Natashia Gerald Running for Dallas ISD District 5 Trustee

Natashia Gerald, 42, is running for the Dallas ISD District 5 trustee seat. She’s one of three candidates on the May 3 ballot.

She grew up in Oak Cliff, went through DISD schools, and in 2023 came back to Glendale Heights, the same neighborhood she was raised in. That’s not a talking point. That’s where she lives now.

“I embrace this journey, not as an individual seeking power, but as someone deeply committed to a cause greater than myself,” Gerald said, “the future of our children.”

First-time candidate. No prior office. Her argument is simple enough: West Dallas schools have been left behind, and the people responsible for them haven’t had to answer for it.

The bond audit is the sharpest edge of her platform. Gerald wants a forensic review of past bond and maintenance expenditures, which she says have been marked by delays and discrepancies in delivering what was promised to District 5 communities. Trustee candidates don’t typically walk in asking for audits. That one’s worth tracking.

Safety is the other leg. She’s proposed building a district-level disciplinary and safety policy she describes as practical and workable. The specifics aren’t fully fleshed out yet, but the framing is pointed at a problem West Dallas families bring up constantly.

Then there’s the naming question. Gerald wants stricter community-input requirements before any District 5 school gets renamed. She’d align district and local policies to define what that input looks like, require it formally, and document it. School renaming fights have gotten ugly across Dallas ISD board rooms and beyond, and communities in West Dallas and Oak Cliff carry particular attachments to their school histories. It’s a constituency that’s real and it’s been ignored before.

Her background is civic, not governmental. She’s served as president of the South Oak Cliff Alumni Bear Cave Leadership ISD, chaired the Serve Pillar for the Mayor’s Star Council through Engage Dallas, led advocacy work for Outreach Ministries International, and chaired parent advocacy for The Black Academy of Arts and Letters. She also chaired artist and talent relations for the Dallas Riverfront Jazz Festival. The resume reads as community-rooted, which fits what District 5 voters tend to respond to.

One detail she offered that doesn’t show up on a resume: her daughter, now 19, attended DISD schools and is studying at the University of Houston. Gerald didn’t bury that. She volunteered it. There’s a difference between candidates who cite the district’s 96 schools and 140,000 students as statistics and one who watched her own kid go through the system. That’s not nothing.

The Dallas ISD board seat for District 5 covers West Dallas, Oak Cliff, and Glendale Heights. Three candidates, one seat, May 3 election. The Dallas Free Press has been running candidate Q&As and published Gerald’s full responses ahead of the vote.

She’s not a political insider, and she’s not pretending to be one. Whether that reads as a liability or a credential probably depends on how much patience District 5 voters have left for insiders.