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Harvard Elementary Principal Kevin Beringer, Cynthia Mullins
Cynthia Mullins reporting here with exciting news about what is happening at our area schools. The excitement and energy surrounding some of our schools is astounding! In the past decade we have seen many of our schools become very sought after by parents and they have developed waiting lists as a result. As the parent of 2 elementary school age boys, I have had the pleasure of researching the Houston ISD system in an attempt to choose the best elementary school and now middle school for our family. As anyone who has done this knows, it is a nerve-wrecking process to say the least. Below are exciting happenings in schools around the Houston Heights and Oak Forest area.
Harvard Elementary School
810 Harvard Street
Houston, TX 77007
Principal: Kevin Beringer
713-867-5210
Magnet: Math, Science and Technology
Principal Kevin Beringer has never settled for the status quo. Years ago he made application to turn this Heights’ area school into an International Baccalaureate (IB) Primary Years Programme School. This is a long and rigorous process and in November, Harvard will have their IB Authorization visit and soon after hopefully be an IB World School. There are only 292 such schools in all of North America! As if this weren’t enough, in the spring of 2011, Principal Beringer brought the National Elementary Honor Society program to Harvard, the first in HISD. This elite society requires 4th and 5th grade students to have straight A’s for 3 consecutive semesters. Induction into the Honor Society is based strictly on grades and not any standardized test scores.
Principal Beringer has worked hard and it has certainly paid off. He has lived in the area for many years and has watched the schools progress as the neighborhood has evolved. He comments, “Schools in the Heights are continuing to the next level due to active parent support and high quality teachers and principals.”
Love Elementary School
1120 West 13th
Houston, TX 77008
Principal: Robert Chavarria
Phone: 713-867-0840
Magnet: Vanguard
Love Principal Robert Chavarria is working hard to make his school another Heights area gem. He has seen his attendance continually increase with a 20% jump this year and a 5% increase last year. These increases come not just from children zoned to Love, but others that are choosing to transfer as well. His Gifted and Talented student population has tripled since he started 6 years ago. The fast growing and interactive Love PTO is comprised not only of current parents, but also future parents. They are deeply involved in the school and have worked tirelessly to increase Love Elementary’s profile within the community.
Love is a charming red brick school situated on 7 acres spread out under mature oak trees on the edge of the Houston Heights. Classrooms are light and bright and larger than most, providing a happy and uplifting environment. Principal Chavarria’s goal is to provide a learning climate focused on each child so that their academic, emotional, and social needs are met to enable them to become life-long learners. He also exposes them to a digital technology and communication focused curriculum so they will have a jump start in our digital age. This year Love is piloting an Arts program in partnership with the Houston Heights Association and other elementary schools in the area. One Saturday per month students from these different schools will come together for music, art or drama centered activities. In addition, one Saturday morning per month Love hosts an open play date in which area families can come together on the playground and meet up with Love parents to learn about what is happening at the school.
Principal Chavarria keeps raising his expectations of his students and they keep rising to the occasion. He presents these expectations in such a way that the students internalize them and make them their own, setting their own high goals to achieve. He figures it is better to set really high goals and possibly not reach them than to set low goals and attain them.
Frank Black Middle School
1575 Chantilly
Houston, TX 77018-4197
Principal: Meilin Jao,
713-613-2505
Magnet: Vanguard
Middle schools in the area are really taking off as more and more school-age children move into the area. Parents are demanding more rigorous academics and they aren’t stopping until they receive them. Frank Black has risen to the occasion and is progressing in leaps and bounds. This school year Frank Black Middle School is able to call itself a Vanguard Campus after parents and school personnel pressed HISD hard to offer this service. FBMS is unique among most schools in that is sits upon a 30 acre campus in Oak Forest, almost inside the 610 loop, near the Houston Heights.
Frank Black Middle School is working hard to do everything right. The coordinator of Friends of Frank Black, Tim Weltin, was kind enough to sit down with me and bring me up to date since my tour at the school in April. Frank Black will continue to offer Pre-AP classes, but with the new Vanguard program, they have detailed plans to challenge this new group of students on their campus. This school year showed a 15 % increase in enrollment over the previous school year. Thirty students entering 6th grade participate in the new Vanguard program.
Principal Jao has structured the Vanguard program so that students will complete Algebra I, Geometry, and Integrated Physics and Chemistry, providing students with three high school credits upon graduation from Frank Black. In addition, Vanguard students will be immersed in an intensive leadership development program daily for one semester. As 6th graders, they will focus on public speaking. 7th graders will delve into persuasive media literacy where they learn writing, blogging and utilizing digital tools in the 21st century. They will evolve into 8th graders who know how to be persuasive in today’s social environment with a good understanding of what it means to communicate in this digital age. 8th graders will study social enterprise. As part of a team, these 8th graders will identify a problem and develop a plan of action (solution) that can be implemented.
