Category Archives: District V – Sue Deigaard

HISD students honored for their winning dental posters

From left: Dr. Piazza, president of the Greater Houston Dental Society; Piney Point ES fifth-grader Viviana Jimenez; Garden Villas ES third-grader Alejandra Rodriguez; White ES second-grader Sandy Kong; Condit ES fifth-graders Eden Barr and Heidi Tamm; CoChairs of the Dental Health Committee Dr. Nguyen and Dr. Aguilos.

From left: Dr. Piazza, president of the Greater Houston Dental Society; Piney Point ES fifth-grader Viviana Jimenez; Garden Villas ES third-grader Alejandra Rodriguez; White ES second-grader Sandy Kong; Condit ES fifth-graders Eden Barr and Heidi Tamm; and Dental Health Committee CoChairs Dr. Nguyen and Dr. Aguilos. Not pictured: Scroggins ES second-grader Gabriel Velazco.

Every year, HISD elementary and middle school students participate in the Dental Health Poster Contest, which promotes the American Dental Association’s National Children’s Dental Health Month campaign. The purpose is to convince children and adults of the importance of good oral health.

Continue reading →

Fondren MS recognized for providing exemplary customer service

A commitment to meeting high expectations in every area has resulted in a big prize for Fondren Middle School. That campus was recently named the inaugural winner of HISD’s Blue Star Award for Service Excellence.

The award was created to honor schools that provide exemplary customer service; a friendly, professional environment; and a culture of positive expectations, and Fondren was selected from a field of 22 nominees and five finalists. As a part of the evaluation, a team of volunteer judges made unannounced, structured visits to each nominated campus, in which they conducted walk-throughs of the facilities and interacted with staff members. They also made anonymous calls to each school to test the clerical staff’s response.

Continue reading →

DeBakey tops Children at Risk’s list of best Houston high schools for sixth straight year

Reagan HS, Pilgrim Academy, and 20 other campuses also rated ‘Gold Ribbon’ schools

Children at Risk released its annual list of the top schools in the greater Houston area on April 27, and for the sixth consecutive year, HISD’s DeBakey High School for Health Professions was listed as number one.

Four other HISD high schools were included in the top ten: Carnegie Vanguard High School (#2), the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (#4), Eastwood Academy (#7), and North Houston Early College High School (#10).

T.H. Rogers, which serves students in grades Pre-K through 8, has held steady in the number one position among the top middle schools in Houston since 2011, and ranked first at the elementary level since 2012. Other HISD schools in the top 20 were: Wharton K-8 (#5), Pin Oak (#7), Lanier (#8), and Briarmeadow Charter (#15) at the middle-school level; and West University (#2), River Oaks (#3), Horn Academy (#6), Bush (#13), Condit (#14), Oak Forest (#17), and Roberts (#19) at the elementary level.

Continue reading →

Top six JROTC cadets in HISD Class of 2015 honored at awards ceremony

The top six Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) cadets, who were named earlier this month, were honored on April 25 at the Annual HISD JROTC Final Review and Awards Ceremony.

All were promoted to the rank of Cadet Colonel (Army) or Cadet Captain (Navy), which are the highest ranks in the program. The top seniors were chosen from among all the graduating seniors in HISD’s 25 JROTC programs.

Continue reading →

Johnston MS seventh-grader wins HISD art contest

Maniscalco_400Makaila Maniscalco, a seventh-grade student at Johnston Middle School, has been named the winner of an art contest sponsored by the Office of Special Education Services.

Makaila created a mask that won first place out of 21 entries from across the district. Judging took place April 14–17 at the Hattie Mae White Educational Support Center, and the theme of the contest was “Who Am I?”

Makaila relies upon her memory of color, and used her tactile senses to color different parts of the piece. She likes the mask because it “keeps the viewer’s eye moving and guessing about who the mask might represent.”

As the winner of the contest, Makaila’s artwork will become the logo for the 2015 Special Education Conference, which will take place July 21–23 at Westbury High School.

Finalists were Tatum Brooks (Westside HS), Javier Gutierrez (Lamar HS), Jonathan Reyna (T.H. Rogers), and Hailey Hernandez (Wainwright ES).

HISD students receive corporate-sponsored National Merit Scholarship

Two Houston Independent School District students are among more than 1,000 high school seniors from across the country to be selected this week to win a corporate-sponsored National Merit Scholarship.

