Category Archives: District V – Sue Deigaard

Sign up now to participate in Green Apple Day of Service

GADOS_WebBadge_2015-07For the fourth year in a row, students and staff throughout HISD will participate in environmentally friendly activities for Green Apple Day of Service on Sept. 26, and the district is encouraging all schools and departments to participate.

The event, sponsored by HISD’s Energy and Sustainability department and the Center for Green Schools at the U.S. Green Building Council, give students, teachers and community members the opportunity to create a healthy and productive school environments through local service projects.

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63 HISD students named National Merit semifinalists

Sixty-three seniors from six Houston Independent School District high schools qualified as semifinalists this week in the 61st annual National Merit Scholarship Program. HISD had 56 semifinalists last year.

The HISD students are among 16,000 from across the country to earn the semifinalist designation, allowing them the opportunity to continue in the academic competition and vie for more than $32 million in scholarships that will be awarded in the spring.

They attend Bellaire, Carnegie Vanguard, and Lamar high schools, DeBakey High School for Health Professions, Eastwood Academy, and the High School for the Performing & Visual Arts. Continue reading →

Students use artistic talents to raise money for blind Chinese orphans

When asked how they spent their summer months, many students answer that they went to the beach or a swimming pool, visited with relatives, or took a vacation.

But one student from Carnegie Vanguard High School was able to write a most unusual “what I did over my summer vacation” essay this fall after she spent a week and a half in June playing the piano to benefit needy Asian children.

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Senior Kerrigan Quenemoen, along with her partner, Kenneth Yu (who graduated this spring from Bellaire High School), were invited to do a series of charity concerts in China to raise money for blind Chinese orphans. Continue reading →

Principals thank HISD bus drivers, attendants for their hard work

Before bus drivers and bus attendants set off to transport HISD students to and from school for the first week of classes, HISD Transportation managers and a group of principals showed their gratitude and appreciation for employees during a welcome back program at Key Middle School on Friday.

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Drones taking students on flights of STEM fancy

Rice camp introduces students to careers related to these devices

Drones are making headlines more and more often in the news these days, and about a dozen HISD students have been learning about these high-tech devices — and the careers they’re used in — during a camp held at Rice University.

The sixth- to ninth-grade students, who attend DeBakey High School, HSPVA, Lanier Middle School, Revere Middle School, the T.H. Rogers School, and Valley West Elementary School, spent three days learning how to design, engineer, and pilot drones in mid-August.

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Students headed back to school will see some big changes at bond campuses

Summer break was no vacation for HISD’s bond project team, as schools in the district’s $1.89 billion program made significant headway, with more construction activity in progress than at any other time in the district’s history.

Construction crews work on the new Condit Elementary School, August 19, 2015.

Construction crews work at the site of the new Condit Elementary School.

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Kristina Davis-Troutman named principal of Mistral Early Childhood Center

Kristina Troutman poses for a photograph, January 13, 2016. (Dave Einsel/Houston ISD)Kristina Davis-Troutman has been named the new principal of Mistral Early Childhood Center. In her 29 years of experience in education, she has served as a teacher, Title VII/multilingual director, assistant principal, and principal in both public and charter districts.

Davis-Troutman began her career with HISD as a bilingual teacher at Cunningham Elementary School. She later moved to Benavidez Elementary, where she wrote, facilitated, and implemented a Title VII grant for the district’s first bilingual gifted and talented program. Davis-Troutman began her administrative career at Pilgrim and Fonville middle schools as an assistant principal. She was then recruited to Southwest Charter Schools as director of multilingual programs. For the last four years, Davis-Troutman has been principal at Young Learners School, an HISD charter network of early childhood centers.

Davis-Troutman received a bachelor’s degree in elementary education with minors in bilingual/bicultural education and Spanish from Central Michigan University. She holds a master’s degree in elementary education from Eastern Michigan University.

Summer STEM Institute helps teachers infuse learning with fun

More than five dozen HISD science, technology, engineering, and math teachers took part in a summer institute recently that was designed to help boost students’ math and science scores by incorporating more fun into their lessons.

The educators came from 23 HISD elementary and middle schools that received part of a TIF4 STEM grant from the U.S. Department of Education. The grant also provides resources such as equipment and technology, and participating teachers will receive additional training opportunities throughout the school year and share what they have learned with other faculty members at their campuses.

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Leigha Curry named new principal of Elrod Elementary School

Leigha Curry poses for a photograph, January 13, 2016. (Dave Einsel/Houston ISD)Leigha Curry has been appointed principal of Elrod Elementary School. Ms. Curry began her career as a fourth-grade teacher in Aldine ISD before joining HISD in 2008 as a fourth- and fifth-grade teacher at Codwell Elementary School. She also served as Codwell’s instructional technologist, helping teachers and students integrate technology tools into their everyday teaching and learning. After six years of teaching, Ms. Curry joined the administration at Mading Elementary, where she was a teacher specialist and interim principal. Most recently, she served as elementary math teacher development specialist.

Ms. Curry received her bachelor of arts from University of Houston-Downtown and her master’s in Education from Texas Southern University. She is currently a doctoral student at Texas Southern University.

Museum features nine students’ artwork in teen exhibition

Artwork created by students from Carnegie Vanguard High School and the High School for Performing and Visual Arts (HSPVA) is on display at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston through July 19.

The museum’s Teen Council organized the exhibition, titled Perspectives 189: From the Margins, which focuses on marginalization and its personal, political, and social manifestations.

Nine HISD students created pieces that were selected for the exhibition. The following students are participating: Continue reading →