Staff News

What began as Willo S.’s small, homemade cosmetics line is now being refined in the classroom as part of a Career and Technical Education course at North Dallas High School.

In 2020, at 11-years-old and to stave off boredom, the student  and her mom began researching how to make lip glosses from scratch. Together, they ordered lip gloss bases and oils and experimented with different formulas to create a product that was safe and naturally derived.

“We started mixing things around to see what would be best, and that took a long time to do before we actually launched,” Willo said. “But as soon as we started, I felt like I gained a passion for having my own business.”

The growing venture soon became known as Puc.ker Up! By Willo Dior, and is now sold through her website. It was important for her to create glosses that were youthful, fun, and hydrating, using ingredients such as coconut oil, grape seed oil, and avocado oil.

“It was really exciting because going from the things I saw on social media, to having bulk orders coming in every day and seeing my name on it, it finally felt real,” she said.

The lip gloss aficionado says she grew up playing with her mother’s makeup, so it was a natural decision to pursue the beauty industry.

As a student in North Dallas High School’s CTE business pathway, Willo is learning how to strengthen her business through lessons in marketing, finance, customer service, and professional communication.

“For students who are already entrepreneurs, like Willo, the pathway provides mentorship, networking opportunities, and access to guest speakers who are real business owners,” said Merjournie Golightly, Willo’s CTE teacher. “That allows them to gain practical insight, meaningful connections, and real-world feedback while refining their ventures.”

As part of the class, Willo created a comprehensive presentation that examined every aspect of her business, from branding and pricing to target audience and financial planning.

“Eventually, I want to expand into hair care and skincare,” she said. “I always get compliments on my hair, and never knew why, but my mom told me people are going to want to use my products just because of how I present myself.”

Through hands-on assignments in the CTE business pathway, Willo learned to think more strategically about decisions she once made instinctively, from managing her finances to keeping her customers engaged, and that growth has extended beyond her business, strengthening her confidence and desire to inspire other young entrepreneurs.

“I hope people understand the amount of hard work that goes into having a business, but also that they can also do this, especially with a good support system and people who are confident in your dreams,” she said.

This year marks 100 years of national Black History observances, honoring the individuals, movements, and traditions that have preserved Black history and shaped cultural identity, pride, and resilience.

When Edwin Dubois, principal of H. Grady Spruce High School, stands before students, he doesn’t see a random crowd of teenagers. He sees the future of the neighborhood where he grew up—and a calling he can’t ignore.

“I want people to know that it’s a new day here at Spruce,” Dubois said. “Whatever yesterday’s view of Spruce was, we want people to see about today.”

A Dallas ISD legacy, Dubois grew up in the Pleasant Grove community and graduated from Skyline High School. While his professional life didn’t begin in the classroom—his undergraduate roots are in accounting and finance—the “fire was lit,” he said, once he began substitute teaching. Now, after serving as a teacher, campus coordinator, dean of students, assistant principal, and middle school principal across the district, Dubois is in his first year leading Spruce. Despite his trajectory in education, this current role isn’t about climbing the ladder, he said.

“Everything is a calling,” he said. “I just can’t say, ‘Oh, I want to be like this person.’ If that’s not my calling, then I need to serve where I’m called to serve. For sure, coming back to Pleasant Grove and Spruce—this was a calling.”

For Dubois the image of success doesn’t start with test scores. It starts with how students feel when they walk through the doors.

“My vision is to make sure that this school building is a safe refuge for students to come in and be better in education and as people,” he said.

He views the journey from ninth grade to graduation as a four-year arc of growth. Success is seeing students leave Spruce more mature and prepared to contribute to Pleasant Grove, he said.

“When a freshman walks in our building, I want them to be better than they were by the time they’re seniors,” he said. “That’s from a standpoint of maturity, from the mind, and also from the academics.”

To achieve this, Dubois insists that no student feel like a number. He expects teachers and staff to treat relationships as core work.

“I told every student that they need to make sure that at least one adult in this building knows their name,” he said. “They need to be seen. They need to be heard, and they need to be known.”

