Katy ISD has added 10 additional H1N1 vaccination clinics starting Tuesday, December 15 at the following locations:
Tuesday, Dec. 15
• Winborn
Elementary
• Hayes Elementary
• Nottingham Country
Elementary
Wednesday, Dec. 16
• Morton
Ranch Elementary
• Hutsell Elementary
• King Elementary
Thursday, Dec. 17
• Rylander
Elementary
• Sundown Elementary
• Bear Creek
Elementary
Friday, Dec. 18
• Katy ISD
Education Support Complex (9 a.m. – 2 p.m. on a first come, first
serve basis)
Vaccination clinics are scheduled from 4 to 7 p.m. The H1N1 vaccine will be made available in a similar fashion as the seasonal flu vaccine, with the first hour of the clinic reserved for those students who attend the host campus and their family members.
A total of 63 Katy Independent School District seniors have been selected to advance in 2010 scholarship consideration sponsored by the National Merit, National Achievement and Hispanic Scholar programs. In addition, 79 were named National Merit Scholarship Commended Students.
National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists
Cinco
Ranch High School: Anirudh Ajith, Jessica Cao, Gargi Chaudhuri, Hanna
Chen, Gabriel Cunha, Tania De Souza, Gregory Despard, Mary Gates,
Dulcie Head, Paul Hodge, Vivek Karun, Connie Meng, Glen Miglin, Ankur
Roy, Keh-Farn Tan, Melody Tan and William Tangney
Over 120 representatives from colleges, universities, and
post-secondary career training programs will be available at the
Leonard Merrell Center on Wednesday, October 14, 2009 for the Katy ISD
College and Career Night. The doors open at 6:30 and the event
continues until 8:30. Parents and students are invited to begin their
exploration of post-secondary opportunities through this venue.
House Bill 2237 requires school districts to designate a week
in which to provide college and career information to students at the
middle and high school level. Katy ISD will celebrate “Education: Go
Get It Week” from Oct. 12-16 as a way of providing students with
information about higher education options, standard college admission
requirements, automatic college admission programs, and financial aid
availability and requirements. College and Career Night occurs during
this week and each campus will have various activities to highlight
post-secondary education options
Parents of kindergarten students in Katy ISD will have the
opportunity to refer their children for Challenge (Gifted &
Talented) screening between September 21 and October 16. A session
designed to inform parents about this process will be held on
Thursday, October 8, 2009 at the Educational Support Complex, located
at 6301 S. Stadium Lane, in Room 1200 at 10 a.m., and again at 1
p.m. An evening session will also take place at McRoberts
Elementary, located at 3535 North Fry Road, beginning at 7 p.m. in the
cafeteria.
All kindergarten parents will receive
information in their child’s take-home packet on how to refer him or
her beginning the week of September 21. The deadline for submission of
the referral form (parent checklist) is October 16. The deadline will
be enforced so that students can be tested on the testing days
designated for this purpose. Additional referral information is also
available on the Katy ISD Web site.
The State of Texas defines a gifted and talented student as a child or youth who performs or shows the potential for performing at a remarkably high level of accomplishment when compared to others of the same age, experience, or environment.
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Participants in the 2009-10 Leadership Katy ISD class talk about
challenges facing the district at one of ten round-table discussions
during the group’s kick-off meeting on Aug. 20.
Eighty-nine parents and community members will participate in the
program’s seventh class.
During the next nine months,
class members will meet at locations throughout the district for
topics ranging from teaching and learning to support services and
finance.
Approximately 500 community members have
been involved in Leadership Katy ISD since its implementation in
2003.
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Katy ISD volunteer Howard Caywood has been named a 2009 “Hero for
Children” by the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE). He is one of
14 Texas “Heroes,” one from each State Board District, who will be
honored by the SBOE at its meeting at Sept. 18, 9 a.m., in Austin.
