Audio By Carbonatix
Independent Journalism in Dallas Needs You
We need to raise $12,500 by August 9 to support the reporting our community depends on. Reader support keeps us independent and is playing a larger role in funding local journalism and shaping what comes next. If you believe independent local journalism matters, make a contribution today.
A week after making one of his bigger hires in Teach for America’s Charles Glover, incoming Dallas Independent School District Superintendent Mike Miles continues to fill out his administrative team.
Tuesday, the district announced that it has hired the first five of an eventual 20 executive directors, each of whom will oversee and coach a handful of principals and report to an assistant superintendent. All of the hires are current DISD employees, but expect that to change. Miles, if you’ll recall, is cutting the layer of bureaucracy between the superintendent and the principals by more than half, from 79 positions (68 currently occupied) to 36.
And with three of the new hires getting bumped up from principal slots, the number of current mid-level administrators who won’t be back next year looks to be at 35 and counting.
True to form, Miles favors turnaround artists in his first batch of hires. Edward Conger has led a renaissance at Thomas Jefferson High School, increasing graduation rates and somehow getting a quarter of his students to learn Mandarin. Israel Cordero has done similar things at Samuel High School, and Brian Lusk helped revive Walker Middle School before taking charge of A. Maceo Smith High School’s transformation.
The other two hires are in district administration. Stephanie Elizalde directs the DISD’s STEM program — that’s science, technology, engineering and math train for teachers — and Leslie Williams is the senior executive director for the central secondary learning community.
DISD is promising more hires after another round of interviews.
