

“This was a great opportunity for us to help those who are often forgotten,” said Deputy Chief of Operations Deno Harris. “We are a big organization, with an even bigger heart.”

Sandoval, who formerly led the district’s Homeless Education Program, says the need is something that never goes away.

“We know that there are more than 3,000 students classified as homeless in Dallas ISD, and there’s always an opportunity to help this population,” Sandoval said. “Individuals in Student Transportation have done this in years past – it’s not something new to them. They’ve always been very generous with our students.”

But this year’s effort was even larger, he said.

“This was the first time it was organized by the entire Operation Services,” he added. “In the past, we’ve had one service center that would provide donations for the Homeless Ed department.”

This time, the drive was based out of the four service centers in Student Transportation Services as well as Fleet Services, Turney Leonard Training Center and Maria Luna Food Services.

“This is the first time it’s happened where we’re bringing it all together under one umbrella,” Sandoval said.

The donations will be distributed to the students this week.

They bring comfort and joy to one and all when they are nice. We love them even when they are naughty because they are part of the family—our pets.

Are you a central administration employee who wants to help more African-American students and English learners join the district’s highly regarded magnet programs? Apply by Jan. 8 to become a Magnet Mentor.

The Racial Equity Office in partnership with the Office of Transformation and Innovation is seeking mentors among central staff to assist students and families during the magnet school application period.  Each mentor will be assigned several mentees from various campuses throughout the district.

The Magnet Mentor Program is designed to increase the number of African-American students and English learners who apply to magnet schools. To be eligible to serve as a Magnet Mentor, current staff members must serve in a professional role at a campus or be a central coordinator, supervisor, or manager. Those who are selected to be mentors will be notified via email and invited to a virtual orientation to learn about program requirements and stipend eligibility. All selected mentors will be eligible for a $500 stipend in June if all program expectations are met.

The mentor’s responsibilities will include informing students of their magnet program eligibility, assisting them in gathering documents, completing and submitting magnet application, and preparing students for any additional campus assessments or requirements during the admission’s process.

If you are a central staff member and are interested in serving as a mentor, please fill out the application.