LCISD is a April 2011 www.lcisd.org

LAMARVIEWHighlighting proud traditions and bright futures of Lamar CISD

A TEA Recognized School District

Celebrating Excellence In EducationLamar CISD

INSIDE: Dairy ArtContestantPage 10

Youth inPhilanthropyPage 7

Principalsof the YearPage 2

LCHS Artist Wins Goldpg. 10

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LAMAR VIEW

Leaders from two of Lamar CISD’s Exemplary campuses were honored by their peers as Lamar CISD’s Principals of the Year.

Wertheimer Middle School principal Irma Nurre is the Secondary Principal of the Year and Campbell Elemen-tary principal Michelle Koerth is the Elementary Principal of the Year.

Nurre is in her 15th year as an instructional leader for Lamar CISD. She opened Wertheimer in 2008 and was principal at Huggins Elemen-tary from 2000-2008. She also

led Smith Elementary from 1995-2000. Both Huggins and Wertheimer have been Exemplary campuses with Nurre as principal.

Koerth has led Campbell since 2007. Prior to coming to Campbell, she served as an assistant principal in both the Fort Bend and Cypress-Fair-banks school districts. Prior to becoming an administrator, Koerth taught in Fort Bend for eight years.

Campbell has been Exem-plary since Koerth became principal.

Koerth and Nurre named Principals of the Year

Lamar CISD Superintendent Dr. Thomas Randle is the 2011 recipient of the Fort Bend Regional Council On Substance Abuse’s (FBRC) Helen Cordes Award. Dr. Randle received the award March 24 at the Council’s an-nual luncheon.

The annual luncheon hon-ors the community achieve-ments of Helen Cordes who served on the Board of Direc-tors of the Fort Bend Regional Council on Substance Abuse, Inc. from 1991-1997, and was the President of the Board from 1992-1995.

“Dr. Randle’s commitment to

education and community has set him apart as a leader and vi-sionary across Texas education,” FBRC Chief Executive Officer Lisa Poynor said in her remarks

during the luncheon. “As an organization com-mitted to the reduction of substance abuse, Dr. Randle has embraced our ideals and our mission at all levels of education in the Lamar Consolidated ISD. We could not ask for a more supportive partner in this endeavor.”

FBRC provides families and individuals with the substance abuse pre-vention, education and

treatment services they need for positive change for themselves and the community.

Dr. Randle Receives FBRC Award

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Texas LEARNS, the State Office for Adult Education and Family Literacy, has recog-nized Lamar CISD’s Project LEARN as a Commended Even Start Program for 2009-2010. Commended is the highest rank.

This is the second consecutive year for Project LEARN to be listed as Commended. All Even Start programs are measured on 16 indicators, based on participant outcomes. Child and parent academic achievement is included in those indicators. Programs that met at least 14 of the indicators received the Commended rating. Project LEARN met all 16 indicators.

Project LEARN (Let’s Eliminate At-Risk

Project Learn

Seven Lamar CISD schools are being recognized by the Texas Education Agency’s No Child Left Behind Program for outstanding academic perfor-mance.

Bowie, Long, Meyer, Ray and Velasquez elementary schools and Wessendorff Middle School are all National Title I Distin-guished Performance Schools for Performance.

Travis Elementary is a Nation-al Title I Distinguished School for Progress.

Rick Amick is the principal at Bowie; Jill Nehls is the prin-cipal at Long; Lisa McKey is the principal at Meyer; Ben Perez is the principal at Ray; Heather Patterson is the principal at Velasquez; Kevin Winter is the princi-

pal at Travis; and Diana Tyladcka is the principal at Wessendorff.

Distinguished Performance Schools must: • Have been a Title I school in 2008-2009, 2009-2010 and 2010-2011; • Be at 40 percent or more of low-income students in 2010-2011; • Met Adequate Yearly Prog-ress goals in 2009 and 2010; • Rated Exemplary in 2010; and • Rated Exemplary or Recog-nized in 2009 and 2008.

The criteria for Distin-guished Progress are the

same, except that the campus would not have been Recognized or Exemplary in 2008.

TEA Recognizes Seven LCISD Schools

commended by State

Needs) is Lamar CISD’s family literacy program. The program offers adult basic education, GED and Eng-lish as a Second Language for parents. Children receive homework assistance, pre-kindergarten or kindergarten instruction, or developmental child care.

Parents learn valuable job skills, while becoming more involved in their children’s education.

