Category Archives: District I – Elizabeth Santos

Board of Education elects new officers for 2015

Board of Education meetings usually begin with commendations and recognitions. However, the first meeting of every year starts with the election of new officers.

On Jan. 15, 2015, the trustees chose Rhonda Skillern-Jones to serve as president, Manuel Rodriguez Jr. as first vice president, Wanda Adams as second vice president, Paula Harris as secretary, and Juliet Stipeche as assistant secretary.

Serving as an HISD school-board member requires a lot of hard work and dedication, and the nine trustees on HISD’s board selflessly devote many hours to studying issues, deliberating proposed actions and policy changes, and representing HISD in the community, all without pay. These men and women are essential to the success of this school district and deserve the district’s and the community’s deepest thanks.

2015 HISD Board of Education

  • Rhonda Skillern-Jones, President
  • Manuel Rodriguez, First Vice President
  • Wanda Adams, Second Vice President
  • Paula Harris, Secretary
  • Juliet Stipeche, Assistant Secretary
  • Anna Eastman
  • Michael Lunceford
  • Greg Meyers
  • Harvin Moore

For more information, including biographical information for each trustee, visit the Board of Education website.

AVID program supports low-income students’ quest for college

The desks in seventh-grade teacher Zachary Cummings’ AVID classroom at Hamilton Middle School are arranged so that students can work in groups. Collaboration is one of the five hallmarks of AVID, along with reading, writing, inquiry, and organization.

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Cummings’ students recently quizzed each other on Cornell notes they took on a PowerPoint presentation about the history of Apple Inc. Cornell notes are just one example of college-level study techniques students learn in AVID, a global nonprofit organization directed at students who are capable of completing a college-preparatory path if they receive the proper support. The focus is on low-income students whose families don’t traditionally attend college.

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Reagan students excited to receive laptops for school and home use

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All 2,234 students at Reagan High School received laptops on Monday, Jan. 12, as part of the district’s one-to-one plan to give all high school students a digital device to use for learning at school and at home. The one-to-one laptop program is a key component of HISD’s PowerUp initiative, which aims to digitally transform teaching and learning throughout the district.

Reagan is one of 14 HISD high schools distributing laptops to students during the month of January and early February. Others high schools include Davis, Lamar, Milby, Scarborough, South Early College, Waltrip, Westbury, Westside, Wheatley and Yates, as well as the Futures Academies at Jones, Jane Long Academy, and the High School for Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice.  Continue reading →

Class of 2014 IB diploma candidates receive their degrees

LamarHS_CO2014_IBDipsMore than 100 members of HISD’s Class of 2014 took home their International Baccalaureate (IB) diplomas recently. Ninety-six graduates from Lamar High School (some of whom are pictured here) and 10 from Bellaire High School accepted their degrees during special ceremonies held on Jan. 5 and Dec. 17, respectively.

Since IB diplomas are not conferred until late summer, students are generally presented with them while at home, on break from university.

Lamar and Bellaire were the first two HISD high schools to offer the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program, which is composed of academically challenging and advanced curriculum. Lamar’s IB Diploma program is the largest in Texas and one of the top 10 IB Diploma programs in the United States. Reagan High School received its IB authorization for the Middle Years Programme in the fall of 2013. It is currently in the process of obtaining authorization to offer the IB Degree Program. The first students eligible to graduate from that campus with IB diplomas will be the Class of 2018.

Health program to help students focus, stay calm expands to 26 schools

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Breathing exercises and yoga poses are just a few of the things HISD students learn in the Sonima Health and Wellness program. Fourteen additional HISD schools now offer the curriculum, which is offered by the Sonima Foundation and teaches students multiple skills for a healthier lifestyle.

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HISD to link virtual learning to classroom with on the job video conferences

Career professionals will soon be able to join an HISD class virtually to speak to students live on camera about their industry, giving students an up-close and personal look at numerous professions.

As part of a new HISD Linked Learning initiative to combine core academics with career-based knowledge, hundreds of career and technical education teachers participated in a two-hour training this week to learn how to use Nepris.com, a web-based platform that easily connects teachers and students with industry experts for video conferences. Although teachers often organize face-to-face student visits with professionals, this tool will allow teachers and students to participate in these sessions without having to leave the classroom.  Continue reading →

College acceptance letters start arriving for members of Class of 2015

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Lamar senior Tyra Jenkins poses with the acceptance letter she received from Cornell University. Cornell is her dream school, and she plans to attend it in the fall.

Graduating seniors are starting to discover where their quest for higher education will take them this fall, as colleges and universities across the country are sending out letters of acceptance to those who applied for admission early.

More than two dozen students in the district’s EMERGE program have already received either early decision or early action notices from top tier schools, including Stanford, Notre Dame, Rice, Cornell, and Harvard.   Continue reading →

Senior challenges giving students extra incentive to apply to college

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Completing college and financial aid applications early often yields its own rewards, but for students at two HISD campuses, it could also mean a free ticket to the senior prom or a day spent shadowing an admired professional.

Sharpstown High School Principal Rob Gasparello launched the Senior Challenge at his campus last fall, and students who meet all criteria are eligible to attend both the senior prom and the annual senior trip for free.  Continue reading →

Student Congress giving high school kids a voice in their own education

Speaker of the Congress Zaakir Tameez (lower left) poses with members of the Student Congress at the Dec. 11 Board of Education meeting.

Speaker of the Congress Zaakir Tameez (lower left) poses with members of the Student Congress at the Dec. 11 Board of Education meeting.

A group of juniors and seniors from four HISD campuses is on a mission to give their peers a voice in public education—and they have created a new Student Congress to do it.

More than a dozen students from Bellaire, Carnegie Vanguard, Lamar, and Yates high schools founded the congress last spring, after participating in senior Zaakir Tameez’s Texas Performance Standards Project at Carnegie Vanguard.

“We were originally called ‘Our Shared Future’ and talked about current events,” explains Outreach Chair Amy Fan, now a junior at Bellaire High School. “But as we met with city leaders from all over Houston, our conversations would constantly lead back to education. Yet the only people with whom we could share our critiques was each other.” Continue reading →

School secretary Karen Reed is HISD Employee of the Month for January

Karen Reed, left, is recognized as the January 2015 Employee of the Month at the HISD Board Meeting in December.

Karen Reed, Employee of the Month for January, is a Special Education secretary at Hogg Middle School, a position she has held since 2012. She walked away from a lucrative career in commercial real estate to join Team HISD, after realizing that her job wasn’t meaningful enough.

“As a research analyst, I did all this work so brokers could go home with big commissions,” said Reed. “I was padding someone else’s pocketbook, but not making a difference. I wanted somewhere for my stamp to be. These kids provide me with what I need: a purpose.”

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