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2 School safety

3 2008 bond program

News in brief

4 Distance Learning program

First day of 2009–2010 school year

5 Inside Track

Communicator August 2009 | www.dallasisd.org | i | 2 | 6 A newsletter for employees of the Dallas ISD

Verbeana Hatton named School Counselor of the Year

V erbeana Hatton, counselor at Seagoville

High School, was named the Dallas ISD 2009–

2010 School Counselor of the Year.

a former Dallas ISD teacher of the Year, Hatton has

been a school counselor for five years. She taught for nine years at Fred F. Florence Mid-dle School before deciding to pursue a career in counseling.

Hatton is seen by the staff at Seagoville High as a workaholic who is on a mission to help children.

“For Verbeana, counseling is not a Monday through Friday, 9 to 5 job,” said Seagoville High School principal Jeff baker. “She organiz-es weekend field trips and attends many extra-curricular activities. both parents and students know they can call her 24/7.”

Hatton says her goal as a counselor is to educate students and their parents about the

millions of opportunities that exist.“Whether students choose college, the mili-

tary, or the workforce, I want each of them to graduate with a plan of action for their future and complete the necessary steps to bring those plans to fruition. I also want parents to see me as a resource. I’m a parent and I know what it feels like when you don’t even know what questions to ask,” said Hatton.

an outstanding School Counselor has been selected for each learning community. Hat-ton, who represented the Superintendent’s Learning Community, was selected as the 2009 School Counselor of the Year from among the seven outstanding School Counselors.

Former Teacher of the Year described as workaholic on a mission to help children

OutStanding SCHOOl COunSelOrS repreSenting tHe OtHer learning COmmunitieS are:

n northeast elementary Lonnie beadles, George W.

Truett Elementary Schooln northwest elementary Sharon Sandahl, Preston

Hollow Elementary Schooln Southeast elementary Sarah Dickey-Hill, Albert

Sidney Johnston Elementary School

n Southwest elementary Karen Zachary, Birdie

Alexander Elementary Schooln east Secondary agatha randall-richardson,

Harold Wendell Lang Sr. Middle School

n West Secondary Angie Alexander, Sunset High

School

http://www.dallasisd.org

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dallas iSd Communicator August 2009 | www.dallasisd.org | i | 2 | 6

W Hen parentS anD visitors arrive at Dal-las ISD campuses, they

will receive a new welcome at the schools. Each campus will display bright green signs welcoming visi-tors and directing them to sign in at the office.

the posters and signs are per-haps the most visible part of a dis-trictwide initiative that has brought together several departments that had previously worked on their own to make all schools safe and welcoming for everyone, said Rachel Moon, Student Advo-cacy and Mentoring coordinator.

“the purpose is to create a safe and welcoming environ-ment so that parents and visitors feel engaged and that they can participate in the schools,” she said. “We hope that parents will feel less intimidated about visiting the schools and approaching teachers about their child’s grades and performance.”

Using the motto “Safety is the key in Dallas ISD,” the initiative also seeks to ensure that safety measures, such as making sure that all visitors register in the school’s office, are followed in every campus, Moon said.

“We wanted to have a standard of what the district’s message is when parents and visitors come to the schools,”

she said. And once they get to the office to sign in, “that they will be received in a courteous man-ner with the four Fs in mind: fast, flexible, focused, and friendly. Ev-eryone knowing the expectations when they arrive on a campus im-proves safety.”

In order to help schools ensure they are meeting safe and welcom-ing standards, the departments working on the initiative have de-veloped a manual and a checklist for safe and welcoming “walks”

that can be performed by the principal or by members of the Site-Based Decision Making committee.

the initiative, which resulted from one of the recom-mendations of the Dallas Achieves! Commission, brought together representatives from Risk Management, Emer-gency Operations and Compliance, Safe and Civil Schools, Safe and Drug Free Schools, Police and Security Services, and parent Services and School Choice departments to come up with standards for safe and welcoming schools.

