BISD wins $18 million in school transformation grants

Three BISD high schools are busy polishing up their transformation plans after winning $18 million in Texas school improvement grants.

Hanna, Lopez and Pace high schools each qualified for $6 million in Texas Title I Priority Schools Grants — $2 million per school per year over three years for $18 million total — to transform their schools as quickly as possible. Federal stimulus funds and the No Child Left Behind Act pay for the grants through the Texas Education Agency.

Leadership teams from the three Brownsville Independent School District schools spent last week at TEA’s School Improvement Research Center in Austin receiving training on how to use the grants to improve academic results. All three schools recently received TEA’s "recognized" academic rating for 2010 but like all BISD schools have their sights set on an "exemplary" rating.

Mary Jo Monfils, area assistant superintendent for BISD’s Lopez Cluster of schools, said the grants were awarded "not because a school was in trouble but because we wrote a grant indicating we were willing to serve the students better than we had in the past." Monfils was the district’s interim assistant superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction at the time the grant proposals for the three schools were written for submission in early June.

The BISD schools were among about 70 across Texas to receive the grants and around 400 that applied, said Michael Greenwalt, senior coordinator at the SIRC. He said the grants represent an "excellent opportunity for schools to make a transformation, to do better than they have in the past."

Greenwalt said research shows that schools can change themselves rapidly. In TEA’s school transformation grant model, schools need to be community oriented and leadership should be a partnership among teacher leaders, campus administration and a district "shepherd" for the transformation.

"I talk about being bold," Greenwalt, who led the training, said. "These schools are stepping up to be part of the grant. A lot of what we’re learning is coming from the business world. Businesses are more adept at transforming themselves and we’re blending what they do with the best practices within the education community."

Greenwalt said campus leadership and teacher involvement are especially important because "we’re transforming from within, using the resources and talent that’s there and improving it."

He said schools worked on 90-day implementation plans during the training in Austin and will refine them as they go along.

Monfils said transformation for the BISD schools begins this week. Students don’t return to school until Aug. 23, but teachers and administrators are already back at work.

Here’s what went into the grant applications for each school:

Hanna High School: At Hanna, applying for the grant started as a "thinking outside the box" activity, Principal Terry Alarcon said.

"We asked, ‘What if we were given $6 million to improve academics, what would we do?’ and we wrote up a plan," she said.

"We’ve got excellent academics, but even with great scores there are areas that need to be addressed, for example bilingual education. How can we close the gaps between regular and bilingual students? In the grant we used numerous strategies — staff development, technology, different teaching methodologies. It’s like having the cake and the frosting and the grant enables us to add the sprinkles on the cake."

Alarcon said Hanna’s grant seeks to help students make sustainable gains. "The key to the grant was sustainability," she said.

Lopez High School: At Lopez, "the onus of the grant is on quicker turnaround for kids that are not doing well — quick turnaround, fast recovery," Principal Dawn Hall said.

"Our grant is totally focused on the ninth grade and turning it into a small learning community to capture the kids who are starting to fail," Hall said. "Ninth grade, that’s where we lose them."

Hall said research shows that students who are involved in school extracurricular activities have a better chance of success, so Lopez is going to have a club day this year. Also planned is a "computers on wheels" effort targeting parents.

"For all at-risk students, we want to involve their families and involve them in school activities," she said.

Pace High School: Principal Sylvia Senteno said Pace’s grant represents "an opportunity to restructure this school and this campus." She said Pace has "always had a vision of having a character education component," and added "this can be a state-of-the-art staff development on dealing with conflict resolution and character education."

Senteno said she hopes the grant can serve as "seed money" to effect lasting change. One goal is to get 85 percent to 95 percent of students involved in extracurricular activities, she said.

"It takes a huge investment to reach every child. At the end of three years, you’re going to be looking at a different Pace High School," she said.