City of Friendswood and Southeast Houston News

Friendswood Independent School District held a public grand opening for their new $6.5 million dollar Natatorium on Monday, July 5 after the 115th Annual Fourth of July parade.

“It’s been a while coming,” said George Rodgers, FISD Assistant Superintendent for Business Services. “We expected it a little bit sooner than this, but we’re going to have a quality facility once it is turned over to us and that’s just the first step of trying to get everything at the high school done. So, we’re excited.” “It’s what they call a stretched 25. It’s 40 yards long and 25 yards wide.” 

“You can have divers practicing on the short end of the pool and swimmers swimming on the other end,” he said. “It’s a very nice facility. It’s got men’s and women’s dressing areas and the nice lobby out front. It’s got seating for probably 250 in the raised area and then on the opposite side is where the competitors will have some bleachers.” 

The district plans to provide lifeguards and cap the number of swimmers accordingly.

But, in the meantime, Patricia Hanks, District Superintendent, is in discussion with the City of Friendswood to see if they will assist with the costs of hiring these lifeguards.

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Friendswood Independent School District is making some attendance policy changes for the 2010-2011 Student Handbooks.

“The biggest changes are for elementary and intermediate,” Deputy Superintendent Sherry Green said at the FISD Board meeting on Tuesday, June 8.

“High school and junior high take attendance by period and elementary and intermediate don’t do that,” Green said. “What we’ve done is we’ve added a part of day attendance procedure that is going to be brand new that we know we’ll get phone calls on.”

The changes boil down to tougher part of day absence rules, which according to both teachers and administration, are out of hand. The students will now only be allowed three parts of day absences per semester (9 week period) and on the fourth part of day absence, lunch or after school detention will be given to the student. 

“Part of the day absence is coming 20 minutes after the tardy bell rings, or picking your child up 20 minutes before the end of the day. These are un-excused,” Green said. “Doctor’s appointments, being sick, those things don’t count. These are un-excused personal business.”

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The Friendswood Independent School District is again earning attention for its outstanding schools with the most recent focus on Friendswood High School, just ranked among Newsweek magazine’s list of America’s Best High Schools 2010.

Newsweek selects the best high schools in the country each year, based on the hard work of school staffs and their challenge to students with advanced placement college level course and tests. This year, just over 1,600 schools – only 6 percent of all public schools in the United States made the list.

Friendswood High School was developing its AP program less than 10 years ago, and today, according to the magazine, the percentage of students enrolled in the AP courses compared to the number of seniors, earned the school its coveted ranking.

The Friendswood Independent School District reports that what Newsweek did not measure that is equally important, is how well students perform on the exams.

An impressive 77.4 percent of the total of Friendswood High School AP test takers (831) earned a 3 or better on the AP exams, thus qualifying to place out of college level classes.

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Two Friendswood students were honored at the 2010 ExxonMobil Texas Science and Engineering Fair held in San Antonio at the Henry B Gonzalez Convention Center. Madeline Landon, a 10th grade student at Friendswood High School, received first place in her environmental sciences and analysis category and Gabriella Quintana, a ninth grade student received honorable mention in the same category.

With more than 1,100 entries, it was an honor to be selected to compete, but to achieve first place requires true skill and knowledge in their field. Senior division Grand Prize winners received all-expense paid trips to compete at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair May 9–14 in San Jose, Calif.

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Tech-savvy West Ranch parents interested in keeping up with their Friendswood I.S.D. students will find recent updates in New Media useful for staying informed. In addition to maintaining their consistently updated Web site and newsletter, Friendswood I.S.D. now has a Twitter page and YouTube channel for your convenience.

Friendswood I.S.D. launched their Twitter account to help inform the community of events and important news. The YouTube channel has been launched as an outlet that is even of use to students, who can practice communication skills and experiment with technical creativity in a supervised environment.

Follow Friendswood I.S.D. on Twitter @friendswoodisd.

Sign up for the Friendswood I.S.D. newsletter. [http://visitor.constantcontact.com/manage/optin/ea?v=001PhdQ1BjzXNRjm5Y6hvgaCw==]

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Did you know: YOU can donate to the Friendswood Education Foundation, a non-profit that benefits Friendswood ISD students and teachers through scholarships and grants, by subscribing to the Houston Chronicle?

Each month they send us a check that consists of a portion of the donated subscription money when subscribers named us as their CHARITY OF CHOICE.

How?