When Dubois first arrived, he listened closely to what students were saying, and he heard a clear concern: students didn’t always feel safe. The comments became a turning point—he made it clear to his leadership team that safety and culture would be his first priority.

“No matter what, the only way that we’re going to be successful in academics is if our culture changes, and we change with it,” he said.

Since then, Spruce has tightened expectations, increased adult visibility, and focused on making the building feel orderly and secure. The early signs are encouraging; the school’s fall climate survey was the highest in its history.

“This is the work that we have done, including the students, to show that change is happening, and it’s moving in a positive manner,” he said.

He is clear, however, that discipline isn’t about being harsh; it’s about preparation for the real world.

“We’re not in the business of saying, ‘You made a mistake, that’s the end of the world,’” he said. “We’re going to help you through that, but we’re holding you accountable because the world’s expectations are going to be so much higher for you.”

Part of Dubois’ mission is to make sure the broader community sees the excellence he sees every day. He talks with pride about graduates who are already thriving in technical careers.

“We have students who graduated last year,” he said. “Right now they’re working with Texas Instruments, making like $120,000 as 19‑year‑olds.”

He sees those outcomes as proof that the community’s talent has long been there—it just hasn’t always been recognized.

“It’s just the knowledge and the skill that these students have that they just wanted to be expressed,” he said.

On campus, Dubois noted rising Advanced Placement performance, growing dual credit opportunities, and a strengthened early college and CTE pipeline, including mechatronics. Through the Bond Program, the high school will be getting new renovations and even a new athletic complex.

Spruce is in fact on a path toward becoming a B‑rated campus for the first time since the state began issuing letter grades.

“The atmosphere is warm, safe, and respectful. As you walk into a classroom, you experience high-quality instruction from teachers and see our academics on the rise,” Dubois said.

For Dubois, however, Spruce is inseparable from Pleasant Grove. “This is a neighborhood school,” he said. “If Spruce fails, then it’s like this community fails.”

That belief drives his push for strong parent and community involvement. To boost morale last month, a group of mothers spent a Sunday afternoon making tamales for the school’s employees. When the parents needed help covering ingredients, Dubois quietly stepped in.

“If I have the resources, then, yes, I will give what I can to support,” he said.

To build on that momentum, he and his team are planning more campus connection events, including barbecues, game nights, movie nights, to make Spruce feel like the community’s school again.

“We want to be recognized as one of the top comprehensive high schools in Dallas ISD,” he said. “When people say Pleasant Grove, I want Spruce to be the first thing that comes to mind.”

For now, that means doing the daily work of “sprucing up” the campus, one relationship at a time.

“It’s a new day here at Spruce,” Dubois said. “And we’re just getting started.”

When most people think of Dallas ISD, they picture classrooms, teachers, and students. Jermauld Cobbs, director of Fleet Services, thinks about trucks, fuel, ice melt, work orders, and pallets of supplies having to move before sunrise.

Cobbs is a homegrown leader—a graduate of David W. Carter High School, he pursued engineering studies at Prairie View A&M University. Cobbs came back to Dallas ISD as an employee, and next month, he marks 30 years with the district, the only place he has worked. 

“I started with the district back in 1996 and have been here ever since,” he said. 

Today, Cobbs oversees the Service Center and warehouses that power the district’s operations. His job, as he describes it, is logistics in its broadest sense. His team supports every corner of Dallas ISD—schools, administrative buildings, non-instructional sites, even emergency response locations like Dallas ISD Police.

“Everything we do reflects upon our organization,” he explained. “My role is the logistics of Dallas ISD. My team and I are the ones responsible for delivering necessary things.”

On any given day, his operation is moving instructional materials, desks and chairs, cleaning supplies, technology, records, mail, and countless other essentials. The goal is for most people never to think about how anything arrived—only that it did.

Cobbs doesn’t do it alone. One of the first principles he mentions is his reliance on people who are experts in their fields and genuinely invested in the work.

“I surround myself with subject matter experts and people who are dedicated to their job skills and their position in my organization,” he said. “When they’re successful, the team is successful, and when the team is successful, the entire organization is successful.”

