Good morning!  I hope you had a great Easter weekend and enjoyed the long three-day weekend.  I know everyone was ready for it, and I hope you got some rest, relaxation, and had some fun.

Last week was a great week for several reasons, but especially because one of our own was announced as the winner of the 2009 Trinity Prize for Excellence in Teaching.  Each year Trinity University names two teachers from the San Antonio area as winners of the Trinity Prize for their outstanding performance in public education.  Karen Pumphrey, applied learning teacher at Clark High School, was selected from twenty educators nominated for the prize for their commitment and passion to education.  The Trinity Prize, instituted in 1982 by the education department at Trinity University, is the area's longest-running award to honor and recognize outstanding public school teachers in the San Antonio area.  We say congratulations to Karen and express to her how proud we are of her for receiving this prestigious award.

Also last week the Northside Education Foundation had its spring fundraising golf tournament.  We appreciate State Farm for being the primary sponsor and we thank all the sponsors and those who participated.  The fundraiser cleared $38,316 which will go to the Foundation to help support the grants to teachers.  As I have mentioned before, the Foundation does several things to raise money which goes for team grants and individual grants to teachers.  Coming up on May 2 is the Spring 5K Walk/Run which is also one of the Foundation's fundraisers.  Thanks to Bonnie Ellison, Director of School-Business-Community Partnerships, and the NEF Board of Directors for all their support and work in organizing all of the fundraisers.  Great golf tournament which was certainly a success!

In addition, last Thursday classified personnel from all over the district attended the Annual Classified Administrative Support Staff Conference at the Northside Activity Center.  They were treated to great music, décor, food and cars all from the fabulous 50's.  The keynote speaker taught the 600+ attendees five strategies for dealing with difficult people and challenged each one to make at least one strategy a habit.  The event also included a Food Drive for the San Antonio Food Bank which was very successful.  I want to thank the Secretaries' Task Force for putting together a wonderful event that not only recognized our classified staff but also supported our community.  Thanks to Diana Ely and her staff for the great job they do in supporting this event.  Many door prizes are awarded at this event and congratulations to Priscilla Dunlap, attendance secretary at Excel Academy, and Jerry Ybarra of Transportation, who each won an HD television donated to the conference by Javier Leal of State Farm.  It was a fun and educational event, and I appreciate our classified staff so much!

In working with the Legislature on a bill that would extend the exemption for our unschooled refugee students, I was interested in knowing just how many languages and/or dialects are spoken in Northside.  There are 58 different languages/dialects spoken by students in Northside.  Of course, Spanish is the most prevalent language other than English spoken in Northside.  It is interesting to note that we have in terms of student languages 244 Arabic, 83 Farsi, 33 Japanese, 41 Korean, 36 Mandarin, 78 Filipino, 45 Urdu, and 59 Vietnamese.  As I mentioned there are many other languages spoken as the native language dialect of our students, some of which I had not heard of.  Our English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers do a great job with these students as do our Bilingual teachers who work with our Spanish speaking students.  Thanks to R.C. Rodriguez, Director of Bilingual/ESL Education, his staff, and all our teachers who work so hard to help these students become successful in school.

I would like to inform you about a bill in the Legislature that will probably become law.  It is H.B. 4294 and addresses the use of textbook funding.  Under current law, Texas school districts may use their state textbook allotment solely for the purchase of hard copy textbooks (or their electronic equivalent) that are adopted by the State Board of Education.  According to the authors - Dan Branch, Rob Eissler, Rene Oliveira, and Mark Strama - H.B. 4294 will allow districts to use their textbook funds to purchase a much wider range of instructional materials and technological equipment, as well as traditional textbooks.  The measure will allow school districts to use their textbook allotted funds to buy state-approved learning materials and technology that best meets the needs of their own students.  Specifically, the measure will:

• Allow schools that rely on textbooks for successful instruction to continue to purchase and use textbooks.
• Establish a Texas Education Agency Commissioner's List of approved instructional materials and supporting technology equipment that districts may also purchase with their textbook fund allotment.
• Establish a minimum requirement that districts and charter schools purchase a classroom set of SBOE-approved textbooks for all curriculum.
• Ensure districts are not required to buy books that will go unused, nor rely on outside funding for state-approved educational materials they believe best meet their students' needs.
• Does not mandate that districts purchase any materials beyond the textbooks approved by SBOE.
• Does not mandate that districts spend any of their textbook funds or any other monies on technology, computers or any educational equipment or curriculum that the district does not wish to purchase.

I am very unsure at this time what the effects of this bill may have on textbooks, especially each child having their own textbook.  I have been told that the funding may be only 75% rather than the full textbook funding, and that each class will have a classroom set of textbooks with the possibility of each student having their own assigned textbook if needed.  I know many parents feel their child should have a textbook for their own use and this may challenge some of that thinking.  I am going to reserve judgment on this bill at this time, but just wanted you to know about it.

Stan Drezek, Director of Resource Planning, has released his enrollment projections for next year.  He is projecting a student enrollment of 90,556 students which is an increase of 2156.  Even with the downturn in the economy and the slowing down of home sales and construction, we will still expect a growth of over 2000 students next school year.  This enrollment will keep us the fourth largest district in Texas and, based on the latest information from Stan, we are now the 36^th largest district in the nation.  This figure is based on old data from NCES, so it is very likely we will be about the 31^st or 32^nd largest district when newer data is used.  As you are aware, we are opening four schools next year and are projected to open five in 2010.

In last week's Monday Message I mentioned a concern I had about the state of Texas using the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund which is a portion of the stimulus package funding to fund some of the state budget and allowing an increase in the Rainy Day Fund, rather than allocating the funding to public schools.  We believe the intent of these dollars was to support schools during these difficult financial times, rather than supplant the state budget.  This past week eleven superintendents, of which I was one, signed a letter to Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary of Education, expressing our concern about how these funds are being proposed for usage by the Texas Legislature.  In our letter we stated, "We consider the use of these stabilization funds for any purpose other than the one the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act intended - the improvement of education for America's children - to be unacceptable and a violation of the public trust."  In addition, many of the congressional delegation in Washington have sent a letter to Secretary Arne Duncan and Governor Perry expressing their concerns about the use of the SFSF.  They state in their letter, "We believe that the SFSF was not intended to allow Texas to maintain its Rainy Day Fund, but rather to immediately invest in our schools to strengthen education and improve student achievement."  I am hopeful that schools will be funded the $1.9 billion originally talked about before stimulus funds were available, plus funding from the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund.

Lastly, the students who will be attending Hector Garcia Middle School which will open next year have selected their colors and mascot.  Their colors are Silver and Black and they will be the Gladiators.  Congratulations to Principal Eric Tobias and the students who will open this middle school.  Go Garcia Gladiators!

Thanks for all you do to help our students be successful.  We Believe a strong public education system is essential for our nation.  Have a great week!