Good morning!  I hope you had a great weekend and enjoyed this weather.  I want to thank all of you who contributed to the 2008 Northside Education Foundation Pledge Drive.  The NEF Employee Pledge Drive was a tremendous success and it was because of each donor and also the work of each campus and department representative.  More than 7000 Northside employees donated $176,076.25 which represents a 12% increase in participation and a 13% increase in donations.  Congratulations to the overall per capita winner who was the Human Resources Department, and the overall percent increase from the previous year winner which was Taft High School.

The funds raised for the Northside Education Foundation go for grants and recently the NEF Prize Patrol awarded $109,501 to 146 teachers in 64 schools.  From the reports I received there were many happy teachers and students who received a grant.  Thanks to Bonnie Ellison, Director of Partnerships, the Board of Directors of the Foundation, and all those who help make the NEF such a success.  We truly have one of the most successful public school foundations in the state and nation!

Today is the last day to register for the NEF 5K Walk/Run coming up on Saturday, November 1, at Del Webb Hill Country Retreat.  If your school does not have a group participating, I encourage you to enroll today and have a great time the day of the event.  It is a lot of fun!

Also, I want to mention the great success of our marching bands in the Region UIL Band competition held on October 18.  Marshall, Jay, Taft, Clark, Warren, O'Connor, Stevens, and Brandeis received Division 1 ratings and qualified for the Area Marching Contest held in the Alamodome this past Saturday.  The Holmes band did a great job but fell one judge's rating short of qualifying for the area contest.  I congratulate all our bands for a great performance, and I look forward to getting the Area results today.  I was out of town over the weekend so I did not get to see them in Area, but I know they performed well.  I have enjoyed watching our bands at halftime this year and also in the Band Spectacular.  Thanks to James Miculka, Director of Fine Arts, and all our high school band directors for their hard work this marching season, and also thanks to the students for a great job!

Recently CPS Energy and Northside ISD held a press conference at John Marshall High School to highlight the completed project of a lighting retrofit at the school.  You may think it odd that I would mention this in a Monday Message, but I am very proud of what our district is doing to save energy and improve the environment.  Northside has made it a priority to develop practices that are friendly both to the environment and taxpayer dollars.  Our purchase of propane-fueled buses and projects such as this lighting project show that Northside is committed to being green.  Under the leadership of Bruce Dschuden, District Energy Management Coordinator, the idea of retrofitting lighting systems on school campuses was proposed to CPS Energy.  A pilot project was developed at Marshall High School and it was completed at the end of last school year.  This is a great partnership because CPS Energy covers up to 75% of the cost of retrofitting, the reduced energy usage helps reduce the need for new power plants, the school district saves money in electric bills, staff and students benefit from better lighting, and the new lighting has a reduced impact on the environment.  Specifically at Marshall High School we will save about 573,000 kilowatt hours, which is about 15% of the school's annual energy consumption.  I am told that is enough energy to power 561 homes for a year.  The cost of the project was about $144,000, and we have received more than $95,000 in rebates from CPS Energy.  Currently, Clark High School is being retrofitted, and we plan to move to Health Careers High School, Passmore Elementary, Howsman Elementary, Stinson Middle School, and Zachry Middle School.  Thanks to Bruce and the people who worked on this project for their leadership.  This is a great partnership, and a great way to improve our schools and save energy.

This past week I have been involved in several meetings and discussions about issues that have statewide implications and will certainly impact Northside.  One of the areas discussed has been the concern of NCLB and how the AYP ratings were affected by the issue of testing special education students who are working below grade level on grade level, and the capping of TAKS-M test takers at 2% which creates a situation of having the passers above the 2% number counted as failures.  Also, discussed were issues related to the accountability system and how it might be changed, the use of growth models in determining accountability ratings as well as AYP ratings, how college readiness standards will be incorporated into end-of-course exams at the high school level, the movement toward online testing, the adoption of a uniform grade point average by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, and of course school funding.

Many issues of critical importance to the future of education in our state are being discussed and will be addressed in the next legislative session as well as Congress.  Don't forfeit your right to vote by not voting!  Early voting has begun and I encourage each of you to take time to vote in early voting, because, with the turnout being as large as it is, we know it will be extremely large on November 4.

Thanks for all you do!  We Believe in Excellence and We Believe in Northside!