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Greetings all!
I hope that all of you are feeling great going into this holiday season! It’s amazing how quickly time flies with the new year approaching. Below, you will find last month’s summary along with upcoming events in D7.
What I’ve Been Up To:
- District Board Goals: One of the most important responsibilities of the school board is to set goals for the superintendent and the district for the coming years. Over the past month and a half, the Dallas ISD Board of Trustees engaged in discussions about what the student outcome priorities of our district will be and came to a unanimous agreement on five, which include early learning, college and career readiness, and a focus on middle schools. The detailed goal sheet is available HERE.
- Superintendent’s Evaluation Committee: After setting the district’s board goals, the next step the board needed to take was to align the superintendent’s evaluation to the goals. I served on the Superintendent’s Evaluation Committee where we finalized the metrics with which to evaluate the superintendent’s performance for this school year, where 60% of the evaluation will be directly tied to the superintendent meeting the board goals that were set.
- Purchasing AdHoc Committee: I was named as the chair of the Ad Hoc committee that the board created to evaluate our current procurement practices and propose updated procedures. I am excited about this work, as I spoke quite a bit during the campaign about some areas for improvement that I experienced working in the system and I look forward to digging into this work with my colleagues to find ways to improve the system.
Dallas ISD & District 7 Updates:
- Dallas ISD Teacher, Ms. Moreno, earns the “Oscar of Education”: Ms. Moreno, a Spanish teacher at J.L. Long Middle school was surprised with the news that she was the only teacher in Texas that had been selected to receive one of the most prestigious teaching awards that there is – the Milken Award. Congratulations to Ms. Moreno!
- Applications are Now Open for Dallas ISD Specialty Schools: The application process is open for all Dallas ISD specialty schools and programs (Early College, Choice, and Magnet). You can explore the different options in Dallas ISD and apply before the deadline on January 31, 2020.
- Dallas Students and Leaders Testify in Favor of African American Studies Course: This month, a delegation of Dallas ISD students and leaders testified in Austin, encouraging the State Board of Education to support Dallas ISD’s pioneering African American Studies class to be made accessible statewide.
Upcoming Events:
- Tuesday, Dec. 17 at 6 p.m.: Rosemont Upper Bond Meeting (Rosemont Lower Campus Cafeteria)
- Thursday, Dec. 19 at 6 p.m.: Dallas ISD October Board Meeting (5151 Samuell Blvd.)
- Saturday, Jan. 18, 2020 from 9 – 3 p.m.: Dallas ISD STEM EXPO (registration at Dallasisd.org/stem)
As always, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me at BenMackey@dallasisd.org if you have thoughts, ideas, questions, concerns, or simply want to say hello!
Best,
Ben Mackey
