Good morning!  Hope you had a great weekend and enjoyed the great weather.  Last week was National School Counseling Week.  I meant to mention that in last week's Monday Message but failed to do so.  I want to certainly express my appreciation to all of our school counselors across the district for the wonderful job they do.  Every day they do so much to help and assist our students, and so many students look to them for guidance and advice.  We have a great counseling program under the direction of Dr. Deborah Healy and I wish to express my appreciation to Dr. Healy for her great leadership.  Please take time to thank the counselors in your building for the great job they do every day with our students!

Last Monday night we held our mid-year graduation.  This graduation is for those students who graduate in mid-year from our Excel Academy, obtain their General Education Diploma from Adult and Community Education, and students from our high schools that complete their requirements for graduation at mid-term.  We had over a hundred students participate in the graduation ceremony and had approximately three hundred students that actually completed the program requirements at this time.  I am so proud of our Excel Academy and our Adult Education Program that help students meet the requirements for their diploma or GED.  The Excel Academy is a program that is responsive and accommodating to students who are not experiencing success in the traditional high school setting.  It serves seniors who for whatever reason experienced the need for an educational program different from our high schools that will help them complete the requirements for their diploma.  It is a small learning environment that serves the academic needs of the students in a flexible schedule which accommodates the student.  Our Adult Basic Education Program helps students obtain the educational skills necessary to be successful on the GED test and obtain the equivalency of a high school diploma.  These programs offer tremendous opportunities to our students and serve students in a special way to help them be successful.  Thanks to Irene Chavez, Principal of the Excel Academy, and all her staff for what they do.  Also, thanks to Lydia Martinez, Director of Adult and Community Education, and Nancy Dunlap, Coordinator of Adult Education, and their staff for helping so many students complete the requirements for the GED.  At the graduation ceremony you not only see the pride the students have in themselves, but you see the pride the faculty and staff have in what they have done to help these students.  Congratulations to all the students and thanks to all those who helped these students complete their requirements for graduation.

Last week I mentioned that Northside had hosted the Regional Academic Decathlon and Warren High School had placed first, O'Connor High School second, and Holmes/Business Careers third.  We were anxious to get the results to see which teams from this regional competition qualified for the state academic decathlon meet.  We were thrilled to find out that Northside placed four teams in the state competition based on total number of points.  The schools that will be going to state are Warren, O'Connor, Holmes, and Clark.  Having the top three placers at Regional and adding a fourth high school, Clark High School, qualify for state is quite an accomplishment.  Congratulations to these high schools' academic decathlon teams on reaching state competition and we wish them the best!  We are all proud of this accomplishment.

Thursday evening was a great evening in Northside as we celebrated the Northside PTA Founders Day Banquet.  This was a special event because PTA is celebrating its 100 year anniversary as a national organization.  We were honored to have the national PTA President, Jan Harp Domene, present to speak to almost 1000 people who were in attendance.  We cannot say enough or thank PTA enough for all they do to help and support our schools in Northside.  A special thank you to Jody Weitman, NISD Council of PTAs President, for the tremendous year she has served as president and the great job she did presiding at the banquet.  Congratulations to those who were awarded membership awards and especially to Julie Eversole, active PTA member and great Northside supporter, and Sharon Browne, principal at Lewis Elementary.  Also, congratulations to Kris Cotton, Vice Principal at Colonies North, for receiving the Outstanding VP/Asst. Principal Award, and Andy Kline, Principal at Raba Elementary, for receiving the Outstanding Principal Award.  We also congratulate all the recipients of the Jack C. Jordan Scholarship.  As I have said many times we are a great school district because of the wonderful people who work in Northside, but we are a great district because we have such tremendous support at each campus and at the district level from PTA.  To all PTA members, we thank you for this support!  A great evening of celebration for Northside and for PTA!

As we celebrated Founders Day at the PTA Banquet, we also celebrate the 60^th Anniversary of Northside Independent School District.  Sixty years ago in February the initial steps were taken to form an independent school district called Northside.  Nine rural school districts comprised of eleven schools came together or consolidated to form Northside.  Enrollment that first year was 823 students, and in 1951 Northside had its first graduating class of ten students.  My, how we have changed in sixty years to a district of 88,400 students and high schools which graduate almost 5000 students.  All of those who came before us as employees in Northside helped build a legacy of excellence which permeates throughout all of our 100 campuses comprised of 62 elementary schools, 16 middle schools, 9 high schools, 4 magnet high schools, and 9 special schools.  No doubt these people believed in the importance of quality education and we must continue to carry their vision of the belief that education is the key to success.  I encourage you to read about our district's history on our website.

I have received notice from Just for the Kids that eight of Northside's schools have been selected as 2008 Just for the Kids Higher Performing Schools in Texas.  These schools were selected as higher performing based on analyses conducted by the National Center for Educational Achievement, sponsor of the Just for the Kids Campaign.

The eight schools are: 

• Beard ES is Higher Performing in Science
• Blattman ES is Higher Performing in Mathematics and Reading
• Colonies North ES is Higher Performing in Mathematics and Reading
• Glenoaks ES is Higher Performing in Reading
• Leon Springs ES is Higher Performing in Reading, Science, and Writing
• Linton ES is Higher Performing in Mathematics
• McDermott ES is Higher Performing in Reading
• Thornton ES is Higher Performing in Writing

Congratulations to these schools on this achievement and recognition.

On Saturday I attended the regional MathCounts competition at UTSA.  Northside had four teams competing - Stinson Middle School, Zachry Middle School, Sul Ross Middle School, and Luna Middle School.  Thanks to the coaches and students for competing, and congratulations to Stinson Middle School who placed second and will be advancing to state competition.  They are coached by Howard Villarreal and I wish these math students the best at state competition.  Congratulations to all, and we are proud of you.

In closing, I want to congratulate the John Jay High School girls' basketball team on winning the District 28-5A championship.  Saturday, Jay and Stevens played for the district championship and it was a great game.  Both teams are to be congratulated on how hard they played and how they represented their school.  I was very proud of both of these teams and their coaches, and I wish them the best in the playoffs.  With Jay winning, I do congratulate Coach Mike Floyd and the Jay girls on this championship.  With Jay, Stevens, O'Connor, and Marshall advancing to the playoffs, I congratulate them and say good luck as they advance.

Have a great week!