Mike Falick's Blog

Spring Branch Makes Decision on Make-Up Days: A Creative Solution that is Instructionally Sound

This morning, our Board met and made the following decision regarding make-up days related to Hurricane Ike (Click here for the Agenda of today's meeting):

For middle and high schools, to gain back instructional time, teachers will not administer final exams during the first semester.  Instead, teachers will administer unit exams or assign projects as a way to assess student mastery of content.  As a result, December 17th and 18th will become full instructional days instead of half days devoted only to exams.  In addition, it is anticipated that 3 - 4 days of instructional time will be gained that previously would have been used for review/prep for finals.

For elementary schools, in order to gain back instructional time, October 23rd and 24th, which were previously early release half days will be full instructional days.

In making this determination, the District looked at several far less palatable solutions, including:

1. Extending the first semester until after Winter Break with first semester finals in January;
2. Going to school on Saturdays;
3. Reducing the number of holidays including impacting Thanksgiving and/or the Winter Break;
4. Eliminating Spring Break and/or Good Friday;
5. Adding an additional hour to each school day.

I think we are fortunate that our Administration made this recommendation that is clearly the best instructional choice for our students and our community.

Update:  Click here for the posting of additional information about this decision on the District's website, including the Amended 2008-2009 School Calendar.

Spring Branch ISD School Reopening Announcement

From the SBISD flash email system:

Reopening Update for our Schools

Spring Branch ISD schools will be closed for students on Monday, Sept. 22. Campuses will open at their normal time on Tuesday, Sept. 23, except for the following schools which are without power at this time:

Northbrook High
Westchester Academy for International Studies
Cedarbrook Elementary
Edgewood Elementary
Hunters Creek Elementary
Wilchester Elementary

This list will be updated regularly if changes occur.

These schools have power and will open on Tuesday, Sept. 23:

Prekindergartens: Bear Blvd., Lion Lane, Panda Path, Tiger Trail, Wildcat Way
 
Elementaries: Bendwood, Buffalo Creek, Bunker Hill, Frostwood, Hollibrook, Housman, Meadow Wood, Memorial Drive, Nottingham, Pine Shadows, Ridgecrest, Rummel Creek, Shadow Oaks, Sherwood, Spring Branch, Spring Shadows, Terrace, Thornwood, Treasure Forest, Valley Oaks, Westwood, Woodview
 
Middle Schools: Landrum, Memorial, Northbrook, Spring Branch, Spring Forest, Spring Oaks, Spring Woods
 
High Schools: The Guthrie Center, Memorial High, Spring Branch School of Choice, Spring Woods, Stratford.

Schools without power and closed until further notice:

Elementaries: Cedar Brook, Edgewood, Hunters Creek, Wilchester
 
Middle Schools: Westchester Academy
 
High Schools: Northbrook High, Westchester Academy 

New school reopenings will be announced by 5 p.m. daily beginning on Monday, Sept. 22.

Please check our website at www.springbranchisd.com. You may also dial 713-464-1511 for a recorded message.

Hurricane Ike Interactive Map

How To Use the Interactive Map

By default, the interactive tracking map will show a storm’s current center location and forecasted positions based on the latest advisory from the National Hurricane Center.

The box at the bottom of the map shows information for a selected point along the storm’s path. By default, this will show the current center location for the storm, as well as maximum sustained wind speed, pressure, and movement. The advisory number is shown next to the name of the storm. Abbreviations next to the storm name indicate the type of tropical cyclone–”T.D.” (Tropical Depression), “T.S.” (Tropical Storm), and “Hurr.” (Hurricane).

Zooming is done through the plus (+) and minus (-) controls in the top-left corner.

To pan, click and drag the map, or click the arrows along the edges of the map.

A legend in the top-right corner shows the color key for different categories of tropical cyclones. The colors go from white for a TD (Tropical Depression) to red for an H5 (Major Hurricane, Category 5). A scale beneath the legend correlates distance in miles with distance on your computer screen.

A list of display options in the top-right-hand corner allows you to selectively add layers to the map. ‘Storm History‘ will show the storm’s entire path. When available, ‘Clouds‘ will load the latest available global cloud layer.

Clicking ‘More‘ will bring up Wind Fields, Ocean Buoys, Map Grid, and Map Labels. Wind Fields will hide or show the reach of the storm’s winds, displayed as circles around the selected point. These circles represent Tropical Depression force (white), Storm force (yellow), and Hurricane force (orange) winds.

The Ocean Buoys option will request and load the latest observations sourced from the National Data Buoy Center. This may take a moment depending on your internet connection speed. Ocean buoys appear as blue boxes that can be clicked for more details. Land-based weather stations appear as red boxes that can also be clicked for the latest observations from that location.

The Map Grid option will hide and show latitude and longitude lines, including the equator and tropics.

The Map Labels option will hide and show labels for cities, countries, continents, oceans, and seas.

Spring Branch ISD Cancels Classes for Tomorrow (9/12) and All After School Activities Beginning at 3:30p Today (9/11)

Spring Branch just announced the following:

Due to Hurricane Ike, all Spring Branch ISD schools and offices will be closed on Friday, Sept. 12. In addition, all school activities scheduled from 3:30 p.m. today (Thursday, Sept. 11) and through the upcoming weekend are cancelled. Our schools are open today and will have regular hours. Check this site for continuing updates.

The cancellations include the Stratford v Spring and Memorial v Pearland football games scheduled for this afternoon and evening.

Hurricane Ike Updates for Spring Branch ISD

Spring Branch is providing updated information on Hurricane Ike on the District's website.  The latest update is below.

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SBISD schools will continue to operate as usual while Hurricane Ike’s development and path are closely monitored, but all athletic events and school related activities are cancelled for Friday after school, all day Saturday and all day Sunday.

Parents and staff will be notified through the district’s “Call Out” telephone system and via local media should schools need to close before this weekend or other announcements need to be made immediately. This site will also be updated regularly.

Hurricane Ike is several days from landfall and the potential for error in tracking remains substantial. If dynamic models for this hurricane are accurate, then it will make landfall near Port O’Connor on the Texas Coast. However, landfall could occur as far north as the Louisiana border, based on other tracking models.

During the past three weeks, Tully Stadium and Don Coleman Coliseum have been activated several times by the Texas Department of Public Safety as a Texas Emergency Operations Staging Area. Earlier today, it was reactivated as a bus staging area and charter buses may arrive there soon. Our support of this operation provides us with timely storm tracking updates and information before the general public is informed.

During Hurricane Gustav, hundreds of charter buses, drivers and Texas military and police personnel were stationed here for possible evacuation deployment.

SBISD Police assisted with Staging Area coordination during the Labor Day hurricane, which made final landfall in southern Louisiana. Our employees helped meet the needs of more than 500 emergency responders and other state personnel during this recent crisis.

SBISD’s Senior Staff has already taken several steps to ensure the safety and security of our students, staff and families in the days ahead. These include:

• At home, the Memorial vs. Pearland Varsity Football game will be played 7 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 11. Also rescheduled is the Stratford vs. Spring Varsity Football game, which will be played at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 11, rather than on Saturday.
• In away games, Northbrook Varsity will play Waltrip at Delmar Stadium at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 11, and Spring Woods High will play C.E. King at C.E. King at 7 p.m., also on Thursday.

The Athletics Dept. has also revised the sub-varsity football games for play at Grob Stadium today or Thursday, Sept. 11. Other sports may revise their schedules. Check this site regularly for new updates or developments.