Gingerbread Houses Delight Sick Children

Meadow Wood Elementary (MWE) students and teachers brought holiday joy into the hallways and hearts of dozens of patients at Memorial Hermann Children’s – Texas Medical Center. As part of Meadow Wood Elementary’s school-wide community service project, all 505 students and teachers constructed and decorated 60 gingerbread houses.  Parents then helped to deliver the...

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'Cool Reads' Turns Campus Library Into A Winter Wonderland

If I told you that there was snow in Houston, would you believe me?  Well, visitors to Hollibrook Elementary School's campus recently had snow and more!  A group of educators and librarians worked with parents to create a mini North Pole in the campus library.  The winter wonderland was part of an all-school lesson on The Polar Express by Chris van Allsburg. ...

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Sharing the Holiday Spirit and A Love of Reading

With cooler temperatures and the building rush of the holiday season,  Nottingham Elementary's Gingerbread Night was a fun and welcome break in what can sometimes be a hectic time of year.  Families were invited to come out and share their love of books with campus faculty, area families and the Nottingham community.  Everyone was invited to wear their pajamas...

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Community Education registration dates announced

Dates for in-person registration for all Spring 2014 classes offered by the SBISD Department of Community Education have been announced. The Spring Term begins on Feb. 10, 2014. All classes will end by May 10. In addition, online registration is convenient and easy to do, and registrations are being processed online now. Visit Community Education’s website for online class...

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Best Spellers

Can you spell that word? The new year ahead will send dozens of campus Spelling Bee winners forward to the annual District Spelling Bee. At Bunker Hill Elementary, fifth-graders Naman Mehndiratta and Carson Foster  were named, respectively, winner and runner up on Dec. 17 during the Spelling Bee held in the school’s cafeteria. (See photograph) Bunker Hill’s sixth...

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A First Peek at the New Frostwood Elementary

A handful of Frostwood Elementary School families who donated generously to a PTA fundraising effort earned the chance to be the first families to see the newly rebuilt school located at the corner of Memorial Drive and Gessner. During Sunday, Dec. 15, tours of the new building, the local families rated several features of the new school highly. The old school certainly...

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Guthrie Center Cadets honor deceased veterans during the holidays

Forty-two high school cadets with the Navy Jr. ROTC program based at SBISD’s Guthrie Center joined in the recently held Wreaths Across America program that honors America’s deceased military veterans. More than 15,000 people attended the program and public ceremony held at Houston National Cemetery. The Guthrie Center JROTC cadets raised funds and bought more than 300...

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Make Holiday Reading a Family Tradition

While everyone is looking forward to the upcoming winter break, research shows that young children who do not maintain their reading habits can fall behind their peers during summer months or even to some extent during the extended breaks like the one set to begin soon. Spring Branch ISD librarians and teachers have dozens of suggestions to make the holiday ahead a fun...

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Buffalo Creek Elementary wins $10,000 through “Hour of Code”

A Spring Branch ISD elementary school won $10,000 for new student laptops and iPads through its support for a daylong computer science programming effort known as the “Hour of Code.” Millions of students of all ages across America wrote lines of computer code or took part during an outreach effort last week. SBISD Educational Technology Director Sheri Alford presented...

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Take A Student To Your Employment (TASTE) Field Trip

Students from Hollibrook Elementary recently took time as part of the SpringSpirit Take A Student to Your Employment (TASTE) Field Trips series to visit law firms in downtown Houston.  The students earned the field for their participation in the fall SpringSpirit After-School Program.  During the trip, students heard why education is important and how the work...

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Principals return for Westwood Elementary’s 50th anniversary

Several hundred current students, teachers, staff and families joined four campus principals and dozens of former staff members and campus graduates to mark 50 years at Westwood Elementary School, 10595 Hammerly. The Dec. 12 anniversary event was held in the cafeteria of the new school, built about a block west from the original 1963 facility located at the intersection...

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New Teacher Laptops

Teachers in Spring Branch ISD are looking forward to January 2014 for one work-related reason: The district is replacing its 6-year-old teacher-issued laptops with new Dell laptops equipped with the latest-generation Intel chips, solid state disks, webcams and Windows 8 touch screen options. The voter-approved 2007 Bond program made it possible for SBISD’s teachers...

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The Gift of Knowledge

During the holiday period between Thanksgiving and Christmas, every Spring Branch ISD third-grade student received “the gift of knowledge” as part of an intentional giving program sponsored by the district's Community Relations Team through the national Dictionary Project program. Third-graders took home a gift dictionary along with supporting lessons about spelling, reading...