LAMAR VIEW4

Lamar CISD Executive Director for Community Relations Christy Willman was honoured by her col-leagues with the Professional Achievement Award at the Texas School Public Relations Association’s (TSPRA) annual conference, held February 23-25 in Arlington.

Willman, who served as the Association’s President in 2007-2008, was nomi-nated by her peers for the award. TSPRA presents the Award annually to someone who has worked in school public relations “for at least 10 years and during that time exhibited a creative, dedicated and professional approach to school communications.”

Willman has served Lamar CISD as the Execu-tive Director of Community Relations since 2004. She worked as an elementary classroom teacher

for 13 years in the Cy-press Fairbanks, Austin and Lamar CISD schools before becoming Direc-tor of Communications at Lamar in 1996.

She has been an active member of TSPRA since 1997, serving twice as a Conference Day Chair of the association’s conven-

tion and as Vice President of the Houston/Beau-mont area.

She is also a member of the Houston Area School Public Relations Association and the Na-tional School Public Relations Association.

Under her leadership the LCISD Communica-tions department has received seven Crystal Awards and numerous Best of Category, Gold and Silver awards from TSPRA.

LCISD’s Willman recognized by state organization for Professional Achievement

Reading Junior High librarian Vilma Marti-nez will travel to Italy this summer for 10 days. Martinez and Leslie Kolojaco, a librarian in Fort Bend ISD, were selected to receive a $10,000 grant from Fund for Teachers.

The librarians will explore Italy and collect artifacts from Italy with the purpose of developing three multi-media exhibits for their libraries.

Prior to going to Fort Bend, Kolojaco was a teacher and librarian at Meyer Elementary.

RJH LibrarianGoes to Italy

www stands for Winner, Winner, Winner!

Lamar CISD’s website was honored at the Texas School Public Relations Association’s annual Star Awards Banquet, earning Best of Category.

The website, designed

and maintained by LCISD’s Webmaster Chris Davis, competed against other school districts in Texas with more than 10,000 students, but less than 30,000.

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The National Center for Educational Achieve-ment (NCEA), a department of ACT, Inc., recognized Lamar CISD for having six schools make the 2010 NCEA Higher Performing Schools List.

Ray Elementary led the way, achieving High Per-forming status in Math, Science and Writing.

Foster High School was High Performing in Science and Lamar Consolidated High Schools was High Performing in Social Studies.

Both George Junior High and Lamar Junior High were High Performing in Social Studies. Wessendorff Middle School was High Performing in Reading.

The Higher Performing Schools (formerly known as Just for the Kids Schools) are identified by two measures: con-sistent improvement in student achievement from previous years (growth) and/or absolute student achievement using the school’s Commended Performance results on the spring 2010 TAKS (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills) test.

NCEA’s higher performing methodology controls for school and student demographics to allow for an apples-to-apples comparison of school achievement and to demonstrate that with the commitment of educators, all schools can have suc-cess no matter the zip code.

Six campuses named 2010 NCEA Higher Performing Schools

One Foster High School student and one Lamar Consolidated High School student are among 15,000 of the 1.5 million students nationwide to be named

National Merit finalists, a designation based on performance on the Prelimi-nary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT).

The finalists are Foster’s Jessie Lerch and Lamar’s Albert Chung. More than 8,000 finalists will be selected as Merit Scholar winners, earning scholarship money and the Merit Scholar title.

National Merit finalists and those who go on to earn the Merit Scholar title will have the opportunity to earn individual scholarships from many corpora-tions, colleges and universities around the nation.

Two named National Merit Finalists

George Junior High’s Tracey Rich won $1,000 for being a 21st Century Target Tech Grant after receiving an Honorable Mention in the area of Integration.

A team from Region 4 will video one of Tracey’s lessons, which will be uploaded on the Region 4 web-site as an example of excellence in technology integration in the class-room.

Three other GJH teachers – Sarah Frankum, Amy Jones and Darrellyn Swanson – were honorable mentions in the contest. Swanson – were

honorable mentions in the contest.

George Junior’s Rich earns 21st Century Grant

6LAMAR VIEW

The Gulf Coast Tech Prep Consortium recently named George Junior High’s Jennifer Medina Sullivan a “Counselor of Excellence.” The award is based on her service to students at George JH and her work with LCISD’s STEPS (Student Tailored Pro-grams of Study) program. George JH principal Kelly Waters nomi-nated her for the award.