Cobbs’ approach to leadership is shaped by his engineering background, which didn’t just give him a degree, it also rewired how he thinks about problems. He describes his mind as constantly in motion, running parallel tracks of thought. Even while he’s talking, he’s thinking ahead to schedules, routes, and contingencies, he said.

“I’m a great problem solver,” he said. “Half of my brain is talking to someone, answering questions, while the other half is three or four steps ahead. I’m always thinking about the what ifs.”

That way of thinking becomes especially critical when the district faces emergencies. During the recent winter storm that shut down schools for days, Cobbs’ world moved into overdrive. His warehouse was the central storage point for ice melt, and he and his team quickly shifted from routine deliveries to crisis response.

“We’re in the service center, but we’re still a part of the Maintenance and Facility Services,” Cobbs said. “We’re not on an island by ourselves. We’re all one big happy family, and I do mean happy.”

Fleet Services sets up teams to pull orders and stage materials for pickup. Grounds crews came in to load ice melt and distribute it to maintenance barns and campuses. Maintenance staff turned to the warehouse for materials to repair burst pipes and damaged classrooms. While much of the region stayed home, Cobbs and his colleagues across maintenance, grounds, custodial services, and transportation were on the ground, trying to make sure the district could safely reopen.

“But that Thursday before schools reopened, we knew we were in crunch time. We did assessments, we did site visits, and we still had ice on the ground,” Cobbs said. “Service Center and warehouse staff drove heavy trucks over ice to break it up. Drivers and maintenance crews spread ice melt and repaired damage. Grounds personnel scraped ice and spread ice melt in parking lots.”

It was not glamorous work, but it was essential, Cobbs said.

That word—essential—is one Cobbs returns to often. He is clear about the fact that if his team stops being dependable, someone else can be brought in to do the job. That awareness fuels his insistence on customer service as a non-negotiable value.

“The biggest thing that I stress here at the Service Center is that we provide customer service, and we’re graded on how we provide it,” he said. For Cobbs, customer service is not just for principals or department heads.

“Everyone is a customer,” he said. “The people we’re providing a service for, the people we work with, the people we work for, the people we work around. If I’m delivering you a package, you are my customer. If I have a helper in my truck, he’s my customer because he’s getting knowledge from me.”

That philosophy extends beyond the district. He recalls a day when a Dallas Fire Rescue employee showed up at his site, desperate for help for her special needs daughter. She saw the Dallas ISD sign and walked in, not knowing where else to turn. Cobbs and his staff sat down with her, got on the phone, and called “everyone outside Jesus Christ Himself,” he said, until she had the contacts and answers she needed.

Moments like that are part of why Cobbs has stayed for three decades with Dallas ISD. He sees his work as a way to pay forward the investment others made in him.

“If it hadn’t been for my father, my family, and my support team, I never would have gotten here,” he said. “Dallas ISD made me the person I am, and I’m just trying to give back.”

He is uncomfortable with praise and prefers to stay out of the spotlight. What matters to him is doing his job well, he said.

“I don’t like the kudos. I don’t like the affirmation,” he said. “I might not teach the students, but I’m happy delivering their textbooks.”

This year marks 100 years of national Black History observances, honoring the individuals, movements, and traditions that have preserved Black history and shaped cultural identity, pride, and resilience.

Devon Furston, head wrestling coach at Justin F. Kimball High School, has built a championship program rooted in unity. A former student-athlete and Kimball alumnus, Fortson has dedicated nearly four decades to the sport of wrestling and is now making history. In recognition of his lasting influence on students and the wrestling community, he will be inducted into the 2026 Texas High School Wrestling Coaches Association Hall of Honor.  

“When I found out about the honor, I was reminded how everything happens in due time,” he said. “In due time, you’ll get your flowers—you’ll get your reward for the hard work you do. I’m glad I was able to see it in my lifetime. I’ve had success, but in the beginning it’s hard to say how you are going to climb the ladder.” 

As a student, Fortson was named Kimball High School’s Class of 1982 Most Valuable Athlete. He competed year-round in football, track, and wrestling, which is the sport that ultimately defined his career path. When he transitioned into coaching, Fortson was intentional about being known as a wrestling professional committed to growth and mentorship, he said.

