Mike Falick's Blog

Spring Branch Students Offered Scholarships Totaling $16,388,024

Spring Branch is a District focused on ensuring that our students are prepared for college and post-secondary success.  As part of that commitment, and given the increasing costs of college, our Post-Secondary Counselors work hard to identify and promote scholarship opportunities for students.  These efforts resulted in $16,388,024 being offered to Spring Branch ISD seniors in 2007-2008.  This is an increase of approximately $1.5 million over 2006-2007.  In addition, the percentage of students receiving scholarships also increased from 21.22% to 26.36% of our students.

Texas Early Childhood Education Coalition (TECEC) Highlights Spring Branch's Pre-K Program

The Texas Early Childhood Education Coalition (TECEC), a policy making group, has been running a series called Talk of Texas which

highlights the tremendous early childhood education efforts taking place across the great state of Texas.  Every community has its own story to tell and TECEC wants to make sure that these stories are available to all who want to learn from them.

This month's highlights our very successful Pre-K program in Spring Branch.  From the TECEC website:

Spring Branch Independent School District
Dedication to providing quality education and valuing the future of its children are a couple of the many hallmarks of Spring Branch ISD. For over 20 years, SBISD has served as a pioneer in offering a nurturing, high-quality, and developmentally appropriate prekindergarten program for families in its community. Spring Branch is committed to providing quality early education to its children by developing uniquely designed Early Learning Centers, collaborating with local entities, and continuing to offer full-day pre-k classes in 15 of its elementary schools.

For a complete write-up on Spring Branch Independent School District please click here.

Read About the Amazingly Successful Year Spring Branch's Partnership and Volunteer Programs had in 2007-2008

I just received this email that details the amazingly successful year Spring Branch's Partnership and Volunteer Programs had in 2007-2008.

June, 2008

 

Dear Friends,

 

SBISD Partnerships and Volunteer Programs achieved new heights in 2007-2008 thanks to you!  We thank you for your support of our initiatives, programs, and most importantly, our schools and our students. We could not have accomplished all that we did without you!

 

Here are just a few highlights from Community Relations for the year just ended:

Volunteer Programs

• Implementation of new Volunteer Ethics, Guidelines and Procedures
• 9400+ Registered SBISD Volunteers, an increase of nearly 1000 over last year
• Nearly 200 new mentors joined the SBISD SpringBoard Mentor Program which expanded to reach students on 20 SBISD campuses!
• Implementation of first annual district Volunteer Survey of nearly 2500 SBISD volunteers
• SpringBoard Mentor Program recognized with a $25,000 grant from the Spring Branch Education Foundation
• SpringBoard Mentor Program recognized with a 3 year $590,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools to help us grow to 1000 mentors by 2010
• Collegiate Challenge Mentor Program supporting high school juniors and seniors through the college and scholarship application process recognized as a Texas Exemplar Program with a $42,500 grant from the Communities Foundation of Texas and Texas High School Project. Grant funding helped expand the program to Stratford and Spring Woods High Schools
• Pilot Math Tutoring Program implemented at Northbrook High School

Spring Branch ISD Orchestra Festival: Click Here for the Program and My Narration of the Event

I had the honor this week of narrating the District's 25th Annual Orchestra Festival.  I have uploaded the Festival's program and my narration.

This Festival, which over 2 nights brought together students from across the grade levels and schools to perform together shows the value of the arts in education.  As I said to the audience (off-script), we need to ensure that our State leaders understand the value of these types of programs to our students, even though there is not an associated test in the accountability system.

Spring Branch to Host A Conversation with Dr. Peter Benson, Founder of the Search Institute and Creator of the 40 Developmental Assets on April 2, 2008

Spring Branch has the privilege of hosting renowned national expert and Founder of the Search Institute, Dr. Peter Benson.  Dr. Benson's Search Institute created the 40 Developmental Assets, which are described by the Institute as

Search Institute's 40 Developmental Assets^® are concrete, common sense, positive experiences and qualities essential to raising successful young people. These assets have the power during critical adolescent years to influence choices young people make and help them become caring, responsible adults.  

The Conversation with Dr. Benson will be on April 2, 2008, from 9:00a - 10:00a at the Westchester Academy for International Studies'  Auditorium. 

