As the nation's eleventh largest school district, Dallas Independent School District serves more than 164,500 students who come from homes where 58 different languages are spoken. Operating with a $1 billion dollar budget, DISD employs 19,234 employees including 10,500 teachers in 218 schools.
29 Nov 2001
First Message Focuses On Better Schools, Better Dallas! Program
DALLAS—Superintendent Mike Moses will use the first of his weekly recorded audio messages Friday to talk about the Better Schools, Better Dallas! program the district has adopted to better inform the public about the good things happening in the Dallas Independent School District.
Each Friday afternoon the text of the message will be released to the media and audio of the message will be made available on the district's actuality line, 972-925-3908, extension 3. Messages will be up to two-minutes in length and will address up-to-date issues in the DISD. To begin the recordings, the superintendent chose to talk about the district's new media program called Better Schools, Better Dallas! which was officially launched Thursday at Carter High School in south Dallas.
During his taped message, Moses talks about specifics—programs to recognize excellent DISD teachers each week through an awards program, programs to highlight students who get excellent grades, and programs to feature former students who became DISD teachers, and those who became nationally celebrities, leaders or sports figures.
"We have much to talk about and we have much to do to make DISD better," Moses concludes. "Each time I meet with a group of students, their pride in their school and their dedication to getting a good education becomes quite evident. When I meet with our individual teachers, it is clear we are blessed with professionals who have a love for teaching. When I meet with support personnel like custodial staff, bus drivers, and administrators, it becomes clear they want to provide first-class services to make DISD the best it can be. We are excited about the future of DISD."
The superintendent ends the audio message with a theme that will become the mantra in DISD during the next year: "When we do well in the DISD, the city of Dallas does even better. And that's why we say, Better Schools, Better Dallas!"
Earlier this month Moses mailed letters to all the news directors and general managers of Dallas-area radio stations encouraging them to use the weekly message as much as possible in their programming.