“There’s strength in unity,” Moon said. “When all de-partments are working together, we’re all emphasizing the same message, and we are sharing what are some of the safety issues we need to address.”

neW initiatiVe WelCOmeS ViSitOrS but putS SafetY firSt

School safety

diStriCt aSKS parentS, COmmunitY tO Help Keep CHildren Safe bY ObSerVing traffiC laWS in SCHOOl ZOne areaS

at a news conference in au-gust, Superintendent of Schools Michael Hinojosa, Dallas Police Department Chief David Kunkle, and Dallas ISD police Chief John blackburn asked parents and the community to help keep children safe by observing traffic laws and reducing speed in school zone ar-eas during the school year. They also were reminded that the use of cell phones in school zones is prohibited.

Welcome!Safety is the key

in Dallas ISD.Please sign in atthe main office.

¡Bienvenidos!La seguridad es la

clave en el Dallas ISD.Por favor regístrese

en la oficina.


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news in briefbOard apprOVeS paY raiSeS fOr emplOYeeSat their august meeting, the board of trustees approved to set the salary schedule, which includes pay raises, for all em-ployees during the 2009–2010 school year. Teachers, related instructional and professional support will receive an average pay raise of 3.4 percent, which was mandated by the state. In addition, all other personnel will receive a 3 percent pay raise over their 2008-2009 base salary. This would mark the first pay raise for support staff in three years. Beginning employees on the Bachelor Pay sched-ule will receive $45,350.

diStriCt HOStS SeCOnd annual diStriCtWide COllege fairDistrict 12th-graders and their parents will have the opportunity to meet col-lege and university representatives at the Districtwide College Fair to be held at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 23. the free fair will be held in Hall D at the Dallas Convention Center, 650 S. Griffin St. Transportation to and from the convention center will be provided. to attend, students should register with their school counselor.

2008 bond program update

T HE 2008 BOnD PROGRAM is progressing as expected, and the first group of construction contracts will begin the bidding phase by Thanksgiving. Actual construction will begin in ear-

nest in January and February of next year.Property acquisition for the new schools is making good progress

with six properties already closed, two properties scheduled for closing, and 10 properties ready for board approval. Architects, en-gineers, and program managers are actively involved in design work for new school and renovation projects involving almost 100 schools.

town hall presentations have been held to inform the commu-nity about the designs for three schools in Wilmer-Hutchins—a new elementary school and renovations to Wilmer Hutchins High School and Kennedy-Curry Middle School; W.H. adamson High School replacement; and the new George Herbert Walker Bush Elementary School.

the Construction Services (bond) Department moved earlier this month to the Ste-phen J. Hay Building, 3801 Herschel ave. the building is centrally located in the Oak Lawn area and will not only save the program more than $1 million but make good use of a vacant district building.

Wednesday, September 23, 20095:30–8:30 p.m.

Dallas Convention CenterHall D, 650 S. Griffin St.Transportation provided for all Dallas ISD high school campuses.Parents are encouraged to ride the school bus.*

Register to attend with your school counselor.

* Parents riding the bus must register as volunteers and receive clearance online by logging on to www.dallasisd.org/partners

/main.htm. In Spanish, the site is www.dallasisd.org/partners /main_sp.htm.

E D U C A T I O Ni s F R E E D O M

DALLAS INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT

2 0 0 9

Sponsored by


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I nStruCtIon In LeSS com-monly taught languages—russian, Japanese, and

Chinese—is now available to students in several Dallas ISD schools thanks to the district’s distance learning program.

through a u.S. Department of Education Foreign Language As-sistance program grant, students at several secondary schools have the opportunity to study these lan-guages through video instruction.

W.H. Adamson and Skyline high schools of-fer all three courses to interested students for the 2009–2010 school year. Approximately 26 students at Adamson High School will continue their study of these three languages for the second year.

For the first time in eight years, a Japanese dis-tance learning course, Irasshai, is being offered to students at Skyline, and more than 60 students have already signed up to take the course. Another 45 stu-dents will study Chinese I and II: A Journey to China,

and 55 will enroll in Russian World I–III classes.

to encourage future enroll-ment in these languages at the high school level, students in three middle schools also are learning about the culture, cus-toms, history, and languages of russia and Japan. During the school year, the classes will take field trips to an Asian museum and participate in a russian festival. Approximately 160 stu-

dents at the William B. Travis Academy and Vanguard for the Talented and Gifted and the Alex W. Spence Talented and Gifted Academy will alternate semesters studying Japanese and Russian. Another 50 students at Harry Stone Montessori will study Russian.

