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Juneteenth National Independence Day was recently established as a federal holiday, and Dallas ISD, following policy guidelines, has adopted June 19 as an official district holiday.

Traditionally, when school districts elect to honor a federal holiday, if the holiday falls on a Saturday, the preceding Friday is used to commemorate the holiday. To honor the passage of this historic law—which this year took place June 17, a day before the end of the 2020-2021 school year—Dallas ISD will allocate one additional local day (PTO) to those who were full-time employees on June 18, 2021. 

Based on approved changes to DEC (Regulation), Human Capital Management has revise the 2021-2022 staff calendar and the contract start and end dates document to reflect the new federal holiday of Juneteenth National Independence Day.

Juneteenth commemorates the announcement of the emancipation of slaves on June 19, 1865, in Galveston, following the Emancipation Proclamation that was issued two years earlier. Several states, including Texas, still practiced slavery despite the emancipation in 1863 until federal troops arrived in Galveston to bring word of then President Abraham Lincoln’s proclamation.

Juneteenth, traditionally a Texas holiday, has gained more and more prominence among African Americans at the national level as Emancipation Day, leading to the signing of the bill by President Joe Biden that officially makes it a federal holiday. Juneteenth has been a state holiday in Texas since 1980.

Corey Banks, a custodial Services Supervisor and proud South Oak Cliff Golden Bear, is committed to uplifting his community through his leadership position.

With 23 years of service under his belt, Banks manages over 80 custodial services employees who ensure the day-to-day smooth operations of 23 Dallas ISD campuses in southern Dallas. Part of his secret sauce for success stems from valuable lessons on collaboration and determination that he learned during his teenage years at South Oak Cliff High (SOC).

“I am who I am today because of the education that I received here at South Oak Cliff,” he said during an interview last year. “The love that I have for this building and for this school community is off the charts. Golden Bears bleed gold and white!”

Like him, Bank’s father graduated from a Dallas ISD school, and both of his uncles are SOC alumni. His mother graduated from Pinkston High and worked for Dallas ISD for more that 30 years, in the Sarah Zumwalt Middle School attendance office and later in Accounting at the Administration Building.

Banks finished high school in the top 20 percent of his graduating class in 1991. Decades later, both of his sons—Corey Jr. and Kendrick Banks—graduated from SOC in 2016 and 2018, respectively. Like their father, both brothers finished in the top 20 percent of their graduating class.

We spoke with Banks about his love for SOC, his best high school lessons, and the impact he wishes to have in his community.

What is South Oak Cliff High School to you?

SOC is a school of tradition. It’s a school that is loved by the community. A school known and respected by the state. Growing up as a Golden Bear was an experience that taught me how to be mentally strong and prepared me for life. It taught me teamwork, dedication, perseverance and respect. Our teachers cared about our education and our growth for the future. We trusted the process and I was under the leadership of two amazing principals, Dr. Todd and Mr. Waylan Wallace. They were personable and always had our best interest in mind. The school was old and full of history and pride. Like every high school, South Oak Cliff had its challenges, but we owned and loved our school regardless.

Tell me about a lesson that you learned in high school that still applies today.

At SOC, I learned perseverance, I learned discipline and hard work, and I carry that over to my job. Dealing with 23 campuses, you have multiple personalities and you have to be strong and learn how to be attentive to everybody’s needs. You have to push and weather the storms, to make sure that things are moving at a rate that’s pleasing the customer.

During our senior year, our class had the opportunity to join a play called Blues, Beat, Bumps. A South Oak Cliff graduate came and sang with us and taught us the play, which was about the music from the ‘60s through the ‘90s. We had wardrobe changes, dances, acting, everything. And that resonated the most with me because we all came together, all of us got really close and it taught us how to work together as a team. It taught us team-building and depending and trusting that someone else on a team has their part. It showed us versatility and how to depend on one another.

That was a great learning experience for me at SOC. And that was one of many great experiences, because I was also into sports. I played football, basketball, ran track and won games. And all of those experiences also taught me about perseverance and team building, and were great and memorable too.

How would you convince your sons that the next generation of Banks should be Golden Bears?

I don’t think I’d have to convince them or encourage them a lot, because they love SOC just as much as I do.

South Oak Cliff is an outstanding school in the inner city, located in the southern sector in a traditionally historic building and with outstanding support from the community. The people that go to South Oak Cliff High want to make sure that their community is recognized, uplifted, and brought to a point where it should be. Like me, many want their future generations to keep adding to the culture and to the commonwealth of the community.

I would tell my kids that this environment can really teach you about the importance of community.

If you want to make changes to your annual benefits, explore options, or check out the new Health Savings Account offered to those who have a high-deductible plan, now is the time to do it.

