Category Archives: District III – Daniela Hernandez

After-school programs get boost from new city grant

CASE Connections

HISD’s Chávez High School and Henry Middle School became two of the first local organizations to benefit from a new initiative recently, when they received grants for $15,000 and $5,000 from the City Connections program.

City Connections, a partnership between the City of Houston and the Center for Afterschool, Summer, and Expanded Learning (CASE) for Kids, is designed to help fight juvenile crime and promote child safety by providing much-needed funding for after-school programs. Continue reading →

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 →

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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Celebrations mark beginning of construction for 2012 bond projects

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Right on schedule, the fourth quarter of 2014 brought the beginning of construction for the 17 schools in Group 1 of HISD’s current bond program, bringing groundbreaking ceremonies and more activity to worksites across the district.

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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 →

Gallegos ES uses innovative strategies to boost attendance

Faculty and staff at Gallegos Elementary School are celebrating a victory for learning this week, after more than 99 percent of the student body reported to school for seven days straight.

The streak began on Dec. 10 with an attendance rate of 99.4 percent, and continued through Dec. 18, when the rate topped out at 99.8 percent. Continue reading →

Milby HS breaks ground for new 21st century campus

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Milby High School students, parents, alumni, and staff gathered at the school’s historic campus on Broadway in Houston’s East End on Thursday to break ground on the school’s new 21st century campus.

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HISD breaks ground on four new campuses, celebrates first project to ‘go vertical’

Two years ago, Houston voters approved a $1.89 billion bond to replace or repair 40 HISD campuses, including 29 high schools. Now, taxpayers are starting to see the fruits of that decision, as HISD officials and community leaders have broken ground on four brand new campuses over the past two weeks, and recognized the first project from the 2012 bond to “go vertical.” Continue reading →

Students across district giving back this holiday season

Students across HISD are giving back to those in need this holiday season in a variety of creative and inspiring ways. At Herrera Elementary, the school’s 3D design and print club produced toys using their 3D printer to give as holiday presents to children in their community. The toys were based on characters from animated movies and video games. Read more about that story here.

At Farias Early Childhood Center, Santa and his helpers — AKA HISD high school students —distributed toys to every prekindergarten child, thanks to a partnership with Leading Ladies, a nonprofit organization run by students from different high schools in Houston. Read more here.

During the month of December, students at Roosevelt Elementary joined the district’s effort to collect new toys for the Toys for Tots campaign. Approximately 140 new toys were collected and donated by students from that campus. See related story here.

And at Patterson Elementary, the school’s safety patrol joined forces with second grade students to deliver toys to patients at the Shriners Children’s Hospital in Galveston. Read more here.

Patterson ES students share joy of the season with Shriner’s Hospital patients

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Almost 90 percent of the children attending HISD’s Patterson Elementary School qualify for the federal Free and Reduced Price Lunch program, but they didn’t let that stop them from giving back to others.

Students at the literature magnet campus collected more than 400 toys for the benefit of children who can’t be home with their families this year because they are receiving on-going treatment for injuries or illnesses at local medical facilities. Continue reading →