Forty-Four Schools in Just Four Weeks

Four weeks and 44 schools to see,
As the new superintendent, it was a real treat for me!
Teacher Appreciation Month was in May,
Teachers of Promise and of the Year I met every day.
Promise, our schools do,
of quality, rigor, and a lot of fun too.
With cheerleaders, jazz bands, inclusion classes, and more
Our schools’ striving for excellence is at their core.


Doubling library book circulation at ALC,
Honoring the whole child at Govalle.
Viva Zavala, rockin' in science, reading and song,
Brooke with Lion pride roaring and writing along.
Dawson and Small, big hearts they've got,
Thankfully, mine didn't give out as I walked, walked, walked in the Oak Hill lot.
At Patton I met Pioneers
Exploring many new frontiers.
Eco-art smart Cunningham, what a clever little school,
Cowan crayola pillars make it uber-cool.
Perez Pythons wild about reading and the wildflower walk,
Williams loves oceans and virtual Philippe Cousteau talk.
Maplewood Video Production had me on the hot seat,
Harris' IPad makes high tech learning complete.
If Ridgetop is the school 
that goes from dinosaurs to dual
(language, that is),
then T.A. Brown 
is the best school in town.
Paredes is bursting with Puma Pride,
St. Elmo kids questioned and quizzed us and took us in stride.
Shakespeare, pajamas, and pancakes at Galindo,
Hill standards high, orange and white, and the Dad Dillos.
Garza Spirit Says, "That's Me!" 
It was easy for us all to see.
Dedicated dolphins do their flipper wave at Davis,
Doss learning takes flight up to the stratus.
Brentwood's attitude is really green,
McCallum and Reilly are PALS, as I've seen.
Highland Park learning comes alive under oaks,
Casis' path to excellence is paved for its folks.
Blackshear hosts positive role models,
Mustangs at Barrington read in their saddles.
Wooldridge folklorico could charm and amaze,
Busy McBees buzz all the day.
Little feet make strides at Lucy Read Pre-K,
Lamar teaches students "responsibilitay."
Pillow celebrates the Big 4 0,
Cook Crocs' teachers are in the know.
Oak Springs thrives in a world of its making,
Ortega busts myths and knowledge they're taking.
At Sims today's work is just a start,
Tigers at Norman know to work hard to be smart.
Lee is so nifty where kids read fifty,
Teaching in paradise at Bryker, how spiffy.
Life at Palm is beautiful and breezy,
Widen teachers make learning look easy.
Houston has cool kids; I got to be one,
Rodriguez rocks 'cause learning is fun.
Our first school was Linder, where we were so welcome,
And that's all the schools; our visits were awesome!
 
I'll miss our rogue band of bloggers —
Ramona and Carmen, Kathy and Chris, Holly and Liz —
they can't forget this: that they hung in 
every day of the tour, which made it all possible 
for me to do this, 
visit each school and blog what I learned
while the wheels of our bus turned, turned, and turned.


A poem by a second grader would be better than this,
It's true, check out Cowan, that student can't miss.
It’s all about learning, going forward, not back,
learning for life, but don't tell that to TAKS.

Many thanks to all the wonderful teachers, students, parents, and school staff members that I met on the tour. Your commitment to teaching and learning has inspired me to do the best job I can as your Superintendent. I also want to thank the principals for creating outstanding learning communities ... and for welcoming us so warmly when we visited.

