Category Archives: Achievement/Recognition

Khalilah Campbell-Rhone named Officer of Special Populations

Khalilah Campbell-Rhone has been named Officer of Special Populations. She is a proud product of the Houston Independent School District and the University of Houston, where she received her bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees.

Dr. Campbell-Rhone has worked as a teacher and administrator at several campuses including Tanglewood and Stevenson Middle Schools, Sam Houston MSTC, Ninth Grade College Preparatory Academy and served as principal at Thomas Middle School and currently at Worthing High School. During her tenure in HISD, she also served as a School Support Officer and oversaw and advised 17 principals and schools in the district. 

“I am honored to have the opportunity to help HISD continue to provide quality programs and services to the district’s diverse groups of students,” Campbell-Rhone said. “I look forward to supporting Dr. Lathan’s vision of providing equity to all HISD students.” 

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20 HISD students named National Merit Scholarship winners

A total of 20 Houston Independent School District students from six high schools have been selected as winners of National Merit Scholarships this year with the final four recipients named this week.

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) annually selects winners in three categories: awards funded by corporations-recipients were named in April, awards funded by NMSC-recipients were named in May, and awards sponsored by institutions of higher learning-the first group of recipients were named in June. The final four HISD scholarship winners are in the second and final group of recipients who won awards funded by colleges and universities.

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Senior celebrations poignant, bittersweet for Bellaire HS grad

When Bellaire High School Senior Madison Olds thinks back on the past three months, she does so with a sense of bittersweet nostalgia.

She thinks about the missed basketball, baseball, and soccer games where, as a cheerleader, she didn’t get to cheer her teams on to victory. She thinks about the missed trips to Chick-Fil-A for lunch with her friends.

She thinks about missing her senior luncheon, joining with her cap-and-gown-clad classmates for their senior class picture, and graduation practice — all part of an annual Senior Week that she had been looking forward to since she was a freshman.

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Middle College HS at HCC Fraga senior shows resilience on path to graduation

Before Mykayla Clark-Jolivet could begin her high school career at Middle College High School at HCC Fraga, her home was destroyed by Hurricane Harvey. This was the first of many challenges she would face on her way to graduating.

Clark-Jolivet and her family left their mold-ruined house to live in a hotel for three months.

“I left a lot of memories behind,” Clark-Jolivet said. “I was constantly late to school because the hotel was across town.”

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Graduation marks end of remarkable journey for Yates HS student

As Jack Yates High School senior Ernest Russell sat on the school’s football field for the citywide senior celebration recently, it was far more than an event honoring his graduation from the historic school.

The celebration — marked by colorful Yates High School masks and chairs spaced at a proper social distance — represented the culmination of a trying journey that was marked by the loss of his father and homelessness.

“I don’t really have a word to describe it. But, if I had to come up with one, I’d say it was challenging,” Russell said.

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Record number of HISD students receive full scholarships from Marvy Finger Family Foundation

The Marvy Finger Family Foundation awarded a record 84 full scholarships this year to Houston Independent School District graduates who will attend two-year colleges to pursue Career and Technical Education (CTE) certificates and associate’s degrees.

The scholarship recipients are students who are seeking careers in fast-growing, high-paying professions such as computer programming, maritime transportation, petroleum engineering technology, nuclear medicine technology, automotive, HVAC, pipefitting, cybersecurity, construction, licensed vocational nursing, and welding. 

“The generosity of the Finger family is well known when it comes to funding post-high school career training and higher education for our graduates, but they have surpassed themselves this year,” HISD Interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan said. “These scholarships are extremely timely and appreciated right now because many of our graduates and their families are experiencing hardships due to COVID-19.”

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Citywide grad events across HISD give seniors an opportunity to celebrate with peers

Thousands of HISD graduating seniors gathered at their schools last Friday to virtually celebrate their years of hard work with other Houston-area students during the City of Houston’s Citywide Graduation Celebration.

HISD joined four other area school districts – Aldine, Alief, Spring and Spring Branch – in a first-of-its-kind celebration outdoor event that included a star-studded video tribute from a number of national and local celebrities, including Houston Astros All-Star shortstop Carlos Correa and Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles.

At Wheatley High School, the event was more than just a graduation celebration. Despite starting the school year as an “Improvement Required” campus, students and staff celebrated a class with a graduation rate of 98% that earned more than three million dollars in scholarship funds.

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Winners of HISD, myON Read to Succeed competition announced

The winners of the HISD and myON Reader by Renaissance Reading Initiative’s second annual Read to Succeed Competition have been announced.

The competition is hosted in partnership with myOn, an online literacy platform, and encourages pre-kindergarten through fifth-grade students to compete against each other to see who read myON books for the most number of minutes.

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New HISD chief of police sworn in during ceremony

The Houston Independent School District’s new police chief, Pedro “Pete” Lopez, Jr. was sworn in Tuesday during an official ceremony where he took the oath of office at the district’s Hattie Mae White Educational Support Center.

The chief’s wife took part in the ceremonial badge-pinning portion of the event. Houston Municipal Courts Director and Presiding Judge J. Elaine Marshall administered the oath of office.

Lopez comes to HISD after 32 years of law enforcement experience, with 29 of those years spent serving the Houston Police Department, where he rose from the rank of patrol officer to assistant chief of Patrol Region 1. He has also served with the Harris County Sheriff’s Department and Texas Department of Corrections.

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HISD to award 10 exemplary students with Superintendent Scholars Award

Houston Independent School District Interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan will surprise 10 high school seniors with 2019-2020 HISD Superintendent Scholars Awards during surprise visits to their homes.

This is the third year the scholarships will be awarded to graduating seniors who have exemplified great character and resilience in the face of adversity.

Moved by their tenacity and inspiring journeys, Lathan personally selected the 10 students she will surprise from among 45 HISD seniors who were nominated by their principals or leadership teams.

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