Good morning! I know that all of you are looking forward to the end of this week and then having our Thanksgiving Break. It just seems like we just got school started and here we are already to Thanksgiving.  We have had a great school year, yet it has been a very busy one, and I know all of you have worked hard to help our schools and students be successful.  I am constantly hearing compliments about Northside, and I know it is because of what you do everyday in helping our students.

Last Wednesday evening we held the last of our school dedications for this year.  What a great program by the Kuentz Coyotes for their dedication.  Kuentz Elementary School is named for Charles L. Kuentz, Jr., who was a beloved Northside band director for many years.  In 1974 he joined Northside at Hobby Middle School, and then a year later went to Marshall High School.  His bands received many awards, but a highlight was marching in the 1977 Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California.  As a band director, Mr. Kuentz taught his students about so much more than music.  As a father figure to many of his students, Mr. Kuentz instilled in them important life lessons that served them for years after high school.  Mr. Kuentz retired in 1992 but still remains active with music as Director of the Helotes Community Band.  I compliment Principal Lori Gallegos, Vice Principal Adriana Garza, the faculty, and staff for a great job in putting together a wonderful dedication for Kuentz Elementary.  The program was excellent and we welcome the Kuentz Coyotes as our 65th elementary school.

I enjoy the dedications so much each year and the schools do a great job.  This year we welcomed Garcia Middle School, Langley Elementary School, Hoffmann Elementary School, and Kuentz Elementary School, and I was so impressed with all the dedication ceremonies.  But I was equally impressed with the namesakes of these schools:  Hector Garcia, Ralph Langley, John Hoffmann, and Charles Kuentz.  What great people and what a great job our Board of Trustees did in naming our schools for these individuals.  These are great people for our students to have as role models and examples of what an impact people can have on our society and especially education.  Thanks to Pascual Gonzalez and Monica Faulkenbery for the great job they do in working with the schools in preparation for the dedication ceremonies.  Another great season of dedications!

Also, last week was a very special week in that our schools took time to honor and recognize the military.  So many wonderful programs took place on our campuses to recognize the service and sacrifice that our veterans have made to this country.  The observance of Veterans Day is very important, and our schools do a great job in honoring our veterans.  With the tragedy that just occurred at Fort Hood, many of our schools made special recognition of this very tragic occurrence.  I encourage you to read the news article on our web site, which highlights many of the special ceremonies conducted on our campuses to honor those who have fought and served to protect our country.  I am always so proud of what our schools do to recognize our veterans, and I really appreciated the playing of Taps at the dedication of Kuentz Elementary.  Thanks to all our principals, teachers, and staff for what you do on this special day!

Also, this past week the Texas Business Education Coalition held its 2009 Honor Roll Banquet.  Of the more than 8,000 Texas public school campuses, less than 4 percent were honored.  Congratulations to Health Careers High School on making the TBEC Honor Roll and being recognized at the banquet.  TBEC identifies Honor Roll schools by analyzing three years of performance data for every public school in Texas.  A campus must have a high percentage of students meeting state standards on all TAKS tests for three consecutive years, and must also perform at a Commended level.  The selection criteria also considers the school's demographics.  Health Careers High School has been recognized for this award for several years.  Congratulations, and we are proud of you!

This past weekend, Technology Services held its 1st Annual Fall Technology Mini-Conference at Warren High School.  I was able to attend and it was excellent.  Several sessions were held by staff in our Academic Technology Department and our CITs.  My only regret was that I couldn't attend more of the sessions.  We are very fortunate in Northside to have a lot of technology available, but especially to have our Campus Instructional Technologists and other campus technologists to assist teachers and students in utilizing the technology for instructional purposes.  It was a wonderful session, and I encourage more mini-conferences such as this!

On Wednesday, the Texas School Alliance had its meeting of lead staff and superintendents.  We had an excellent meeting although it was not uplifting in terms of the news we were given.  The State Comptroller is predicting a tremendous drop in sales tax revenue of almost 15 percent.  This not only has a great impact on state budget projections, but could have an impact on this biennium in terms of a possible proration of state revenues to governmental entities.  It is possible that when the Legislature convenes for the 2011 legislative session the state may be looking at a $12 billion shortfall.  This is in addition to the fact that much of this biennial budget was funded with stimulus funds which will no longer be available when appropriations are made for the next biennium.  Even though our projections show us doing well financially for the next two years, I am very concerned about the out years and what may occur if there is no new revenue made available to school districts.  With no new revenue coming in we will have no funds for salary increases, may have to look at budget cuts, or discuss the possibility of a rollback election that would take us beyond the $1.04 on our M&O tax rate.  From the discussion I believe it is possible
for the Legislature to make up the $3.2 billion of Stabilization funds that went to schools by eliminating many grant programs, and possibly using some Rainy Day funds, but I do not think they will have the political will to find new sources of revenue and place additional dollars into schools.  I know this will not only affect Northside, but I am very concerned about what this will do to the quality and number of programs and services that we offer our students.

In this message I want to take a moment to congratulate the O'Connor High School Volleyball Team who made it to the Region IV 5A finals.  They absolutely had a great year winning District 28-5A and going on in the playoffs to defeat several teams including Reagan High School, which I think was the best volleyball match I have ever seen.  They were defeated by Austin Westlake in the Regional Finals, and I know how disappointed they were in not advancing to state.  But I have to say how proud I am of this team and how they represented O'Connor High School and Northside.  Their district record was 16-0, and I believe their overall record was 40-4.  Congratulations to coaches Yami Garcia, Anne Lewis, and Leandra Valdez, and all the girls for a great year of volleyball.  We are very proud of you!

I was unable to attend this event, but thanks to Dottie Hall, principal of Business Careers High School, Security Service Federal Credit Union, Jump Start, and the BCHS staff for conducting the "Financial Literacy Fair" on Saturday.  Students and parents from around Northside attended this event, and I am sure received much benefit from the fair.  There are so many events occurring in Northside, and I appreciate all of those who work so hard to make these events successful.

As I close this Monday Message I want to say thank you to Stan Drezek, who was Director of Resource Planning.  Stan retired as of Friday and he has given 27 years to Northside.  You have read of Stan in many of my Monday Messages as I talked about student growth and enrollment projections.  So many things we do were grounded in the projections Stan would make.  Knowing where and when to build schools, building a budget based on student enrollment projections, hiring teachers based on numbers of students, and which grade levels we needed to hire teachers were just a few of the areas Stan impacted.  Stan's work was always at the core of everything we did.  During his tenure, Northside has built 52 new schools and grown by 55,412 students.  Yet there is no one who was more modest and humble than Stan about his role.  Stan is a man of honesty and integrity, and I will miss him.  He will still be available to help us with certain projects, but from the bottom of my heart I thank Stan for his commitment to this District, to our students, and to our community.  Thanks Stan!

I hope you have a great week, and I wish all of you Happy Thanksgiving.  I hope you enjoy the week we will have as our Thanksgiving Break, and let us all be thankful for the many blessings we have.  I appreciate you so much and thanks for all you do!  Have a great break, and remember you are all the "Heart of Northside!"