Friday, May 7, 2010
Mesquite ISD's Vision
Our School Board recently held its annual planning session to discuss the district’s vision, mission and goals. During that meeting, the Board expressed its desire to hear feedback from the community regarding the district’s vision, which is “Quest for Excellence – Success for All Students.” What does this phrase mean to you? Do you think it is an appropriate vision for the district to embrace? Do you see this vision reflected on our campuses? Share your thoughts.
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Success for all students is definitely a goal we should have as a school district. There are many ways to achieve that success for individual students. Each of us is capable of success in some form. Striving to achieve it pushes us to be the best we can be.
ReplyDeleteThank you for responding.
ReplyDelete“Quest for Excellence – Success for All Students.”
ReplyDeleteWhat does this question mean to the administrators of the MISD that hide behind policies rather than revieiwing what is the best for each individual child.
The MISD has been changing a lot since I was in school and just since my children started in Kindergarden. I have two children in MISD, one that attends Agnew, and one at Shaw Elementary. I strongly beleive that at times the school district has taken the fun out of learning and have started basically teaching the TAKS test and not a whole lot of anything else.
I strongly beleive MISD can meet a goal set of Success for all Students, but in order to meet that goal, teachers and administrators alike need to start actually communicating with the parents of students and find out how the community feels when making changes that affect everyone involved.
Jessica
The diversity of Mesquite residents has changed in the past years. Yet the placements for Career and Technical job training has stayed the same. Due to the economic factors facing our future graduates,there are so many students who wish to be accepted into training positions but not enough openings. Is MISD open to dedicating a high school as a magnet school for job training? How are you addressing the job shortage for our future graduates?
ReplyDeleteexcellence for every student... that's a vision that needs to be ebraced by all.Sometimes the performing students are overlooked because they are"not behind" and are "not problems" so a few teachersfail to meet their needs.Is it possible to have a textbook for reading in 6th grade? Apparently the district has none and the teacher relies on the internet or other sources for reading materials. Having a textbook students can take home will help parents keep their children on track and develop their comprehension especially if there are questions to answer in the article/selection/novel.In this case we can say that we are working on the vision of Mesquite ISD. --loren
ReplyDeleteIt is true we must teach a prescribed curriculum that aligns to the state curriculum and assessment program. The “what” is prescribed, but the “how” is left to the teacher to a very large degree. Technology has become a vital tool in classroom instruction, and teachers use many strategies that are interactive and incorporate movement. I do hope there is still fun in the classroom because children respond better to an environment that is interesting, challenging, and welcoming. However, we must also be sure our students are well prepared for the required testing.
ReplyDeletePlease discuss with your principals concerns regarding communication. Parents are very important, and we want to communicate in an effective manner.
At this time, we do not have plans to add a magnet school. Many students are involved in extracurricular activities and wish to remain at their comprehensive high school. We will, however, continue to seek ways to add programs and classes where there is a need. Often enrollments are limited because of facilities or because a partnering business is limited on the number of students they can accommodate. Thank you for your comments.
ReplyDeleteI do believe strongly in excellence for every student and want to support every parent’s efforts to assist in attaining that goal. In MISD we have a strong curriculum, which works on helping our students develop not only reading skills but critical thinking skills, as well. We have several resources for teachers to use, including a literature textbook called Elements of Literature, published by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. This book contains many wonderful selections and also includes questions for reflecting back on the selection. This textbook may be issued to every student in sixth grade and may be taken home by students to read or study at home. Please check with the teacher at your child’s school about this book. I appreciate so much your working with your child at home. Parents are our students’ first and best teachers, and we rely on your support to help your child be successful.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this!
ReplyDeleteI agree with the previous post concerning magnet schools. Magnet schools are something that other districts in our area are having success with in technical education as well as specialized sciences and the arts.
ReplyDeleteThough we do not have plans for a magnet school at this time, Mesquite ISD offers job training opportunities through pre-labs for students interested in the fields of medicine, automotive repair and refinishing, cosmetology, hospitality services, law enforcement, and education. Recently we added the Ready, Set, Teach! program for our students, and this year we will be offering a new security services class in the law enforcement area. Also for the coming school year, we have added several new career and technical classes. We will have three new welding courses, construction management, graphic design and illustration, business management, medical terminology, and the Dollars and Sense course for basic financial literacy.
ReplyDeleteCollege and career readiness is a major emphasis within MISD. Our Career and Technical Education programs provide training on industry standard equipment, access to up-to-date software, and career development guidance in order to prepare students for future workplace opportunities.
I think the MISD is a good school system, but how do you spend all of the bond dollars on the feild house and have over corwding in the knidergarden class. It is my understanding by law it is 20 to 1 and at Rutherford there is currently 25 to 1. How is this helping my child the class in my thoughts should be no more than 15 per. I do not want myine or any of the other parents children to suffer because you would rather put money in the feild house instead of hiring new teachers. There is sever overcrowding in the classes above 5th as it is and this should be addressed before adding on to or making the feild houses nicer.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your question.
ReplyDeleteSchool districts have several funds and two tax rates. The first one, known as an operating fund, pays for day-to-day expenses such as salaries, classroom supplies, utilities, and other items necessary to conduct our business of education. These funds are generated by the part of the tax rate called the Maintenance and Operations Rate. In Mesquite, that is $1.04 per each $100 of assessed value on property.
The second tax rate is called the debt service rate, and the taxes collected from that rate are used to pay the debt service, which is somewhat like a mortgage payment when we buy a house. Debt service money cannot be used for operating expenses such as salaries. Rather, this money must be used to build or renovate facilities, like the field house, or to purchase items that have a life expectancy of at least 7 years.
I hope this helps to clarify how we were able to renovate the field house. We do try to keep all facilities at an equitable standard, and some of our athletic facilities were badly in need of updating.