Sophia Cen of Bellaire High School received a $3,000 corporate-sponsored scholarship from the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, and Henry Hoang of Carnegie Vanguard High School was awarded a $3,000 scholarship from the Lockheed Martin Corporation Foundation.

Both students are in the first group of 2015 winners to be announced as part of the 60th annual National Merit Scholarship Program, which rewards academically talented U.S. high school students who score well on the PSAT with free money for college. The students’ scholarship awards are renewable for up to four years of college undergraduate study.

The corporate-sponsored National Merit Scholarship awards are financed by about 200 corporations, company foundations, and other business organizations. Scholarship winners must either plan to pursue a degree or career in the company’s industry, be a child of company employee, or be a resident of a community the company serves.

Additional recipients of other National Merit scholarships will be announced in May followed by the announcement of winners of college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards. In September, 56 HISD students were named National Merit semifinalists.

‘Astronomical’ discovery leads to ExMASS contest triumph for Bellaire HS

L-R are: Bellaire HS students Sue Anne Davis, Kevin Nguyen, Jennifer Wang, Afton Widdershins, and Steven Zhou-Wright

L-R are: Bellaire HS students Sue Anne Davis, Kevin Nguyen, Jennifer Wang, Afton Widdershins, and Steven Zhou-Wright

Students win free trip to Calif. to present their work at NASA planetary science conference

A team of three seniors and two juniors from Bellaire High School will be presenting its findings to professional scientists this summer, after winning the annual Exploration of the Moon and Asteroids by Secondary Students (ExMASS) contest.

The ExMASS contest, which is managed by the Center for Lunar Science and Exploration and administered at the Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI) in Houston, challenges students to research an idea in either lunar science or asteroid science.

Continue reading →

Three HISD schools win prizes at 2015 Art Car Parade

A tribute to legendary guitarist Jimi Hendrix has earned students from Reagan High School the top prize at the 2015 Art Car Parade—on their very first try.

[photoshelter-gallery g_id=”G0000KYHxcFSG7oY” g_name=”20150415-ArtCars” width=”600″ f_fullscreen=”t” bgtrans=”t” pho_credit=”iptc” twoup=”f” f_bbar=”t” f_bbarbig=”f” fsvis=”f” f_show_caption=”t” crop=”f” f_enable_embed_btn=”t” f_htmllinks=”t” f_l=”t” f_send_to_friend_btn=”f” f_show_slidenum=”t” f_topbar=”f” f_show_watermark=”t” img_title=”casc” linkdest=”c” trans=”xfade” target=”_self” tbs=”5000″ f_link=”t” f_smooth=”f” f_mtrx=”t” f_ap=”t” f_up=”f” height=”400″ btype=”old” bcolor=”#CCCCCC” ]

“Electric Ladyland,” a 1981 Mercedes which was #106 in the parade lineup, was awarded the Mayor’s Cup Trophy and $2,000 in cash. It was the school’s first-ever entry into the parade, and its success was likely due to the guidance of veteran art-car builder Rebecca Bass, who was hired on a part-time basis by HISD this year especially to guide Reagan students in designing a car for this year’s parade. Visiting artist Johnny Rojas also contributed to the project. Continue reading →

Seniors prepare for TEDx debut

For their senior project, 104 Challenge Early College High School students spent this school year researching and writing an in-depth presentation on a topic of interest, unique to each student. The students are competing for a spot in Challenge’s own TEDx event. Making the senior projects part of an impactful and far-reaching showcase is the inspiration of Gifted and Talented Independent Study teacher Joshua Silberman. Continue reading →

Johnston MS student named myON’s second ‘Reader Leader’

Robert Edmond

Robert Edmond

Robert Edmond, a sixth-grader at Johnston Middle School, has been named the second “Reader Leader” by myON for logging the most time spent reading on that website during a particular month.

Alfredo read for 13 hours and eight minutes on myON in March. He also completed 109 books and took their accompanying quizzes.

As a part of his prize, Robert received a laptop (with computer case) from Muses3, LLC, the representative of myON in southeast Texas.

“This was another very tight race,” said Linda Bessmer, managing partner of Muses3. “Robert’s teacher, Wilfred Dacus, instituted a myON Camp for his Life Skills students, where they spent concentrated time reading on myON, and several other Johnston students were only minutes away from the leader’s record, with elementary students close behind.”

Robert was formally recognized during a special ceremony held on his campus April 10.

Photo courtesy Muses3, LLC.