Author Archives: HISD Communications

HSPVA leader participates in inaugural Cooke Foundation Summit

Dr. R. Scott Allen

Dr. R. Scott Allen, the principal of The High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (HSPVA) was one of only 100 campus leaders from around the country to be invited to participate in at a two-day summit last week to identify solutions to close the excellence gap—the troubling disparity in academic performance between lower-income and higher-income students at advanced levels.

The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation convened “Closing the Excellence Gap” on Feb. 5 and 6 to share cutting-edge research and best practices for supporting high-achieving, low-income students.

A number of principals formed a new organization at this landmark event, called the “Coalition of Leaders for Advanced Students Success,” whose goal is to support and advocate for high-achieving students with financial need.

“We are leaders in our communities who have a stake in nurturing talent wherever we find it and regardless of a student’s economic status,” said Dr. Allen. “We need talent to remain competitive as a nation. This summit underscored the fact that HSPVA is part of the solution.”

“This summit confirmed my belief that these leaders have excellent insights to offer policymakers at all levels of government,” said Harold Levy, executive director of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation and former chancellor of New York City Schools.

The creation of HSPVA in 1971 represented the first attempt by any public high school in the nation to correlate an academic program with concentrated training in the arts. It was one of only three public schools in the nation to offer programs in both the visual and performing arts, and the first such institution in the Southwest. HSPVA is fully accredited and offers the same academic curriculum and graduation requirements as all HISD high schools.

Author visits build love of literacy through inspiration, encouragement

Author Barney Saltzberg with Visual Art Specialist Rebecca Stewart

Whether you’re five, 15, or 55 years old, it can still be a thrilling experience to meet someone who actually created a book you enjoyed. If it makes a big enough impression, the experience can even make you a reader for life.

That’s why a number of HISD schools regularly invite popular authors to visit their campuses as part of the district’s literacy initiatives, such as Harvard ES, Patterson and Red elementaries, and Burbank Middle School.

Barney Saltzberg was the latest writer/illustrator to bring inspiration and encouragement to students. He came to Memorial Elementary School on Feb. 13.

“His visit was awesome,” said Visual Art Specialist Rebecca Stewart. “He spoke about not being a very good student. He said he was terrible at spelling. No one—not even his parents—was very optimistic that he would ever do anything significant, because he had such a hard time in school. But he loved to draw, so he drew all the time. When he went to art school, he still didn’t think he was very good, but a teacher looked at his drawing one day and said, ‘You need to write a book with that character.’ So he did. And the little boy who had such a hard time at spelling is now a best-selling author with more than a million books in print.” Continue reading →

Lamar HS football player to accept prestigious Watkins Award

Lamar High School football player Holton Hill will be in Washington, D.C. on Feb. 21, 2015, to receive this year’s Franklin D. Watkins Memorial Award. He is one of only five high school athletes nationwide to be so honored this year by the National Alliance of African American Athletes. Continue reading →

TX Dept. of Agriculture dubs HISD Nutrition Services the ‘Cream of the Crop’

Nutrition Services representatives (L-R): Glenn Topfer (vendor liaison), Amanda Oceguera (nutrition manager), Angela Olige (chief administrator), and Audene Chung (senior administrator) accept the award on behalf of the district.

HISD’s Nutrition Services department was recently recognized for supporting agriculture in the Lone Star State. The Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) presented it with a “Cream of the Crop” award on Jan. 8 for the district’s commitment to sourcing food locally.

Each year, the TDA challenges schools to use more Texas products in the meals they serve during National School Lunch Week and recognizes those who complete the challenge.

HISD served nine menu items that were locally sourced, including milk from Oak Farms, apple juice from Cal-Tex, and tortillas from Kurz.

“Our vision is to create more recipes from scratch, sourcing the ingredients and menu items locally to not only provide wholesome meals for our students, but also to support the Texas community,” said Audene Chung, senior administrator of Nutrition Services.

This was the district’s second year of recognition. HISD Nutrition Services was also presented with the Grapefruit Award for completing a local products challenge last year.

Updated HISD emergency administrative guide to be distributed

HISD Risk Management Field Safety Team Leader Robert Cage, Jr. and HISD Risk Management Safety and Loss Control Manager Julie Burris-Richardson.