“Jennifer works hard to ensure all George Junior High students begin to discover how their interests and abilities can assist them in uncovering their ca-reer paths,” said Tracie Holub, LCISD’s Career and Technical Director. “She also helps identify courses that can help students gain a better understanding of the knowledge and skills associ-ated with their career pathways.”

George Junior High“Counselor of Excellence”

Velasquez Elementary fourth-grader Rylie Brown is one of only four Houston-area students who are winners in the 2011 Jackie Robinson Breaking Barri-ers Essay Contest sponsored by the Houston Astros and Whata-

burger. Students in Dana Watts’ class

read about the barriers Jackie Robinson faced while breaking Major League Baseball’s color barrier, and then discussed the nine values he exhibited to over-come the barriers before him.

Students then had the oppor-tunity to participate in the essay contest that shared their personal stories of overcoming obstacles in their lives using those same values.

As a Houston area winner, Ry-lie has won Velasquez Elemen-tary 500 Whataburger coupons,

a school visit from the Houston Astros organization and 500 tickets to the April 15 Astros vs. Padres game. Rylie, Mrs. Watts and Velasquez principal Heather Patterson will be recognized in an on-field, pre-game ceremony.

All of the participants’ essays have now been sent to Major League Baseball for consider-ation for the national competi-tion where they will be judged by Scholastic and the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball for a chance to win a trip to the 2011 Major League Baseball All-Star game in Phoenix, Arizona.

Velasquez student wins Essay Contest

Terry High School junior Carolyn Castillo will perform this June in Wash-ington, D.C. as part of the National Association of Music Educators 2011 All-National Mixed Choir.

Castillo, a Soprano, is also a two-time member of the All-State Choir (2010 and 2011). Rhonda Klutts is the choir instructor at Terry.

Terry’s Castillo named to All-National Choir

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George Ranch High School sophomore Madison Marlow is one of only seven winners of the 2011 Young Artists Compe-tition. The competition is pre-sented by Fidelity Investments.

Marlow was chosen after auditioning March 5 at Jones Hall. Marlow and the other six students will receive private coaching from Symphony mu-sicians later this spring.

Marlow and the other stu-dents will perform June 29 in a special concert called “Hous-ton Symphony Pops featuring Fidelity Investments Young Artists Competition Winners” at Miller Outdoor Theatre.

In addition to the vocal training, a professional arrang-er will work on Marlow’s origi-nal song, “Wings of Angels,” so that she can be accompanied by the Houston Symphony.

George Ranch’s Marlow to perform with Houston Symphony

Students from Fos-ter, Lamar Consolidated and Terry high schools found that good deeds do indeed pay off, earn-ing scholarship money and funding for non-profit organizations during the annual Youth In Philan-thropy (YIP) Luncheon, sponsored by the George Foundation and the Fort Bend Chamber of Com-merce.

Foster’s Jaqell Martin was honored for Excel-lence in Community Service, earning a $5,000 scholarship. Classmate Tsemogha Mabiaku earned an Outstand-ing Community Ser-vice scholarship, worth $2,500.

For the first time, $1,000 scholarships were awarded at the Luncheon

by individuals or compa-nies. Lamar’s Nicole Obih received a $1,000 schol-arship from Safari Texas Ranch and classmate Cameron Johnson earned a $1,000 scholarship from Gurecky Manufac-turing Services, Inc.

Two other students – Foster’s Dylan Dowty and Lamar’s Shianne Jones -- earned Distinguished Community Service scholarships for $850.

The students also earned money for their service organizations. Terry earned Recognized Leadership and $1,000 for its work with the Fort Bend County Women’s Center, while Foster High School earned Excep-tional Leadership and $2,250 for its work with the Texana Center.

Young Philanthropists earn scholarships

Tsemogha Mabiaku Foster HS

Nicole ObihLamar CHS

Cameron JohnsonLamar HS

Dylan DowtyFoster HS

Jaquell MartinFoster HS

Shianne JonesLamar CHS

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LAMAR VIEW

NEWS TO

KNOW

v Students from several elementary campuses put their heads together to be-come “crime” solvers. Real-life CSI Investigators from the Fort Bend Sheriff’s office worked with the students on a variety of crimes scenes where the students did fin-gerprinting and fingerprint-lifting, swabbed DNA samples, used ultravi-olet light resources, room sketching and crime-scene photography.

v A sculpture by Lamar CHS’s Loretta White will be exhibited at the Contemporary Art Museum of Houston in the Teen Council’s Prospectus #174. Peggy Artripe is White’s art teacher at Lamar CHS.

v Students at Travis Elementary School “Laced up for Lance,” as they held a walkathon to raise funds for their classmate, Lance McLain, who has Leukemia.

