Austin HS celebrates groundbreaking ceremony for new campus

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Austin High School students, staff, alumni, and community members gathered Tuesday to show their appreciation for the 81-year-old campus and celebrate the start of construction on their new school.

The groundbreaking ceremony was held just beyond the site where the current school is undergoing demolition and adjacent to where construction crews have started work on the foundation for the new school.
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Kinder HSPVA students get first look at new campus

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Excitement filled the air Wednesday at the new Kinder HSPVA as students toured the facility for the first time in advance of the school’s official opening day on Jan. 7.

Over winter break, the school will move out of its current campus in Montrose and into a new five-story building located at 790 Austin St. in downtown Houston near the city’s renowned arts and theater district.

“I think their mouths will be wide open,” HSPVA Principal Scott Allen predicted as he waited for the students to arrive. “They’ve seen photos, but that doesn’t do this building justice. They will feel so special that this state-of-the-art, one-of-a-kind facility was built just for them.” Continue reading →

Students discover the sky’s the limit on DiscoverU field trip

High school students from across HISD attended a day-long field trip to Space Center Houston recently.

The trip, sponsored by Houston-based nonprofit organization DiscoverU, was the culmination of an outreach effort led by HISD’s College and Career Readiness Department that resulted in 57 eleventh-graders being admitted into NASA’s High School Aerospace Scholars (HAS) program. All students who were accepted were invited to register for the free field trip, and 51 attended.

Activities included a tour of Building 9 and Rocket Park, an astronaut talk in Space Center Theater, and a chance to explore Space Center Houston.

“Being able to a meet an astronaut was inspiring,” said Energy junior Cynthia Gomez. “They set a high goal and accomplished it.”

Students from the following high schools went on the trip: Bellaire, Carnegie, Eastwood Academy, Energy Institute, Heights, HSPVA, Madison, Mickey Leland College Prep, North Houston Early College, Northside, Sharpstown, Texas Connections Academy, Washington, and Westside. A few tenth-graders from Madison and Washington also attended.

DiscoverU’s aim was to expose students to Space Center Houston and provide an in-person introduction to the program, with the goal of encouraging and empowering HISD students to complete the five-month online course and get a chance to spend a week at Johnson Space Center next summer.

It was also an opportunity for students to meet others in the program who share their interest in aerospace engineering.

“The trip was amazing,” said Washington sophomore Jesus Reynaga. “It really gave me insight into what I want to do when I grow up.”

HISD administrators begin 2019-2020 budget discussions  

The HISD Board of Trustees met Monday to hear the first report from district administrators on expectations for the 2019-2020 fiscal year budget.

District officials are projecting an initial $76 million deficit, due in large part to expected declining enrollment and a modest increase in property values – both of which cause the district’s recapture payment to increase.

According to Interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan, any cuts to the budget to address the deficit will be done in a way that tries to minimize impact to instruction. That task is made harder given the cuts made to operational areas last year.   Continue reading →

HISD briefs elected officials ahead of 2019 Texas legislative session  

Houston-area elected officials and their staff gathered at the Hattie Mae White Educational Support Center on Nov. 28 to receive an update from HISD Interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan and hear the district’s priorities for the upcoming legislative session in Austin.

Lathan highlighted major initiatives launched in HISD for the 2018-2019 school year and shared information about academic successes. Attendees also received a budget update from Chief Financial Officer Rene Barajas. District staff and trustees also were in attendance to meet with local, state, and federal elected officials.  Continue reading →

HISD’s Ascending to Men Project to host winter ball fundraiser 

HISD’s Ascending to Men Project (ATMP) will host its first winter ball, Journey to Brilliance in Manhood, on Wednesday, Dec. 12 at Minute Maid Park.

Under the umbrella of HISD’s Equity and Outreach Division, the Ascending to Men Project is a mentorship initiative that seeks to provide positive role models and advocates for students who need guidance and opportunities for educational, social, and professional growth to underserved young men of color in the district. The program has been in place since the beginning of the 2018-2019 school year, piloting in 28 campuses. Continue reading →

Winter reading program encourages students to read, earn prizes 

Winter break is the perfect time for students to catch up on their favorite books, hone their reading skills, and earn a free book from their local Houston Public Library.

HISD is encouraging students to join the Houston Public Library’s winter reading program for kids and teens. From Dec. 15 through Jan. 15, students are encouraged to read or be read to 20 minutes a day for 10 days.

Students can read anything they like. Books, comics, newspapers, magazine articles, blogs, web pages, listen to an audiobook or have someone read to aloud; all of these types of reading count. The Houston Public Library’s Readers’ Advisory staff can also create a personalized reading list.  Continue reading →

CYCLE Houston rewards students’ literacy achievements with bikes

Thousands of HISD second-graders from across the district will be awarded bicycles for achieving their reading goals for the semester.

Through the CYCLE (Changing Young Children’s Lives through Education) bike program, students worked with teachers to create personalized literacy goals to help boost their reading skills. Each student signed a contract that once those goals were achieved, they would be awarded a brand-new bicycle and helmet.

According to CYCLE, the program not only helps students achieve grade-level reading, it teaches them that hard work equals reward. Students at Eliot Elementary School were so excited about the prospect of earning a bicycle, they came to school early, stayed late, and tracked their own reading progress for months. Continue reading →

Organization identifies HISD as leader in dyslexia intervention  

HISD is leading the way on how dyslexia is identified and addressed at the district and school levels, according to a recent report released by the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB).

In April 2018, SREB spent time with the HISD Dyslexia Program Support Services Office and asked them to share their experiences regarding changing dyslexia practices. According to the report, through leadership dyslexia training with Neuhaus Education Center (NEC) — a nonprofit organization devoted to evidence-based training and support for reading — at the district and school levels, HISD can readily determine if a student is dyslexic and then quickly provide early intervention.

“Houston ISD chose to work with Houston-based NEC to train regional and campus-based dyslexia specialists and interventionists,” the report states. “Some elementary schools in the district also work more directly with Neuhaus to try to prevent reading difficulties early by training classroom teachers to incorporate structured language teaching into their daily reading instruction.”  Continue reading →

Transportation Services experiencing reduced late school bus arrivals

The number of buses arriving late to school each morning has been cut dramatically over the past three months as Transportation Services continues to review and refine its operations and provide the best possible service to students.

Currently, the department averages about 30 to 40 late buses every day, which equates to as many as 5 percent of the district’s 878 routes. That’s a significant decrease from the average in August, when almost 20 percent of buses — roughly 140 to 160 each day — were late. The numbers are tracked manually.

“The percentage of late arrivals has been drastically reduced since the start of school,” Interim General Manager John Wilcots IV said Tuesday as he presented a department update to the HISD Board of Education. “I believe that our new technology is going to help us continue to make tremendous improvements. We are learning, and we have a lot of lessons learned.” Continue reading →