Spring Branch ISD Names New Academy of Choice Program Director

Jill Wright has been named the new program director at the Academy of Choice School. She has 27 years in Spring Branch ISD education serving as an elementary and middle school teacher, assistant and grade-level principal, and as the director of Cornerstone Academy.

Director Wright earned a bachelor of science in curriculum and instruction from Texas A&M University in 1988, and then later earned her master’s degree in administration and supervision from the University of Houston in 1993.

In SBISD, she taught from 1988 until 1995 at Thornwood Elementary and Northbrook Middle schools, and then was an assistant principal at Northbrook Middle and a grade-level principal at Stratford High. She became the first director of Cornerstone Academy, a new district charter middle school, in 1998, a position she has held since then.

Both Cornerstone Academy and Academy of Choice, the district’s alternative high school, are located on the Spring Branch Education Center (SBEC) campus, which is now being renovated. Both programs will operate this school year on the East Transition Campus at 8655 Emnora.

Since it first opened, Cornerstone Academy has earned the state’s highest accountability rating annually.

“I’m thrilled to be appointed director at Academy of Choice,” Director Wright said. “I am excited about the opportunity to work with a team of committed educators and a staff who are passionate about doing whatever it takes to ensure that all our high school students reach their highest potential.”

As director at both schools, she is committed to working together with her team to assure that every child is equipped with the academic, social and life skills to meet Spring Branch’s T-2-4 goal for all graduates. That goal seeks for students to successfully complete some form of higher or technical education, such as military training, technical certification, or a two-year or four-year college degree.

A graduate of Stratford High, Director Wright returned to the district and was later named Teacher of the Year in 1995. “My life has been in Spring Branch! I returned here to begin my teaching career, and when I later worked with a committee designing a new middle school concept, I knew that I also understood all the passion behind the concept, and I had to be the one to help implement the new concept,” she said. “At Academy of Choice, I hope to be that new leader who listens, understands and inspires similar passion.”

Director Wright holds state certifications in Elementary Self-Contained and in Elementary Mathematics (Grades 1-8), Secondary Mathematics (Grades 6-12), and in the area of Mid-Management Administrator (Prekindergarten-Grade 12).

She replaces Michele Hilberth at Academy of Choice, who has retired.