The DISD celebrated so many student and staff accomplishments at Monday's Board of Education meeting.

The district has had 11 students exit the English as a Second Language (ESL) program this year. This is a record number for the district. Each school in the district had at least one student who exited the program. This is a huge accomplishment and requires the student to test out of listening, speaking, reading and writing tests with a certain composite score.

Congratulations to Elisa Martinez, Julio Vazquez-Gomez, Dylan Mateo Castellano Salvador, Jeremy Velazquez, Danica Dy, Kaden Gonzalez-Vivanco, Nathan Orozco Aburto, Shreyanshi Patel, Khaled Moadamany, Kimberly Martinez-Grajales and Betzada Gonzalez-Ralac.

Congratulations to the following staff members who were recognized at the board meeting:

• Ryan Hilbert, an instructional assistant at Mary G. Hogsett Primary School, became the third staff member to join the district's Option 9 cohort.
• Hogsett's assistant principal, Jerrica Funkhouser, received the Abound Financial Literacy Community Partnership Award from Abound Credit Union. This was for her work in partnering with the organization to provide financial literacy lessons to first graders.

This year's retirees were also recognized at the board meeting. There was a retirement reception before the meeting, and retirees were recognized with retirement bells. We are grateful to all of the staff, friends and family members who were present to celebrate our retirees: 

• Tim Dodds
• Tim Breitenbach
• Janet Hollon
• Lisa Murphy
• Judy Todd
• Nicky King
• Shelli Engler
• Lisa Johnson
• Deborah Mullaney
• Kristi Ray
• Lisa Denny
• Laura Eason
• Kim Grimes
• Robin Kelly
• Sandy Cain