Spring Branch ISD Featured News

Dear SBISD Family,

While this semester has brought difficult budget decision for the 2024-25 school year, our students and educators continue to accomplish great things. I am so proud of them all, and I know you are, too!

Here are a just few of these many accomplishments:

• 27 SBISD high school students were named National Merit Semi-finalists, the highest number in years. More than 70 students earned accolades as part of the College Board National Recognition Programs. 
• 756 students were named AP® Scholars, again, the highest number of students in years. No easy feat!
• Memorial High School and Stratford High School earned gold and silver recognitions, respectively, in the new AP School Honor Roll. 
• SBISD outperformed a comparative group of Houston area districts, exceeding pre-pandemic achievement levels, on the spring 2023 STAAR Test for grades 3 and 8 and Algebra I and English I End of Course Exams, according to the Region Districts Data First Look report released in August by Good Reason Houston. 
• A Guthrie Center student earned the prestigious Outstanding Individual Award from the Texas Society of Architects, and nine SBISD high school students were named CITGO Distinguished Scholars.
• SBISD once again earned the “A” Superior Rating in the Texas Education Agency’s Financial Integrity Rating System of Texas, or FIRST, based on 20 financial indicators that rate the quality of financial management. 
• SBISD was named a District of Distinction by the Texas Art Education Association for the third straight year.
• The Spring Woods, Stratford and Memorial High School bands all advanced to the Area Marching Band competition. The Northbrook High band competed as a varsity band for the first time in five years, earning straight 2’s! 
• Stratford High School’s marching band participated in the Houston Thanksgiving Day Parade.
• SBISD teams clinched 17-6A district championships at the varsity level in cross-country, team tennis, volleyball and water polo and had teams that competed at the regional quarterfinal level in football and girls water polo and in the regional cross-country championships.
• SBISD’s 4,520 student-athletes who participated in middle school and high school athletics had a 94% passing rate for the first nine weeks of school. 
• MHS Team Tennis finished as the 6A State Runners-up for the second consecutive year and marked their fifteenth consecutive year at the state tournament.

What’s ahead?

• Families of seniors should be on the lookout for information about the opening of the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) application coming out in late December. 
• Nominate your most amazing educator when our annual Campus Teacher of the Year competition opens on January 9! 
• The District Improvement Team application process for 2-year terms (2024-2026) for parent and staff positions opens on January 12.  
• A don’t-miss Community Event will be held on January 31, at 6:15 p.m. at Don Coleman Coliseum. Mark your calendars now to hear renowned national speaker, Aric Bostic, on “The Power of Showing Up!”
• We’ll be breaking ground this spring for the new Guthrie Center and Agricultural Science Center facilities! Both are projects of the 2022 Bond Program.

I am so very appreciative of all the hard work, heart, planning and effort that make great things possible for our students every day! Thank you to all our students, families and staff members for all you have done to help make this semester a great one in Spring Branch ISD.

Enjoy a well-deserved break! See you in 2024!

Jennifer Blaine, Ed.D.
Superintendent of Schools