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Dallas ISD District 1 Newsletter – December 2025 Recap
Note: Please see our website for Spanish version which will be available in a few days.
Happy New Year! Students and teachers are back in the classroom, basketball and soccer seasons are in full swing, and the Board is moving closer to finalizing a potential bond program for 2026. Lots of information on what’s happening in Dallas ISD and District 1 below.
If you know of others that would appreciate this newsletter, they can sign up at www.lancecurrie.com/newsletter.
Dallas ISD Updates
Dallas ISD 2026 Bond Workshop: On December 18, the Dallas ISD Board participated in workshop to explore a potential 2026 bond. The workshop culminated a fourteen-month process where 100+ community appointees helped craft a bond proposal. This presentation summarized their work plus information gathered from surveys of the wider community.
Here are some key points from the presentation and discussions on needs and costs:
- To determine needs at each school, the bond committee looked the Facility Condition Index (“FCI”) and the Educational Suitability Assessment (“ESA”) put together by architects’ walkthroughs of the schools.
- FCI reviews the condition and age of the school, and includes window replacement, roofing, lighting, HVAC, and other items necessary to keep schools in good working condition.
- ESA evaluates the functionality of the space relative to district educational standards. An example might be a school that has added a dance teacher. The classroom may be fully functional with lighting, etc., but it’s not a dance studio. So, it doesn’t meet the needs of the particular class taught.
- The general proposals for each school are published on the Dallas ISD bond website here (click “Campus Reports”). These are general recommendations, and architects will finalize plans if a bond passes and available dollars are finalized
- 26 schools are proposed for a completely new building, including F.P. Caillet Elementary School in District 1.
- The bond committee also explored other needed areas of improvement, such as safety and security equipment (modern cameras, etc.), removal of all portables, Dallas ISD police needs, technology and cybersecurity upgrades, renovations to dated athletic facilities, student experience needs (media centers, robotics spaces, etc.), transportation, and other needs.
- The bond proposal would also include refinancing some older bond debt, saving Dallas ISD roughly $10 million.
- The proposed bond program would address 100% of the FCI needs and 80% of the ESA needs, bringing the average age of Dallas ISD schools down from 43 years old to 33 years old.
- The total cost if fully funded would be $6.2 billion.
Of course, Dallas ISD would have to pay for the bond. Here are key points on funding:
- Currently, Dallas ISD’s interest and sinking (“I&S”) tax rate (which pays for bonds) is lowest of the ten largest districts in the metroplex. Dallas ISD stands at $0.99 per $100 of value, where the others range from $1.01 (Fort Worth) to $1.17 (Frisco).
- The board was presented with two bond options: $4.9 billion with no I&S tax rate increase, and $6.2 billion with a 1 cent I&S tax rate increase.
- Even if Dallas ISD were to add this 1 cent, Dallas ISD’s I&S tax rate would remain the lowest tax rate of the ten largest in the metroplex.
- Regardless of which option is chosen, the bond will be the largest in Texas history because of Dallas’s size and property values.
- To put the proposed increase in context, however, a 1 cent increase would lead to an increased tax burden of approximately $33 per year for the average Dallas homeowner. Richardson ISD’s bond passed last year had an average annual increase of $124 per homeowner.
- If Dallas ISD were to limit the bond to only $4.9 billion, then none of the ESA needs would be funded. Other cuts would include two replacement campuses, portable removals, athletic facility upgrades, and more.
What’s Next?
- Currently: The Administration is incorporating trustee feedback.
- January Briefing: The Administration will take feedback and questions from the Board workshop and make recommendations to the Board. The Board will provide additional feedback.
- February Briefing: Update on proposal, after which the Board would decide if it wants to move forward with asking voters to support a bond in May 2026, November 2026, or not at all.
If you have any thoughts on what should or shouldn’t be included, amounts, priorities, or anything else, please reach out. I would love to hear from you.
South Oak Cliff Does It Again: The South Oak Cliff Golden Bears, brought home their 3rd State Championship in 5 years with a resounding 35-19 win over the Randle Lions. Congratulations to the kids and coaches who fought hard to make this a reality! Go Bears!
Dallas ISD Changes Election Terms: Earlier this year, the City of Dallas moved its City Council and Mayoral elections from Spring elections to November in odd (non-partisan) years. Dallas College moved their election to that same schedule. Texas law requires Dallas ISD to align its elections with the City and Dallas College, so the Board voted to move ours to the same schedule. This requires trustee terms to become four years to remain on odd years going forward. The board then had to make the following changes to transition to the new schedule:
- May 2026 school board elections will take place, as normal.
- Trustees up for election in May 2027 will shift to November 2027.
- Trustees up for election in May 2029 will shift to November 2029.
- Trustees up for election in May 2028 will, by random drawing, shift to either the November 2027 or 2029 elections.
- This will result in five Dallas ISD trustees up for election in November 2027, which aligns with mayor and city council elections and four Dallas ISD trustees up in November 2029, which aligns with non-mayor city council elections.
Student Experience: While working to improve student achievement, the Board also seeks to ensure high-quality student experiences. As measured by the annual student survey administered each October, the percentage of students reporting a positive campus climate increased by four percentage points over last year, reaching 59%. By continuing to engage students through rigorous and engaging instruction, extracurricular opportunities, intentional campus community building, and student leadership organizations, Dallas ISD aims to sustain and further improve these results.
Dallas ISD 2020 Bond Recap: Through funding from the 2020 bond, Dallas ISD will have opened 15 new schools over a two-year period by the end of this year. More than 63,000 individuals have received badges to work on the $3.54 billion bond program, which has generated more than $5.7 billion in economic activity while modernizing learning environments for thousands of Dallas ISD students. Read more here. (BTW, I saw the amazing new competition gym at the “Great” James Madison HS where my son played in a basketball tournament over the winter break. Beautiful!)
District 1 Updates
Here are highlights from our District 1 schools. Please e-mail any ideas you have for highlights to LanceCurrie@dallasisd.org.
Upcoming Events
- Monday, January 19: No School – Martin Luther King Jr. Day!
- Thursday, January 22 at 6:00 p.m. – Board Meeting (5151 Samuel Blvd)
Thank you for the opportunity to serve our students. If you have questions, thoughts, or want to talk about how we can work together to make Dallas ISD the best school district, please reach out. I’m happy to grab coffee or set up a Zoom call. Just e-mail me at LanceCurrie@dallasisd.org.
Thank you.
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