As the nation's eleventh largest school district, Dallas Independent School District serves more than 161,500 students who come from homes where 58 different languages are spoken. Operating with a $1 billion dollar budget, DISD employs 18,678 employees including 10,000 teachers in 218 schools.
17 Aug 2001
First Week of School Smooth Going For Dallas Independent School District
The Dallas Independent District ends the first week of school with 145,744 students enrolled and less than 100 teacher vacancies said Mike Moses, the general superintendent.
"The district is off to a great start," Dr. Moses said. "There is a spirit of enthusiasm throughout the district. The preparation and training for the new school year have parlayed into a smooth first week for our students and teachers."
Student enrollment steadily increased each day putting the district on course to being one of the two largest school systems in Texas. As of Aug. 17, the student enrollment exceeded last year's by 1,289.
Also, at this time last year, the district was looking for more than 150 teachers to fill the classroom. With 1,426 new teachers hired, the teacher vacancy rate is at a decade low with only 97 openings. Some of the critical teaching areas still vacant include 27 bilingual and 10 Spanish positions. When the hiring is completed the district expects to have more than 10,500 teachers in the classrooms with its projected 163,000 student body.
To ease the confusion the first week of school, the district launched a telephone hotline center. At the end of the day on Aug. 17, the staff had received 1,467 calls. Seven hundred of those calls were taken by the Student Transfer Office. Most of these students were requesting a school to school transfer within the district. For the week, the Food Services Department served approximately 750,000 meals during the breakfast and lunch periods.
Visit the district's website at www.dallasisd.org for first day activities and photos and more information about the Dallas Independent School District.