Campus Staff News

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.”

Education has always been a priority for Master Principal Tangela Carter. She said she was born and raised in Dallas and attended schools in both South Dallas and Pleasant Grove, including H.S. Thompson Elementary School, Annie Webb Blanton Elementary School and W.W. Samuell High School. 

She graduated as the first African-American salutatorian from Samuell in 1991, while her sister graduated as the first African-American valedictorian from Samuell in 1992. Carter began learning Spanish at home from her father, who was a construction superintendent for the City of Dallas. 

Carter has since spent 20 years working in education as a bilingual teacher, assistant principal, elementary principal, director of ESL and Newcomer Programs and currently as principal at Zan Wesley Holmes Jr. Middle School. Previously, she worked as a parole officer and a probation officer in Dallas. She is also a 30-year member of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. and is a charter member of the Nu Iota Chapter at the University of Texas at Arlington. 

Thanks to her determination, passion and expertise, Carter is among the more than 20 Dallas ISD principals to be awarded the Master Principal designation for the 2022-2023 school year. 

These designations are awarded annually to the top 10 percent of Dallas ISD principals in three categories: neighborhood elementary schools, neighborhood secondary schools, and choice schools, and Carter said she is proud to be leading her “legendary” campus community. 

What drew you to education? 

As a parole officer and a probation officer, growth with clients was limited. Many of the people I served/monitored had high school diplomas but could not read or write. I switched to education to catch children on the front end of their lives. Education is a game changer for all. 

What qualities make a great principal? 

The qualities that make a great principal are integrity and knowing that everyone has value. 

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

The motto by which I work is, “Effort is good, but results are better!”  

What inspires you about your position? 

The potential that our students, campus team and community have inspires me daily. Day by day, we get to see and participate in the growth of our future leaders.  

As they prepared for their participation in a robotics world championship, the members of Emmett J. Conrad High School’s RoboChargers—newly minted as state champions in UIL Robotics—were encouraged by their coach to be proud of themselves and stay focused.

“Be proud of what you’ve accomplished,” said Rex Lees, engineering teacher and robotics coach. “Be proud of what you’ve done as a team. Feel good about what’s been happening.” 

His words were meant to remind the team of how far they have come this year—months of preparation, working with a team of mentors who work in STEM careers—to win the state championship and to make it to the FIRST Robotics Championship in Houston, where they have a chance at a world title. 

The championship taking place through Sunday is a culminating international event for the youth robotics competition season and is an annual celebration of science, technology, engineering and math.

Lees, who teaches four sections of robotics, had 120 students sign up for robotics classes this school year. 

“For the first time, we had all four robotics classes build a robot and compete, to various degrees of success,” he said. 

Of all the students learning about the growing field of robotics, 26 competed at the state level and are currently at the world competition. 

“There are 600 teams from everywhere,” he said of the challengers his students will face. “There are teams from Turkey, Israel, India, Mexico, Brazil and several Canadian teams. All of the students are 18 and under.”

While he is excited about the growth of robotics at Conrad, Lees would like it to become even bigger throughout the district. 

“One of our goals is robotics for all. STEM education for all,” he said. “We want to make sure that everyone feels safe and welcome and that’s one of the reasons why we’ve been able to do many of the things we’re doing.”

Lees first discovered his love of teaching when he was in graduate school. He had already been working as a chemical engineer, making polymers and resins for a paint company, when he decided to go back to school. His undergraduate degree is in biology with focuses on biochemistry and genetics.

Lees said he kind of always knew he would be an educator, as his mom and his four grandparents were all teachers. 

“I was raised by educators and both of my grandmothers and my mother’s father were math teachers. My other grandfather taught shop and drafting,” he said. 

“I had taught biology, chemistry and anatomy for many years and have had a penchant for leadership to an extent,” he said. “I was told [in my previous district] that they would like to put me in an engineering role.” 

That’s when his journey into robotics began and brought him to the district. Lees joined Dallas ISD last school year at Conrad High School. He quickly noticed the level of support the mentors provided to students. 

“In the beginning of last year, we had 10 to 12 mentors and now we have 16,” he said. “It’s amazing to have these professionals come together to make this happen and share their knowledge with the students.” 

“We work together and go to competitions. I see that we’re not the only team that does this. And there’s all these teams in the state that are our team friends.” In fact, Lees says these competitions are often called “coopertitions.” 

One of the things that he likes most of what he does is bringing opportunities to his students that will open doors for them in the future. 

