Category Archives: District IX – Myrna Guidry

Cheer on your favorite teams at annual girls’ basketball tournament 

Spectators can catch the hoops action from Thursday, Dec. 4, through Saturday

If you’re in the mood for some exciting full-court action this weekend, check out one (or more!) of the games in HISD’s 31st annual girls’ basketball tournament.

The match-ups will take place at Chávez, North Forest, Reagan, and Westside high schools, as well as the Wilkins Pavilion located on the Forest Brook Middle School campus. Individual game tickets cost $4 each, but a $10 tournament pass will grant admission to all of them.  Continue reading →

Welch MS capitalizes on popularity of ‘color dash’ concept to spruce up its fall festival

Runners at Welch Middle School started out with white T-shirts and ended up with a rainbow of colors splashed across their clothing, faces, and even their hair.

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The Wolf Pack Fall Festival and Magnet Color Dash took place on Saturday, Nov. 15, and both children and adults finished the mile-long race looking as though they had been through an explosion in a paint factory. Continue reading →

Will you read to me? Read Houston Read mentors still needed

As a mother, HISD senior executive secretary Fatima Barnett remembers trips to the library and reading with her own children, who are now young adults and avid readers. That’s why she jumped at the chance to read to children at Woodson K-8 as part of the district’s Read Houston Read campaign.

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“Since we as employees are advocates for education, this should be an extension of all that we encompass,” said Barnett. “Volunteering for Read Houston Read is a great way to show our commitment.”

Barnett is just one of the many volunteers who are signing up to read to district first-graders through the program. By giving a child a half-hour to an hour of reading time, volunteers can encourage a lifetime love of literature. Continue reading →

Planning and design for 2012 bond schools in final groups is ahead of schedule

HISD’s project teams are moving forward ahead of schedule with the planning and design of 21st century campuses in the last two groups of schools being renovated or rebuilt under the 2012 bond program.

As part of the process, Project Advisory Teams (PATs) made up of teachers, parents, students, community representatives, architects and staff, have been formed at each school and have begun meeting monthly. This puts Group 3 schools about six months ahead and Group 4 schools about 12 months ahead of schedule.

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Carnegie Vanguard HS celebrates different cultures at International Festival

Hundreds turned out for Carnegie Vanguard High School’s third annual International Festival on Nov. 19.

The festival, which was held after school, featured all sorts of games, crafts and food from different countries. There were also cultural fashion and performance shows. Continue reading →

2012 bond schools celebrating construction with December ceremonies

Construction work is underway at the Worthing HS campus.

Construction work is underway at the Worthing HS campus.

Several schools will be celebrating major construction milestones in December as they hold groundbreaking or beam-signing ceremonies for their bond projects.

The Mandarin Chinese Language Immersion Magnet School is hosting a groundbreaking at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 6, to mark the start of work on a new $32.2 million facility in the Galleria area. The new school, located at 5440 W. Alabama, will be a K-8 campus with the goal of creating bilingual students.

Continue reading →

North Carolina teachers finding growth opportunities in HISD

Six months ago, Lauren Paquette was teaching in North Carolina and living at the poverty level with her husband and son. Now, that’s all changed.

“We started realizing, ‘We can’t afford to live here anymore,’” explains the Hobby Elementary School fourth-grade teacher. “I saw that HISD was coming back to Charlotte, and I said, ‘You know what, let’s just go and see what happens.’”

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That was this past July, and within weeks of meeting with HISD’s Teacher Recruitment team, Paquette had packed up her classroom and headed to Houston.

“For me, it was a $20,000 raise, and that’s huge,” said Paquette. “It’s almost a whole other salary.”
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‘First Generation’ documentary inspires students to see college as a possibility

The national “Go College!” tour made stops at Worthing, Sharpstown International, Sharpstown, and Sam Houston high schools this week to show students that they can go to college regardless of the challenges they may face at home. The tour features a screening of the documentary film, First Generation, which tells the story of four high school students who aspire to break their family’s cycle of poverty by pursuing a college education.

“College is so different from high school,” said Dontay Gray, a cast member in the film who spoke to students briefly after the screening at Sharpstown on Tuesday. “And as a first generation college student, I was really on my own. I had to find people who were like-minded and had similar goals to mine, so that I could stay focused.”
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District’s new literacy program reshaping student instruction

Fall is always a time for adjusting to new routines, as the regular academic year gets underway. But in HISD, many students also spent the first five weeks of the new school year adjusting to a new method of reading.

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“Principled habits,” which are a part of the district’s Literacy By 3 movement, are designed to allow students to build literacy skills independently while their teacher works with smaller groups of students. Continue reading →

Meet the HISD Police Department’s first female Asian officer

Houston ISD police officer Minhnguyet "Nicky" Tran poses for a photograph at Chavez High School, October 24, 2014. (Dave Einsel / Houston ISD)

Officer Nicky Tran

It’s been several months since Minhnguyet “Nicky” Tran was sworn in as a police officer for the Houston Independent School District Police Department. Currently working at Chavez High School, the University of Houston graduate made history by becoming HISD PD’s first female Asian police officer. Tran says she remains committed to community policing and in keeping students and district employees safe on a daily basis. She talks about who inspired her to join HISD PD, and some of her experiences since joining the only accredited public school district police department in the nation.

Continue reading →