The celebration at SBISD Convocation this year was as real as the excitement was palpable.

 

Coming off a record academic year – despite losing 12 instructional days to Hurricane Harvey and an ice storm, of all things – SBISD got itself amped up for the new one, excited for what’s about to come.

 

Don Coleman Coliseum rocked for nearly three hours on Friday morning, Aug. 10 – first as the district’s 4,600 employees arrived on bright yellow school buses with their campuses or their teams, then later as Dr. Scott Muri wove a tale of academic success through a series of student performances, videos and live presentations and interviews.

 

School convocations are large meetings assembling the entirety of a school or school district’s staff, usually to celebrate and kick off the new school year.

 

A couple of Convocation surprises certainly paid off for two SBISD teachers – Region 4 Teacher of the Year and Memorial High School journalism teacher Holly Hartman was presented with a year’s lease on a Cadillac from David Taylor Cadillac, and Terrace Elementary teacher Jared Braun was named recipient of the Kinder Excellence in Teaching Award, which includes a $20,000 cash prize.

 

Leading the spirited assembly before the lights dimmed at 10 a.m. was Landrum Middle School’s cover band, The Exceptionals, featuring LMS principal Steven Speyrer on drums, choir director Jaime Trigo on guitar, math teacher Lucia Flores on lead vocals, assistant band director Roderick Davenport on saxophone and keyboards, and assistant band director Patrick Dykes on bass.

 

 

Opening with “Maneater” and closing 10 songs later with “Don’t Stop Believin’” (we are on the Learner’s Journey, after all), the band brought back former Convocation performers Imani Davenport from Spring Woods High School and Ivan Alvarado from KIPP Courage at Landrum Middle, who each solo on a couple of songs and were also part of several back-up groups of LMS students.

 

Board of Trustees President the Rev. Josef Klam, who represents the second generation of a third-generation SBISD family, told those gathered to keeping daring to think differently.

 

“We dare to believe we can double the number of students who complete a technical certification, military training, a two-year or four-year degree, we dare to believe in our goal and we dare to believe in Every Child,” Klam said. “We dare to commit to T-2-4 because it’s our moral imperative as educators to do so.”

 

The work, represented by numbers and people, was the star of the show.

 

13 – Klam recognized the SBISD Navy JROTC before the presentation of colors for the unit’s 13^th consecutive designation as a Distinguished Unit with Academic Honors.

 

 

Hunters Creek Elementary fifth-grader Emma Hodge belted out the National Anthem with a voice that wholly belied her diminutive features. Emma aspires to one day perform on Broadway and to win “America’s Got Talent.”

 

Rising sixth-grader Ian Kim led a group of Frostwood Elementary choir members in a performance of “My Shot” from the megahit Braodway musical “Hamilton.” “Every day in SBISD is an opportunity for me to achieve my dream, to NOT throw away my shot at success,” Ian said prior to the performance.

 

63 – Dr. Muri said that number represents the percentage of SBISD students who feel connected to their school. After a video where a Nottingham Elementary student credited a teacher and the school for helping turn his life around, Dr. Muri brought that student, Joe McGaffie, and his teacher, Sarah Chu, on stage for recognition. “You (Joe and Chu) are living examples of the power of relationships and what it means to not give up on a child,” he said.

 

73 – Dr. Muri noted the number of home languages spoken in SBISD, and the work of the Family E3 team in engaging traditionally underrepresented groups. Mrs. Al Kubaisi, a Spring Forest Middle parent who only speaks Arabic, delivered a powerful message about being engaged by the school in her native language, and how that empowered her to be even more involved in her children’s education. “We are partners,” she said.  

 

5 of 5 – SBISD narrowed five key gaps, moving both the “floor” and the “ceiling” numbers upward. That means that the lower scores improved faster than the higher scores, but both improved while the gap narrowed. Dr. Muri recognized Ridgecrest Elementary Principal Michelle Garcia for the strong performance at her school last year. Garcia credited the academic growth to Ridgecrest culture – family-oriented and data-centered – and frequently pointed back to her team while on stage.