• Go to www.chron.com/share 
• Select FRIENDSWOOD EDUCATION FOUNDATION

 It is always such a nice surprise to get a Chronicle check and the donor gets his Chronicle. Win-Win!

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CLEAR – Clean Living Encouragement and Responsibility – is a student led group club that encourages Friendswood students to stay away from drug and alcohol use. The club is now in its third year at the Friendswood Junior High and High Schools and continues to have a positive impact on the community.

This group challenges students to take a step up and out into the light letting other students know that it is not the norm to do drugs, but rather many students prefer to live a drug free – a clear – life. In this way students become leaders and create an awareness of the positive opportunities and lifestyles that result from staying away from substance use. By participating in this voluntary program students show their commitment by volunteering to be randomly drug tested.

Each group must find sponsors from among their teachers to help support students in planning substance free activities, educating the community and guiding the students on this path by answering questions, addressing concerns and fears, and supporting them in their healthy choices.

Teachers Megan Marshall, Corey Dalton, and Lindsay Hutchins enthusiastically filled the role of sponsors at the Friendswood Junior High. Megan Marshall was actually in CLEAR when she was in high school and stands behind the program. Sophie Wostal, Paul Tucker and Kristen Castillo have come forward as sponsors at the Friendswood High School because they believe in the program and the positive effect it will have on students’ lives.

“I know every year these kids are propositioned about drugs and alcohol at an earlier age. CLEAR is a program worth fighting for! Having a group that gives students an outlet to express concerns, questions, fears, etc about substance abuse, peer pressure, stress and anything else they want is amazing!”

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Friendswood Independent School District has raised the bar in financial accountability - they have received a rating of "Superior Achievement" from the Texas School's FIRST Rating System. This is the Financial Accountability Rating System of Texas (FIRST), which is in its seventh year of awarding ratings. "It shows that our district is making the most of our taxpayers' dollars. This shows that FISD's schools are accountable not only for student learning, but also for achieving these results cost-effectively and efficiently," said George Rogers, FISD's Assistant Superintendent of Business.

The FIRST rating was developed by the Texas Education Agency as a standard accountability system for Texas school districts to ensure they achieve the highest quality in managing their financial resources. The rating system designates a rating based on data quality, with the highest rating being "Superior Achievement," followed by "Above Standard," "Standard Achievement," and "Substandard Achievement." If a school district has serious data quality problems they may receive an additional rating of "Suspended - Data Quality."

"We are very pleased with FISD's School FIRST rating," Rogers shared. It is an achievement that Friendswood families and taxpayers can also be proud to share in as they move forward in the coming academic and fiscal year. They have set a standard that will hopefully spur on other school districts and continue to raise the bar for Texas school’s financial responsibilities.

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Students at Friendswood Junior High and Friendswood High School have the opportunity to take a leadership role in reducing alcohol and substance abuse among youth in their community by becoming members of a student-led group called Clean Living Encouragement and Responsibility (CLEAR). By becoming members, they help to change student norms and perceptions by making others aware that the majority of students do not do drugs, but prefer to live a clean and clear life.

In order to assist students in their activity planning, schools must find teachers who will volunteer to become CLEAR sponsors.

"It is the mission of our schools to provoke quality instruction for our students in a safe and secure environment. These dedicated sponsors help us to secure and promote a healthy environment," Superintendent Trish Hanks said.

As CLEAR begins its third year at Friendswood I.S.D., educators have volunteered to serve as sponsors and have agreed to share some personal reasons for their commitment to Friendswood I.S.D. youth.

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Friendswood High School students who want to show their love for America aren't alone; the Patriot Club was formed at Friendswood High School this year. The purpose of the club is to provide a positive outlet for American patriotism and to encourage love of America without partisan bias.

Membership is open to all Friendswood High School students regardless of nationality, or political affiliation, in-line with their mantra of non-partisan bias.

The Patriot Club activities proposed so far are participation in the Fourth of July parade and festivities, raising money to distribute small American flags during the Fourth of July parade, and collecting money to replace worn flags for Friendswood residents during patriotic holidays. They also plan on assisting local homeowners and businesses with worn flag disposal.

The founding president of the Patriot Club is senior Alex Lovely, with Robert Wise acting as the faculty sponsor/representative. They will host a minimum of quarterly meetings of student membership. To learn more about this club please call 281-992-0150.

West Ranch parents might consider encouraging their children to look into this positive club. In Friendswood I.S.D., clubs and extra-curricular activities that promote camaraderie, community service, and learning are encouraged for all students to consider!

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