“Every bit of this is engineers showing the design process in real time, in a timed situation, in a deadline situation, where we don’t always know the answer and figure it out,” he said. “Walking students through the process, they’re seeing how design happens. Some of them are learning how to use tools for the first time—little to complex things, like how to program an app.”

Lees believes that the competitions and these experiences are setting his students up for success, and will help them have access to resources, such as internships and future jobs.

“They’re building this giant network, so all these kids get the opportunity to meet all these STEM professionals,” he said. “During the competition, we tell them to meet the other people and ask them questions and network. Not only are they getting this knowledge and inspiration from our mentors, they’re getting it from other mentors. I want this to spread to education at large.”

When Josué Tamárez Torres, a master teacher at César Chávez Learning Center, was appointed by the governor to serve as the chair of the Texas Education Agency’s Teacher Vacancy Task Force, he said he was driven because the TVTF’s mission to develop recommendations that will improve the teaching experience in Texas felt “personal.”

Tamárez Torres grew up in the Dominican Republic in a low income family and said his parents always emphasized education as their children’s “way out of poverty.” They later immigrated to the United States, where Tamárez Torres discovered his passion for teaching while tutoring students from similar backgrounds as his own, joined Teach For America and found a new home in Dallas. 

“I became a teacher to show my students what is possible,” Tamárez Torres said. “It’s possible to come from a low income family and still be successful, it’s possible to overcome poverty and it’s possible to succeed in life. When a teacher leaves the classroom, the students in low income communities are usually the students who suffer the most. That’s why I said yes. I want to be part of the solution.”

The TVTF met every other month for a year starting in 2022 to conduct research, consult with experts and define high-priority, actionable recommendations that would have an immediate impact on teacher retention and, by extension, student achievement across the state. 

The task force identified three overarching areas for state legislators and decision makers to target: compensation, training and support, and working conditions. Tamárez Torres said each category and their branching recommendations are meant to be implemented together with a “holistic approach.”

For example, Tamárez Torres said if decision makers increase teacher salaries without creating a supportive environment for teachers, or if they develop support systems without incentivizing teachers to put in the necessary work to be successful, the vacancy rates would continue because the change would only fix a piece of the problem. 

Now that the TVTF has completed its final report, Tamárez Torres and the other members are working hard to spread the word. They have been sending letters to legislators, meeting with teacher unions and educator preparation programs and testifying before Congress in addition to supporting their own students and campuses. 

Tamárez Torres is encouraging families and team members across Dallas ISD and beyond to get involved by contacting their state representative or senator through an email or phone call to ask them to fully fund Texas public schools, which would include a pay raise for teachers and all team members. 

“This is not just about teachers in Dallas ISD,” Tamárez Torres said. “This is about all teachers in Texas because we care about every single student in Texas. Behind each teacher, there are 27, 25, 17 little faces who deserve and need all the help they can get, especially after the pandemic.”

To find out who your legislator is, visit https://wrm.capitol.texas.gov/home. To read the full TVTF report, visit https://tea.texas.gov/sites/default/files/tvtf-final-report.pdf. 

Dallas ISD will discontinue the use of Zoom for virtual meetings and other video conferencing starting May 23 as a savings to the district and a measure to enhance cybersecurity. 

Team members will be able to access Microsoft Teams, which is already in use, and Google Meet for their video conferencing needs. Both tools are available at no extra cost to the district and offer comparable features. The transition to these tools will also increase efficiency and standardize support.

Features available in Teams and Meet are comparable to those in Zoom and include the ability to:

• Schedule a meeting
• Invite participants 
• Chat
• Screen Share

Microsoft Teams is available as an app in all district devices and is the default when scheduling meetings using Outlook Calendar. Google Meet can be accessed using the Google waffle.

Team members who have recurring meetings scheduled with Zoom or have published Zoom links that will be used after May 23 are encouraged to recreate those meetings and links using Microsoft Teams or Google Meet. Any Zoom recordings or reports will need to be downloaded to OneDrive or Google Drive because they will be unavailable after May 23.

Dallas ISD team members will be able to join Zoom meetings that have been created by external contractors, vendors and partners.

Departments and campuses can request to purchase Zoom licenses and will need pre approval from their chief in order to start the procurement process.

