Board of Trustees Election Update

The Spring Branch ISD Board of Trustees is expected to take action soon to officially cancel the May 10 election for two Trustee positions after no candidates filed to oppose Trustees Wayne F. Schaper Sr. and Chris Gonzalez for new, three-year terms.

After a Feb. 28 deadline for candidate filings had passed for Positions No. 1 and No. 2, SBISD Elections Secretary Diane Dickens certified that Schaper and Gonzalez were unopposed for election on May 10. An official certificate was signed March 5 by Secretary Dickens and sent to the Board of Trustees for action.

At its monthly meeting on March 24, the Board of Trustees is expected to adopt an order declaring that the May 10 election is cancelled, and unopposed candidates be elected.

If elected as expected, Wayne Schaper Sr. will begin serving his fourth, three-year term in May. He worked as an administrator, principal, coach and teacher for four decades in SBISD. He has served as a Trustee since 2002.

Chris Gonzalez will begin her second term on the Board in May. In 2012, she won election to serve the unexpired portion of her first term after being appointed to the position held by former Trustee Mary Grace Landrum, who had resigned.

If the Board action occurs, a copy of the Order Cancelling Election will be posted at each polling place that would have been used for the election if it had occurred.

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PTA Reflections State Results

Eight Spring Branch ISD students recently received recognition for their State PTA Reflections Contest submissions under the theme, “Believe, Dream, Inspire.”

More than 100,000 students submitted entries to the district reflections contests, and only 1,500 entries advanced to the state level where 400 were honored. SBISD had 22 separate student entries make it to the state level.

The PTA Reflections competition is a long-standing art competition sponsored by the national PTA. In this contest, students in preschool through grade 12 may create and submit original works of art in six separate categories that include dance choreography, literature, musical composition, photography, film production and visual arts.

Student entries are judged in five separate categories: primary (preschool-grade 2); intermediate (grades 3-5); middle school (grades 6-8); senior (grades 9-12); and a special artist’s category that includes all grade levels.

Recognized state entries can be awarded one of four awards – Honorable Mention, Award of Merit, Award of Excellence or Overall Award of Excellence.

Of the eight students recognized, one received the highest level of recognition which qualifies their pieces for the National PTA Reflections judging. Memorial High student Sabina Mehdi won this recognition in literature.

All state award winners will be honored during a special awards ceremony April 12 in downtown Austin. PTA National Reflection winners are expected to be announced in June.

PTA State Reflection Winners:

Honorable Mention
Charlotte Hardig, Literature, Frostwood Elementary
Savera Karia, Photography, Wilchester Elementary
Brisa Gawlikowski, Music Composition, Hunters Creek Elementary
Paul Brastrom, Film Production, Stratford High School

Award of Excellence
Alice Ma, Dance Choreography, Frostwood Elementary
Inchan Hwang, Visual Arts, Memorial High School
Christopher Ramey, Music Composition, Stratford High School

Overall Award of Excellence
Sabina Mehdi, Literature, Memorial High School

Stratford High senior and Communications Dept. Intern Kali Venable compiled this report.

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New SAT: Essay will be optional

From Associated Press reports

WASHINGTON — Essay optional. No penalties for wrong answers. The SAT college entrance exam is undergoing sweeping revisions.

Changes in the annual test that millions of students take will also do away with some vocabulary words such as "prevaricator" and "sagacious" in favor of words more commonly used in school and on the job.

College Board officials said Wednesday the update — the first since 2005 — is needed to make the exam better representative of what students study in high school and the skills they need to succeed in college and afterward.

The test should offer "worthy challenges, not artificial obstacles," said College Board President David Coleman in remarks prepared for delivery at an event in Austin, Texas.

The new exam will be rolled out in 2016, so this year's ninth-graders will be the first to take it, in their junior year. The new SAT will continue to test reading, writing and math skills, with an emphasis on analysis.

Scoring will be on a 1,600-point scale, with a separate score for the optional essay.

Students will have the option of taking the test on a computer.

One of the biggest changes is that the extra penalty for wrong answers, which discouraged guessing, will be eliminated. And some vocabulary words will be replaced with words such as "synthesis" and "empirical" that are used more widely in classrooms and in work settings.

For future updates on this topic, please visit Spring Branch ISD’s student portal site, My Digital Counselor, College Board websites:

My Digital Counselor: 
http://mydigitalcounselor.blogspot.com/

College Board: 
https://www.collegeboard.org/

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