Dallas schools will again seek state law exemptions to allow earlier school year start

Dallas principals will seek to renew a special status that will allow the district to recruit non-certified teachers in certain hard-to-fill subjects and bring them forward to the start of the school year.

After five years as a District of Innovation (DOI), Dallas ISD will pursue status for another half a decade.

The DOI designation is shared by most of the state’s more than 1,000 school districts. Legislature created the status in 2015, allowing traditional school districts some of the same exemptions from state law that charter schools were already eligible for. Districts can request extra flexibility at the beginning and end of the school year, teacher contracts, class size, and more.

DISD began the process of becoming a District of Innovation in late 2016 and received its new powers in the 2017/18 school year. The new status enabled DISD to postpone the start of school before the fourth Monday in August and to hire non-certified teachers for dual study programs as well as vocational and specialist training courses.

Dallas ISD currently employs fewer than 50 uncertified professional and technical educators. That’s about 50 positions that would otherwise probably have remained vacant, noted a DISD administrator.

Teachers have expertise in their subject areas, which include architecture, construction, and manufacturing. To be hired, they must have several years of experience in their industry, district officials said.

“Without this exception, we would not be able to offer the experience and, most importantly, I think we would not be able to offer students the opportunities that lead to certification,” said Brian Lusk, the district’s director of strategic initiatives. at a board meeting on Thursday.

The 2017 permit was controversial at times, and a trustee said he hoped to avoid the same debates the district had a few years ago.

“There were a number of arguments against the DOI by people that this would be the end of the district,” said Trustee Dustin Marshall, adding that he cannot even remember what the arguments against DOI status were now were.

He asked the district staff if there would be any negative consequences for Dallas DOI status.

“There weren’t any problems,” said Lusk.

But Marshall said he was suspicious of a process that would “restart this whole debate,” and preferred a straightforward renewal process with minimal noise.

Meanwhile, Trustees Edwin Flores and Dan Micciche encouraged DISD to be open to considering other exceptions to state law that might be beneficial.

“I definitely want us to think boldly this time around and really push the envelope,” said Flores. “I really want us to look at some of the other options that competing schools and school systems have that we may not have.”

According to state law, districts must renew their DOI status every five years if they want to retain it. Otherwise, Dallas’s status ends in July.

The district will set up a committee to recommend a new plan and expects to release an updated proposal in January. The trustees could vote on the plan by spring.

The DMN Education Lab deepens reporting and discussion on pressing educational issues that are critical to the future of North Texas.

The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative with support from The Beck Group, Bobby and Lottye Lyle, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, The Meadows Foundation, Solutions Journalism Network, Southern Methodist University and Todd A. Williams Family Foundation. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control over the Education Lab’s journalism.

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