For support in navigating the video conferencing platforms after May 23, download this helpful guide or contact Professional and Digital Learning at PDL@dallasisd.org 

Dallas ISD’s College and Career Advising Program (CCAP) is setting high school students up for success starting in ninth grade thanks to an $11 million annual investment from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief fund. 

Cheryl Nevels, assistant superintendent of college readiness, said typical college advising programs focus on financial aid and college entry application, but with the ESSER investment, Dallas ISD has expanded the program to include career preparation. The program provides students with college and career advisers as soon as they enter high school to effectively support students to and through their postsecondary transition. 

“It’s about giving students a voice in the choices available,” Nevels said. “We are equipping them with the skills they need to increase their postsecondary options. Advisors work in tandem with counselors to support students with college and career readiness plans, college applications, financial aid, scholarships, entrance exams, etc. so they are empowered to matriculate from high school to college. They are also exposing students to career opportunities so they can plan for college and career success.”

David Laneave, a P-TECH instructional specialist in the postsecondary department, said Dallas ISD’s CCAP student data is “leaps and bounds” above neighboring districts. 

Over 90 percent of Dallas ISD seniors have college applications on file, well above most neighboring districts, which range from 56 to 77 percent of seniors. Additionally, 81 percent of Dallas ISD seniors have applied for financial aid in comparison to 53 and 65 percent in some neighboring districts.

Across the board, Dallas ISD’s student data is tracking at about 9 percent above other metroplex districts on average. 

“Of the 87 percent of our seniors who have submitted a college application, that’s 87 percent of our students who have a say in their future,” Laneave said. “That’s one of the biggest components of this program.”

The ESSER funds provide college and career access vendors to district campuses to guide students through the application processes and help them develop four-year plans. The vendors also conduct parent outreach to get families involved in the college and career process.

“The CCAP program helps establish, maintain and support a college and career identity in high school,” Laneave said. “By collaborating with high school students and team members starting from ninth grade all the way through high school, we are effectively targeting postsecondary success for our students.”

The open transfer period allows eligible team members to accept a position at another campus for the following school year, and Dallas ISD’s 81 high priority campuses (HPCs) are looking for outstanding teachers. If you are passionate about your profession and your heart lies with helping students succeed no matter what, the open transfer window may be for you.

To assist with the recruitment and retention of the best teachers at the HPCs, the district recently approved higher stipends for HPC campuses. The expanded HPC teacher stipend structure for 2023-2024 is increasing existing stipend amounts and expanding eligibility effectiveness levels.   

Highly effective teachers may now earn up to $9,000 in stipends annually for service at an HPC campus.  

With this expansion, teachers holding a Proficient I Effectiveness Level will now earn a $4,000 stipend for service at an HPC. Amounts for TEI Distinguished teachers have also been increased up to an additional $2,000 for 2023-2024. 

2023-2024 Proposed HPC Teacher Stipends  

If you are interested in serving at an HPC, sign up for the April 22, 2023, job fair here, or connect with a Human Capital Management recruiter by email at futureteacher@dallasisd.org. Interested teachers may also download the roster of 2023-2024 HPCs ahead of the job fair. 

Dallas ISD’s Alternative Certification Program was recently recognized by the State Board of Education for its success in preparing and supporting teachers who identify as African American. 

The Dallas ISD Alternative Certification Program (ACP) received a 2021-2022 Educator Preparation Program Commendation in Category 2, Preparing the Educators Texas Needs. This category identifies these programs for preparing and supporting teachers who identify as teachers of color or are employed in rural areas. 

In partnership with the Dallas ISD Teacher Residency Program, the ACP’s strategic recruitment efforts have increased the number of Black and Latino male educators in the district. Through this collaborative effort, African-American and Hispanic students have access to effective and diverse teachers who match their ethnic background, creating an education system that is equitable across our classrooms. 

The Dallas ISD ACP enhances the alternative teaching route by providing intentional content test preparation and a standards driven training program where future educators can engage with others, explore, and practice the newest and innovative approaches to teaching, and develop a deeper understanding of their impact on student achievement in Dallas ISD.

There are currently over 150 teacher interns for the 2022-2023 school year. This is in large part due to the program’s redesign, which includes free tuition for candidates seeking certification in critical shortage areas—such as  elementary bilingual, elementary ESL, secondary math, secondary science, secondary english language arts and reading, and all level special education. 

If you know of someone who is considering a career in teaching, application for the next cohort in the district’s recognized program is open through July 10. Applications are accepted via the Dallas ISD website at https://www.dallasisd.org/acp.