Share a Smile Program Honors 28 Campuses

Blue Carpet Awards for three-year effort issued to nine locations

Twenty-eight Spring Branch ISD campuses and departments were honored at the annual Share a Smile customer service presentation held on May 18 during the regular monthly meeting of the SBISD Board of Trustees.

Highlights of this year’s presentation, conducted by Becky Wuerth in Community Relations, were the addition of 12 new sites to the campaign and issuance of Blue Carpet Awards, lobby-style carpet mats, to seven campuses and two departments completing three years of Share a Smile participation and documented customer service activities.

Share a Smile’s campaign program mission states: “We, the employees of SBISD, believe a culture of excellence is the foundation of scholastic and personal success and, thereby, extend to students, families, colleagues and community our highest level of service. In extending the highest levels of service, participants are asked to provide customer service to enable them to answer, ‘Yes!’ to these questions: Did I welcome you? Did I hear you? Did I help you? Did I value you?”

Share a Smile banners were issued to these 1st Year participants: Cedar Brook Elementary, Frostwood Elementary, Housman Elementary, Ridgecrest Elementary, Sherwood Elementary, Terrace Elementary, Valley Oaks Elementary, Westwood Elementary, Westchester Academy for International Studies, Wildcat Way School for Early Learning, and SBISD’s Technology Training Center and Transportation Department.

Participants earning 2nd Year program recognition: Meadow Wood Elementary, Nottingham Elementary, Rummel Creek Elementary, Wilchester Elementary, Tiger Trail School for Early Learning, Spring Oaks Middle School, and SBISD’s Building & Grounds Department.

Blue Carpet Awards were issued for the first time to these 3rd Year program schools and departments: Bear Boulevard and Lion Lane Schools for Early Learning, Edgewood Elementary, Shadow Oaks Elementary, Thornwood Elementary, Northbrook Middle School, Academy of Choice, and SBISD’s Financial Services and Community Relations Departments.

The coveted blue carpets proclaim that the site is a 2015 Share A Smile Award Winner to all who pass through its front door.

To learn more about the Share a Smile program, please visit:
http://cms.springbranchisd.com/sharethesmile/Home/tabid/28110/Default.aspx

For queries, please contact program manager Becky Wuerth at 713-251-2401. Or email her at becky.wuerth@springbranchisd.com.

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Early College Program Recognitions

Students presented with HCC dual credit certificates of achievement

One highlight of the May 18 monthly meeting of the SBISD Board of Trustees was the awarding of certificates to high school students for outstanding achievement in Early College programs based on partnerships with the University of Houston-Downtown (UHD) and Houston Community College-Spring Branch (HCC-Spring Branch).

Early College programs like these provide our high school students an opportunity to earn up to two years of transferable college credit by the time of graduation. The programs are best suited for the highly motivated, academically driven, and mature student who seek to be challenged by college-level coursework.

Certificates of achievement were presented to 23 Stratford High students who took part in the UHD program. Eleven other students who attend Northbrook and Spring Woods high schools earned HCC certificates of achievement.

Students presented with UHD dual credit certificates of achievement

UHD Dual Credit Liaison Branden Kuzmick presented certificates during the Board meeting to the following Stratford High School students: Davis Beasley, Victoria Mancuso, Jaclyn Swanson, Jacob Bradshaw, Emily Castillo, Francisco Jaime, Conner Jones, Mylene Lovag, Victoria Resendiz and Arvand Safarzadeh.

Not at the Board meeting, but also receiving UHD recognition were these Stratford High students: Kirstin Abowd, Eric Benoit, Elizabeth Brann, Melanie Hastings, Evelyn Morris, Natalya Pomeroy, Sarah Standefer, Rachel Warwick, Emily Demeris, Aeris Jelks, Alice Kim, Michael Martin and Tucker May.

HCC-Dual Credit Coordinator Genevieve Coogan presented certificates to two Northbrook High students, Luis Cruz and Alejandro Montemayor, and three Spring Woods High students, Victor Rodriguez, Lauren Vierling and Davana Willis.

Not at the May 18 Board meeting, but also receiving HCC recognition were three Northbrook High students, Fredy Calderon, Michael Jordan and Janeth Lopez. In addition, three other Spring Woods High students were honored. They are Makayla Franco, Jordan Sidebottom and Hannah Tarrant.

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Bus Drivers Experience Real-Life Scenarios in Simulator

Instructor Larry Thornton helps SBISD bus driver Sylvia Rodgers navigate a hazard in the training simulator.

Inside a long, plain white trailer, parked this day on the grounds of the Spring Branch ISD bus barn on Witte Road, some serious business is taking place.

Larry Thornton, a former teacher, administrator, trustee – and school bus driver – is giving a pep talk to a small group of SBISD drivers.

“I thank you,” said Thornton, a large man whose shaved head and bushy gray moustache give him what could be an intimidating presence, “because you care about my children on your bus."

“If you don’t think you make a difference,” he adds, “you are wrong.” Thornton should know – he drove a regular school bus route, he said, throughout his teaching and administrative career.

The trailer Thornton and the drivers are inside is home to a mobile training simulator, a state-of-the-art computer software system that allows instructors such as Thornton to challenge drivers with any number of scenarios.