 

 

58% and 48% -- In SBISD last year, 58 percent of students met their growth targets in math and 48 percent hit their growth targets in reading.  Dr. Muri said that the 58 percent and 48 percent represent new baselines for the district and that while the numbers are worthy of celebration there remains work to be done.

 

A video recitation of a President Theodore Roosevelt speech where he exhorts the value of hard work, failure and perseverance, ends with Roosevelt’s words that one who embraces such qualities as one “… who at the best knows at the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.”

 

Spring Woods High School teacher Ryan Beeler expounded on the theme of Daring Greatly while relating his journey to becoming a teacher. A one-time aspiring FBI agent, Beeler served as an officer with Metro Nashville police. He and his wife got involved with an after-school program in Nashville, which led to Beeler deciding that maybe his higher purpose was to help kids on the front end rather than putting them in the back seat of his patrol car.

 

Further spurred by how fondly former students remembered his late grandfather, a teacher for more than 30 years, Beeler said he asked himself how he wanted to be remembered. “That was when I knew for sure that I wanted to be a teacher.”

 

 

He and his wife joined Teach for America and wound up in SBISD, he at Spring Woods High and she at Northbrook High. Always looking for ways to push and engage students, Beeler has initiated several programs at Spring Woods and is active with The Woods Project. This year, his sixth in teaching, he was a finalist for SBISD Secondary Teacher of the Year.

 

Beeler introduced the TFA and Kinder award for his friend, Jared Braun of Terrace Elementary, who was further surprised when joined on stage by his parents and girlfriend.

 

$13 – Amount per hour earned by SBISD’s Trio Electric apprentices while working full-time this summer between their junior and senior years. The Trio partnership between Trio Electric, SBISD and HCC provides classroom and hands-on training for a cohort of SBISD students, who after graduation will be able to continue on the path to journeyman electrician. Dr. Muri noted how SBISD partners dare greatly to help kids.

 

As several Trio apprentices sat around the stage in their hard hats and safety vests, HCC Chancellor Caesar Maldonado and Texas Workforce Commissioner Julian Alvarez touted the program and said that it was a model for similar programs across the state.

 

43% -- The ultimate SBISD number – the percentage of SBISD graduates who have completed technical or military training or a two- or four-year degree, according the latest data available. SBISD’s overarching T-2-4 goal focuses on student success after high school. Everything the district does is about T-2-4, about “success for kids in life,” said Dr. Muri, before asking of the audience, “Who is T-2-4?”

 

Responding was Chris Rice, a Spring Woods High School graduate who recently graduated from Yale University and who is a first-year teacher through Teach for America at Spring Oaks Middle School. “I am T-2-4,” Rice said, before recognizing those in the crowd who were SBISD graduates. “We are T-2-4,” he said.

 

 

Memorial High School sophomore DeCory Brown, fresh off a gig at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, N.Y., returned to Convocation and performed his original song, “Wait a Minute.” DeCory led his backup dancers through some spirited choreography of the song, which implores those around him to just “give him a minute” to figure things out. Dr. Muri asked staff to “give our kids a minute, give them time” to dare greatly.

 

But wait … there’s more.

 

Set up by a video spoof, Dr. Muri brought up Pete DeLongchamps, senior vice president of Group 1 Automotive, a Houston-based company which owns a number of auto dealerships, including David Taylor Cadillac, a new partner. DeLongchamps described how he became a “car guy” while growing up in Spring Branch, attending Rummel Creek Elementary and graduating from long-closed Westchester High School.

 

David Taylor Cadillac General Manager John Addison told those gathered in Don Coleman Coliseum that someone was about to win a car. “Drumroll, please,” he said, initiating the combined drumline from SBISD high schools. MHS teacher Holly Hartman was announced as the winner and escorted outside to see her new ride.

 

Many left with the message Dare Greatly, while others praised the family feel of SBISD and its ever-present commitment to Every Child. Several post-event survey respondents noted that it was nice to pause and celebrate some good news for a change. Yet another said he/she left Convocation “with a renewed sense of humanity at a painful time in our world.”

 

SBISD has held four convocations over the last five years.