Linder Elementary

Principal Beverly Odom

Rodriguez Elementary

Principal Monica Villasenor

Houston Elementary

Principal Elia Diaz-Camarillo

Widen Elementary

Principal Kim Royal

Palm Elementary

Principal Joanna Garza

Bryker Woods Elementary

Principal Nancy Hobbs

Lee Elementary

Principal Elyse Smith

Norman Elementary

Principal Floretta Andrews

Sims Elementary

Principal Freda Mills

Ortega Elementary

Principal Anna Pedroza

Oak Springs Elementary

Principal Monica Woods

Cook Elementary

Principal Orlando Salazar

Pillow Elementary

Principal Tonya King

Lamar Middle School

Principal Eleanor Duncan

Lucy Read PreK Demonstration School

Principal Janice Darrington-Weston

McBee Elementary

Principal Rafael Soriano

Wooldridge Elementary

Principal Sheri Mull

Barrington Elementary

Principal Susan Stamy

Casis Elementary

Principal Patricia Martin

Highland Park Elementary

Principal Tammie Workman

Reilly Elementary

Principal Anna Garza

Brentwood Elementary

Principal Katherine Williams-Carter

Doss Elementary

Principal Sherrie Raven

Davis Elementary

Principal Douglas Hall

Hill Elementary

Principal Beth Ellis

Garza Independence High School

Principal Linda Webb

Galindo Elementary

Principal Donna Linn

St. Elmo Elementary
Principal Adriana Gonzales

Paredes Middle School
Principal Raul Moreno

T.A. Brown Elementary
Principal Veronica Sharp

Ridgetop Elementary
Principal Joaquin Gloria

Harris Elementary
Principal Gloria Arredondo

Maplewood Elementary
Principal Sandy Leibeck

Williams Elementary
Principal Joan Bertino

Perez Elementary
Principal David Kauffman

Cunningham Elementary
Principal Amy Lloyd

Cowan Elementary
Principal April Glenn

Dawson Elementary
Principal Shannon Sellstrom

Patton Elementary
Principal Alan Stevens

Oak Hill Elementary
Principal Terry Whistler

Small Middle School
Principal Amy Taylor

Brooke Elementary
Principal Olivia del Valle

Zavala Elementary
Principal Sean Fox

Govalle Elementary
Principal Nancy Maniscalco

Alternative Learning Center
Principal Hector Rodriguez

New Beginnings at Alternative Learning Center

Our last stop today — and in the "44 in 4" Tour — is the Alternative Learning Center. Principal Hector Rodriguez met us at the door and I was eager to discover how the dedicated teachers and staff help these young people. These students need extra support to help them get better prepared for being successful in our middle and high schools.

The teachers are carefully chosen so that their backgrounds and skills in social work and psychology can be put to good use. The faculty trains a lot to beef up their skills to support each student and their special needs. Partners are carefully chosen for coaching, mentoring, and tutoring. Partners include CARY, Travis County, Austin Partners in Education, Communities in Schools, and UT.

The ALC is a state-mandated program where students come who must be removed from their home campuses due to disciplinary issues. This allows them to continue their education while also learning social and behavioral skills they need to be more successful when they return to their home schools. The program includes the core classes: science, math, language arts, and social studies, and the school complements these courses with PE/ROPES and Character Education.

The students assigned to the ALC may come for only a day, or stay for the remainder of a school year for many different offenses. Teachers constantly receive training in classroom management, at-risk populations, as well as curriculum and instruction. They are encouraged to have ESL, G/T, and special education training for students who require all of these kinds of services. More than any other school in the district, ALC teachers must keep up with the scope and sequence to ensure a seamless transition for students when they return to their home schools.

ALC has many different types of intervention techniques, such as parental involvement and direct instruction. The school has INVEST, Positive Families, and Great Families programs to assist students who are sent there because of drug or alcohol use, antisocial behaviors, or gang activities respectively. Students receive counseling at the ALC, or are assessed and sent to a business partner for further support in overcoming negative behaviors.

One of the ALC's best interventions is offered in conjunction with Austin Community College. The ACC Eastview campus is right across the street. ALC students are given the opportunity to learn how to attend college and therefore change the way they see themselves. Principal Rodriguez is proud to say that there is a good number of students who do enroll at ACC after having walked the campus while assigned to the ALC.

There are both middle and high school students here, and we toured separate wings for both age groups. The high school students were taking semester finals, so the atmosphere was serious and studious. There is a character education program to support reflection and collaboration with peers. The program is called "Why Try?"

The librarian, Ann Maria Avegno, was very pleased with the circulation of books this year — it doubled!!! She was really excited about the resources that the school has received in recent years to help expand the collection so that she could buy books that the students like (and they do like her choices).

Teacher of the Year Jennifer Wood is the only sixth-year teacher. She teaches all four subjects and works hard to place students quickly in an instructionally-appropriate level. Beyond using textbooks, she uses online curriculum such as LEXIA for reading and Dimension M for math. She also leads training efforts for teachers at the Leadership Academy so the students can be successful with credit recovery.

Teacher of the Promise Claudia Banda team teaches with Carolyn Weaver for 9th grade. She has much love for the hard work required to help support some of the students here. She had great energy and a special approach to her students - relational and bilingual - who were very respectful and engaged in a conversation with me about my job and what I did in the school system. I even had one student, Jose, who was interested in being part of my next Student Jam!

The ALC was our 44th school. We did it — 44 in 4! Thanks to the many principals, teachers, staffs, students, and parents who welcomed us with open arms. Our visits were incredible experiences for me as Superintendent, and I have come away from this tour with so much information, impressions, and, mostly, pride in this great school district!

Thanks for reading our blog!