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Greetings, District 2!
I hope you are enjoying the glimpses of beautiful spring weather! While you are out and about, please don't forget that Early Voting is underway for our Primary Elections. You can Early Vote through Friday, March 1st, and Election Day is Tuesday, March 4th. You can find more information on the Election, including voting locations here.
With February in full bloom, here’s what’s unfolding in Dallas ISD this month:
Dallas ISD District 2 Monthly Updates:
Dallas ISD Celebrated its 10th Annual STEM Expo: To promote the joy of STEM education, students, parents, educators, community members, and other stakeholders gathered to engage in a wide variety of exciting activities. Through this event, our students were able to investigate, design, and create real-world science, technology, engineering and math activities and projects. The Expo also served as a showcase for the wide variety of choices of incredible STEM and STEAM-focused programs throughout the district.
Dallas ISD is a Proactive State Leader in Safety Assessments: Safety is a priority for district leadership. Volunteering to be first in the state to have a security assessment completed on our district, Dallas ISD worked with TEA teams of assessors who toured district facilities to determine vulnerabilities based on an 11-point assessment that will be used in the future by school districts across the state to help improve school security measures.
Dallas ISD wins Dallas County Economic Mobility Award: The Commit Partnership, whose goal is to measurably increase the upward economic trajectory of our 25-34 year-old residents in Dallas County, recognized Dallas ISD’s outstanding efforts to equip our students with the skills and resources to become thriving adults who are employed in meaningful jobs with meaningful pay.
Dallas ISD’s Lone Star Emmy-Winning School Zone is Back: “School Zone Dallas” is a show which provides student perspectives on various Dallas ISD campuses and programs. The production airs on NBC at 5 p.m. on Saturdays and is also available on Dallas ISD’s You Tube Channel.
D2 Bond Construction Updates:
Campus infrastructure upgrades funded by the proceeds from the 2020 Bond continue. For up-to-date information across the District, please see Dallas ISD’s dedicated 2020 Bond website.
February Board Meeting Debrief:
This month, Dallas ISD had its regular board briefing and meeting. I’ve chosen to highlight the most important items below:
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Student Achievement Mid-Year Update: The most important thing that our school system does is to prepare students academically to thrive in our state, nation, and world. Every month, the Board receives a clear update on progress toward our student outcome goals. This month we received a middle of the year academic report for all our 3rd – 8th grade students. In all six areas measured, Dallas ISD reported gains in every single one AND every demographic group showed absolute growth from last year as well. This is especially powerful considering Dallas ISD implemented a new curriculum this year for the first time. Usually, systems will see an implementation dip in the first year, but Dallas ISD has bucked that trend. However, while we did show growth across the board, we didn’t achieve the high bar for growth we were expecting. As such, the Superintendent and her team shared their strategies to continue to accelerate the work and impact on our students.
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Dallas ISD 2023 Bond Projects Year In Review: At our February board briefing, the Superintendent and her team gave an update on the 2020 Bond. Thus far, $1.5 billion of the Dallas ISD 2020 Bond has been deployed, with 242 Projects are in various stages across the district, encompassing a wide array of campus improvements and safety and technology enhancements to benefit our students and employing 48,795 workers. Community input at ongoing meetings has been essential to our success on these projects thus far. Thank you to our Bond Advisory Committee for their service, with a special thanks to our District 2 representative, Wade Johns.
Dallas ISD Community Budget Meetings:
Every year, the Dallas ISD school board adopts our subsequent year’s annual budget in June. In the next few weeks, Dallas ISD will host several Community 2024-2025 Budget Workshops, with date, times and locations listed below. At these community events, the District will review the budget planning process and assumptions and provide the public an opportunity to give feedback to inform budget planning for next school year.
As always, please do not hesitate to reach out to me if you have thoughts, ideas, questions, concerns, or simply want to say hello!
Best,
Sarah Weinberg
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