Category Archives: Middle Schools

HISD offering school tours, open houses to help families select schools for next year

The Houston Independent School District Office of School Choice will host four open houses and offer weekly campus tours throughout the fall semester to help families make more informed school selections for the next year.

Families will be able to explore their neighborhood schools, as well as the district’s 100-plus magnet programs, specializing in areas such as fine arts, language studies, college and career readiness and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, & Math).

The weekly tours will be held at all HISD campuses every Thursday from Oct. 8 through Dec. 3. Elementary and K-8 school tours are scheduled for 9 a.m. Middle and high school tours begin at 1 p.m. Continue reading →

Campus tours, open houses help families pick the right school

It’s almost that time of year – the time when you have to decide which school you’d like your child to attend next year. There are several steps involved in choosing an appropriate school for your child.

The first thing you should do is identify a handful of schools that meet your child’s interests. If your child has a love for fine arts, we have several schools at all levels. If science, technology, engineering, and math spark your child’s interests, a STEM school might be a great fit.

Next, map out a plan to tour all the schools on your list. Be sure to swing by your neighborhood school to see what it offers, too. All of our schools are offering tours every Thursday between Oct. 8 and Dec. 3 (except on Thanksgiving). Click here for details about tours. Continue reading →

Chess students take on blindfolded grandmaster in group competition

Grandmaster Timur Gareev will be trying to break a world record soon by playing the largest number of simultaneous chess games ever while blindfolded — and 10 students from HISD schools recently helped him prepare for that challenge.

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The Uzbekistan native, who became the youngest grandmaster ever from Asia in 2004 at the age of 16, played 10 of HISD’s top chess players on Sept. 19, and defeated them all (along with three students from a local private school) within the span of a few hours, despite not being able to see any of the chessboards. Continue reading →

Remember: Early dismissal, student holiday this week

Two days this week will be different from a normal school day.

Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2015, is an early dismissal day for most schools. Campuses may choose to opt-out and hold classes all day, so please check with your school directly to see if it is participating. View the full 2015–2016 academic calendar here.

Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2015, is the district’s fall holiday for students and most employees. Check your duty schedule available here to see if you must report to work. Those employees who must report to work will work their normal hours, unless a supervisor has approved their request to use personal time.

Hogg MS to start offering students P.E. credit in squash

Principal Angela Sugarek celebrates the opening of new squash courts at Hogg MS with some of her students on Aug. 29.

Principal Angela Sugarek celebrates the opening of new squash courts at Hogg MS with some of her students on Aug. 29.

Hogg Middle School recently became the first public school in the U.S. to house squash courts on its campus and the first in Texas to offer in-school squash courses for physical education credit.

Principal Angela Sugarek and dozens of her students celebrated this milestone with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the new in-house courts on Aug. 29.

The state-of-the-art squash and education facility — which was built in partnership with Mission Squash — was constructed out of an existing but underutilized gym at no cost to the school. The renovated space now houses three internationally sized squash courts, a multipurpose learning center, locker rooms, and an academic lab with a full-capacity classroom and multimedia education tools. Continue reading →

HISD announces partnership with Kennedy Center to expand student access to the arts

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts announced Thursday that the Houston Independent School District together with the City of Houston would serve as the 19th site for their national arts education program.

The Ensuring the Arts for Any Given Child program will take existing resources from HISD, local arts organizations, the City of Houston, and the Kennedy Center and combine them to increase arts opportunities and provide high-quality arts education for 7,000 students at 11 schools.

The schools include Atherton, Benbrook, Eliot, Hartsfield, Hines-Caldwell, Kashmere Gardens, Memorial, Mitchell, Scarborough, and Whittier elementary schools, and Hamilton Middle School. Additional schools are expected to be added in the coming years. Continue reading →

Transportation: What you need to know for the 2015-2016 school year

As the first day of school quickly approaches on Monday, HISD Transportation is gearing up for another safe and smooth ride to kick off the start of the school year.

HISD Transportation employees are available in the department's customer call center to answer any bus route question.

HISD Transportation employees are available in the department’s customer call center to answer any bus route questions.

Parents should receive a postcard in the mail and at least two telephone calls with their children’s bus route information.

For a quicker response, a customer call center has been set up again this year to answer any bus route questions. Parents and schools can now call 713-613-3040 between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. for assistance with transportation-related issues. The call center will remain open for at least 30 days. Spanish translators also will be available to assist.

For information about eligibility for transportation and bus stops, contact your child’s school or go here.

Reliant gets HISD students off to a great start

Students at the Bellfort Early Childhood Center not only met their teachers this week, they also received school supply packs from Reliant, an NRG company. Reliant employees distributed 400 back-to-school supply packs during the school’s Pre-K Open House on Aug. 18.

“It’s really great that Reliant is making this donation to our Bellfort family, because it helps to ease the financial burden of our parents a little,” said Bellfort Early Childhood Center Principal Cheryl Lewis. “It shows our parents that the community members care about their child’s education.”

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Reliant is helping students from 39 HISD schools get off to a great start for the 2015–2016 school year, with a $16,780 donation that will provide 4,000 K–12 students with the supplies they need for the first day of classes. In addition to early childhood centers and K–8 schools, some high schools will also receive supplies. The kits are grade-specific and include items such as notebooks, pencils, pens, folders, crayons, and erasers. Continue reading →

Principal uses HISD training to help crash victim

(Houston Independent School District)

Principal Angela Sugarek

Hogg Middle School Principal Angela Sugarek used the fire extinguisher training she received through HISD on Aug. 7, when she witnessed a fiery crash while on her way to work.

Sugarek said a driver slammed into the back of a truck that was preparing to turn, and she stopped to make sure everyone was OK.

“I saw that one of the drivers was still in his car, and that the engine was on fire,” Sugarek said. “I helped another witness to get a car door open so that the driver could get out.” Continue reading →

Twenty-nine HISD schools awarded by TEA for top performance in 2014-2015

Campuses receive every distinction designation available from the state.

Twenty-nine schools from across the Houston Independent School District earned the maximum number of distinction designations from the state for their top performance throughout the 2014-2015 school year.

The campuses – 17 elementary schools, six middle schools and six high schools – earned every distinction designation awarded by the Texas Education Agency. Schools are eligible for distinctions if they are rated as having “Met Standard” — the highest rating under the state accountability system — and meet various other performance standards.

Continue reading →