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Editor’s note: This is the first in a two-part series on the opening of Dallas County Schools.

The school year appears to be off to a great start for Dallas County Schools.

Superintendent Anthony Sampson attributes the smooth start to implementation of a checklist for each school last year for the beginning of the educational year. He said it’s a detailed checklist for each administrator that includes everything from the cafeteria schedule and cleaning schedule to identifying the building’s leadership team and department chairs.

“Principals, went through that detailed process last year, and then we partnered each school with the district supervisor that goes by checks and supports on those day-to-day first day school operations,” Sampson said. “All we had to do was to dust off those plans from last year and put those plans in place. I’m just so happy that we have good processes, good systems and procedures to be able to help us get through what could be challenging moments for us.”

Sampsons said there really wasn’t anything new starting out this school year other than there are a few different people in places within the district.

Enrollment figures are still being updated at the start of school, but Sampson believes the student tally will be similar to where it was last year. The first day of school saw about 2,045 students on the rolls, but Sampson said that number should grow over the coming days. 

Some of that is due to some of the students’ information having not been entered or updated at the beginning of school. Once those details have been been updated, Sampson expects the enrollment to be at or near last year’s final enrollment of over 2,300 students.

Smartphone policy

So far, Sampson has not had any issues with the new smartphone device policy. Students place their cell phones in a specialized pouch at the beginning of the day. The pouches lock at the beginning of the day and are unlocked when the students go home.

While it is early in the school year, Sampson said they haven’t noticed any issues so far.

“We just want to make sure that we do what we can do to protect instructional time, and this is just one of those things that we’re doing to protect instructional time, which then allows for the delivery of good instruction,” Sampson said. “This is a way we can advance and close gaps, escalate achievement in a way that we really desire to do here in Dallas County.”

Beginning instruction day 1

One of the things that Sampson was most pleased with was that he witnessed classroom instruction occurring on the first day of school. A kindergarten teacher got creative when she was reading to her classroom.

The book was about how you treat a pencil and showing what are the things you use it for and what you don’t.

Another teacher uses the word “waterfall” to let her students know if they are getting too loud, as the sound of the waterfall can make a “shh” sound.

“It’s a magical thing to see,” Sampson said. “And teachers that can just do it, and they make it look effortless. They do it with the greatest of ease.”

Sampson said they are still in need of a few teachers and other support personnel, most notably in special education. To attract highly qualified personnel, Sampson said he is trying to use incentives to bring in personnel to fill these key positions.