Students and teachers walked around the block and were joined by cheerleaders, ath-letes and coaches from Terry High School.

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v The Lamar CHS Speech team earned the 9th place Sweepstakes Award at the State tournament. The team competed against 207 schools from every corner of our state.

Lamar is ranked No. 12 in the state, and No. 1 among 4A schools. Lamar is ranked higher than any other school in Ft. Bend County.

v Students at Austin were jumping for a good cause, as they raised mon-ey during Febru-ary for Jump Rope for Heart.

v The Hubenak Art Club finished their study of the artist Vin-cent Van Gogh by creating their versions of “Starry Night.”

v Fourth-grade students at Huggins Elemen-tary prepared for TAKS by visiting Camp Write Along. They experienced many camp activities including building a fire, hiking, and s’mores! Campers used their senses to describe their activities, reviewed many language skills, and ended every day with a Pow Wow!

LAMAR VIEW10

Lamar Consolidated High School senior Stephanie Richerson‘s aboriginal artwork earned a gold medal at the State Visual Arts Scholastic Event (VASE) in League City.

More than 24,000 students competed in 25 regions across the state in February, with only 1,195 artworks mak-ing it to the state competition. Stephanie’s work competed against paintings, sculptures photographs and mixed-media pieces in Division One, for first-year art students.

Stephanie is the first Lamar Consolidated ISD student to win a VASE Gold Medal.

Peggy Artripe, her art teacher at LCHS said Richerson’s winning piece was created with paint on roofing felt. Rich-erson also used recycled wires from old telephones “and lots of imagination.”

“I really do believe that is why she won,” Artripe said. “It is so creative and made from such diverse materials.”

LCHS Artist earns gold at State Competition

B.F. Terry High School student Fariha Rashid is a finalist in the sixth annual Lucerne “The Art of Dairy Sharing Joy” art contest. She is one of only three students cho-sen in Texas earning her the right to design and decorate a 5-foot by 8-foot cow sculpture.

Rashid has a chance to earn $5,000 for herself, $20,000 for the Terry Art Department and $5,000 for art instructor Joan Batts.

Cow-abunga! Terry artist wins dairy art contest

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Lady Mustangs track team gallop at Texas Relays

Lamar Consolidated High School’s Lady Mus-tangs ran away from the competition at the 84th Texas Relays in Austin, bringing home the title of Outstanding High School Team. The Lady Mustangs swept the three relay events – the 4x 100-meter relay, the 4x 200-meter relay and the 4x400-meter relay – in High School Division II (4A and 5A schools). This the first time the LCHS girls have won a relay at the prestigious track meet and the first time since 2008 that any high school has swept the relays. It was a busy April 9 for the ladies. In the first final, which went off at 12:35 p.m., Anisa Hamid (grade 11) ran the first leg of the 4x200, followed by Bri Antreya (11), Mandy Nolan(11) and Ashley Collins (12), winning with a time of 1:41.10. Ninety minutes later, Hamid led off again, followed by Collins, Nolan and Leonard, to win the 4X100 in a time of 47.61. After resting for 2 and a half more hours, Petrolina Chilaka (12) led off the

Lady Mustangs 4x400 team, followed by Nolan, Leonard and Collins, galloping home ahead of the field in a time of 3.54.59. Raquel McNeal is the girls’ track coach at Lamar CHS.

No matter what you have heard a certain Muppet sing, it is easy being green, and profit-able, too.

According to Abitibi Bowa-ter, Frost Elementary is the top recycling school in Lamar CISD, with a recycling program that collected more than 76 tons during the last 12 months.

Foster High School came in second with 52 tons, with Bris-coe Junior High next at 40 tons.

The green and yellow bins, found on most LCISD campuses, collected more than 624 tons of newspaper, magazines, catalogs, school and office paper and mail.

Besides helping the environ-ment, schools earn money for the paper that is collected. Frost received $1,234 for their recy-cling effort, which went towards field trips, technology and other projects.

Frost Elementary leads the way in recycling

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LAMAR VIEW

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