Monday - May 11, 2009
Good morning! I hope you had a great weekend and got a little rest. As the school year winds down, I know that all of you are very busy and also have several evening activities to attend. Someone told me last week how many days were left in this school year and I couldn't believe it. Counting today, I believe students have only eighteen days of school left. The year has passed so fast and it has been a great year for Northside. I continue to be amazed at the great success, accomplishments, and recognitions of our students, faculty, campuses, and district. We continue to excel and achieve, and we truly are one of the great school districts in Texas and the nation. You have heard me say many times that Northside is the great district it is because of the wonderful people that work in this district. This past week we held our 2009 Employee Recognition and Retirement Celebration. Four hundred employees were honored Wednesday night for their longtime service to education and Northside. A total of 143 individuals are retiring from Northside this year, and they represent 3,360 years of service to Northside, and 4,239 years of service in education. When you take the total years of service of those who were retiring and those who were receiving a service pin, the total number of years of service to Northside is 9,420. I want to congratulate all of those who received their service pin, and also those who received their 10 year pin at their campus. Those attending the ceremony received their 20 year, 30 year, 35 year, or 40 year service pin. We had five individuals receive their 40 year service pin. Also, congratulations to all those who are retiring this year. I wish you the best and I hope you enjoy your retirement. I especially want to congratulate and wish our three retiring principals a wonderful retirement. They are James Buchanan of Communications Arts High School, Sharon Browne of Lewis Elementary School, and Kay Montgomery of Monroe May Elementary School. Again, congratulations to the service pin recipients and our retirees, and thanks to all of you for your many years of service in Northside. Each week I try to express appreciation to each and everyone of you for your hard work and dedication to our students and our school district. Last week was Teacher Appreciation Week, and I also know that it was School Nurse Appreciation Week. I really express appreciation to all our teachers for what they do. Also to our nurses, especially in light of the H1N1 flu, I express great appreciation for your service. Also, last week was Cafeteria Appreciation Week and I want to express my appreciation to all of those who work in our Child Nutrition Department and our cafeterias for their hard work and dedication. Especially to our Cafeteria Managers and their cafeteria staff on the campuses I say thank you for all you do. The feeding of breakfast and lunch to many of our students is so important to their well-being as well as to their learning. Thanks to everyone for your hard work and dedication to our students. Last week I attended a Recognition Reception for the recipients of the Jack C. Jordan PTA Scholarship. These scholarships are given by the Northside Council of PTAs and are funded through the efforts of PTAs across our district. As most of you know Jack Jordan is a former superintendent of Northside. I want to congratulate the following scholarship recipients:
After attending the reception for the Jack Jordan Scholarship recipients, I attended the O'Connor FFA Awards Banquet. Northside has one of the largest and finest vocational agriculture programs in the state and the students in that program achieve many state and national honors. Many students were honored at the banquet, the seniors were recognized, and new officers were installed. Thanks to Steve Chumbley, Director of the Agriculture Program, and the agriculture teachers for their great work and dedication to helping so many students be successful and earn scholarships through the Gerlach Livestock Show and Sale. Thanks to the O'Connor FFA Chapter for a great awards banquet, and congratulations to all the students who were honored! Last week KLRN and Discovery Education recognized Northside for its use of digital video streaming. A student at Clark High School was responsible for the one millionth view of an educational video through the KLRN Connect service which provides digital video through Discovery Education. It was interesting that the video was entitled "Assignment Discovery: An Inside Look at the Flu" and was viewed in a health class. Only four other districts nationwide reached this usage, and I feel this ability to utilize the technology we have for this digital video streaming service only serves to enhance the education of our students. Also, this week I want to acknowledge the great work of Communities In Schools in Northside. Communities In Schools of San Antonio is a program that provides a linkage of community resources and education. The staff of CIS provides comprehensive services to several of our schools which help students and families with special needs or services. Certainly these services help our students to learn, but also to stay in school. Communities In Schools serves Excel Academy, Clark, Holmes, Jay, Anson Jones, Cable, Westwood Terrace, Mead, and Powell. Thanks to Nancy Reed, Executive Director of CIS, and all the people with CIS who work in our schools and serve our students. It is a great program that serves the needs of many of our students! I want to recognize Marc Helkey, boys soccer coach at Stevens High School, who was named the San Antonio Express News "Coach of the Year" for boys soccer. Coach Helkey led the Falcons to their first District championship which resulted in going to the playoffs and defeating Judson in the first round. Congratulations to Coach Helkey on this award and honor. Great job! Lastly, I want to congratulate Shirley Schreiber, Director of Health Services, on being the recipient of the Medical Center Rotary Club Outstanding Leader of the Year Award. Shirley received this award Friday night at the Celebration of Nursing Nightingale Gala. Several of us were able to attend and I was so proud of Shirley. She has been in the District 38 years and has served as our Director of Health Services for 25 of those years. Many times the nurses at our schools are the only health care many students receive, and with this last event with the H1N1 flu they have been exemplary. Congratulations to Shirley for her great leadership and to all our nurses for the wonderful job they do. As I previously mentioned Northside excels because of the great people and wonderful job they do working with our children. Thanks for all you do to help our District be successful. Have a great week! |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