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SBISD Purchasing Department earns state’s highest recognition

Spring Branch ISD’s Purchasing Department has been honored for best practices in school district purchasing. The department was recently issued the Award of Merit for Purchasing and Operations with Recognized Status. The award was issued by the Texas Association of School Business Officials, known as TASBO. Director of Purchasing and Contracts Barbara Robillard leads this...

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Texas Thespians Hall of Fame inducts Terry Hibbert-Ismert

Spring Woods High School’s longtime theatre director Terry Hibbert-Ismert was inducted into the Texas Thespians Hall of Fame recently during the state group’s annual meeting. The group is an affiliate of the Educational Theatre Association, which met last month in Dallas. During her Nov. 23 induction, Memorial High School’s Theatre Director Nicole Morgan extolled Hibbert-Ismert’s...

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A Day of INSPIRATION for Future Leaders

On a recent Saturday afternoon in Houston, 70 female students in grades 9th through 12th gathered to participate in the 2013 Future Leaders Forum for Young Women.  This annual event, sponsored by Capital One Bank, is designed to connect young women with their unique leadership abilities, build mentor relationships and community engagement.  Young women interested in attending the event completed a registration...

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Stratford Heads to Reliant

Hundreds of fans crowd the stadium stands in a shade of green that can only represent the Stratford High School Spartans. Huddled together in 39-degree weather, students, parents, alumni, staff and other local supporters cheer the varsity football team on as Stratford beat Dawson Pearland, 38-7, in the fourth round of 4A Division I playoffs. At the forefront of the action...

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The Spirit of Stratford High School

Hundreds of fans crowd the stadium stands in a shade of green that can only represent the Stratford High School Spartans. Huddled together in 39-degree weather, students, parents, alumni, staff and other local supporters cheer the varsity football team on as Stratford beat Dawson Pearland, 38-7, in the fourth round of 4A Division I playoffs. At the forefront of the action...

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Sheriff Garcia visit to AOC

On November 22, Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia visited the Academy of Choice to talk about his upbringing, education, and career path in criminal justice. He discussed growing up in a rough neighborhood and being exposed to violence, but always hungering to learn more and excel. He shared his vision of a safe community in which students would help one another out and...

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Snapshot from Around SBISD

Recently, Memorial Drive Elementary Health Fitness classes participated in The WSSA (World Speed Stacking Association) yearly attempt at breaking the Guiness World Record mark for “Most people sport stacking at multiple locations in one day.” The WSSA’s goal was 500,000 people.  MDE contributed 287 students to this record.  Students used Speed Cups in relays,...

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Character Education Paying Dividends at KIPP

Reprinted from The Houston Chronicle Just seeing the word "bravery" atop his regular progress reports makes 12-year-old Ismael Lopez stand a little taller. It surprised the quiet, deliberate sixth-grader that the character trait showed up among his strongest in an assessment that he and his classmates at KIPP Courage in Spring Branch take as part of the school curriculum. "I...

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Stratford Meets Dawson Again

The Stratford High Spartans will meet Pearland Dawson High School at 2 p.m. Saturday at Abshier Stadium  in Deer Park for the Class 4A Division I Region III championship. The two football teams, both ranked 11-2 for the season, met last year with Dawson prevailing in that playoff game. Last week, the Spartans held last year’s state runner-up, Georgetown, to only...

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Many Miles, Many Smiles

Your passion can carry you a long way. Just ask Stratford High School senior MaKayla Lara, who walked more than 100 miles from Sealy to Austin over Thanksgiving break. Having traveled to Nicaragua with Amigos for Christ for the past two summers, Lara decided to make her senior Academy of Science and Engineering (ACE) project into a medical supplies fundraiser. Amigos...

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Spring Branch Education Foundation Announces Fall Grants

$61,559 Awarded to Projects for SBISD students At its November 21 Board meeting, Spring Branch Education Foundation (SBEF) approved $61,559 in grants that will be used for diverse education-enhancing projects throughout Spring Branch Independent School District. Twice each year, the Foundation calls for grant applications, up to $5,000 each, from any of its 46 school...

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Hour of Code at Buffalo Creek

More than 650 students at Buffalo Creek Elementary School will learn the basics of computer programming through a special “Hour of Code” program planned on Friday, Dec. 13, at this Spring Branch ISD (SBISD) campus. Hundreds and hundreds of other students across SBISD will be learning how to program simple digital games and videos, too. This massive programming code lesson...

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