Candidate name: Omar Narvaez DCS district: At-Large Please complete questionnaire below. You must send a completed electronic copy to Political@StonewallDemocratsOfDallas.org or mail a completed copy to P.O. Box 192305 Dallas, TX 75219 by Monday, March 2nd.

1. Your background and the LGBT community Please share any experience that illustrates your understanding and interest of the needs of LGBT Dallas residents.

I am a proud openly gay man who has been a member of Stonewall since 2008. I have served on the board as membership chair and political affairs chair, and as president from 2011 thru 2013. These duties gave me the political knowledge and training needed to help me navigate Dallas City Hall, State of Texas and our Federal government to help make change happen for the LGBT community. I am also a member of the first ever LULAC Rainbow Council having served as VP and helped to create and push through the first ever LGBT resolution at the National LULAC level to repeal Dont Ask Dont Tell, Marriage Equality and ENDA over the course of 5 years. We also were the first and still only LGBT LULAC Council awarded National Council of the Year. I have also served on the City of Dallas LGBT Task Force since nearly the beginning of inception. For the past nearly four years, I have had the honor of being employed by Lambda Legal, the oldest and largest national legal non-profit organization committed to the full recognition of civil rights for LGBT people and those with HIV.

Stonewall Democrats of Dallas seek to inform members of the LGBT and Democratic Party community of candidate's political background. Our organizations by-laws require us only to consider candidates with Democratic Primary voter history or affirms their party affiliation via an oath of allegiance to the Democratic Party. Do you qualify or would you be prepared to sign an oath of allegiance form from the Dallas County Democratic Party? YES I qualify. I have been a loud, proud and avid Democrat since the age of five. I proudly served as president of this stellar organization and on the board. In 2012, and was given a special recognition for service to the organization in Dec. of 2014. I was honored to serve as a DNC National Delegate elected by fellow Democrats from the Fighting 16th Senatorial District and proudly cast my vote to nominate President Barack Obama for a second term. I have worked on so many Democratic candidates campaigns; I cant remember the number. I affirm without a shadow of doubt that I am a Democrat and would proudly and with honor sign a declaration stating such.

2. Creating an inclusive community

Cities and Counties compete for residents, tax payers, conventions and new businesses/economic development. As a member of the Dallas County Schools Board, how would you insure that Dallas County can compete effectively with other places in the area of LGBT inclusion? I have worked on many campaigns to bring equality for LGBT people throughout Dallas County. As a member of the City of Dallas LGBT Task Force, I helped to bring forward LGBT policies for health, financial and workplace fairness. Dallas County Commissioners Court, became the first ever County in Texas to offer domestic partner benefits and a fully inclusive non-discrimination policy. I was also part of the task force to bring and get passed a strong anti-bullying policy at DISD, and the first policy update I proposed at Dallas County Schools was to update the employee and student non-discrimination policies to be fully inclusive and enumerated for LGBT people which was passed unanimously by the board thanks to the great leadership of our board president Larry Duncan.

Would you recruit and consider qualified LGBT constituents for your staff and appointments? Yes, and I have already actively done this, and will continue.

3. Dallas County Schools (DCS) as a LGBT inclusive employer The private sector has seen a large increase in policies and benefits for LGBT employees, how should the DCS remain competitive to attract and retain top LGBT talent? We updated our entire employee and student policies to be fully inclusive of LGBT people. We still unfortunately unable to update our benefits due to Texas law and DCS being forced to subscribe for insurance through the Teachers Retirement System policy, but the minute SCOTUS rules in favor of marriage equality, it will be the first change I call to be updated.

Do you support comprehensive LGBT and especially transgender-inclusive health benefits? As a DCS board member will you work on lobbying the state and Teachers Retirement System to implement such benefits? Absolutely Dallas County Schools is lobbying the Texas Legislature to allow us to get private health insurance and opt out of the TRS. The private health insurance would be inclusive of LGBT people, and I would work to make sure that fully comprehensive transgender benefits are included.

It is great to have policies supportive of non-discrimination for LGBT personnel and students. Does DCS do any diversity training of personnel related to non-discrimination and anti-bullying? Yes, all employees go through training.

4. Current Events What do you see as the top challenges for the DCS board going into the next school year, and what are your personal priorities for your work on the board for DCS? Our top challenge as a board will be to increase our reserve fund to the goal amount we have set so the district no longer has to worry about slow/late payments for services from the ISDs. My personal priorities will be to make sure any and all changes for implementation of benefits changes post marriage equality SCOTUS rulings move smoothly and promptly. Increase diversity amongst our employee across the entire district. Increase community visibility and partnerships with Dallas County Schools. Employee relations will be a priority as well. LGBT youth make up approximately 40% of the homeless youth population, but only 10% of the youth population as a whole. They also face considerable discrimination and abuse in traditional homeless assistance programs. Given these facts, is there anything that DCS can do to help this at risk population stay in school, and any other assistance to help get them off the streets? We have a transportation program for homeless youth, which has been in place for many years. I was able to also help an organization host a summit at our Information and Technology building called Y[OUT] LEAD which was about LGBT youth and they are working on this issue especially pertaining to transgender youth. We also contributed school supplies to the LGBT School Supplies Drive conducted by LULAC Rainbow and a large portion was donated to Promise House, an emergency shelter to youth and does not discriminate against LGBT youth. Dallas County's Department of Elections has made it a priority to encourage new young voters to participate in elections more. In what ways would you attempt to increase participation in Dallas County's successful Student Election Worker program? Is there anything that DCS can do to help student voters participate in elections? I believe we could offer out Information and Technology Building for Student Election Worker program training and possibly provide transportation for these students to be able to get to and from training and the different work sites. If Dallas County would vote to contract Dallas County Schools to provide transportation for students to go to voting locations, I would happily vote in favor of accepting such a contract. Given that tax revenue for the City of Dallas and Dallas County should rise this year without a tax rate increase, what are the top priorities to which these additional funds should be directed towards? The top priorities for Dallas County Schools should always first and foremost be student safety. Increase in health insurance coverage contribution made by DCS on behalf of employees. Employee across the board compensation increases.

I, __Omar Narvaez_____________________________, am seeking an endorsement from the Stonewall Democrats of Dallas for the 2015 Dallas County Schools Board elections.

Signed_____OFN______________________________ Date_____02/28/15_____________________