School safety, teacher retention and student success are the key focuses of candidates as two seats on the Dallas school board are up for grabs.

The new trustees will join veteran representatives in working with Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde to steer the second-largest district in Texas as it works to boost academic performance and manage a roughly $1.9 billion budget.

Trustees set DISD priorities for serving the district’s roughly 140,000 students, pass legislative agendas and evaluate the superintendent’s effectiveness. Election day is May 4; early voting runs now through April 30.

District 1 trustee Edwin Flores is stepping down to pursue a seat on the Dallas College board. District 9 trustee Justin Henry – who is currently board president – also is not seeking reelection. Both have endorsed candidates who they want to succeed them.

Dan Micciche, who represents the District 3 area that includes Northeast Dallas, is running unopposed for reelection.

District 1

Three people are seeking the Northwest Dallas District 1 seat.

Flores is endorsing Lance Currie, a law firm partner with two kids in DISD. Currie has worked with multiple organizations supporting public education, including Reading Partners and EducateDallas. Currie said it’s vital to have a parent’s perspective on the board.

Currie has worked alongside Flores for years to understand the district’s direction and priorities, including as the trustee’s appointee on a racial equity advisory council.

“He has the right experience, the right demeanor, the right understanding,” Flores said of Currie.

Currie said he wants the district doing additional work to figure out what happens to students after they graduate and set goals based on their success. He’s supportive of one of the district’s key reforms: the Teacher Excellence Initiative, a pay-for-performance compensation model.

“If you’re gonna have to live with some turnover, I’d rather keep the really effective [teachers] and have the other ones find the places that they need to be so that our kids can continue to learn,” Currie said.

He’s running against nonprofit field director Maureen Milligan and Chris Roberts, who works in information technology.

Milligan wants school leaders to pause and determine what is succeeding – and what isn’t – as the district grapples with budget challenges and declining enrollment.

“We really need this comprehensive assessment of what programs have been working – how our facilities and our investments, staff and the rest of the system can really be strategically designed,” she said.

Milligan acknowledged that could mean fewer schools in the future. DISD’s enrollment has decreased by more than 15,000 students since 2018-19.

She is involved in many civic organizations, including the City of Dallas 2024 bond taskforce. As trustee, she said she would increase the number of parents and community members who participate in campus-level decision making.

Prior to Roberts’ career in technology, he was a middle and high school band director. He’s an advocate for additional music education, more restrictive technology policies and stronger discipline.

“If we have strong discipline, it would actually be a recruiting tool,” Roberts said. He added that he wants DISD known as a place where “we’re good with discipline. We have a tight ship.”

He said his ideas would likely be met with a lot of “noise” initially but would be in the best interest of the district.

DISD overhauled its discipline practices in recent years, aiming to keep more kids on campus and solve underlying behavior issues. The district wanted to tackle the negative impact of exclusionary discipline, which removes students from class and disproportionately affects students of color.

District 9

Four candidates are seeking to represent District 9, which includes South Dallas along with parts of downtown, Pleasant Grove, Deep Ellum, Uptown and East Dallas.

Henry supports Ed Turner, an insurance broker and longtime DISD volunteer who previously sought the same seat.

Henry said Turner will keep his focus on what’s best for kids and can build relationships even with those he disagrees with. Turner is the only candidate with a significant campaign finance balance. The latest reports online showed he had roughly $16,000 cash on hand.

Student safety is top of mind for candidates. A DISD student wounded a classmate in a shooting at Wilmer-Hutchins High School earlier this month, raising concerns about how a teenager brought a gun onto campus despite the use of metal detectors and clear backpacks.

Turner – whose daughter attends a DISD school – said he wants to see more focus on keeping students safe from fentanyl.

“Every teacher, everyone in the building, should be trained on identifying overdoses,” he said, adding that there should be easy access to medication that rapidly reverses opioid overdoses.

One of his opponents, Oralia Alonso, a parent instructor/liaison at Ann Richards STEAM Academy, said she’s in favor of more mental health resources.

“The district has programs available,” she said. “But are they reachable to every school? Do the parents have that information?”

The candidates have various ideas on tackling teacher retention.

Da’On Boulanger-Chatman, a fine arts teacher in Garland ISD, said that while he supports the overall idea of the Teacher Excellence Initiative, he wants to make changes to the system so educators don’t feel in competition with each other.

“This is not to say that the TEI program is not effective in many ways. It is,” he said. “However, the verbiage and the selection criteria that is presented to the teachers is not a morale booster.”

He also wants educators who win “Teacher of the Year” awards to get a seat at the boardroom table for trustee meetings.

Community organizer LaKashia Wallace suggested moving to a four-day school week to attract successful teachers. Fridays could be used for academic remediation for students who need it, she said. A few smaller area districts have moved to shortened weeks, including Anna, but large urban districts have stayed away from this model.

“Since we’re in a budget crisis, what can we do to look and see incentives for teachers and staff?” she said. “Get what we need done and give teachers an opportunity to rest.”

The DMN Education Lab deepens the coverage and conversation about urgent education issues critical to the future of North Texas.

The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative, with support from Bobby and Lottye Lyle, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Garrett and Cecilia Boone, The Meadows Foundation, The Murrell Foundation, Solutions Journalism Network, Southern Methodist University, Sydney Smith Hicks and the University of Texas at Dallas. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control of the Education Lab’s journalism.