In the Know
An Internal Newsletter from the SISD Communications Dept.
Sherman ISD Celebrates January Staff Members of the Month!
Elementary Teacher of the Month
Rachel Reyes is a leader among staff and students at Sory Elementary. She is a fourth-grade ELAR teacher, as well as the Student Council Sponsor on her campus. Her students love the authentic learning style that she uses to help make connections between prior learning, real-world experiences, and new learning. She has a positive attitude and is willing to do anything to help the staff and students of Sory Elementary. Congratulations, Mrs. Reyes!
Secondary Teacher of the Month
Laura Sandefur is a Life Skills teacher at Sherman High School. Her students love her and look up to her as a mentor. Her patience is unmatched by anyone else, and she is intentional as she runs an inclusive classroom. She makes every effort to stay involved with her students and is constantly looking for new ideas and ways to inspire them with new information and skills. Without a doubt, she is the kind of teacher that students will remember long after they graduate from high school. Congratulations, Ms. Sanderfur!
Team of the Month
Crutchfield Elementary Kindergarten Teaching Team plans together after school and during weekly PLC meetings. During this time, they create multi-sensory lessons that involve students’ eyes, ears, and hands. They function as one amazing curriculum machine – addressing the prescribed curriculum, including guided reading and hands-on math instruction. The entire team has embraced our new technology, and our youngest students are excited and engaged with the new touch screen monitors in each classroom. This team works hard and is an integral part of the Crutchfield teaching staff. Even though they have their hands full, they willingly support their peers in the other grade levels. Congratulations to Trina Barron, Meire Carvalho, Delana Hutson, Pat Schick, and Sarah Woods on being the Team of the Month!
Employee of the Month
Kelly Walton serves as the Campus Instructional Technology Specialist at Sherman High School and he is constantly working to find new innovative resources for staff. For example, he has created a technology resource web page for teachers and staff to access technology update information on their campus. Kelly works throughout the building to make sure everyone has what they need and knows how to use the tools available to them. He remains patient during staff training and truly enjoys the work that he does. Congratulations, Mr. Walton!
New Sherman High School Update
Up until this past month, Sherman ISD maintained a path to open the new Sherman High School in August of 2020. As a result of large amounts of rain in January, and continuous rain and freezing temperatures in February, the construction manager has advised Sherman ISD that they will not be able to provide enough accessible space to open the new high school in August.
Throughout the construction project, Sherman ISD has shared construction progress every step of the way with on-site cameras taking pictures every ten minutes, near-weekly drone flyovers, multiple site tours, and construction reports during our board meetings. The district will continue that same level of communication as it prepares for a mid-year opening in January of 2021.
As a result of this shift to a mid-year opening of the new high school, we will propose a new academic calendar for 2020-21 at our March board meeting. We will strive to maintain all the features that our staff and community have indicated are important while moving some of the professional development and work days from August to November and December. This will make the move to the new high school as seamless as possible for our students, parents, and staff. A new draft of an academic calendar and survey will be shared with all employees soon.
Quick Facts:
- The new Sherman High School is now scheduled to open in January of 2021.
- All 7th and 8th graders will attend Piner Middle School for the 2020-2021 school year.
- All 5th and 6th graders will attend Dillingham Intermediate for the 2020-2021 school year.
- Children entering grades K-4 will continue to attend their elementary campuses in 2020-2021.
- In August of 2021, Piner Middle School and the New Sherman Middle School will serve students in the 6-8 grades.
- In August of 2021, all elementary campuses will be K-5 and Dillingham will begin serving elementary students. The redesign of all elementary attendance boundaries will be fully implemented.
- In August of 2021, Jefferson Elementary will no longer be utilized as an elementary campus and all students will be zoned to the Dillingham campus.
- Implementation of boundary changes for elementary students (K-5) will not take place until the 2021-2022 school year.
Sherman ISD Students Compete in Robotics Competition
This week sixty-nine elementary students from all seven SISD elementary campuses came together to participate in the first Sherman ISD Robotics Expo. A total of 23 teams enjoyed a day of exploration, learning, and friendly competition.
To being the expo, each team had the opportunity to execute and test their code on full-size competition mats. A lot of trial and error and problem solving happened during this portion of the expo. It was incredible to watch third and fourth-grade students analyze what wasn’t working and make necessary alterations to achieve their desired results.
After exploration time, teams that wanted to learn from other successful teams had the opportunity to collaborate and ask questions. The day ended with a mock competition with each team having three chances to go to the competition mat and score as many points as possible. The overall experience allowed SISD students to experience how an official 4H Robotics competition operates.
The Instructional Technology Specialists and Elementary GT Educators from each campus are already seeing the benefits from the implementation of this program. Robotics students are not only developing their math and tech skills by participating in the 4H program; they are building their teamwork, sportsmanship, communication, problem-solving, and critical thinking skills. A significant component of the competitions includes a presentation. The GT Educators will be working very closely with our teams to develop and refine those necessary speaking and presentation skills that will be so vital for our students!
Last year, Neblett and Sory Elementary piloted the robotics programs and paved the way for the other elementary campuses. Already this year, Sory Elementary teams have kicked off their official 4H competition season with their first competition in Fort Worth. They are looking forward to their next competition at Loy Lake later this month. In May, all elementary campuses will be taking their teams to the 4H competition in Bells, TX.
This is only the beginning of our elementary robotics program in SISD. We love seeing our educators focused on building quality experiences for our students. We are building digital Bearcats!
SISD Robotics Expo Competition Results:
First Place: Washington Elementary
Second Place: Fairview Elementary
Third Place: Fairview Elementary
Fourth Place: Jefferson Elementary
Survey for New Sherman ISD Director of Athletics position will close tomorrow!
CLICK HERE TO TAKE THE SURVEY.
2020 Retirement Reminder
SISD pays you for a portion of unused local leave at retirement. This is in accordance with Board Policy DEC (Local). We want to make sure you are all aware of the timelines set out in this policy. The intent of this information is not to encourage anyone to retire, we simply do not want any employee to miss out on this opportunity.
If a professional contracted employee intends to retire at the end of 2020, he or she must submit a letter of resignation to Human Resources no later than 4:00 pm on the date listed below:
187 Day Contract Employee- Thursday, February 27, 2020
207 Day Contract Employee- Tuesday, March 3, 2020
226 Day Contract Employee- Thursday, March 26, 2020
If a non-contracted employee intends to retire and desires payment for local sick leave, then he or she must submit a letter of resignation to Human Resources no later than two weeks prior to the last day of employment. If a retiring SISD employee does not meet this requirement, he or she will not be paid for any local sick leave upon retirement as determined by SISD Board Policy. If you have any questions about this, please call the SISD Human Resources Department.
GO RED Day Recap!
Texas Boys State nominations are now open
Upcoming District Events
February-Black History Month
February-CTE Month
February 13 - SHS Varsity Golf at Richardson HS @ 8:30am
February 13 - SHS Varsity Powerlifting at Howe HS @ 2pm
February 14 - SHS Varsity Girls Tennis at McKinney High School @ 8am
February 14 - SHS Boys Basketball vs Princeton @ 7:30pm
February 26 - Connecting the Dots Expo at Hilton Garden Inn @ 1pm-6pm
February 27 - SHS Bilingual Night SHS @ 5:30pm-8pm
February 28 - Band on the Run Pasta Dinner 6pm