Elementary students will not be left out. In pre-kindergarten through third grade, students will have the opportunity to learn Spanish this year. Nuevos Amigos is designed to bring Spanish language in-struction to students through a fun and interactive format. this program targets english-speaking students who want to learn Spanish as a second lan-guage. It also benefits Spanish-speaking students who want to maintain or improve their native lan-guage. enrollment brochures will be mailed to the schools in early September.

For more information about any of these distance learning programs, contact Vicky Mitcham Probeck at (972) 925-3117 or [email protected].

distance classes enrich student learning Students return for first day of 2009–2010 school yearSuperintendent of Schools Michael Hinojosa welcomed students at Moisés E. Molina High School and Mary McLeod Bethune Elementary School back to school Aug. 24. About 125,000 students attended the first day of classes. The district’s projected enrollment for the 2009–2010 school year is 157,278, which includes about 8,650 prekindergarten students who begin Aug. 31. On the first day of school, 673 buses transported 14,917 students, and 105,998 hot meals were served.


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inside track gets a facelift

T He DIStrICt’S employee communications program Inside track is changing

to give employees more access to district leadership. the goal of the revamp is to reap the benefits of improved communication be-tween the rank and file and top administrators. These benefits include increased productivity and employee satisfaction and higher student achievement.

the new format will bring Inside track representatives from campus and central staff together for quar-terly meetings with the superinten-dent and other district leaders. It’s hoped these sessions will build rap-port and trust and provide a forum for the exchange of ideas from the bottom up. Two-way communica-tion is the whole idea behind In-side track and the superintendent says he’s excited to have more face time with employees.

“this is part of an ongoing ef-fort to encourage a dialogue with district staff,” said Superintendent of Schools Michael Hinojosa, who tours at least one campus per week

on his customary Wednesday vis-its. “In addition to the visits, last year we held a series of 12 dialogue sessions with staff across the dis-trict where I answered a variety of questions about our financial sta-tus and plans to improve the work climate and academic achieve-ment. the new Inside track for-mat will permit me to hear directly from employees ideas about how we can continue our work to make Dallas ISD the best urban district in the country.”

the new features of Inside track include representatives who will gather input from their co-workers, submit questions via e-mail for discussion at the meetings, attend meetings, collect informa-tion, and share that information with their colleagues.

These employees also will re-ceive periodic news updates on developments affecting the district and e-mails with vital information to share with their colleagues. They also will serve as communications contacts to share positive news of school or department activities,

programs, and accomplishments. The first Inside Track meeting

for 2009 is scheduled for 2 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 3, in the adminis-tration building auditorium.

Some things about Inside track will remain the same. Division heads will still select the represen-tatives for their departments and submit the names to Communica-tion Services. principals still select the Inside track representative for their campus and submit that name online on the district intra-net at http://inet.dallasisd.org/insidetrack/index.html. this year’s deadline to submit represen-tatives’ names was Wed., aug. 26.

All employees will still have ac-cess to information by submitting questions to Inside track. as in the past, these questions will be an-swered by the appropriate district staff and posted online for viewing by all employees.

For more information, employ-ees may log on to http://inet.dallasisd.org/insidetrack/index.html, or call (972) 925-3915.

First meeting of Inside Track reps is Thursday, Sept. 3


http://inet.dallasisd.org/insidetrack/index.html





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informationDallas ISD Communicator is published monthly by Communication Services, news and Information Services

3700 Ross Ave.Dallas, TX 75204-5491(972) 925-3700www.dallasisd.org

michael Hinojosa, ed.d.Superintendent of Schools

BoArd of TrusTees

adam medranoPresidentDistrict 8

lew blackburn, ph.d.First Vice PresidentDistrict 5

Carla rangerSecond Vice PresidentDistrict 6

leigh ann ellisSecretaryDistrict 3

edwin flores, ph.d, J.d.District 1

Jack loweDistrict 2

nancy binghamDistrict 4

Jerome garzaDistrict 7

ron priceDistrict 9


The seventh of the core beliefs adopted by the Dallas ISD Board of Trustees is:

We believe that a supportive community is fundamental to achieving and sustaining

our success.

COre beliefSWHere iS mY

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