I am excited to return to the city of Austin, Austin ISD, and serve the Kealing community as the Magnet Director. I recently completed eight years as an assistant principal in both Dallas ISD (7 yrs.) and Red Oak ISD (1 yr.). Previously, I worked in Fort Bend ISD as a campus improvement/data specialist and Title I Coordinator and in Houston ISD as a high school science instructional coordinator. Beforehand, I co-piloted the first Pre-AP program at Greiner Middle School (Dallas ISD) and taught Pre-AP 7th and 8th-grade science for five years.

Prior to my career in education, I was a real estate agent licensed in Texas during my senior year of high school. I left the family business of real estate in 2012 to focus solely on education leadership and improving student outcomes.

Some of my educational interests include teacher quality, student agency, advanced academics, leadership capacity building, equity issues, and the collaborative instructional planning process (all things PLC).

Outside of educational pursuits and work, I enjoy traveling, spending time with family and friends, singing jazz, reading (non-fiction), tennis (spectator), creating art, exploring interior design, anything about education law or art law, juicing vegetables (green juice), photography, oceanography, architecture, and art museums.

Great evening fantastic families,

We have lots of information in this newsletter so I will keep my message short. We were excited to welcome everyone back last week and it was a GREAT one. We observed sizeable increases for most students on the short cycle assessments which shows our scholars are growing and students' social skills are becoming observably better. This past week we had our second March Principal's Coffee and had a chance to finalize a few new additions to our family. We completed the hiring for our Magnet Director, Parent Support Specialist, and English Language Arts 7 teacher. This upcoming week we look forward to opening our Spring Athletics season with a tennis match at Small Middle School on Wednesday and a track meet at Small Middle School on Thursday. Friday will be a student holiday, so students are not required to come. Our campus instructional coaches and administrators have collaboratively planned a day of learning and service for our staff for Friday. Thank you for choosing Kealing Middle School and Austin ISD, feel free to reach out to me directly for any reason at all: jerald.wilson@austinisd.org

This Past Week

• Conducted the additional March Principal's Coffee in person. We had over 20 members to attend in person. We discussed the status of the action plan and current status of vacancies on our campus. Here's a recap: March 22nd Principal's Coffee Recap.
• Conducted 1 more exit surveys for teachers who have left this year. (not completely done yet)
• Reviewed 3/11 Campus Bi Weekly Climate Survey results. Details were discussed at the March 22nd Principal's coffee and shared in the recap notes.
• Panorama 3rd party campus climate survey was distributed to the staff March 31st. Panorama safeguards the privacy of respondents, keeping their responses

  confidential.

• We have successfully hired for both ELA & Science vacancies that were created this semester and completed the hiring process for the Magnet Director & Parent Support Specialist Positions. Campus vacancy status can be viewed here: KMS Vacancies.

• We distributed our first round of Kealing Awards to teachers and staff, pictures and reasons are below in the newsletter.

This Upcoming Week

• Conduct more exit surveys from former teachers
• Conduct more stop and chats with teachers and staff members
• 4/1 Campus Biweekly Climate Survey
• 4/1 Collaborative staff development & service day

Hornet Parents,

This is the time of year when the weeks seem to fly by. There are some events coming up in the next month. The last secret pals gift drop of the year is on April 19 and 20. The next PTA meeting is April 7th at 8 am on zoom. In addition to some events for students coming up (movie night, spring fling dance) we are also planning a PTA hosted social event for parents. Keep your eyes open for details.

We are looking for parents who would be interested in serving on the PTA executive board next year, as well as to run committees. If you would be interested, please send an email to Beth at president@kealingpta.org.

Monday -March 28th - B Day (5th - 8th Periods)

Tuesday - March 29th - A Day (1st - 4th Periods)

Wednesday - March 30th- B Day (5th - 8th Periods)

Tennis match @ Small Middle School @ 6p

Thursday - March 31st - A Day (1st - 4th Periods)

Track & Field Meet @ Small Middle @ 6p

Friday - April 1- Student Holiday

- Students will not attend

- Staff Development & Service Day

It's time to dance! Kealing Student Council will be hosting a spring fling dance on Friday, April 22nd. Please be on the lookout for donation requests and chaperone sign-ups as it will take our Kealing community to make this event a success!
Tickets will be $5 and open to all Kealing students--Kealing students only.
Tickets in the form of wristbands will be sold the day of the dance during all lunches.

Black Youth Day is a daylong event for students (grades 8-11) to learn about engineering through hands-on activities led and taught by students within their own community. Hosted by the National Society of Black Engineers UT Chapter and the Cockrell School of Engineering's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Office and held on the UT Austin campus, Black Youth Day aims to promote engineering where it hasn't been promoted before in a way that allows participants to see others with the same identity, hoping to show students that they have a community within a Predominantly White Institution (PWI).

The event is geared for high school students in the greater Austin area in grades 8-11 who are interested in the field of engineering. We want students to start thinking about their futures now and show those who come from underrepresented populations have a supporting community within the Cockrell School. Activities include a panel of Black engineers and UT students, geocaching and scavenger hunt, and hands-on experiments and activities.

More information and registration is located on this link: https://cockrell.utexas.edu/events/dei-events/black-youth-day#

Also, lunch will be provided for participants. 😊

Facebook -https://www.facebook.com/KealingMS/

Hornet Herald - https://kealing.austinschools.org/parents/archive

Twitter - @KTXHornets

Webpage - https://kealing.austinschools.org/