Category Archives: District VII – Bridget Wade

Author visits build love of literacy through inspiration, encouragement

Author Barney Saltzberg with Visual Art Specialist Rebecca Stewart

Author Barney Saltzberg with Visual Art Specialist Rebecca Stewart

Whether you’re five, 15, or 55 years old, it can still be a thrilling experience to meet someone who actually created a book you enjoyed. If it makes a big enough impression, the experience can even make you a reader for life.

That’s why a number of HISD schools regularly invite popular authors to visit their campuses as part of the district’s literacy initiatives, such as Harvard ES, Patterson and Red elementaries, and Burbank Middle School.

Barney Saltzberg was the latest writer/illustrator to bring inspiration and encouragement to students. He came to Memorial Elementary School on Feb. 13.

“His visit was awesome,” said Visual Art Specialist Rebecca Stewart. “He spoke about not being a very good student. He said he was terrible at spelling. No one—not even his parents—was very optimistic that he would ever do anything significant, because he had such a hard time in school. But he loved to draw, so he drew all the time. When he went to art school, he still didn’t think he was very good, but a teacher looked at his drawing one day and said, ‘You need to write a book with that character.’ So he did. And the little boy who had such a hard time at spelling is now a best-selling author with more than a million books in print.” Continue reading →

Lamar HS football player to accept prestigious Watkins Award

Lamar High School football player Holton Hill will be in Washington, D.C. on Feb. 21, 2015, to receive this year’s Franklin D. Watkins Memorial Award. He is one of only five high school athletes nationwide to be so honored this year by the National Alliance of African American Athletes. Continue reading →

33 HISD high schools rated as best in nation in annual Washington Post rankings

More than two-thirds of the high schools in the Houston Independent School District made the Washington Post’s annual list of the Most Challenging Schools in America — and four schools cracked the top 100.

Carnegie Vanguard High School took home top honors for HISD, ranking 11th out of the 2,156 high schools from across the country that made the list. Energized for STEM Academy came in 32nd place, the High School for Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice ranked 52nd and Challenge Early College High School came in at 97th place. Continue reading →

Another HISD student earns perfect score on Advanced Placement test

Last month, we shared the news that two HISD graduates had earned perfect scores on an Advanced Placement test in macroeconomics. Now, here comes Janett Ordoñez, a student at the DeBakey High School for Health Professions, who was one of just 91 students worldwide to earn every point possible on her Advanced Placement (AP) Spanish Language and Culture exam. It is very rare for a student to earn a perfect score on any AP exam.

[photoshelter-gallery g_id=”G00005hBbaWsE1cc” g_name=”20150213-DeBakey-perfect-AP-score-Laurie-Leon-Janett-Ordonez” 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” ]  Continue reading →

Lamar HS grad makes a lasting impression on the visual art world

Lamar High School graduate and artist Marsha Dorsey Outlaw poses for a photograph at her installation "Vigango's Stoop", January 29, 2015. (Houston ISD/Dave Einsel)

Lamar High School graduate and artist Marsha Dorsey Outlaw poses for a photograph at her installation “Vigango’s Stoop”, January 29, 2015. (Houston ISD/Dave Einsel)

In this week’s edition of I am HISD, which features district students, graduates, employees, and other team members, we speak with Lamar High School graduate Marsha Dorsey-Outlaw about how she became a professional artist, what compels her to work with children, and where you can find her next district-related project.

You graduated from Lamar High School back in 1981. How old were you when you first realized you wanted to be an artist?

Art was always a good escape vehicle for me, but it wasn’t until after high school that I knew I could make a living at it. I spent one entire summer touring Western Europe through AIFS and bought art supplies all along the way. I did a lot of sketching and watercolors. At one point, I was in Salzburg and I was out of money, so I wrapped a shirt around my head and told some tourists I was from Tobago, and sold them two artworks. It was a major rush. Later, I was at the University of Houston working part-time as a travel agent, and on the side, I was hand-painting clothing and had a lot of commissions and consignments. I think that was the first time I remember knowing that the commerce side of art was possible.

Continue reading →

HISD to hold community meetings on plans for right-sizing school enrollments

District to provide details, gather feedback on various proposals under consideration

Six community meetings are being held to provide HISD parents with more information about a series of proposals designed to right-size classrooms at certain elementary schools beginning with the 2015–2016 school year. Meetings are scheduled for 6 – 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 17, and Thursday, Feb. 19, at area schools. See below for a list of schools being affected and meeting locations. The district would like to gather feedback from parents before the Board of Education votes on the proposal in March.

For the current school year, HISD submitted nearly 1,500 class-size waivers to the Texas Education Agency, which requires no more than 22 students per classroom in all kindergarten through fourth-grade classes. District officials aim to cut that number in half next year and plan to continue to decrease the number incrementally through 2019.

