Reflecting on 2018-2019

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It’s hard to believe, but today we wrapped up the 79^th school year of Cypress-Fairbanks ISD. Each year that passes, I grow prouder to lead our school district and live in our wonderful community, and 2018-2019 did not disappoint.

We began planning this school year last summer by instituting some major safety initiatives including the purchase of three K-9s and a Mental Health Intervention Team. We know our schools’ bolstered safety and security measures were effective threat deterrents.

As the year kicked off, we celebrated our own Jeanna Peña of Lamkin Elementary School winning Region 4 Teacher of the Year. I was also humbled to accept the region’s nomination for Superintendent of the Year, representing the best district in Texas!

Students and staff at Moore Elementary were delighted to return to their freshly renovated campus on the first day of school, Aug. 27. Moore was flooded by Hurricane Harvey a year before, but the Armadillos stayed strong and had a great year in their “new” old home.

CFISD is the home of Opportunity for All, where students thrive through fine arts. Marching bands from Cy-Fair and Jersey Village high schools placed among the top 33 in the state, and 46 students earned TMEA All-State recognition. Cypress Ranch High School theatre students won two Tommy Tune awards this spring for their amazing production of The Little Mermaid.

Every year, students enter our doors as athletes and leave as champions. Two Cypress Creek High School students, swimmer Hayden Miller and wrestler Amanda McAleavey, captured individual state championships in their respective sports in February. Today, the Cypress Ranch baseball team is competing for a chance to return to the state tournament for the fourth time in eight years.

Our students continued to achieve at the highest possible levels academically. Eight students were accepted into MIT, including four from Langham Creek High School—the most from a single comprehensive school in the entire nation! We celebrated 17 National Merit semifinalists at the Berry Center in March. 

Community members supported a $1.762 billion bond referendum in May that will address district needs through the year 2025 with a telling 70-percent approval rate. 

We could not have achieved all we did this year without a supportive and involved school board. One of our trustees, Christine Hartley, announced her resignation earlier this month after eight years and will be dearly missed.

It’s easy to see why I’m so proud of this district and community. For eight decades we have worked together to produce successful citizens, and there is no better portrait of that than the 8,000-plus graduates walking our stage at the Berry Center from Wednesday through Saturday.

As the final set of caps are tossed on Saturday evening and we start to set our sights on 2019-2020, we’ll take pride in a year that gave us so many incredible things to cheer about.

~ Mark Henry, Ed.D.

CFISD Bond Election Day: Saturday, May 4

Early voting for the CFISD 2019 Bond Election concluded yesterday (April 30), and I was encouraged by the amount of people who shared that they voted. Election Day is this Saturday, May 4, with polls open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

As I mentioned in last week’s message, the Bond 2019 page of our district website (www.cfisd.net/bond) includes several helpful resources:

• an overview of the bond package;
• a video that breaks down the components and potential financial impact to taxpayers;
• frequently asked questions about the bond;
• campus-specific project sheets that highlight the work planned for each school; and
• a list of Election Day voting locations within the CFISD community.

Additional voting locations within Harris County are available at www.harrisvotes.com. As a reminder, Harris County has implemented the Countywide Polling Place Program, making this the first election in which voters can cast a ballot anywhere in the county on Election Day.

Thank you again to those of you who took the time to exercise an important civic responsibility by casting votes during the early voting period. Please encourage your friends, co-workers and family members who have not yet voted to do so between 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Election Day, Saturday, May 4.

~ Mark Henry, Ed.D.

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CFISD Bond Election Early Voting: April 22-30

Today is the first day of early voting for the CFISD 2019 Bond Election. The nine-day early voting period concludes on Tuesday, April 30. This helpful listing of early voting dates and times is also available on our bond webpage:

Here are some of the convenient early voting sites in or near our community:

• Lone Star College – Cypress Center (19710 Clay Road, Katy, 77449);
• Richard & Meg Weekley Community Center (8440 Greenhouse Road, Cypress, 77433);
• Juergen’s Hall Community Center (26026 Hempstead Highway, Cypress, 77429);
• Prairie View A&M University - Northwest (9449 Grant Road, Houston, 77070);
• Champion Forest Baptist Church (4840 Strack Road, Houston, 77069);
• Trini Mendenhall Community Center (1414 Wirt Road, Houston, 77055); and
• Fallbrook Church (12512 Walters Road, Houston, 77014).

