Great School Leaders

Today, we held our monthly principals’ meeting and thanked our outstanding school leaders for the great work they have done all year. We make it a point every month to recognize different administrators and highlight some of the things they are doing to create and support successful schools. Those principals get a special shout out and a Team HISD baseball hat. It’s just one small way of showing them how proud we are to have them working in our district.

This morning, we focused on some of the principals who are helping to raise the level of academic rigor in HISD. We know that students need to score at the Commended level on the TAKS exams, if they are going to be on a path that prepares them for college and meaningful careers. I was proud to recognize principals who have significant numbers of Commended students. Take a look at these results. We have schools where as many as 92 to 93 percent of students are scoring at the Commended level in reading and math. We also have schools that have produced a dramatic increase in the number of Commended students—ranging from a 17- to a 30- percentage-point gain.

Today, we also thanked our retiring principals who have given so much to this district. They received hats and will always be valued members of Team HISD. Finally, we recognized three other outstanding school leaders: Rosa Hernandez, who has helped to secure $200,000 in grant funding for Burbank Middle School; Meilin Jao, who is engaging the community and creating a groundswell of support for Frank Black Middle School; and Peter Heinze, who has established a rigorous hiring process at Briarmeadow Charter School. We showed this video about Briarmeadow at today’s meeting.

Thanks to all our principals for their hard work during this past school year!