A new partnership with Lone Star Community College is giving some HISD students a leg up on high-demand careers in the HVAC field.
Students taking the dual-credit course on HVAC (which stands for “heating, ventilating, and air conditioning”) are now in their second semester of the class at Scarborough High School. In it, they receive both classroom instruction and time in the lab, where they get hands-on experience with air conditioning units, electrical wiring boards, and other equipment.
Students, staff and community members from DeBakey High School for Health Professions gathered on the construction site for its new school on Wednesday to sign a steel beam that will be used in the building.
The new $64.5 million building project is being built under HISD’s current bond program located on the western side of the Medical Center complex on land donated by the Medical Center.
DeBakey will receive a new 198,000-square-foot building five-stories high to accommodate 900 to 1,000 students. The facility will feature state-of-the-art medical training equipment with teaching labs for dental, rehabilitation, and patient care. These will include mock hospital rooms and science labs designed to mimic real-world research labs.
“It’s pretty impressive,” said DeBakey ninth-grader Lucy Zhang. “It’s going to be amazing once it’s completed, and we’re able to move in and go to school here. It’s much bigger, and I feel that it gives an opportunity for larger classrooms and preferably more room to do hands on activities.”
After the beam-signing, workers will transport it to the construction site to install in the new building, scheduled to open for students in August 2017.
The Bond Oversight Committee convenes on Tuesday to review fourth quarter progress on the bond program.
HISD’s Bond Oversight Committee held its quarterly meeting on Tuesday, with the panel receiving an update on the district’s $1.89 billion bond program covering the fourth quarter 2015.
The panel was briefed on project highlights of several schools and heard from HISD’s Chief Information Technology Officer Lenny Schad, who also is acting chief operating officer overseeing the bond program.
The sounds of students hard at work — plotting, drilling, and making deals — filled the room at Houston Community College-Southwest during the Independent Petroleum Association of America/Petroleum Equipment Suppliers Association (IPAA/PESA) Petrochallenge. Nearly 400 students participated in the annual four-day competition, which challenges young people to become leaders in the oil and gas industries through a simulation-based training tool called OilSim.
Students from different schools in Houston and Fort Worth not only predicted and acquired valuable blocks for oil and gas production, they were tasked with making deals among the different teams to test their business acumen. In the process, students learn about the methods used in the real world of oil and gas, the terminology used, and maybe even a new career option.
“I’ve learned about water depth and geometrics and all this stuff I didn’t know about going in,” said Westside High School student Jason Levine.
When all was said and done, three teams of students from Milby and Westside high schools, as well as the Young Women’s College Preparatory Academy (YWCPA), took home the top prizes. Each winning team received a monetary prize, but students say they gained so much more.
“I knew I wanted to be a petroleum engineer,” said YWCPA student and second-place team member Alyssa Dorelus. But coming here just reaffirmed what I already knew.”
The Petrochallenge is sponsored by Schlumberger, NExT, Occidental Petroleum Corporation, and IPAA/PESA.
HISD’s State of the Schools luncheon is right around the corner, but it’s not too late to sponsor a table or purchase tickets for your organization.
This annual event will take place from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on Thursday, March 3, in the fourth-floor ballroom of the Hilton Americas-Houston Hotel (1600 Lamar, 77010). Attendees will have the opportunity to learn more about HISD and how it is preparing its students for success in both higher education and high-paying, high-demand jobs in the global workforce.
The event also offers a great venue to meet to meet students and school leaders, as well as community partners and elected officials.
But act fast, because time is running out. Go here to purchase tickets or become a sponsor. You can also find details on how to purchase tickets are here (.pdf) and details on sponsorship opportunities here (.pdf).
Each month, Gregory-Lincoln Education Center teacher Kellie Karavias leads a small group of her students on a walking field trip to whip up a delicious and healthy meal at Houston’s top restaurant The Pass & Provisions.
The class isn’t an ordinary culinary arts course or cooking class. In fact, students carefully select a few fruits or vegetables harvesting at the time in their school garden, then work with chefs Seth Siegel-Gardner and Terrence Gallivan to create a dish that’s both nutritious and delicious.
Karavias says the cooking classes began after sending out a tweet to the chefs asking if she could bring her students to The Pass & Provisions—and she received a response.
“I went over [to the restaurant] and asked if I could speak to the chef, and Seth came out with hors d’oeuvres,” Karavias said. “We started talking, and he wanted to know what we were doing at the school, so I invited him and Terrence over.”
Updates will be provided on design plans and project status for each campus
Community meetings have been scheduled during the first quarter for the following seven bond schools, to inform stakeholders of project plans to rebuild or renovate their campus as part of HISD’s $1.89 billion bond program. Attendees will hear from project architects and other team members and will have the opportunity to ask questions.
When Angela Sugarek took the helm at Hogg Middle School in the summer of 2015, one of her priorities was to continue the work of her predecessor. Her goal: to have a fully functioning library, complete with its own certified librarian.
That dream became a reality recently, when the campus celebrated the complete renovation of its library with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Jan. 21. The library at Hogg is now state-of-the-art, with warm wood accents, rolling shelves filled with tempting and informative titles, and a presentation area that invites students and teachers to linger while they learn.
Last April, HISD’s Board of Education voted to accept $8.5 million in grants to support the district’s college readiness programs. One of the initiatives those funds made possible was the creation of a 28-person corps of college success advisors, whose ambitious goal is to boost college application, attendance, and completion rates among HISD graduates.
After just one semester of having the corps in place, HISD is already seeing a significant increase in the number of students applying to college — and that has caught the attention of local news media.
The corps’ success is the subject of a Jan. 22 article on Houston Public Media’s website, in which reporter Laura Isensee notes the district’s college application rate has jumped the most among Hispanic students.
“The program so far is making a pretty significant difference,” said Ruth Lopez Turley, a Rice University professor quoted in the article.
A generous donation from a community member has led to a unique professional learning opportunity for HISD teacher development specialists and school support officers.
Jill Carter’s $5,000 donation was enough to bring noted authors Kylene Beers and Bob Probst to the Hattie Mae White Educational Support Center to host a very unique training centered on literacy. The donation also highlighted the amazing impact donors and the community can have on the education of our city’s students.
