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.
7 Dec 2001
Hello … this is Mike Moses and thank you for joining me for another of my weekly audio messages about the Dallas Independent School District. We've had another good week in the DISD.
Throughout the week, representatives of the Texas Education Agency have been here in the district doing an assessment of how well we are progressing in dealing with special education students. On Wednesday, they presented us with an exit briefing and the news was encouraging. We feel good about the report that will be released by Texas Education Agency sometime in January 2002. While we have not fixed all the deficiencies we had in this area a year ago, we have clearly made progress and we know we need to keep working diligently to ensure that all special education students in Dallas Independent School District get the best education possible.
On this coming Monday … the district will begin airing a series of five 30-second TV spots on AT&T Broadband cable here in Dallas. The spots feature the dreams and excitement our students have for learning, including one youngster who dreams of building a rocket, flying it to another planet and opening an ice cream store.
The spots, in all seriousness, also feature our teacher of the year, Roseanne Burzynski, who says it is the love for teaching that helps her wake up every morning and go to school to teach. Barbara Dorff, the Texas secondary teacher of the year and a DISD teacher, is also featured. Mrs. Dorff talks about the professional dedication she experiences daily in teaching with her colleagues in our district.
We are clearly excited about this effort to better inform the public about what's happening in our district.
There are many great and exciting things which are taking place in the DISD every day. As the superintendent of this district, I will pledge to you that we will continue to work hard every day to stay focused on academic achievement, keeping the children safe while they are at school, and ensuring we spend your tax dollars wisely. We know what a positive impact we can have on this city. When DISD does well, Dallas does even better. And that's why we say, "Better Schools, Better Dallas!" Thanks for listening in today, and we'll talk again next week.