Tuesday - September 2nd, 2008

Good morning! I hope you had a good Labor Day Holiday and enjoyed the three-day weekend. I know that after the first week of school and all of the meetings the prior week you were ready for the long weekend. We really had a great start of school. Our enrollment by the end of the week was 87,262 students which is shy of our projected enrollment for base day of 88,596. However, compared to the same day last year the 87,262 represents a growth of 2888 students. We have said that our growth will be somewhere between 2500 and 3000 students and it appears that will occur. We will continue to grow through the end of September and I believe we will be very close to our projection. As I said at convocations, there is no doubt that the downturn in the economy and housing industry will affect the growth this year, but we will continue with growth. All five of our new schools opened in great shape and thanks again to the principals, faculty, and staff in these schools for the great job. Also, I want to compliment our Transportation Department for the great job they did. When you transport almost 50,000 students there are going to be a few glitches that first week, but there were very few of them. From everyone I have talked with I have heard nothing but good things about the start of school and I thank everyone in the District for doing such a great job.

On Wednesday of last week the District and Lackland City Elementary hosted Governor Rick Perry and Education Commissioner Robert Scott. They were here to present the District with a check for $5.4 million that is for the District Award for Teaching Excellence (DATE) grant. This grant will provide funds for 22 campuses to receive funding to reward the teachers in those schools for reaching certain goals related to student achievement that were established by the grant. All of the 22 campuses are campuses that have high numbers of economically disadvantaged students, and if all of these campuses meet their goal then approximately 600 teachers could receive a DATE award. In essence, it is an incentive pay program that was established by the 2007 Legislature. Incentive pay programs can be controversial and I can argue both the pros and cons of incentive pay. Yet if the state is going to appropriate money that can end up in the hands of teachers then I want us to participate. Many districts chose not to participate, but we felt it was important for us to take advantage of the grant and hopefully further reward some of our teachers who do tremendous work in our schools that have high percentages of economically disadvantaged students. Jerry Allen, principal of Lackland City Elementary, his faculty, staff and students did a great job hosting the event and I was very proud of them and our District. This is another example of the great things that are happening in Northside!

On Thursday of last week, Linda Mora, Deputy Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction, Brian Woods, Assistant Superintendent for Secondary Administration, and I went to Austin and met with Commissioner Robert Scott to discuss our concerns about the number of students who are placed for resettlement in our District by Catholic Charities. At the current time we have approximately 267 kids placed in Northside and they are primarily located in Colonies North Elementary, Mead Elementary, Hobby Middle School, Rudder Middle School, Clark High School, and Marshall High School. We continue to get more kids, and we are being told that even more will be coming from some of the war torn areas in Africa and the Middle East. Many of them come to us having never been to school even in their own country and speak no English. As I told the Commissioner, we have no problem serving these students and we have a moral responsibility to serve them and educate them, and we will do so. Yet, we are very concerned about the impact these students will have on the accountability ratings of these schools and our District since these students must take the TAKS test within a three-year period. This is ridiculous for these students and even more so to have test results on a test for which the students cannot be prepared penalize the very schools that are serving and helping these students.

Another factor affecting the high schools in terms of the resettlement children is the completion rate factor because many of these students will simply leave school after the time for assistance from Catholic Charities expires. Many of the older students have to go to work to help support the family, and generally assistance to the families will expire in a six-month period. If we cannot find them and get them back in school then the state will count them as dropouts and it will hurt the high school and the District on the completion rate.

I am hopeful that the Commissioner can figure out a way that these students will not count for accountability purposes, because I believe the current testing and accountability system was never intended to penalize or punish schools for serving students in need such as these. Also, because of the fact that these students are specifically placed in our District by Catholic Charities working with the U.S. Department of State, these schools should not be penalized.

Also, last week the Board of Trustees adopted the 2008-09 budget. It is a long process in preparing a yearly budget and we begin work about six months out from adoption. In just about six months we will begin working on the 2009-10 budget. I am thrilled with, and I hope you are, the 4% salary increase, and as a reminder it is no small budget item in opening five new schools. But the one thing I am most pleased about in our budget is the addition of Academic Deans at our middle schools. I think this will ultimately prove to be one of the most significant things we have done to improve the academic focus and achievement of our middle schools. Great budget for 2008-09, but we must have some help from the state in the 2009 legislative session.

As I close I want to congratulate Nathan Schuetz, a senior at Communications Arts High School, who scored a perfect 36 on the ACT test. Nathan is one of only seventeen Texas students, out of a total of about 20,500 who took the ACT in June, to achieve a 36, the highest possible composite score. He is one of only 162 in the nation and abroad, out of more than 410,000, that achieved this result. Congratulations Nathan, we are very proud of you!

In closing, I want to wish you a great week and know that in Northside "We Believe!"