To prepare for the election, please visit the Bond 2019 page of our district website at www.cfisd.net/bond. Here you will find an overview of the bond package, including a video that breaks down the components and potential financial impact to taxpayers. The page contains many frequently asked questions about the bond and campus-specific project sheets that highlight the work planned for each school. We have also included a list of Election Day voting locations within the CFISD community on our website.

Voting is a key component of the freedom and democracy we enjoy in the United States, and a voter’s impact holds even greater significance in local elections. Harris County had record-breaking voting numbers in the November 2018 elections, and I hope our community continues that trend of turning out for the CFISD Bond Election.

I encourage each of you to exercise your right to vote, either during the early voting period or on Election Day.

~ Mark Henry, Ed.D.

Recognizing lawmakers for prioritizing public ed

You may have read Monday’s story about the Senate Finance Committee passing Senate Bill 3, a piece of legislation that would provide annual $5,000 pay raises for all full-time classroom teachers.

Even though the bill doesn’t meet everyone’s expectations, I am extremely appreciative that our senators and representatives recognize the great contributions that teachers have made to the lives of our students. SB3 is a positive sign that our state leaders are serious about addressing the needs in our public school system.

As the 86^th Texas Legislative Session moves forward, I am confident that our lawmakers will also find a way to reward the essential contributions that our campus leaders, librarians, counselors, diagnosticians and other professionals provide to the success of our school system. We are grateful to have thousands of operations support personnel and instructional aides in CFISD. These hard-working employees make sure our campuses are operational and our students succeed in the classroom.

I applaud our legislators from both sides of the aisle for uniting on an issue that impacts more than 90 percent of the school-aged children in Texas who attend public schools. Government works best when our leaders work together!

When you get a chance, thank our state leaders for taking this first step toward helping Texas public schools be the best that they can be. You can find out who represents you by entering your address on the Texas Legislature website.

~ Mark Henry, Ed.D.

Closing out 2018

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As we close the book on another calendar year, I am proud to look back on the many successes of 2018 and the way we demonstrated Opportunity for All throughout Cypress-Fairbanks ISD.

That #CFISDspirit was evident starting in January, when we partnered with the Houston Health Department to bring free eye exams and eyewear to thousands of students through the See to Succeed program. Our health services department is already expecting more than 1,000 students to utilize this life-changing program in January 2019!

We celebrated many fine arts successes, like the 38 TMEA All-State musicians who performed in San Antonio in February. The Cy-Fair and Jersey Village high school marching bands both qualified for the state championship in November, finishing among the top 33 groups in Texas.

Athletics achievements were all around us. We celebrated the Cypress Ranch High School girls’ wrestling team as they won their first-ever UIL state championship last February. Cypress Woods High School basketball standout Cate Reese was named a McDonald’s All-American. We even cheered on an Olympian, as Cy-Fair High School alum Sam McGuffie competed in bobsled in South Korea.

Our educators continued to set themselves apart in 2018. Cypress Falls High School New Arrival Center instructor Pamela Broussard was named an H-E-B Excellence in Education award finalist. Lamkin Elementary School visual arts specialist Jeanna Peña was recognized as Region 4 Teacher of the Year.

I was overwhelmed by the way the community came together for the fifth annual Superintendent’s Fun Run in March, raising a record $100,000 for the Cy-Fair Educational Foundation. Save the date for the sixth annual event on March 2, 2019 at the Berry Center!

It was truly a year of outstanding highlights. There were 27 National Merit honorees. More than $700,000 was given to Livestock Show and Sale projects. Our voters had great turnouts at the polls. Our Camp Summit summer literacy program won a prestigious national award. We handed out a record number of diplomas to Class of 2018 graduates.

CFISD was once again the largest district in the state to have all our campuses meet the state’s academic standards. But as you can see, we are defined by much more than our test scores. We are a district that gives students with the most challenges and the most potential the same first-class education. We are a place where every student can succeed no matter what their gifts or challenges may be. We provide opportunities to become a great athlete or artist, to be involved in robotics, to transition into an Ivy League school or the workforce. 