Sitting in front of a simulated dashboard with controls that look and function like those found on a school bus, and a three-screen array that features roadways and landscapes, drivers react to hazards as presented by Thornton.

Drivers also talk about how they react to situations, and why, with instant feedback from Thornton, who is passionate about his job and whose admiration and respect for drivers is always front and center.

“Larry was awesome,” said Denise Martin, who’s been driving a school bus for 29 years. “He makes you feel comfortable … he studies everybody and knows how to approach each individual.”

Thornton talks about how kids may have lousy home lives or maybe have had a bad day at school, and how a school bus driver can “break the cycle.”

“Your good words when kids get on or off the bus, going to school or when kids go home, you can make the difference,” he said.

Then he tells SBISD driver Sylvia Rodgers, seated at the controls of the simulator, that he’s about to “throw her under the bus.”

Thornton presents her with a railroad crossing on the simulator, then stops the simulation to talk with the group of drivers about what just happened.

He says that Texas state law requires school buses to stop between 15 and 50 feet of a rail crossing, and that drivers shouldn’t rely on the wide white line that indicates where vehicles should stop.

He demonstrated how looking over the length of the bus’s hood creates a blind spot immediately in front of the vehicle, and how that blind spot is different for every driver but every driver should take the time to know their personal blind spot.

For Thornton and the Region 6 Education Service Center in Huntsville, school bus safety can’t be taken seriously enough. That’s why the ESC invested in the $300,000 mobile simulator – one of only three in the country – and recently upgraded its software to the tune of $26,000.

“That seems like a lot of money, but just one unlawful death suit …” Thornton said, letting drivers fill in the blank. “(The simulator) is an awesome investment and very, very successful.”

SBISD Transportation Director Sherri Lawson loves the training but wishes she could put more drivers through.

“(The simulator) can only handle 15 sessions (while at Spring Branch),” said Lawson. “We have nearly 200 drivers, and driving coaches too.”

She said the drivers who’ve been through the training are excited about what they’ve learned.

“They’ve all gotten certificates and brought them in to show me,” she said. “They’ve learned new techniques and some have already used what they’ve learned.”

Driver Denise Martin said that she thinks all bus drivers should go through the training, regardless of how long they’ve been driving.

“I learned what my mistakes were,” she said. “I had no idea until (Thornton) pointed them out.”

Lawson said the simulator is booked for the next year but Spring Branch was able to have it come back for a couple of weeks in late July, when she can put 30 more drivers through the training.

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KPRC TV Senior Scholarship

Emma Winburne (left) with Rachel McNeil.  Photo by Lucy Tomforde

Memorial grad and KPRC-TV 2 news anchor Dominique Sachse must be proud.

During May 21’s early morning newscast, Memorial High School senior Emma Winburne was named as the news station’s 20th, and final, recipient of a $2,000 KPRC-TV 2 Senior Scholarship for this school year.

Emma, a National Honor Society member who is also a highly regarded manager for The Anvil, the school newspaper, was surprised by morning co-anchors Owen Conflenti and Rachel McNeil in her English class with teacher Laura Kohlmaier.

A large poster of Dominique Sachse, one of many famous Memorial High alums, hangs outside the classroom. Emma showed enormous poise when surprised by the duo of brightly dressed news anchors.

The two professional broadcasters carried a poster size check into the classroom. Emma’s classmates erupted in applause when she was named.

Watch the Click2Houston video >>

The financial help will follow her to Vanderbilt University, where Emma plans to major in communications and journalism.

“I was really confused,” she remarked of the classroom surprise. “I’m on the paper staff, and I do really work hard, so at this moment it looks to me like it all has paid off.”

“She’s just a fabulous student,” her English teacher said. “She is consistently one of the most polite and well-rounded students that I have ever had.”

A district UIL writing competition award winner, Emma will graduate in the top 5 percent of her competitive class. In addition to newspaper and yearbook duties, she has chaired fundraisers for the philanthropy minded MMOB, or Memorial Mustang Outreach Bunch, and she participates in spirit groups on campus.

She’s also worked with Rise School of Houston, which serves Down’s Syndrome children and their siblings, which she calls incredibly rewarding. She has also held leadership roles in National Charity League, a local mom-daughter organization.

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Outstanding School Nurses

Five nursing professionals were named recently to the Houston Chronicle’s annual “Salute to Nurses” professional recognition section published on Sunday, May 10.

Spring Branch ISD school nurses nominated and named to the publication’s 150 Outstanding Nurses roll call included the following district employees:

• April Ries, R.N., Memorial Drive Elementary
• Esmeralda Salinas, R.N., Treasure Forest Elementary
• Peggy Ealand, R.N., Westchester Academy for International Studies
• Myrtle Herbst, R.N., Wilchester Elementary
• Carolyn Sikora, paraprofessional, Westchester Academy for International Studies

Outstanding Nurses were nominated by Houston area residents. The May nursing celebration coincides with the May 12 birthday of a 19th century pioneering nurse, Florence Nightingale.

This year marks Florence Nightingale’s 195th birthday.

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