From left: Salomon Muñoz Jr. and Maria J. Smith
Each month, HISD’s Construction and Facility Services (CFS) department recognizes two of its team members as the Employees of the Month. One is selected from the facilities (maintenance) side, while the other is chosen from the operations (custodial services) branch.
The honorees chosen for the month of March were:
- Salomon Muñoz Jr. (facilities)—Muñoz is an electrician who was described by his nominator as “a valued employee who never complains and is always willing to help. He doesn’t mind staying late to complete a project or going out on emergency calls to fix a problem.”
- Maria J. Smith (operations)—Smith is a plant operator at Sharpstown High School who was described by her nominator as “very dependable. She is never absent, always early to work, and leaves late. She is always willing to help schools in her feeder pattern if they are in need. Whenever called, her answer is always ‘yes.’”
Congratulations to Muñoz and Smith!
HISD in the News
- Homeless high school senior heads for higher education
- Exchange program brings Mexican teachers to Houston
- First Arabic Immersion School is led by a Houston mom
National News Links
- Mixed reactions for house school finance fix
- Should every school class be a computer coding class?
- Newtown victim inspires national education bill
A group of educators from HISD, including three librarians—Jo Reed (Scroggins ES), Cheryl Hensley (MacGregor ES), and Sue Carnes (Bell ES; now retired)—was recognized recently with the Wayne Williams Library Project of the Year Award for 2015 by the Texas Library Association.
The group was selected for coordinating schoolwide reading campaigns at their respective campuses based on the Lunch Lady series of graphic novels by Jarrett J. Krosoczka. The project not only built on students’ enthusiasm for graphic novels, but also increased their awareness of health and nutrition through a cleverly organized partnership with HISD Nutrition Services Dietician Jennifer Lengyel that connected daily meal offerings to literature. Read the full story here.
Congratulations also go out this week to:
- HISD’s Nutrition Services Department, which was presented with the No Kid Hungry Breakfast Champion Award, sponsored by Share Our Strength, during a pep rally event on April 8 at Marshall Middle School. The department provides the First Class Breakfast program, offered in more than 240 locations districtwide. Get the full story here.
- Demetria Price, who became the newest member of HISD’s Police Department during a swearing-in ceremony on April 13. The HISD Police Department is the only accredited public school district police department in the nation.
- Bruce Elementary School, which was one of nine schools from across the country to receive a $50,000 grant from the Leonore Annenberg School Fund for Children, an organization that provides educational resources to underfunded schools in urban and rural communities. Get that full story here.
- Students from Reagan High School, Davis High School, and Lovett Elementary School, who all won prizes for their entries into the 2015 Art Car Parade. Read that story here.
- Robert Edmond, a sixth-grader at Johnston Middle School, who has been named the second “Reader Leader” by myON for logging the most time spent reading on that website during a particular month. Read his story here.
- Shermya Parkere, a seventh-grader at Burbank Middle School, who is one of one two middle-school students in the State of Texas to win a Texas Association for the Gifted and Talented (TAGT) scholarship to attend the Summer Mathematics Institute (SMI). Get her story here.
- Winners of the annual Name That Book competition, which challenges students to identify passages read aloud from more than 30 books to correctly identify the titles and authors. You can see a list of all the winners here.
| If you know someone who should be featured in Accolades, please email us at info@houstonisd.org and tell us why. |
This month’s 4 for $40 team winners are, from left, Raul Morales, Brian Nguyen, Sandy Henderson, Elise Wong, and Nick Guidry.
Two months into the 4 for $40 weight-loss challenge, five employees in the Onboarding and Organizational Development department have lost more than 56 pounds. The recipe for their success? A combination of military-style workouts, the paleo diet, and portion control.
The team – consisting of Nick Guidry, Sandy Henderson, Raul Morales, Brian Nguyen, and Elise Wong – won the second iPad raffle, since all five members lost four-plus pounds during the second round of the 4 for $40 challenge. Henderson, an organizational development specialist, said the group supports each other by encouraging health-conscious meals and sticking to their workout regimens.
“Moderation is key,” said Henderson, referring to the team’s approach to healthy eating. “You don’t have to overindulge in order to enjoy the sweeter things in life. For example, if you are craving a donut, split it in halves or fourths and share. If you know you’re going out for steak and potatoes at dinner, watch your portion size and go easy on lunch. And don’t forget to fit in physical activity whenever you can.”
So far, 4 for $40 challenge participants have lost a total of 18,680 pounds, and about 44 percent of employees lost four or more pounds in the second month. These skinnier waist lines are equating to fatter wallets as a total of $47,720 has been awarded to participants who have met their weight-loss goals.
The next weigh-in period is Wednesday, April 22, through Tuesday, April 28. Click here for a list of weigh-in locations.
William Ponder
When William Ponder joined Team HISD back in the spring of 1985, it wasn’t his first time in the classroom.
“I taught for six years before that, but then stopped,” he said. “All my friends were waiters, and they made great money and I was always broke. So I thought, ‘Well, I’m just gonna do this (be a waiter, too) for a little while and then I’ll do something else.’ Then I started thinking about how nice it was to be able to call in sick and still get a paycheck, and after five years—as corny as it sounds—I just really missed the kids.”
So Ponder took the plunge again, this time with HISD, and he’s been here ever since. The last 21 years he has been at River Oaks Elementary School, teaching kindergarten.
“When I first came to River Oaks, I was teaching fourth grade,” said Ponder. “Then the principal told me about an opening in kindergarten and asked me if I wanted it. And I said, ‘Oh, no! I might make those babies cry.’ But after a while, I realized I was with my people. I was home.”