We had an incredible year, but we look forward to 2019 and the promise it brings for our entire community. On behalf of Cypress-Fairbanks ISD, I wish you a safe and restful holiday break. See you in January!

~ Mark Henry, Ed.D.

Working Together for a Safer Future

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The last week has presented some challenges for educators as we evaluate our school safety protocols and seek ways to strengthen security measures. Many of you have sent me questions and concerns via email, and I appreciate the feedback as we work together to better protect CFISD students and staff.

In light of two major school shootings since February, I have already started meeting with district leadership and law enforcement officials to review current procedures and discuss potential changes for the 2018-2019 school year.

I continue to stress how fortunate we are in CFISD to employ approximately 100 well-trained, professional police officers who work diligently 24/7 with every campus to provide a variety of safety measures to prevent what occurred in Parkland, Fla., and Santa Fe, Texas. Besides being available to respond in the time of a crisis, CFPD officers provide many proactive measures, such as investigating all potential threats, monitoring social media and tip line reports, making home visits, mentoring students and providing classroom presentations.

We will continue to look at ways to enhance our campuses in order to make them even safer. We ask for everyone’s patience, understanding and support as we make modifications to practices and procedures for how our students, staff, parents and community members access our campuses next school year.

As always, we encourage use of the tip line and if you hear or see something, say something. While no plan is perfect, we will all have to work together as a team to keep our campuses as safe as possible.

Thank you for your continued support.

~ Mark Henry, Ed.D.

2017 in Review

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The year 2017 is nearly in the books, and boy was it one to remember. Opportunity for All was on display as many student groups excelled in a variety of the areas that public education has to offer.

We celebrated our winter and spring state champions like the Cypress Falls High School boys’ basketball team, Langham Creek High School hurdler Eric Edwards and the Cypress Ranch High School mixed doubles team of Varun Thachil and Melissa LaMette. We also cherished the runs by our state runners-up, like the Cypress Ranch Lady Mustang basketball team last March and the Cypress Ranch team tennis squad this fall.

Langham Creek’s Eric Edwards taking gold in the 110-meter hurdles at the state track meet.

Here’s hoping we celebrate another state champion soon, as our Cy-Fair Bobcat football team plays for the 6A trophy this Saturday in Arlington!

We relished our fine arts successes, like the 42 all-state musicians who performed in the TMEA honor concerts last February. We were proud to be the largest district where all campuses Met Standard. Computer science students from Cypress Woods High School won state championships at the UIL Academic State Meet in April, the same month that our Jersey Voltage and Cy-Borgs robotics teams represented the district at the FIRST World Robotics Championships.

We walked a record 8,000 graduates across our stage in May. And on a broader scale, we cheered together as the Houston Astros won their first-ever World Series title.

 

Cy-Fair HS graduates pave the way for the next generation at Danish ES last spring.

Indeed, it was a year of ups and downs. We will never forget the devastating effects of Hurricane Harvey upon our community, city and region. However, we can look back with pride on how we all came together and gave or received a helping hand that ultimately made us all stronger.

Volunteers pass out towels at the Berry Center shelter following Hurricane Harvey.

There have been many more ups than downs in our “littlest big district” we call home. You can trace nearly every success story in our community back to Cypress-Fairbanks ISD. I appreciate everyone’s efforts to make sure we fulfill our mission of improving the lives of our students and families.

This time of year I am thankful for my wife of 35 years, Cindy. She been the anchor that has kept our family stable and moving forward. Similarly, I feel that CFISD has been an anchor for this community. In 2017, there was a lot of evidence for how this school district held this community together.

My wife, Cindy, and three of our four grandchildren.

As we move into 2018 with the promise of a new year and primary election season, it is my hope that our community and our educators’ voices will be heard across this state and nation.

Before you know it, we will have 8,000 more students receiving their high school diplomas and entering into colleges, careers or the military. Ultimately, just like in 2017, CFISD will be the rock that this community can stand upon for a better tomorrow.

I hope that all of you have a happy and safe holiday season. I’ll see you in 2018!