HISD’s Risk Management department recently rolled out a new Emergency Resource Administrative Guide aimed to prepare staff members and students across the district for potential emergency situations.

Continue reading →

Austin High School students take a bite out of “Shark Tank” competition

Houston Community College Professor Catherine Smith’s Business Dual Credit/College Credit students at Austin High School made “business dreams and ideas come alive” twice this past year when they participated in two high-level collegiate business plan and business development competitions. Continue reading →

Digital Learning Spotlight: Herrera Elementary

During the month of February, all HISD teachers are being encouraged to try something new in their classrooms, as well as share ideas, resources, and lessons learned by posting their experiences and photos on social media using the hashtag #HISDdigital. Each week during the month, we are profiling a teacher or campus that is using technology to break up rows in classrooms, engage students, and innovate instructional practice. This week’s profile features Herrera Elementary.

Students at Herrera Elementary are using tablets and digital programs such as iMovie, Animoto, Prezi, and Roxio to produce digital book trailers instead of the standard book report most of us remembering doing in elementary school. Continue reading →

Yates HS students create video for PowerUp persuasion

Students at Yates High School are encouraging their classmates to join the digital revolution by creating a video touting the benefits of the district’s one-to-one initiative which provides every high school student with a laptop. Yates, and over a dozen other HISD high schools have distributed nearly 18,000 student laptops over the last five weeks. The distribution is part of the district’s digital transformation known as PowerUp.

[su_youtube_advanced url=”http://youtu.be/4CdG43TsoDk “] Continue reading →

Thousands turn out across the district to learn more about rightsizing classrooms

Parents get answers to questions about proposed changes to attendance boundaries

Thousands of parents and community members turned out at a series of community meetings this week to provide parents with an overview of proposals designed to reduce classroom overcrowding at certain elementary schools.

The proposal for each school was discussed during regional meetings that took place on Tuesday, Feb. 17, and Thursday, Feb. 19. District officials will use the feedback to finalize the proposals and present them to the HISD Board of Education in March. If approved, the changes would be implemented for fall 2015.

Options under consideration include attendance boundary adjustments, program enhancements, and limiting the number of students each school may accept from outside its own neighborhood. District officials are also considering ways to improve internal practices such as adding a layer of additional scrutiny to the waiver request process and eliminating waivers for district charter schools.

The proposals would primarily affect new, incoming students. Current students would be grandfathered and allowed to stay at their current schools when possible.

The move is a result of a directive from the Texas Education Agency, which requires kindergarten through fourth-grade classes to have no more than 22 students per classroom. Classes that exceed that number must request a state waiver.

This school year, HISD had to submit nearly 1,500 class-size waiver requests to the TEA. District officials aim to cut that number in half by the 2015-2016 school year, with plans to continue the decrease incrementally through 2019.

Here is a list of the meetings that took place and the schools that may be affected by proposed boundary changes:

Tuesday, Feb. 17, 6 to 8 p.m.
Briar Forest Area Community Meeting
Location: Revere MS, 10502 Briar Forest
Affected Schools: Ashford, Askew, Bush, Daily, Emerson, Shadowbriar, Walnut Bend

Northwest Area Community Meeting
Location: Waltrip HS, 1900 West 34^th St.
Affected Schools: Crockett, Highland Heights, Love, Memorial, Sinclair, Smith, Stevens

288 Corridor Community Meeting
Location: Attucks MS, 4330 Bellfort
Affected Schools: Bastian, Kelso, Young

Thursday, Feb. 19, 6 to 8 p.m.
Northline Area Community Meeting
Location: Sam Houston MSTC, 9400 Irvington Blvd.
Affected Schools: Burbank, Lyons, Northline

Tinsley and Halpin Area Community Meeting
Location: Tinsley ES, 11035 Bob White Dr.
Affected Schools: Anderson, Tinsley, Halpin ECC

Medical Center Area Community Meeting*
Location: Pershing MS, 3838 Blue Bonnet Blvd.
Affected Schools: The Rice School, Roberts, Twain, West University
*Only programmatic changes under consideration.

The proposals for each school are available online: http://www.houstonisd.org/Page/125328

Building projects on display at State of the Schools

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Design renderings for schools in Groups 1 and 2 of the bond program, as well as other building projects, were on display at the 2015 State of the Schools luncheon, generating plenty of interest and conversation, as well as significant social media buzz.