Good morning! I hope this last Monday of the school year finds you well, but also pleasantly tired from your hard work over the last several months and maybe, just maybe, a little sad about students leaving us for a bit. The end of the year is an exciting time, but also one that causes me to look back and reflect on what was done well, what needs to be improved and what needs to just be done away with. I hope that you will take some time for similar reflection. For those of you who will take a little time away beginning next week, I hope that you have had an enjoyable, productive year full of “ah ha!” moments from the students you serve and that you will come back in August full of creativity and energy to inspire another group. For those who work through the summer, thank you for your efforts all year long to keep our schools safe, clean and productive.

As I look ahead to next year, we will continue to manage our challenges around curriculum and instruction, enrollment growth and funding. Our initial examination of STAAR results for this year looks very encouraging, but more analysis will need to be done this summer to understand and plan for improvement in some areas. While we do not define ourselves solely by state testing and we certainly do quite well in NISD, there is always room for improvement. Outside of the arena of state testing, I look forward to the accomplishments our students will experience and the excitement we will enjoy in athletics, the arts, our career and technology programs and in all of the other venues in which our students excel.

With regard to enrollment growth, we expect to add over 2,200 students for the 2013-14 school year and likely a similar number in each year for the foreseeable future. That will bring next year’s enrollment to well over 100,000 students. Because of this growth and the need to keep our existing campuses renovated, we will likely have a serious conversation about a bond issue soon. Over the summer we will finish our study of needs for the immediate future and start a conversation with our Board about those needs. We have been very fortunate in NISD that our Board and our community have supported the District’s facility requirements during this time of tremendous growth!