LISD administrators, faculty, and staff gathered together Wednesday to kick off the new year. Superintendent Stan Surratt gave a ‘State of the District’ address, with door prizes from the Education Foundation, a security and safety discussion by Jamie Holder, encouraging words from a motivational speaker, and distribution of retention checks.
“It’s going to be a great year,” counselor David Ramsey said. “We have a wonderful group of teachers and students, and I expect we will continue to grow and achieve in both academics and extracurriculars.”
As part of his remarks, Surratt gave a report on the academic achievements of the year and last year’s test scores. Every campus in the district had higher scores than the state average in every tested subject. In most cases, LISD’s scores were far ahead of the state. In addition, every UIL-competing campus won the district championship for their level, and the high school academic team was the silver medalist overall at State.
“I thought the scores were not only incredible to look at, but a good showcase to show the time and effort the teachers put into their students, as well as the love that they have,” Cambria Alford, 504/ESL and Testing Coordinator, said.
Following Surratt’s reports, Leslie Milder, of Friends of Texas Public Schools, spoke about the perception in society regarding teachers and how important it is to change the narrative in a positive manner. Milder challenged the teachers to let communities know of the great things going on in their classrooms, because often the only information the public receives is negative when an incident happens. Additionally, she reminded teachers of how important relationship-building is for the overall well-being of students and to remember that much of what is done by all the members of staff can’t be measured by a test.
“Today’s message was a great reminder to all of us that what we say makes an impact,” counselor Tamica Collard said.
For more information about Friends of Texas Public Schools, go to www.fotps.org .
