Dallas ISD seeks to improve culture among staff

Written by Kara Arundel for publication on K-12 Dive

Sixty-two days, or about two months.

That’s how long the average response time was for maintenance calls seeking repairs or support three years ago in the Dallas Independent School District.

“It was terrible,” said David Bates, assistant superintendent of maintenance and facilities for the Texas district. The response times were so bad that the district conducted an audit, which revealed the lengthy wait times and found the system had about 10,000 unfilled orders.

“We have well documented how bad we were,” said Bates, who has worked in various departments in the district for 24 years.

There were several reasons for the lags in response time, but the main one was that the department lacked a good culture — or a passion — for helping, Bates said.

RELATED: Librarian Support in Dallas ISD