Members of the staff from the Houston Symphony surprised George Ranch High School sophomore Madison Marlow at school Wednesday, informing her she is one of only seven winners of the 2011 Young Artists Competition. The competition is presented by Fidelity Investments.

Marlow was chosen after being one of only 24 students from the Houston area to audition March 5 at Jones Hall. Marlow and the other six students will be divided into five solo and ensemble acts that will receive private one-on-one coaching from Symphony musicians later this spring.

Marlow and the other students will perform June 29 in a special concert called “Houston Symphony Pops featuring Fidelity Investments Young Artists Competition Winners” at Miller Outdoor Theatre. That concert will be led by Principal Pops Conductor Michael Krajewski.

In addition to the vocal training, a professional arranger will work on Marlow’s original song, “Wings of Angels,” so that she can be accompanied by the Houston Symphony. Marlow also plays the guitar.

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Caption: Madison Marlow is flanked by her mother, Kimberly, and father, Michael, after being told she will perform this summer with the Houston Symphony.        

Lamar CISD is offering a SAT preparation course March 29-31 at Foster High School in Richmond. This class is only for students enrolled in a Lamar CISD school.

March 11 is the deadline to register for the class. The class costs $50 per student, or $5 for a student on the free and reduced lunch program.

 Lamar CISD will also hold am ACT preparation course, April 5-7. This course will also be at Foster High School. This class is also only for students enrolled in a Lamar CISD school.

The deadline for registration is March 25. The class costs $50 per student, or $5 for a student on the free and reduced lunch program.

Classes for both courses will run from 5-8 p.m. each night.

Students can speak to a high school counselor, or call Dorothy Stewart at 832-223-3829, for more information.

Registration forms for both courses are available at the Lamar CISD website – http://www.lcisd.org -- under the under the Community tab. Look for the Community Flyers link on the left side of the page.

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Lamar CISD Executive Director for Community Relations Christy Willman was honoured by her colleagues 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 nominated by her peers for the award. TSPRA rules call for the Award to go 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 Executive Director of Community Relations since 2004. She worked as an elementary classroom teacher for 13 years in the Cypress Fairbanks, Austin and Lamar CISD schools before becoming Director 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 convention and as Vice President of the Houston/Beaumont area.

She is also a member of the Houston Area School Public Relations Association and the National School Public Relations Association. 

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

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Caption: Lamar CISD Executive Director of Curriculum and Instruction Bonnie Walker, Lamar CISD Superintendent Dr. Thomas Randle, Lamar CISD Executive Director of Community Relations and Lynda Queen, who presented the Professional Achievement Award to Willman at the 2011 Texas School Public Relations Association Conference.

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.

Davis, the District’s first webmaster, has been in the position for three years.

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Wessendorff Middle School earned its 11^th consecutive first-place award at the District  UIL Academic Meet January 29, held at George Junior High. Diana Tydlacka is the principal at Wessendorff.

Team members and coaches are:

(Front row) Coach Brenda Burrow, Isaac Zamorano, Ellyen Giron, Ms. Ritchie Smith, Sumaiya Awan, Camryn Roehe, Anthony Hong, Junaid Ahmed, Taiya Bentancur, Coach Reagan Habermacher, Coach Linda Buchanan;

(Second row) Taylor Davis, Natalie Ceja, Andrea Cobidge, Breanna Morales, Santiago Guajardo, Janny Lopez, Kristen Damico, Brenden Yarborough, coach Rachel Salazar;

(Third Row) Coach Delia Summy, Italia Hernandez, Nejra Celias, Coach Holly Leonard, Jasmine Hernandez, Crystal Manzanares, Francesca Okohere, Krystle Ike;

(Fourth Row) Coach Melissa Serrano, Chelsey Rubalcaba, Diego Garza, Samantha Maldonado, Myaisia Foston, Taylor Mitchell, Jessica Chukwa, Coach Bradley Vallet

(Fifth Row) Coach  Jose Diaz, Destiny Flores, Meritt Johnson, Eduardo Sanchez, Oscar Rivera, Alexa Vasquez, Mona Wang, Imran Khan, Isaac Schlak and Coach Charlene Tevis.

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The LCISD Attendance Boundary Committee will make recommendations to the Board of Trustees for boundary changes for McNeill Elementary school for the 2011-2012 school year. If approved, students in Parkway Lakes would attend Hubenak Elementary.

Before taking those recommendations to the Board, the committee will take input from the families affected by the proposed changes at a public hearing to be held on Tuesday, March 1 at 7 p.m. in the McNeill Elementary Gym. The committee will use this input to finalize their recommendation to the Board of Trustees. The committee’s recommendations are based on the latest demographic projections, facility capacity, current student enrollment numbers and optimal utilization of existing facilities. The committee also looked closely at both long- and short-term needs to alleviate overcrowding, while minimizing the movement of students from existing zones.

The consensus of the committee was to move forward with the boundary recommendations shown below.

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Texas LEARNS, the State Office for Adult Education and Family Literacy, has recognized 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. Paula Bauer is the director of Project LEARN.

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 Needs) is Lamar CISD’s family literacy program.  The program offers adult basic education, GED and English 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.

(Top row) Anita Garcia, Linda Turrubiate, Stephanie Contreras, Crystal Montalbo, Rosemary Carrillo, Laura Ginter;

(Bottom Row) Kristie Allen, Claudia Campos and Paula Bauer.

 Two Lamar CISD Culinary Arts teams participated in the ProStart Invitational Culinary Arts competition January 29 at Westside High School in Houston. 

 The culinary arts classes are part of the Career and Technical Education department at LCISD.  This is the second year for this competition in Texas and both teams received praise from the judges. 

 Students that participated and their instructors include:

Lamar CHS -- team leader Travis Huber, Dustin Brookey, Draike Sparks, Mason Luna and Robert Franklin. Trudy Roberts is their teacher.

 Foster HS – team leader Timothy Dare, Wayne Muriu, Gabriella Cantu, Kevin Tran and Jose Carrazales. Sheri Raleigh Yearby is their teacher.

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Captions:

Lamar Consolidated High School Culinary Arts team (from left to right) Dustin Brookey, Travis Huber, Mason Luna, Robert Franklin and Draike Sparks.

Foster High School Culinary Arts team (from left to right) Kevin Tran, Jose Carrazales, Timothy Dare, Gabi Cantu, Culinary Arts teacher Sheri Raleigh Yeraby and Wayne Muriu.

The National Center for Educational Achievement (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 Performing 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: consistent 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 success no matter the zip code.

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Captions: sitting are Lamar Junior Assistant Principal Sandra Lacks, Wessendorff Middle School Principal Diana Tydlacka and George Junior High Principal Kelly Waters; (standing) Lamar Consolidated High School Principal Michael Milstead, Foster High School Associate Principal Irene Barr and Ray Elementary Principal Ben Perez.

Lamar CISD is seeking volunteers for four junior high track meets to be held this spring.

The meets typically run 4:30-9:30 p.m. Training is provided and a there will be a hospitality room with snacks and drinks for workers.

The host school dates and locations for the track meets are:

• Lamar JH, February 17 at Traylor Stadium;
• George JH, February 23 at Terry stadium;
• Reading JH, March 3 at George Ranch stadium; and
• Briscoe JH, March 10 at Foster stadium;

Contact Richard McGehee at rmcgehee@lcisd.org, or Mike Rice at mrice@lcisd.org to volunteer.

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