During Fortson’s days as a student, Kimball High School was becoming integrated in an environment of racial tension across Dallas he said. He recalled how student athletes played a key role in shaping a culture of unity and respect for one another

“One thing that made Kimball successful was that we got along,” Fortson said. “There was still racial tension going on in the late ’70s, but we used sports to change that dynamic here at Kimball. We saw what was happening throughout the city, but we made a conscious effort to say we weren’t going to let that happen at our school. At the time, we considered ourselves the best melting pot of people getting along in high school. Everyone was able to sit across from someone that didn’t look like them, and say—‘that’s my brother too.’”

The journey to becoming a Hall of Honor inductee began after high school. He attended Richland Junior College and continued wrestling. He earned a full scholarship to Ranger Junior College, FortsonCollege Fortson and continued his education at West Texas State University, taking up football and earning a Division I scholarship. 

In 1997, Fortson returned home to Kimball High School as a teacher’s assistant. One year later, he founded the wrestling program, laying the groundwork for what would become one of the district’s most consistent athletic programs. 

Today, Fortson continues to share valuable lessons with his students, telling them everyone is capable of learning, regardless of background, he said. Girls’ wrestling is one of the fastest growing high school sports in the nation, ranking second only to girls flag football in participation and growth. According to the National Federation of State High School Associations, girls wrestling increased by 1000 participants in 2025 alone, with more than 74,000 students competing nationwide. 

“I got our girls to try wrestling by inviting them to learn self-defesnse,” he said. “And it worked out well. One of our girls made history in Dallas ISD when she became a wrestling state champion two years in a row. She is the only student to ever accomplish this.”

With the support of a dedicated coaching staff, Forston has led Kimball’s wrestling teams to the UIL Wrestling State Tournament for 23 consecutive years. 

Forston’s induction ceremony will take place later this month at the 2026 UIL State Wrestling Tournament, marking a full-circle moment of recognition grounded in the same community and school where his journey began.

“I’ve been asked to go to other places and start programs,” he said, “But I’ve always stayed here at Kimball, and stayed true to my roots for 28 years.” 

Board Services has partnered with Diligent to implement a new agenda management system, Diligent Community, designed to meet the evolving needs of modern governance.

Diligent acquired BoardDocs Agenda Management system and has since determined that the platform is built on technology that no longer fully supports the evolving demands of effective governance. As a result, the district will transition from BoardDocs to Diligent Community on March 1.

The new system offers:

• One-click print for a complete agenda and meeting materials packet
• Online user guides and instructional videos for training via Cornerstone
• Single sign-on compatibility to help safeguard against external threats 
• OCR-enabled search functionality
• Improved mobile capabilities

 To activate their account, users will receive an email from notifications@highbond.com, which is not spam and is safe to open. Once your account is activated, you are ready to use the system. On-demand training with resource materials can be accessed via Cornerstone.

•   Diligent Training: Create and Submit Agenda Items (Staff)
•   Diligent Training: Approve and Reject Agenda Items (Admin. Staff)

All board documents and materials for meetings held in March and thereafter will be managed in Diligent. Visit the Dallas ISD Portal to bookmark the Diligent icon for quick access. For additional questions, please contact the Board Services Department.

The HCM Benefits Department has launched the district’s 2026 Go Red–Healthy Heart Campaign for February. The campaign aims to raise awareness about heart health and promote a healthier lifestyle for all Dallas ISD employees. 

Go Red ribbons

Departments and schools should have gotten red ribbons for team members to wear throughout February in support of heart health awareness. Wear your ribbon proudly and show your commitment to a healthier heart.

Keep it pumping

Join the fun with the benefits wellness challenge. Get started with activities like walking, hitting the gym, doing yoga, or even taking the stairs at work. It’s all about keeping your heart healthy. Benefits will provide red pledge hearts for team members to hang up around campus or work areas as reminders to stay on track.

Red step challenge

Get your teams together for the Red Step Challenge. Departments and schools are encouraged to name their Red Step Challenge Teams with the word red and/or hero included and together mark 10,000 steps a day. Departments that participate in the Red Step Challenge can submit their weekly count every Friday in the month of February to benefits@dallasisd.org using the subject: Red Step Challenge. Winning teams will receive one week of jeans in March and be highlighted in the employee newsletter, The Beat.

