A 2015 Bellaire High School graduate will be playing the piano with the Houston Symphony before she begins the next chapter of her education.
Esther Liao was awarded the opportunity to play with the Symphony as part of becoming the gold medalist in the 2015 Ima Hogg Competition. She’ll take the stage at Jones Hall at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, July 11, and perform a selection of Tchaikovsky and Dvoràk pieces. Continue reading
Eastwood Academy student Michael Casio tests water samples in a microbiology lab.
A chemistry formula is just letters to be memorized until it becomes the answer to a problematic disease.
This summer, a group of HISD students are interning in various labs at Rice University and finding such answers. Linked Learning, an HISD program that initiates applied and career-based learning, created these internships with help from the Rice Office of STEM Engagement. More than 300 students applied for 12 spots, making the six-week paid internship applicant pool more competitive than that of a top-tier college.
At the Rice labs, each student is paired with a graduate student mentor. The interns are helping their mentors research everything from Alzheimer’s disease to solar cells to volcanoes. After a few short weeks in the advanced labs, the interns can now toss out scientific terms without a hint of a stammer and handle chemical samples as if it were second nature. Continue reading
July’s Workshop Wednesday featured Luis Ramos, a business adviser at LiftFund, describing what his firm and other lenders look for in a successful business plan.
Last month, the HISD Board of Education approved a budget aligned with improving human capital in an effort to address persistently low-performing, hard-to-staff schools. As a part of that process, the district made some adjustments to the structure of its organization.
Under the previous structure, five chief schools officers (three at the elementary level, and one each at the middle- and high-school levels) reported directly to a chief school support officer and indirectly to the superintendent. Moving forward, there will be six chief school officers (two each at the elementary and secondary levels, and two new “transformation” officers tasked exclusively with supporting struggling schools), and all will report directly to the superintendent. Each will have a director assigned to them to help manage daily operations. HISD will also be expanding its corps of school support officers, with 15 SSOs dedicated to serving the two transformation officers, to ensure a small school-to-SSO ratio.
In a special luncheon Tuesday, nine employees from across different Business Operations departments were honored for their work in promoting a culture of Service Excellence within HISD.
The event follows a year of trainings held by the nine employees to introduce the mission and standards of Service Excellence to their fellow employees. In all, more than 5,270 people have been trained in Service Excellence since the initiative launched in April.
[photoshelter-gallery g_id=”G00001uo9_5NsSSw” g_name=”20150630-ServiceExcellenceLuncheon” width=”600″ f_fullscreen=”t” bgtrans=”t” pho_credit=”iptc” twoup=”f” f_bbar=”t” f_bbarbig=”f” fsvis=”f” f_show_caption=”t” crop=”f” f_enable_embed_btn=”t” f_htmllinks=”t” f_l=”t” f_send_to_friend_btn=”f” f_show_slidenum=”t” f_topbar=”f” f_show_watermark=”t” img_title=”casc” linkdest=”c” trans=”xfade” target=”_self” tbs=”5000″ f_link=”t” f_smooth=”f” f_mtrx=”t” f_ap=”t” f_up=”f” height=”400″ btype=”old” bcolor=”#CCCCCC” ]
[photoshelter-gallery g_id=”G0000g_uP3la7r5o” g_name=”20150630-greenschools” width=”600″ f_fullscreen=”t” bgtrans=”t” pho_credit=”iptc” twoup=”f” f_bbar=”t” f_bbarbig=”f” fsvis=”f” f_show_caption=”t” crop=”f” f_enable_embed_btn=”t” f_htmllinks=”t” f_l=”t” f_send_to_friend_btn=”f” f_show_slidenum=”t” f_topbar=”f” f_show_watermark=”t” img_title=”casc” linkdest=”c” trans=”xfade” target=”_self” tbs=”5000″ f_link=”t” f_smooth=”f” f_mtrx=”t” f_ap=”t” f_up=”f” height=”400″ btype=”old” bcolor=”#CCCCCC” ]
At HISD, energy conservation and smart environmental design are important considerations in every new school. That’s why all new building projects under the current bond program are expected to meet certification requirements for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED).
LEED is the most widely used green building rating system in the world and is used to measure the sustainability of design, construction, operation, and maintenance of buildings, homes, and neighborhoods. Developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), LEED certification provides independent verification of a building’s green features, allowing for the design, construction, operations and maintenance of resource-efficient, high-performing, healthy, cost-effective buildings.
HISD’s Family and Community Engagement department is recruiting 15 part-time home instructors to work with the HIPPY program for the 2015–2016 school year.
Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) is a school readiness program for 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old children that helps parents prepare their preschoolers for academic success. Instructors visit parents in their homes for an hour a week over a 30-week period during the school year, and model research-based learning activities designed to help Pre-K children develop skills in reading, math, and science. Parents then practice the activities with their children over the week until they learn a new activity during the next lesson. Children whose parents participate in the program consistently outperform their peers in reading and math in kindergarten and first grade. Continue reading
Most HISD schools and offices will be closed on Thursday, July 2, 2015, in observance of Independence Day.
The federal holiday is being observed a day early this year because many campuses and facilities (including the district’s headquarters, the Hattie Mae White Educational Support Center) are currently operating on a condensed, four-day summer work week, and were already scheduled to be closed on Friday, July 3.
Please note that any campuses or offices which opted out of participating in the condensed summer schedule will be observing Independence Day on Friday, July 3. Parents with students in summer school classes should check with their childrens’ campuses if they have any questions.
Team HISD wishes everyone a safe and happy Fourth of July. Click here for a list of possible ways to celebrate.
Dozens of HISD elementary and middle school students spent the first month of the summer break at a science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) camp at M.C. Williams Middle School.
[photoshelter-gallery g_id=”G0000i6r4xuGZ07A” g_name=”20150625-STEM” width=”600″ f_fullscreen=”t” bgtrans=”t” pho_credit=”iptc” twoup=”f” f_bbar=”t” f_bbarbig=”f” fsvis=”f” f_show_caption=”t” crop=”f” f_enable_embed_btn=”t” f_htmllinks=”t” f_l=”t” f_send_to_friend_btn=”f” f_show_slidenum=”t” f_topbar=”f” f_show_watermark=”t” img_title=”casc” linkdest=”c” trans=”xfade” target=”_self” tbs=”5000″ f_link=”t” f_smooth=”f” f_mtrx=”t” f_ap=”t” f_up=”f” height=”400″ btype=”old” bcolor=”#CCCCCC” ]
Campers, who are in grades 2–8, had daily team-building sessions during the program, which ran from June 2–26. They also learned how to code video games, and built rockets that they launched on the last day of camp. Continue reading
Mai Pham
Mai Pham, a 2015 graduate of Carnegie Vanguard High School (CVHS) has been awarded a scholarship from The Texas Lyceum, a program dedicated to fostering youth leadership.
In May, the Lyceum distributed $35,000 in scholarships to seven students. The winners were selected from a pool of 900 applicants from all over Texas based on their leadership, academic accomplishments, personal essays, and letters of recommendation. Continue reading