His award nomination describes Caywood as “the very model of a
retiree who rejected a rocking chair for roller skates.” In addition
to being an active school volunteer, he has served on Katy ISD’s bond
planning and bond review committees, DARE Advisory Board, and is a
graduate of the Leadership Katy ISD Class of 2006. He is also a Life
Member of the National PTA.
Caywood has
been an active volunteer at several elementary and junior high
schools, serving in roles ranging from greeter and encourager to
traffic controller. Kids at Katy Elementary fondly dubbed him
“Grandpaw,” a nickname he cherishes.
Aug. 6, 2009) – Twelve Katy Independent School District schools
will have new leaders at the helm for the 2009-10 school year, and 15
campuses will welcome a total of 22 new assistant principals.
New principals are Anita Jacobs, Fielder Elementary; Ann Smith,
Golbow Elementary; Imelda Medrano, Exley, Juli Noeldner, Mayde Creek
Elementary; Jeff Stocks, Beck Jr. High, Elizabeth Kuylen, Cinco Ranch
Jr. High, Tory Hill, Mayde Creek Jr. High; Mark McCord, Morton Ranch
Jr. High; James Cross, Cinco Ranch High School; Steve Robertson, Katy
High School; Cazilda Steele, Mayde Creek High School, and Mark
Grisdale, Morton Ranch High School.
Anita Jacobs came to
Katy from Spring Branch ISD, where she has been principal of Sherwood
Elementary since 2003. She has taught in both elementary and junior
high, in classrooms ranging from pre-kindergarten to seventh grade
math. She earned her bachelor’s degree at Stephen F. Austin State
University and her master’s from Houston Baptist University.
Ann Smith was formerly the assistant principal at Bane Elementary in
the Cypress-Fairbanks ISD and served as an elementary summer school
principal. She holds a bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Baylor
University, a master’s from Prairie View A&M University and is
currently completing her doctorate in educational leadership at Sam
Houston State University.
Katy ISD’s Partners in Education is helping spread a little holiday cheer through its 7th Annual Food for Families campaign.
From now until December 9, Partners in Education is collecting donations to provide a grocery gift card for Katy ISD families in need of a little extra support this holiday season. Last year, Food for Families helped feed more than 160 families during the Christmas holidays.
“We initially launched Food for Families as a means for Katy ISD administrators to offer tangible support for district students in need,” notes Partners in Education Specialist Janet Theis. “More recently, the program enjoys added support from our extended community as well. We are blessed to work in a generous community who so readily assists our district’s students and their families.”
The cost to feed one family is $35. Families receiving assistance are nominated by their home campus with every Katy ISD campus participating. Donations will be accepted in the Partners in Education office, ESC Room 1460. Please make checks payable to Katy ISD/Food for Families.
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Civic leader Stan Stanley shares his thoughts about the nature of heroes at the Oct. 4 dedication of the school named in his honor.
Introducing him to approximately 900 attendees at the ceremony, Principal Kerri Finnesand said, “Heroes are people who rise to the occasion and slip quietly away. Truer words have never been more appropriately spoken when I think of our school’s name sake.
Mr. Stanley is always the first to offer support, but the last to expect accolades. Mr. Stanley has spent his life being a role model for children, serving his community, and inspiring those around him.”
Who: Starting Friday, Oct. 2, Katy ISD students
attending Cimarron Elementary will have something new to carry in
their backpack – a Mobile Learning Device (MLD). Cimarron is only the
second school in Texas, and only one in the Houston area, to utilize
this type of smart phone as a learning tool.
Essentially a cell phone without phone or texting capabilities,
students will use the MLD to complete projects downloaded to their
devices by their teachers. Students will also have access to several
other features including:
• Microsoft Word, Excel, Power
Point, Outlook Calendar
• Filtered Internet access
• Concept
Mapping
• Podcasts
• “Sticky Notes”
• Many tasks that
can be completed on a desktop
• Virtually any task that was
previously completed by paper/pencil
What:
Local media are invited to Cimarron on Friday morning when students
receive their MLDs. Reporters will have the opportunity to interview
both students and teachers as to how they plan on using these
devices.