Knowledge is power

In partnership with UT Southwestern, Benefits is hosting healthy heart screenings from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 25, in Room 300 at the Linus D. Wright Administration Building.  Monitoring your heart health is important.

Show your red

Wear your red on Feb. 13 and celebrate heart health with a fun twist by also wearing jeans for the day. It’s a small gesture that can make a big impact because you are showing your support for a healthy heart.

Tips

Stay tuned for helpful tips throughout the month on managing blood pressure, healthy eating, and simple exercises to keep your heart strong. Plus, don’t forget to download your Go Red digital email signature from the Benefits website to show your support.

Let’s come together to Go Red this February and make heart health a priority in our lives. If you have any questions or require additional information, contact the Benefits Department at 972-925-4300 or email benefits@dallasisd.org.

Dallas ISD is taking a moment to shine the spotlight on a truly special group of people—the champions behind the district’s 2026 Employee Giving Campaign.

Every year, the employee giving campaign is driven by the energy, commitment, and heart of these amazing team members. Nominated for their outstanding ability to bring people together, champions go above and beyond to unite Dallas ISD team members around a shared purpose of reaching the goal of $100,000.

Their work continues long after the campaign ends, reminding everyone that real change starts with those willing to connect and inspire others. For a list of campus champions, download this document.

On any given day at Innovation, Design and Entrepreneurship Academy, students are dreaming up ways to solve problems most adults barely notice. One group imagines a vending machine that fulfills needs—stocked not with chips and candy, but with deodorant, lotion, pencils, pens, sanitary pads, and even hoodies that meet dress code. Another team wants to redesign the lanyard for student IDs so it feels more like an accessory. Another looked at the hallways, and spearheaded a campaign to decorate them with student art to improve campus culture. 

Kathryn Cates, the teacher who is turning entrepreneurship into a way for students to reshape their own world, calls these “simple ideas that solve real problems students face every day.” For Cates, entrepreneurship is less about churning out CEOs and more about teaching students that their ideas have weight in the real world.

“What’s cool about entrepreneurship is that it’s so full of creativity. It’s asking kids to be natural problem solvers,” Cates said “It’s telling them to look at the world and think about the problems that exist. The students get really excited about that because they want to address the issues that they see around them, even if they’re small.”

A Dallas native, Cates has deep roots in Dallas ISD—both her mother and grandmother are proud graduates of the district. After college, she later spent more than a decade teaching in a large, urban public school system in Portland, Ore., often in school serving low-income communities. Over time, she moved into a support role that looked a lot like assistant principal work—professional development, mentoring, discipline, and restorative justice.

“I was doing that for about five years, and was really burnt out, because with that kind of work you’re always dealing with conflict,” Cates said. “I needed to do the part of teaching that I really love, which is seeing kids grow and learn.”

When Cates and her husband moved back to Dallas in 2023 to support her aging mother, she knew she wanted to work in Dallas ISD and continue serving diverse communities.

“I wanted to continue to work in low income schools that I had been working in. I feel really passionate about supporting students,” she said.

When Cates first arrived at IDEA, her job looked like a patchwork of roles: government, economics, yearbook, a semester of psychology, and a year of entrepreneurship. She later added librarian duties when the campus faced budget cuts.

All the while, IDEA’s entrepreneurship class was struggling to find steady footing. The program had cycled through “a rotating set of teachers,” as Cates put it, making it hard to build consistency or a long-term vision. Yet Cates, whom Principal Alan Varney and other colleagues identified as a potential candidate, had an advantage. She had a personal connection to business.

“My mom is a small-business owner. My family runs one of the only financial newspapers in the state,” Cates said. “So I’ve been around people running small businesses my entire life.”

Cate was already weaving economics and the “business side of history” into her teaching, and IDEA wanted someone who would commit to students and to the program for the long haul.

“They really wanted somebody who is consistent and who will show up with our kids and who has a vision for the program,” Cates said.