Additional factors include housing development, shifting birth rates, and demographic changes in neighborhoods around the district.

Options under consideration range from readjusting attendance boundaries and program enhancements to limiting the number of students each school may accept from outside its own neighborhood. The district’s goal is to alleviate overcrowding while still maintaining the traditional demographic makeup of each affected school. The following meetings are planned:

6 – 8 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 17

  • Briar Forest Community Meeting – Revere Middle School, 10502 Briar Forest, 77042
    Affected elementary schools: Ashford, Askew, Bush, Daily, Emerson, Shadowbriar, and Walnut Bend
  • Northwest Area Community Meeting – Waltrip High School, 1900 West 34th St., 77018
    Affected elementary schools: Crockett, Highland Heights, Love, Memorial, Sinclair, Smith, and Stevens
  • 288 Corridor Community Meeting – Attucks Middle School, 4330 Bellfort, 77051
    Affected elementary schools: Bastian, Kelso, and Young

6 – 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 19

  • Medical Center Area Community Meeting – Pershing Middle School, 3838 Blue Bonnet Blvd., 77025
    Affected elementary schools: The Rice School, Roberts, Twain, and West University (*see note below)
  • Northline Area Community Meeting – Sam Houston Math, Science, and Technology Center, 9400 Irvington Blvd, 77076
    Affected elementary schools: Burbank, Lyons, and Northline
  • Tinsley and Halpin Area Community Meeting – Tinsley Elementary School, 11035 Bob White Dr., 77096
    Affected elementary schools: Anderson, Halpin ECC, and Tinsley

District officials are also considering ways to improve internal practices such as the process to request class-size waivers, eliminating waivers for district charter schools, and limiting the number of transfer students that schools may accept from outside their attendance boundaries.

*Note to parents of students at The Rice School, Roberts, Twain, and West University: Attendance boundaries will not be changed for these schools.

For a list of Frequently Asked Questions, please click here (.pdf). (en Español)

For a list of proposed attendance boundary maps, please click here.

Music students showcased at State of the Schools 2015

Guests at HISD’s 2015 State of the Schools luncheon got a side order of entertainment with their meal. Westside High School’s Wind Ensemble of 35 students provided music throughout the program under the guiding hand of Conductor Joey Brunson, and students from 19 HISD elementary schools sang the national anthem.

Continue reading →

Table centerpieces put ‘a world of learning’ on display

Their subjects ranged from starry nights and galaxies to water lilies and sunflowers, but the one thing all the orbs had in common was their inspiration: a desire to show how HISD is putting a “global” spin on education for all of its 215,000 students.

Children from 28 different campuses decorated Styrofoam balls this year to serve as the table centerpieces at the State of the Schools luncheon, and participating students were eager to share their artistic visions with guests.

Continue reading →

Second-chance athletic showcase turns $5,000 budget into $12 million in scholarships

On Feb. 7, hundreds of graduating seniors from around the Houston area got the opportunity of a lifetime: a chance to go to college for free, and play their sport of choice, too.

The Greater Houston Senior Football Showcase took place at the NRG Stadium’s practice bubble from 8:30 a.m. until noon, and male students from dozens of local campuses—including almost every high school in HISD—had a chance to land an academic scholarship there just by giving a demonstration of their skills on the football field.  Continue reading →

HISD student athletes commit to play college sports on National Signing Day

More than 90 of HISD’s top student athletes committed to taking their academic and athletic talent to the college level as part of National Signing Day on Wednesday, February 4.

The HISD ceremony at the Region IV Education Service Center, aimed to recognize the students’ formal commitment to continue their education and sports careers at colleges and universities around the country. During the event, students signed symbolic certificates of intent to continue their careers in baseball, basketball, football, lacrosse, swimming, tennis, track and field, volleyball, and wrestling.

[su_youtube_advanced url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWhey0s9TKc”]

Among the highlights:

  • More than 50 HISD senior boys will continue their football careers in college, including 11 from Lamar High School, seven each from Reagan and Wheatley high schools, six from Kashmere High School, five from Furr High School, and four each from Madison, Sterling, and Westside high schools.
  • Five HISD senior girls will run track and field in college.
  • Eleven senior boys and four senior girls will play college basketball.

Traditionally, National Signing Day has been reserved for senior high school football players completing their letters of intent with colleges and universities. But, for the past six years, HISD has included both female and male athletes from all sports to showcase the district’s athletic talent. Additional athletic commitments also are expected after Signing Day.

During the event, students heard from featured speaker Antonio Armstrong, a Kashmere High School graduate, former NFL player, and owner of Houston-based 1st Class Training, as well as HISD Director of Athletics Marmion Dambrino, HISD Board of Education President Rhonda Skillern-Jones, HISD Board of Education Trustee Wanda Adams, and representatives from the Houston Positive Coaches Alliance.

Click here to view a list of the 2014-2015 HISD student athlete signees.