Tag Archives: Chavez HS

Top hoopsters hit the courts in 74th annual HISD tourney

Thirty-one of the Houston area’s best prep teams will begin three days of action Thursday in the 74th annual HISD Boys Basketball Tournament at nine district locations – and they’ll combine play with holiday giving.

Fans bringing two nonperishable food items and one unwrapped toy will gain free admission, with no re-entry permitted. The toys will go to the U.S. Marines Toys for Tots Drive, and the food will benefit the Houston Food Bank. Collection points will be located at each site for those who want to contribute additional items.

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22 acceptances — including 3 at Yale — for HISD EMERGE seniors

To familiarize them with life on the campus of a select school, HISD’s EMERGE program took a group of rising seniors on a tour of northeast campuses over the summer. Here, they’re at Harvard University.

The acceptance letters for select colleges and universities are rolling in for HISD seniors working with the district’s EMERGE program – 22 letters so far, as of Dec. 18. On Dec. 16 alone, three HISD seniors were notified they had been accepted to Yale University.

All students are either receiving full rides or are having 100 percent of their financial need met by the school accepting them, according to Rick Cruz, assistant superintendent of college readiness and co-founder of EMERGE.

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Employees give up their holiday break to help students get caught up

While fellow employees are sipping eggnog, exchanging presents, or just visiting with their friends and family, some members of Team HISD will be spending most of their winter break at one of 12 schools around the city.

Those campuses, which include Fondren Elementary, Woodson K–8, and Austin, Chávez, Davis, Lee, North Forest, Reagan, Sharpstown, Jones and Worthing high schools, are conducting credit recovery programs during that two-week period to help students who are behind in their classes get caught up with their peers.

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HISD wins $30 million in federal Race to the Top funds to link students to careers, college from earliest age

The Houston Independent School District learned Tuesday that it has won nearly $30 million in federal Race to the Top funding, the only urban school system to be named a winner in this round of district competition.

The announcement was made at noon, Houston time, by Education Secretary Arne Duncan at the U.S. Department of Education in Washington, D.C.

“This funding is an acknowledgment of the work we’ve done, as a giant urban district, to personalize learning to each student – and a belief by the Department of Education in the work we intend to do,” said Superintendent Terry Grier.

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30th Annual HISD Girls Basketball Tourney Launches Thursday

Seven-venue event combines hoops with holiday giving

Michael Sudhalter photo/The Leader News

The Houston area’s best girls basketball players will face off at seven HISD venues December 5-7 in the 30th annual Houston ISD Basketball Tournament – combining action on the courts with a giant food and toy drive, in the spirit of the holiday season.

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HISD Schools Thank Veterans For Service and Sacrifice

Lyons Elementary has a long-standing tradition of honoring veterans on Veterans Day. Everyone has a part to play, from Pre-K students who make thank-you cards for veterans to older children who make flags and educational history projects that are displayed in the halls.

About 25 veterans attend each year, so Lyons always adds something new to the program. This year it was a USO show, in which teachers in WWII-era clothing sang period songs and the Flamenco Dance Troupe – the boys dressed in service uniforms and girls in poodle skirts — performed the jitterbug. There was also a Little Miss Poppy Contest as well as a bugler.

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Chávez HS Student Wins National Art Contest with Vision of Future

Chavez HS student Luis Enrique Cortez accepts congratulations from Latino Art Beat President Don Rossi on Oct. 29 for winning the national organization’s annual art contest with his charcoal self portrait, entitled “Into the Future.”

Luis Enrique Cortez, a senior at HISD’s Chávez High School, has been named the national winner of the Latino Art Beat art competition for 2013, and representatives from that organization came to the campus on Oct. 29 to formally congratulate him during a special award ceremony.

Cortez earned top billing in the annual art contest with a charcoal drawing that took him two weeks to complete. The self portrait depicts Cortez breaking out of a colorless world and “Into The Future,” which is the name of his submission.

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EMERGE Students See Significant Gains in SAT Scores

Although HISD will not receive SAT results from the College Board until later this year, individual seniors who retook the SAT in October after attending the EMERGE SAT Boot Camp in July are getting their scores and seeing significant improvement – more than 300 out of 2,400 possible points in some cases.

“We are very pleased with the results,” said Assistant Superintendent for College Readiness Richard Cruz, who launched EMERGE in 2011 and continues to oversee it. “We are about to expand the program from 100 to 300 students.” EMERGE is a districtwide initiative aimed at getting high-achieving HISD students in underserved communities into Ivy League and other Tier 1 schools.

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HISD Graduate Comes Full Circle to Train Teachers on PowerUp Laptops

Elvira Salazar

Cramming a towel under her bedroom door to hide the light, Elvira Salazar defied her father’s orders and studied late into the night to keep up with her high-school homework. Now a dedicated PowerUp instructional technology specialist with HISD, Salazar understands how giving every HISD high school student a laptop for both home and school use will help them to work more effectively and efficiently, not only in the classroom, but after school as well.

“This is going to transform how teachers teach and how students learn,” Salazar said. “I want to help integrate technology into their lesson plans to make sure that these laptops are an effective learning tool.” Salazar left teaching in another district and writing curriculum for Rice University to work with HISD teachers on the digital transformation currently underway.

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Car Show Proceeds to Benefit Chavez Motor Sports Program

Chavez High School is hosting a community car show to give students more opportunities in its motor sports engineering program.

The show will be held in the school’s teacher parking lot from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sat., Sept. 28. Judging will be held at 1 p.m. The community is invited to enter their cars, imports, trucks and motorcycles for $25.

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