You can view the invitation by clicking on the image above or by clicking here., and you can RSVP for this event online by clicking here. 

Spring Branch Dedicates Its Two Newest Facilities

Today, Spring Branch dedicated our two newest facilities -- our Police Command Station and our Athletics building.  Until 2 years ago, the District's Police department was housed in the former boy's locker room of Spring Branch High School, while the athletics facility, which was constructed in 1965, had no locker room facilities for women's sports.

These 2 new facilities are just the beginning of the transformation of the District that will continue due to the passage by our voters and taxpayers of the bond election last Fall.

*Update: Much more information is available in this online article posted on the District's website.

Today's Spring Branch Celebration of Sharing: Celebrating the District's Partners, Donors, and Volunteers

This morning, Spring Branch celebrated the tremendous contributions of its partners, donors, and volunteers with the 5th Annual Celebration of Sharing. 

Today's program included singing by the Treasure Forest Elementary Singers, and a performance by Stratford High School from its production of the Wizard of Oz.

You can download the event's brochure for a full listing of all of the District's partners and the event's program.  Also, here is an article by long-time District volunteer, Tom Potts, on the importance of volunteering that appeared in the Memorial Examiner on February 21, 2008.

Help Spring Woods Middle School and the SPARK Park Program by Participating in the America's Giving Challenge (through January 31)

I received the email below asking me to post about the America's Giving Challenge.  As you can see, the SPARK Park program is participating in the Challenge.  By donating money, which can be directed to a particular school, you give the SPARK Park program the opportunity to win $50,000.  You can donate any amount -- the $50,000 is based on the number of donors rather than the amount of money raised.

The SPARK Park program has been a great partner with Spring Branch as evidenced by the many SPARK Parks at our schools.

For more information you can contact Kathleen Ownby Mayor's Office 713-247-2909.

________________________________________________________

Mike - Would you be willing to put SPARK’s participation in America’s Giving Challenge on your blog?  The four US charities that get the most givers (not most money) of $10 or more will each get $50,000.  Spring Woods Middle School will benefit if we win.  Right now we have 100 contributors.  We are almost in the top 10. The 4th place charity has 324.  SPARK needs your help and network.  There is a place to designate a gift and this could be for SWMS.  Go to parade.com or networkforgood.com for more information.  The contest ends Jan 31.

Spring Branch Teachers and Students Can Now Blog for Free on the My SBISD Community of Blogs

Are you a teacher or student in Spring Branch with an interest in blogging?  Now you can learn how to blog, and do so for free at the District's new community blogging site located at http://blog.mysbisd.com.

From the blogging website:

Welcome to My SBISD!

January 2008: My SBISD is an online community blogging site for Spring Branch ISD teachers and employees. At this time, there are several classrooms throughout the district who are piloting programs where teachers and students create and maintain blogs for educational and instructional purposes. If you are not a part of this pilot program, hopefully in the near future, as the “kinks get worked out”, more and more teachers will be afforded this opportunity.

For all other teachers and employees of Spring Branch ISD, there is a limited amount of blog space being made available on this site. With this part of the blogging initiative, teachers and employees can participate by creating their own professional blog.

If you are interested in creating a professional blog for your classroom or department, please click the link below, to create your own blog. You must be a district employee and you must use your Spring Branch ISD employee email address when you set your blog up.

Before creating your site, please download and read the Teachers Blogging Acceptable Use Guidelines. If you are one of the teachers piloting the program where you are blogging with your students as part of your curriculum, please download the Student Blogging Acceptable Use Guidelines . All students and their parents MUST read and sign this document before they should be allowed to create their blog for your class.

In the near future, look for online tutorials that will show how to use the blogging feature.

CREATE YOUR BLOG HERE!

The Spring Branch Collegiate Challenge Mentoring Program Recognized as One of the Best in Texas

The Spring Branch Collegiate Challenge Mentoring program pairs adult mentors with high school juniors and seniors.  The mentors help these juniors and seniors through the college and scholarship application process.  Our program, which began in 2000, is one of 20 programs recognized as an Exemplary Program by the Texas High School Project.

This recognition has earned Spring Branch a grant in the amount of $42,500 to expand this program to Stratford HS and Spring Woods HS.

The District's volunteer partners are Chapelwood United Methodist Church and Memorial Drive United Methodist Church.

Much more information about this program is available here.