Ponder officially marked his 30th anniversary with the district on April 15, but a number of other employees are also observing theirs in the first half of April and the last few days of March (March 29–April 18). See if you know anyone on this list:
40 years
- Lela Spencer, associate teacher
20 years
- Juanita Sada, secretary, Hamilton MS
15 years
- Juan Castro, maintenance repairer, Construction & Facility Services
- Roseline Daniel, custodian, Construction & Facility Services
- James Hinton, teacher, Peck ES
- Luis Ikwueke, associate teacher
- Shonda Kemp, warehouser, Warehouse Operations
- John Ngo, teacher, Park Place ES
- Priscilla Peña, secretary, DeBakey HS
- Rose Smith, attendant, Food Services
- Glenda Williams, bus driver, Transportation Services
10 years
- Vicky Caldwell, teacher, Jones Futures Academy
- Mahmoud Chami, mechanic team lead, Transportation Services
- Arthur Collier Jr, teacher, Black MS
- Trevor Moore, teacher, Furr HS
- Lydia Rodriguez, associate tutor, J.P. Henderson ES
- Dawn Soria, teacher, Travis ES
5 years
- Julia Armstrong, associate teacher
- Maria Arroyo, attendant, Food Services
- Adriane Brown, associate teacher
- Toni Bright, associate teacher
- Huy Duc Bui, teacher, J.R. Harris ES
- Gilda Canales, attendant, Food Services
- Marie Carabajal, associate teacher
- Amanda Chapman, senior bus driver, Transportation Services
- Mary Kay Ellis-Odea, teacher, Sharpstown Intl. School
- Anne Fisher, teacher, Burbank Elementary
- Carmen Flores, attendant, Food Services
- Dianne Fonteneaux, associate teacher
- Frances Green, associate teacher
- Blanca Guerrero, attendant, Food Services
- Rhonda Howard, social worker, T.H. Rogers
- Lidia Ortega, attendant, Food Services
- Fabiola Mendoza, attendant, Food Services
- Juan Meza, senior mechanic, Transportation Services
- Bernadette Moore, associate teacher
- Ramona Mouton, attendant, Food Services
- Janis Norman, clerk, HSPVA
- Maria Rios, attendant, Food Services
- Gloria Sanchez, associate teacher
- Katrina Staggers, attendant, Food Services
- Silvia Trinh, principal, Park Place ES
- Maguadaulpe Vasquez-Collazo, attendant, Food Services
- Maria Vega, attendant, Food Services
- Wanda Watson, attendant, Food Services
| Check back next Friday for more April Milestones. Leave a comment below if you’d like to congratulate any of the above employees. |
Whether it’s greeting parents visiting a campus or supporting day-to-day business operations, HISD’s administrative support professionals play a vital role in ensuring HISD functions effectively and smoothly.
To help build upon their existing skills, the Onboarding & Organizational Development team is hosting the fourth annual Administrative Support Professionals Summit on Wednesday, April 29, at the Ryan Professional Development Center (4001 Hardy, 77009).
This year’s event will focus on assertive communication, with participants learning how to handle confrontations with composure, develop persuasion and negotiation skills, and infuse tact into everyday communications.
“HISD’s administrative support staff keeps our district running, and we appreciate all their hard work both on the front lines and behind the scenes. This summit exists to recognize the tremendous contributions they make to the district,” said Sandy Henderson, organizational development specialist from the Onboarding and Organizational Development team. “Our goal is to help administrative support professionals enhance the skills they use on a daily basis. This year we are focusing on assertive communication skills because communication is such a vital aspect of everyone’s job.”
The summit will be split into two half-day sessions, from 9 a.m.-noon and from 1-4 p.m. To register, log into eTRAIN and search for course #OB0023. A waitlist will become available once the sessions reach capacity.
If you have questions, please send an email to orgdev@houstonisd.org.
As part of the district’s digital transformation, HISD is in the process of migrating all instructional resources to the HUB, the district’s online teaching and learning platform. One key feature of the HUB is the Library, which is designed to hold a comprehensive collection of “learning objects” for use as part of the teaching and learning process. Learning objects in the HUB Library can be anything from adopted instructional materials (i.e., HISD’s adopted digital textbooks) to activities and resources that teachers create and share.
Recently, district adopted biology instructional materials from Pearson were successfully loaded into the HUB Library. In addition, math and science materials from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s (HMH) digital textbooks are available to all teachers in the HUB Library. In the weeks and months ahead, teachers can expect to see additional materials from district textbook providers in the HUB Library.
Teachers can click here for a pdf with step-by-step instructions on how to search the HUB Library.
Beginning June 1, 2015, all HISD online professional development courses will be accessible to all employees via the HUB, the district’s online teaching and learning platform. The migration of the district’s professional development courses to the HUB from eLearn is part of HISD’s overall plan to expand the utilization of the HUB beyond the current 48 pilot campuses to districtwide use during the 2015-2016 school year. The migration of PD courses will expand communication, collaboration, and learning for all HISD employees—giving them 24/7 access to development opportunities. Registration for PD courses will remain the same through eTrain.
All high school and middle school teachers are encouraged to attend PowerUp Super Saturday training on Saturday, April 18, at Reagan High School (413 E.13th Street, 77008). There, teachers will learn innovative strategies to integrate web tools and practical resources to help transform their own instruction. Training on the HUB, the district’s new online teaching and learning platform, will include sessions for beginners, intermediate users, and open labs.
All those who attend from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. will earn six hours of professional development credit and a $100 stipend. Breakfast and lunch will be provided. Click here for more information.
Register on e-TRAIN TC0179 Section 0002.