But Frank Black isn’t stopping there….parents are talking and the school is listening! While they already have football, volleyball, basketball, track, soccer and karate, they have added baseball, swimming for the 2011-2012 school year. For the 2012-2013 school year FBMS will be adding lacrosse and tennis, which will give Frank Black the most comprehensive athletic offerings in HISD. The school has also tripled the number of clubs students may choose from and restructured the schedule so they have more time to meet. And if students can’t find a club in which they are interested, they can start their own with a sponsor and 9 other kids who want to do the same thing.
The faculty and administration also recognize that the key to motivated middle school students is connection points to those children. Even though Frank Black already utilizes their advocacy period to connect with kids, they have implemented a 3-D mentoring program to strengthen the connection points with their students. Vanguard students have leadership advisors. Clubs, athletics, speech, debate, drama and band classes utilize skill set mentoring. Frank Black is also partnering with Big Brothers/Big Sisters for 1 on 1 mentoring which targets at risk youth.
In addition to increasing academic rigor at Frank Black, the campus is receiving a face lift. Gone is the rusty hurricane fence encapsulating the campus and in its place is a wrought iron fence across the front of the campus with a black chain link fence running the rest of the perimeter. The parking lot has been repaved and the 6th grade academy building has been completely renovated with new fixtures, paint, HVAC, electrical and a new Science Lab. The main academic building which houses the 7th and 8th grade will complete similar renovations by spring of 2012.
And if all this wasn’t enough to make you smile, Frank Black works hard to “catch kids being good.” Students who model proper behavior and discipline can become part of the Frank Black MS Dream Team. Members of this elite team can wear their team shirt any school day instead of a uniform shirt and 1-2x per month they can attend special Dream Team events such as pool volleyball, a fall dance, movie & popcorn day, meetings with Dynamo Soccer or University of Houston Basketball players or even a magic show.
Some famous people we all know have passed through the doors of Frank Black Middle School. Among them are actors Patrick Swayze and Shelly Duvall, music artist B. J. Thomas, NFL wide receiver and Redskins coach Keenan McCardle and wrestler The Undertaker, to name a few. No doubt there will be many more stars graduating from Black in the future. Tim Weltin comments, “Frank Black Middle School is already a great middle school, but it is quickly emerging as one of the premier middle schools in HISD.” And it seems that it is…
Hogg Middle School
1100 Merrill
Houston, TX 77009-6009
Principal: Dr. Mina Schnitta
713-802-4700
Magnet: Science, Technology, Engineering and Math
While Dr. Schnitta arrived late spring of this year, she has not wasted any time making significant changes for the better at Hogg.
If you haven’t seen all the work Dr. Schnitta has done over the summer at Hogg, you are in for a real treat. She believes the school campus is a second home for students and it should be a place they look forward to coming and spending time since most of their week is spent at school. To this end, each classroom has been repainted and includes an accent wall to make the room a more interesting and appealing space. All buildings have been painted inside and out and landscaping added, greatly improving the look and feel of the campus. Classrooms have also been fitted with new white boards and a new elevator added so everything feels crisp and clean. In addition, school offices have been moved around to make the campus more user-friendly to parents and visitors.
Dr. Schnitta believes the best indicator of success in college is the amount of rigorous instruction students receive in 6th – 12th grade. To ensure students succeed, she has turned the academics at Hogg upside-down and inside-out! She has implemented several new programs this year and is working closely with Reagan High School Principal Connie Berger to aggressively pursue becoming an International Baccalaureate World School.
Dr. Schnitta has expanded the magnet program at Hogg to include Engineering and Technology in addition to Math and Science. She has adopted the STEM Academy curriculum for magnet students (visit STEM101.org) where they will establish engineering habits of the mind in order to become competent, capable citizens in a technology-dependent society. Her goal for the STEM Academy is to implement it campus wide. One-third of the students at Hogg participate in the magnet program. She has also implemented the CollegeBoard SpringBoard curriculum in English, Language Arts and Math, thus providing more Pre-AP classes for students this school year than regular classes (visit springboardprogram.collegeboard.org).
To guarantee success, Dr. Schnitta has hired an additional assistant principal, thus providing one for each grade level. She has also hired an instructional coordinator and a parent and student support coordinator. Leaving no element of the school environment unaffected by her presence, she has also changed the way teachers work together and provided them with more professional training and development than ever before. She has brought the National Learning School to the Hogg campus. This international organization provides professional learning experiences that lead to effective teaching practices, supportive leadership, and improved student results (see learningforward.org). Dr. Schnitta now has teachers follow a master schedule based on collaboration and a WOW period where they are “Working On the Work.” While I’m sure every principal’s goal is to have an effective teacher in every classroom, Dr. Schnitta is spending money, time and effort to make this goal a reality at Hogg. Her mission is to provide every teacher with effective professional learning during the school day in order to increase student achievement for all students.
Dr. Schnitta is a breath of fresh air with all her energy and passion to excel. She has what she calls a BHAG, a Big Hairy Audacious Goal, and that is at the end of the school year, the campus will be full and she will have to turn away kids. We all know it is much easier to achieve your goal if you have defined it. Dr. Schinitta is off to a good start!
Read about Reagan High School at http://blo
