Video showcases progress on design for new Relief Elementary

HISD released a new video that shows staff, parents, and architects working together to plan the design of a new elementary school in the west Houston area that will be built to relieve crowding.

The school, known as Relief Elementary until it gets an official name, will be located on a 10-acre site on Old Farm Road near the Buffalo Bayou, less than a few blocks north of Westheimer Road between Hillcroft Street and Fondren Road. The school will be immersed in nature on a woody site that offers views of the bayou and allows learning areas such as science and art rooms to easily open to the outdoors.

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Pomp and circumstance for Class of 2014: 48 hours, 40 HISD graduations

Houston ISD’s Class of 2014 is big – the graduates attend a total of 42 high schools. In less than 48 hours between Friday and Sunday, the district held 40 graduation ceremonies.

Team HISD made sure that each ceremony was special for the graduates and their families. The district used 10 facilities across the city, including Reliant Arena, Reliant Stadium, and the George R. Brown Convention Center, to accommodate all of the celebrations.

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EMERGE students head east to tour historic colleges

Ninety-four Houston ISD juniors and seniors are touring nine historic college campuses this week, from June 1 through June 5, as part of the district’s EMERGE program for high-performing, low-income students.

Students from 15 high schools, who departed Houston early Sunday morning, are attending panel discussions, information sessions and workshops at:
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2013-2014 annual Board of Education student awards

Each year the Board of Education recognizes distinguished seniors from HISD high schools in recognition of their total accomplishments exemplified by their character, academic achievement, leadership, and service. Selection is made by a school committee appointed by the principal and the award is presented by the board trustee during commencement exercises. An outstanding young man and young woman are selected as well as up to five honorable mention students from each high school. This year’s recipients are:
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Your Voice survey window extended over weekend

Confidential surveys can be mailed or completed online

The Your Voice districtwide survey window will be extended for parents, students, administrators and instructional staff until 11:59 p.m. Sunday, June 1.

Survey responses can be sent to the RDA Group, a global market research and consulting firm, by mail or online at https://www.hisdyourvoice.rdagroup.com/survey/. RDA will be responsible for collecting and computing results of the survey to retain your privacy.

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Houston Symphony to visit HISD campus as part of free summer concert series

The Houston Symphony is launching its annual series of free summer community family concerts throughout the Houston area, and HISD’s Booker T. Washington High School is on the list of venues.

Symphony musicians will play a program of family-friendly music celebrating composers of diverse backgrounds, ranging from Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony to Ravel’s Suite from Mother Goose, conducted by Robert Franz.

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HISD students win $1.6M in Jones Scholarships from Houston Endowment

The late philanthropists Jesse H. Jones and his wife, Mary Gibbs Jones, were stalwart believers in the power of education to improve people’s quality of life. It’s one of the reasons they founded the Jones Scholars program through the Houston Endowment in 1958, and since its inception, that organization has provided more than $94 million to young men and women to help them pay for college.

More than 300 members of the Class of 2014 received $16,000 scholarships through the program this year, and almost a third of those were from HISD schools.

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Milby HS educator named HISD’s 2014 Librarian of the Year

HISD’s 2014 Librarian of the Year Rowena Verdin (center) with Principal Roy de la Garza (left) and School Support Officer Justin Fuentes

Rowena Verdin has been finding innovative ways to do her job since practically the minute she stepped onto the Milby High School campus. After only a year of fielding requests for copies of old yearbooks from dozens of alumni, she launched an effort to digitize them for easier access. And to entice students to read more, she set up her own version of the Red Box movie-rental kiosk in a display window, adorning popular books with bright red covers that say, “Have you ‘red’ any good books lately?”

It is these efforts and more that have earned Verdin the title of HISD’s Librarian of the Year for 2014.
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