Annual enrollment runs through Aug. 20 and becomes effective Sept. 1. If you don’t make any changes, you will keep the same medical, vision, and dental plans; however, if you want to put money into a flexible spending account or FSA, you need to enroll every year. Now is also the time to enroll in the Sick Leave Bank.

Dallas ISD offers staff medical, dental, and vision coverage and life insurance. The district also provides several  supplemental, voluntary insurance plans that can help meet your financial needs when the unexpected happens. You can choose from four different plans that provide benefits for require hospitalization, when you face various types of critical illness, when you become disabled and unable to work, or if you need long-term care at home or at an assisted living or rehabilitation facility.

You’ll find detailed information about each of the plans—including the optional, voluntary plans—and their premium costs through the Benefits Portal.

It all starts in the Benefits page at www.dallasisd.org/benefits, your one-stop-shop for all benefits information and links. From the Benefits Resources page, check out the Benefits Overview and Plan Costs, which provides many details on your benefit options.

If you have questions or need help, assistance is close by. Just call (972) 925-4000 weekdays from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Spanish- and English-speaking representatives will be available to guide you through the choices and the enrollment process.

For additional information you can also look at at the Benefits Overview Guide.

They are there when schools need them. During the 2020-2021 school year, Dallas ISD substitutes answered the call from schools to fill in for more than 100,000 teacher absences to make sure that students did not lose a day of learning.

“Substitutes are an integral part of the success of a student’s education,” said Shenise Tyler, substitutes manager for Dallas ISD in the Human Capital Management Division. “Although a substitute is only in a classroom for a short period of time, they are a teacher, and they make a difference in the lives of students.”

Without substitute teachers, absences due to illness or other unexpected circumstances could cause major complications: instruction is interrupted, classes are doubled up, and preparation periods are lost, Tyler said. Considering that the average student will spend an entire school year with a substitute teacher over the entirety of their K-12 learning journey, substitutes are important and valued members of the district.

“Without quality substitutes, teacher absences can have a domino effect that impacts the entire school,” Tyler said.

Of the more than 2,300 substitutes enrolled to cover teacher absences in Dallas ISD, about 37 percent are retired teachers. The others are qualified professionals who are interested in education and who believe it’s important that students have someone teaching in the classroom every day.

“Quality substitute teachers contribute to maintaining progress in the learning environment, which helps promote student achievement,” she said.

Substitutes who want to remain active during the 2021-2022 year should make sure they sign the Substitute Re-Enrollment form that was recently sent to their district email via DocuSign.

As the district begins to have in-person events, it’s important to avoid conflicts. While planning for the upcoming year, the Districtwide Datebook should be your chief means of scheduling districtwide activities.

The Districtwide Datebook can be found at https://www.dallasisd.org/datebook. Placing your events on the datebook will help others avoid booking events on the date of your school or department activity. Departments who already have scheduled dates for events and activities are encouraged to push them to the datebook as soon as possible.

The datebook is only for events that involve (or are of interest to) the entire school district. For example: STEM Day, Discover Dallas ISD, MLK oratory competition, recognition events and opportunities, job fairs, etc.

Department directors and administrative assistants are asked to update their department calendars (when available) and the districtwide datebook by following the steps below. If your department has a calendar on the district’s website, post your events there with the following information:

• the name of the event or activity
• a short description of the event
• the start and end time
• the venue name and address of the event location
• a department contact person and phone number or email address
• If you need help pushing an event from your department calendar to the districtwide datebook, send an email to webservices@dallasisd.org.

Departments that do not have a website-based calendar can add districtwide events to the datebook by sending an email with the information above to webservices@dallasisd.org at least a week in advance of the activity.

Diana O’Connor, librarian at Irma Lerma Rangel Young Women’s Leadership School, was recently surprised at her school with a Recognition in the Congressional Record from U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) for her work at the school, in the community and Dallas ISD.

She was recognized for her support of the schoolwide pre-Advanced Placement and Advanced Placement curriculum through a variety of programs like summer camps, STEAM camps, college readiness
camps and more for middle and high school students. She also created the Respect Starts here curriculum, a system dedicated to building listening, speaking, understanding skills and embracing one another with empathy.

O’Connor is involved in various community organizations, such as 29 Pieces, and has represented Dallas ISD in a variety of librarian associations. In 2020, she received the H. William Chris Educator Prize from the National Coalition of Girls Schools for her commitment to extraordinary teaching, program design and curricular innovation.

Before joining Rangel School, she taught hearing impaired adolescents, students with disabilities, and multiple grades in Dallas ISD.

Rep. Johnson asked that O’Connor be recognized “for her immeasurable impact on the Irma Lerma Rangel Young Women’s Leadership School and the entire Dallas community. Her career, marked by compassion and dedication to her students, has left an invaluable mark on my district, and it is my honor to congratulate her for her accomplishments.”

