Finish with Flourish: Some gambles pay off for Los Fresnos

The Los Fresnos Consolidated Independent School District is celebrating a successful year on many fronts: establishing a ninth-grade campus, encouraging preliminary TAKS results, and collaborating with non-profits and law enforcement have all yielded positive results.

The district played what could have been a dangerous game this year: they shuffled ninth-grade students into their own school.

Researchers say that ninth grade can be a decisive year in determining whether students will make it through the end of high school or dropout. So while creating the new school was a gamble, it seems to have paid off. Preliminary TAKS results show that ninth-grade students scored at above 90 percent in nearly every category.

"We had done research and seen that some ninth-grade campuses are not successful," said LFCISD Superintendent Gonzalo Salazar, "But we were convinced that if we staffed it correctly, it would be a success."

Staff at the school began preparations six months in advance, a measure that Salazar believes helped to set it on the right track.

"We hit the road running and things went really smooth," Salazar said.

The new school has also served as fertile ground for a new study on why students drop out. The study is being conducted by The United Way of Southern Cameron County with the help of a grant from AT&T.

Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills preliminary results look optimistic across all other grade levels as well. Student’s preliminary scores are about 90 percent in nearly every category, across demographics.

The district has flourished outside of the classroom, as well.

Mashad Arora, a Resaca Middle School student, competed in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington D.C. Female athletes made strong showings in many sports, including soccer, swimming, golf, and softball.

Los Fresnos also won the title of Special Olympics champions this year in boys’ basketball.

Salazar said that he is working hard to ensure that both struggling students and high-achieving students get what they need at LFCISD. To that end, the district has a robotics program for gifted and talented students, and a program to help students re-gain credits when they fall behind.

The school district also started to work more closely with the Los Fresnos Police Department. Information collected when students are caught for possession of prohibited substances is used to pursue drug dealers. The collaboration has met some significant success: Los Fresnos CISD aided a bust of a drug ring in the city recently.

The district made strides this year in cutting down the number of summer school students, due to high preliminary TAKS results. About 400 students are currently attending summer school, compared to about 700 in 2009.