When: Friday, Oct. 2, 2009 @ 9:30
a.m.
Where: Cimarron Elementary, Katy ISD
1100 South Peek Road
Katy, Texas 77494
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Katy ISD - Lisa Simmons, principal of Rylander Elementary School,
has been honored by Texas School Counselor Association (TSCA) as its
2009 Administrator of the Year.
The award is based
on an administrator’s commitment to support the school counselor and
counseling program. According to Dr. Anita Horton, Katy ISD’s Director
of Counseling and Psychological Services, Simmons was one of the first
administrators in the district to find a way to redirect
responsibility for administering the TAKS from the counselor at her
campus. “She has encouraged and supported her counselor,
allowing her to develop a campus-level counseling program that serves
as a model for other schools, adhering to the true developmental
guidance model,” Horton observes.
In addition, Simmon's support of school counseling has extended throughout the district. Since Rylander’s counselor, Barbara Ziegler, is Katy ISD’s lead elementary counselor, Simmons has allowed Ziegler to visit other elementary campuses and meet weekly with new counselors who may need extra support.
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Several Katy ISD students earned $86,000 in scholarships on the
state level this past summer. In addition, many other local
scholarships were won, which would puts the total well over $100,000
in total scholarship monies received by Katy ISD students.
Top row from left to right:
Austin LaMarr – Morton
Ranch High -Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo Scholarship - $15,000
Ashley Fleming – Cinco Ranch High -San Antonio Livestock
Exposition Scholarship - $16,000
Megan Haas – Katy High - Dick
Walrath Scholarship - $10,000
Hallie Page – Katy High -Houston
Livestock Show & Rodeo Scholarship - $15,000
With a focus on meeting the academic needs of more than 58,000 students in 2009-10, Katy ISD is working on a nearly $540 million preliminary budget that includes a three percent raise for teachers and no tax rate increase for taxpayers.
Payroll expenditures comprise 88 percent of the general fund at $376 million. Of this amount, $225 million is salaries for teachers, counselors, librarians and speech pathologists, with $87 million going to non-teacher salary expenditures, which includes employees from maintenance and operations, food service, and transportation, to campus support personnel, paraprofessionals, and campus and central administration.
“Katy ISD is a human capital intensive business, and our budget reflects that,” explains Katy ISD Superintendent Alton Frailey. “This budget also reflects the fact that two out of every three payroll dollars are dedicated to those who work closest to our students.” In addition, the district’s administrative costs are just over four percent, well under the state requirement that sets the standard allowing up to 11 percent for administrative costs.”
“Over the last two years, we have made a concerted effort to reduce costs in ways that should not negatively impact student learning,” says Frailey. “We must always be cognizant of the fact that we are expected to spend taxpayer dollars wisely in a way that provides high quality learning experiences.”
August 5, 2009) – For the second straight year, outstanding student
achievement produced a “Recognized” accountability rating for the Katy
Independent School District. For the 2008-09 school year, 90 percent
of Katy ISD campuses received a rating of recognized or above with 24
campuses receiving an exemplary rating (49%) and 20 campuses receiving
a recognized rating (41%). In addition, the district and all
campuses, other than the four new campuses that were not rated this
year, have met 2009 Preliminary Adequate Yearly Progress.
“We are very excited to be able to celebrate the fact
that so many of our campuses received a rating of recognized or
above,” says Katy ISD Superintendent Alton Frailey. However, we
cannot rest as there is still much work to do to ensure that we
identify every child in our district that is still struggling and that
they receive focused attention they need in order for them to
succeed.”
On the 2009 Texas Assessment of Knowledge and
Skills (TAKS), district-wide performance for all students tested in
all grades reached the “Exemplary” level (90%-plus) in
reading/language arts (96%), math (91%), writing (97%) and social
studies (97%), and the “Recognized” level (80%-plus) in science (88%).
On 25 TAKS performance indicators (five student groups tested in each
of five subject areas), Katy ISD reached the “Exemplary” level on 18,
“Recognized” on four and “Acceptable” on three.
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