Skin conditions like acne, rosacea, or psoriasis may require special care before and after workouts, but don’t let skin issues interfere with your fitness plan because exercise can also promote skin health.

According to dermatologist Ellen Marmur, author of “Simple Skin Beauty: Every Woman’s Guide to a Lifetime of Healthy, Gorgeous Skin,” by increasing blood flow, exercise helps nourish skin cells and keep them vital.

The blood carries oxygen and nutrients to working cells, including those in the skin, and carries away impurities to the liver where they are neutralized and eliminated. That’s why exercise can help skin by flushing cells and cleansing it.

Stress often has an impact on skin, and exercise is commonly seen as a way to minimize stress. While there isn’t any research that directly connects exercise to skin health, exercising does help with conditions that do have an effect on the skin.

For example, people who exercise consistently tend to sleep better, and better sleep—between seven and nine hours nightly—also see improvement in their stress level and their general health. Sleep is when the body renews itself and removes toxins. Because skin is an organ, it also goes through the detoxification process during periods of rest.

Exercising regularly increases the odds that skin will tighten, especially when losing weight. Increased muscle tone also increases blood flow to the body.

Just remember that if you exercise, you should stay hydrated and use sunscreen if you are outside. Your skin will love you for it!

For the past two months, teachers at Francisco “Pancho” Medrano Middle School have been working hard to develop a fun and rich curriculum that will help students overcome any learning loss they may have experienced during pandemic-related disruptions to learning. And when the first intersession week launches, they are confident Medrano’s Eagles will be ready to soar!

Medrano was one of the schools that had 60 percent of its students attend classes in-person and 40 percent virtual during the 2020-2021 school year, which made teaching and learning a challenging process.

And one of the challenges the school and its teachers will have to overcome is that some students might not have gained all the knowledge and skills they need to be successful in subsequent years. With the extra weeks of intersession—distributed throughout the school year for an additional 23 days—students will be able to learn concepts they may not have mastered in a way that is fun and enriching.

“We are definitely trying to make it fun in a very informal setting,” said Cassandra Kokkinos, who worked on the social studies curriculum for intersession both for the school and the district.

Principal Theresa Sigurdson expects about 390 of the school’s students will participate in one or more of the intersession weeks, depending on what areas need to be reinforced and on how they progress during the year. Progress will be measured in a variety of ways during intersession, but not with tests.

“We want this to be a level of support they need,” Sigurdson said. “We don’t want ti to be another test. We have specifically asked that they not be tested so we can fill in the gaps and support and teach.”

At Medrano, for example, all seventh-grade students are put on a pre-Advanced Placement algebra track so the majority of eighth graders will study algebra. Normally, about 90 percent of the students will pass the algebra test. The time during intersession will help students who might not have mastered the pre-algebra concepts catch up to be able to tackle algebra and the test.

Each intersession week will have a specific theme, and the themes will carry through the different subjects that will be covered.

“We want to get student buy in with assignments that are fun but also have high standards,” said Christian Cocker, a teacher who has been working on the math curriculum for the extra weeks. “It will involve getting the up and out of their seats, problem solving.”

The teachers and instructional coach have tried out some of the activities and innovative approaches this year to gauge how they will work once fully implemented. The students enjoyed the activities, so Cocker is confident they will also be successful during intersession and even beyond.

“I’m excited we have this opportunity,” said Cocker, a first-year teacher. “It brings us back to our purpose.”

Jenna Williams, the school’s instructional coach, has noticed that students will not be the only ones who will benefit from the intersession weeks.

“We have a younger staff at the school—under five years— and it has been really cool to see the teachers grow, too,” she said. Designing the weeks, developing the lessons and planning the activities has allowed teachers to think differently and to flex their teaching muscles in ways they don’t always get to.”

For more information about intersession weeks, visit www.dallasisd.org/timetolearn.

Do you know of someone interested in becoming a teacher in a district with one of the highest starting salaries for teachers in the region, with opportunities for additional compensation in high priority campuses, with great benefits and supports, and with innovative programs focused on student success? Then tell them about Dallas ISD’s first in-person job fair from 4 to 6 p.m. on Tuesday, June 29.

During the hiring event Emmett J. Conrad High School principals will be able to interview for all campus-based openings for positions such as teachers, teacher leads, and paraprofessionals. Campus booths and interviews will be set with social distancing that complies with health guidelines.

Candidates can sign up here to participate in the job fair.

Those who have not already completed a Teacher Application must do so prior to the job fair. Our Teacher Application can be found at www.dallasisd.org/careers. Also prior the event, we will ask you to upload your current certification and resume into a google document to share with principals.

Should you have any questions, please email us at futureteacher@dallasisd.org.