Staff News

Twice a year, every year, certain days are designated to give teachers the opportunity to meet with parents and discuss their students’ progress. This year, parent conferences will be a little different. 

More flexibility is being built around parent conferences by designating a parent conferences week and counting the parent conference time as one full teacher work day each semester, which is seven hours and 45 minutes per DK (LOCAL). 

This fall, the conferences are to be scheduled and conducted to meet the needs of the parents and teachers during the week of Oct. 23. Teachers will put in a cumulative total of a work day to conduct parent conferences throughout the week.

Teachers may schedule the parent conferences in person, virtually or by phone before school, after school, or during their conference period to meet the needs of their students’ parents.

The week of Jan. 22 has been designated as the spring parent conference week.

For over two decades, Dallas ISD has proudly organized an employee giving campaign to show our appreciation for organizations that support our students and families. This year, Dallas ISD is giving back to the Dallas Education Foundation (DEF), the direct and designated philanthropic partner of Dallas ISD!

By contributing to the Dallas ISD Employee Giving campaign, you are making a valuable investment in the future of our students, teachers, counselors, support staff, and schools. Every donation is directly invested back into Dallas ISD to improve educational outcomes for all students.

Your contribution will count towards our overall goal of raising $75,000 this year. With over 22,000 team members in our district, we have the capacity not only to meet but to exceed this target!

The elementary and secondary campus with the highest participation percentage by Dec. 1 will win a breakfast sponsored by Whataburger, one of our dedicated community partners! There are also incentives for individuals and champions like winning tickets to the DEF Heart of Teaching annual gala! Visit the website to learn more about all of our giving perks! 

Donate today by visiting dallasisd.org/def. Download the campaign poster found here.

Are you focused, fast, flexible, and friendly in your interactions with colleagues, students and the public? If so, you are already embracing good customer service practices, which this week are being recognized during National Customer Service Week. 

The Core 4—the district’s culture tenets—are rooted in practices that exemplify the best customer service. Keeping each one of these tenets at the forefront of everything we do helps us keep focus on being a premier district in Texas and in the nation. 

Focused – We Transform Student Lives. These are the team members that make decisions that are intentional and grounded in the needs of students and equity groups, and who are great at consistently and effectively implementing the necessary support to ensure the social, emotional and academic needs of students, families, and equity groups are met.  

Fast – Urgency for All. These are the team members who return and deliver messages within 24 hours during normal business hours, and are wonderful at consistently responding in a timely manner to requests between students, families, and team members.

Flexible–We Strive for the Yes. These are our team members  who do whatever it takes to meet the needs of our students, families and team members. They eliminate barriers and embrace innovative problem-solving.

Friendly–Make Memorable Moments. These are the team members who build respectful relationships that are grounded in communication, and embrace the positive and expect the best of each other. 

Recognizing those who best exemplify these tenets if part of the Core 4 experience. If your department or school has been recognizing every month those who go above and beyond to be Core 4, keep an eye out for a way to submit their names for a quarterly recognition. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Proposed 2023-2024 TEI Compensation Levels

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

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

Proposed 2023-2024 TEI Compensation Levels

High priority campus stipends

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

Increases for Excellence Initiatives

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

Minimum wage and other central increases

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

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

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

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

Retention incentive

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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