Building on its efforts to encourage HISD high school students’ success on SAT testing, the district is now providing for free a proven online coaching course that would ordinarily cost a family up to $500 to buy.
PrepMe, a personalized PSAT/SAT test-preparation program, is available to all district students in grades 9–11. On average, PrepMe increases test scores dramatically, with some students reporting increases of more than 200 points.
Energy Institute students Amber Farias, Giselle Guevara, and Kaleigh Davis (L–R) pose with best-selling author Courtney Lynch and their autographed copies of her book, “Leading from the Front.”
Five girls from HISD’s Energy Institute High School got to speak with a best-selling author, learn from female leaders in the energy industry, and network with other industry professionals on Feb. 11, 2014, after becoming the first students ever to participate in Baker Hughes’ annual Diversity and Inclusion Summit.
Students Kaleigh Davis, Amber Farias, Giselle Guevara, Nancy Mastache, and Rose Moreno were selected to attend the event after some of their classmates made a very favorable impression on company representatives during a facility tour that took place last summer in The Woodlands.
The U.S. Government is the largest provider of student financial aid through FAFSA – Free Application for Federal Student Aid. More than $150 billion in grants, loans, and work-study funds are available each year to help millions of students pay for higher education. Because seniors who complete the FAFSA are 90 percent more likely to attend college, HISD is taking part in Houston FAFSA Day, a communitywide effort to help high school seniors and their families complete the application, on Feb. 20.
Westbury HS sophomore Ko Lay Pla (right) performs a scene with basketball star Jeremy Lin for an inspirational short film set at Fondren MS.
Klo Lay Pla, a student at HISD’s Westbury High School, is working with National Basketball Association star Jeremy Lin to share a story of hope with the masses.
The 10th-grader shot scenes for an inspirational short film entitled “Lost for Words” recently with the Houston Rockets point guard at Fondren Middle School, which Pla previously attended.
The film tells the story of a 12-year-old Burmese refugee who overcomes language and cultural barriers with the help of a mentor, who works hard to communicate with him.
District VIII representative will lead trustees for coming year
Members of the HISD Board of Education elected District VIII Trustee Juliet K. Stipeche as president at their February board meeting Monday.
Stipeche was first elected to the board to finish an unexpired term in 2010, then re-elected to a full term in 2011 to represent the East End district where she grew up. She has been serving as first vice president of the board this past year.
HISD is proposing the closure or repurposing of five campuses at the end of the school year. The proposal includes Dodson, Nathaniel Q. Henderson and Port Houston elementary schools, Fleming Middle School, and Jones High School. Billy Reagan K-8 is set to be rezoned because of changing patterns in the school’s neighborhoods.
Distributing nearly 18,000 laptops to students at eight high schools over the last three weeks has been no easy task, but all-in-all, deployment of devices in the first phase of HISD’s PowerUp initiative is being called a success. The relative ease and absence of major problems is the result of hours of planning, teamwork across various departments, and even assistance from a neighboring school district.
“I think one of the reason things went smoothly was because our deployment plan was developed with the advice and best practices from Klein ISD,” said HISD Chief Technology Officer Lenny Schad. Klein has a one-to-one program similar to HISD’s, but on a much smaller scale. Over the past several years, the district, located in northern Harris County, has distributed laptops in incremental phases to students at half a dozen schools, adding one or two schools a year.
More than 30 suppliers and vendors looking to do business with HISD learned how the district is improving its procurement process to create better opportunities for small businesses during a workshop held Tuesday.
“If we’re able to get the product we want, and you’re able to sell it, it’s a win-win for both of us,” said Gilberto Carles, the district’s general manger of procurement services. “If you’re not an awarded contractor, you need to understand why, so you can develop ways to take your company to the next level.”
Houston Independent School District officials were notified the first week of February about social media activity that involved the HISD name.
We take incidents of this nature very seriously. The HISD police department is working with several agencies, including the Houston Police Department and Internet Crimes Against Children, to investigate this issue.
A photo gallery and a video featuring emergency rescue training and bus riding safety in the Houston Independent School District Transportation Department were recognized among the nation’s best in 2013, according to School Bus Fleet, the leading magazine for school bus transportation nationwide.
The emergency rescue training took place in August 2013 and featured mock emergency drills to prepare bus drivers and attendants for a variety of crisis situations. The drills simulated the effects of a fire on a school bus, an armed intruder on board and a wreck involving a train. All activities involved real school buses, trains, vehicles, fire, smoke, weapons and staged injuries. The training was conducted in partnership with the Houston Fire Department. The photographs of this event were selected by School Bus Fleet magazine as Editors’ Picks for Photo Gallery of the Year for 2013.
In honor of National School Bus Safety week in October 2013, the HISD Transportation Department created a music video that covered such topics as proper boarding procedures, how to sit on a bus and the importance of reporting bullying. Students from Peck Elementary School, Yates High School and the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts were included in the video, along with district bus drivers and attendants. This video was included among both the most-viewed and most-liked stories by School Bus Fleet magazine readers for 2013. In addition, the video was also selected as Editors’ Picks for Videos of the Year for 2013. The videos were filmed by the district’s multimedia team.
“Both of these programs were incredibly fun and fully engaged our team and community,” said Nathan Graf, general manager for transportation. “Just being recognized for this work is reason for everyone here to be proud.”
Each day, about 925 HISD school buses travel 84,000 miles as they transport more than 32,000 students to and from school.