Though Cates was not immediately convinced, she eventually agreed to pursue her business certification, passed the exam easily, and stepped in as the entrepreneurship teacher.

“My goal has been really to make kids feel passionate about entrepreneurship, because what entrepreneurship teaches is not just running a small business; it’s really a set of skills that you need in order to kind of do anything in life,” she said.

The program Cates leads is a four-year journey. Freshmen start with the basics of the U.S. economy and capitalism, and sophomores begin conceiving business ideas. By their junior and senior years, students are actually building prototypes, conducting market research, and preparing for the workforce through practicums.

“What’s exciting to me is that I think it’s an opportunity for kids to come up with an idea in their head and then to feel supported to make that idea actually come into reality,” Cates said. “That is not something we often get to do with kids in the classroom.”

In her classes, students research markets, write business plans, and present to adults from the community. Cates urges them to treat that work as real job experience they can put on a résumé. Over time, she has watched students who once shut down at the first sign of struggle start to accept feedback, revise their ideas, and try again.

“I want to inspire students to graduate and to go and put the things that they dream of into the real world,” Cates said. “I think my greatest legacy would be to see kids in 20 years bringing innovations and changes to our world.”

Cates is clear that the ultimate goal is bigger than any one product or pitch competition. She sees entrepreneurship as a vehicle for teaching resilience, problem-solving, and a sense of agency and goes so far as to treat “failure” as a mandatory data point in the curriculum.

“The baseline assumption is that people are going to give you feedback that your product needs to change,” Cates said. “It doesn’t mean you’re a failure; it’s a part of the process.”

Phishing is becoming more and more common, but Dallas ISD’s cybersecurity team has some tips to help you avoid getting scammed: 

• Check the sender’s address carefully—attackers can use modified usernames or domains to look legitimate
• Hover over links before clicking to verify they lead to a trusted website. If anything looks off, don’t click
• Be cautious with emails that contain unexpected attachments or files, especially if you weren’t expecting the email.
• Watch for urgent or threatening language designed to make you act quickly without thinking. 
• Use the CyberNut Squirrel Button to report suspected phishing/SPAM emails.

Dallas ISD team members show up for students every single day in classrooms, offices, buses, cafeterias, and campuses across the district. Starting this week, they can take that commitment one step further by participating in the 2026 Employee Giving Campaign.

By giving to the district’s direct philanthropic partner, the Dallas Education Foundation, during the campaign, team members have the opportunity to invest in the students, teachers, and schools they serve. Every dollar raised stays in Dallas ISD. Gifts expand opportunities for students and educators beyond what public funding alone can provide. Let’s make this a winning year for our schools.

Through DEF, employee giving contributions advance key initiatives including:

• Expanding innovative teaching and campus-based grants
• Strengthening early learning tools
• Building home libraries through book vending machines and book drives
• Supporting college, career, and postsecondary readiness
• Elevating educator recognition and support

Why give? 

• Close the gap by helping fund district priorities that public funding alone cannot cover.
• Amplify your impact by joining forces with thousands of colleagues to create a larger wave of support.
• Show your pride by sending a collective message that we believe in our students and our schools.

Every role matters; every gift counts—no matter the size of the contribution, participation demonstrates pride in the district and belief in our students’ potential. A contribution of just $5 can help put a book in a student’s hands, supply a classroom, or support a teacher’s innovative idea. Small gifts, multiplied across the district, create big results. A successful employee giving campaign sends a powerful message of belief in students and pride in the district.

Jeans days

Here’s the deal: Donate just $5 per Friday and you can wear jeans on a Friday during the campaign. Or donate $30 or more, and you’ll get to wear jeans every Friday for the duration of the campaign. As a bonus for those who donate $30 or more, jeans will also be allowed on Fridays in December 2026. 

Get in the game 

• Payroll deduction through Oracle
• Credit card donation

Whether the gift is $5 or $50, every contribution helps move Dallas ISD closer to a future where every student has what they need to succeed.

Let’s show the power of Team Dallas ISD. Make your play by making a gift today!

https://www.dallasisd.org/departments/dallas-education-foundation/employee-giving-campaign