Happy "News" Year

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I hope you are enjoying your first days of the new year! My 2016 is off to a great start, and I would like to share one reason why.

In a time when we are seemingly surrounded by negative news, it can be discouraging when the great stories happening in and around our schools are not the prevailing headlines. But when I browsed our local papers during the first week of the new semester, it was refreshing to see the following positive press about our students, staff and district:

• Teen combines love for shoes, caring for others (Houston Chronicle, Jan. 11)
• Bobcat basketball players throw New Year’s bash at Reach Unlimited (Cypress Creek Mirror, Jan. 4)
• Cypress Ridge coach wins Texans HS Coach of the Year award (Cypress Creek Mirror, Jan. 4)
• CFISD takes part in 911 Bears initiative (Houston Chronicle, Dec. 31)
• First on-campus clinic planned in CFISD (Houston Chronicle, Dec. 29)
• District partners celebrate gift of giving (Cypress Creek Mirror, Dec. 24)
• CFISD schools help one another during holiday season (Cypress Creek Mirror, Dec. 18)

These stories confirmed what I already knew about the quality of people in our schools and surrounding community, but it was nice to have this kind of public validation.

A clickbait culture has conditioned us to look for the latest train wrecks, but for every bad story we read about, there may be 10 great stories that don’t get published.

More positivity is around the corner: the third annual Superintendent’s Fun Run will take place Feb. 27 at the Berry Center and Towne Lake and Salute to Our Heroes is Feb. 13 at the Omni Hotel Westside. Both events benefit student scholarships through the Cy-Fair Educational Foundation. We will also host the state wrestling tournament for the first time at the Berry Center, Feb. 18-20!

On Monday, Jan. 18, we will honor a great American on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, a school holiday. The principle of equality he stood for during a time when it was not popular to do so brought about fair legislation that will impact our country and education system forever.

We have many reasons to celebrate in Cypress-Fairbanks ISD. May you focus on the good that surrounds us as we journey through the second semester of a successful 2015-2016 school year.


~ Mark Henry, Ed.D.