Waskom ISD campus reports presented to Board of Trustees – Marshall News Messenger

The Waskom ISD Board of Trustees were presented with campus reports at a recent school board meeting regarding the elementary, middle, and high school campuses following the first two grading periods of the 2023-24 academic year.

The campus reports were presented by principals and representatives of each campus and provided an opportunity to detail many of the events, activities and accomplishments of students at Waskom ISD throughout the year so far.

“We really wanted each of the campuses to be able to showcase kind of all that’s been going on in the first two grade periods,” said Waskom ISD Assistant Superintendent Nichole Smith.

Waskom Elementary School

The campus reports started with the Elementary School, which was presented by Principal Lauren Boone. Boone began by highlighting the September teacher of the month Mary Norton and paraprofessional of the month Wendy Thomas, as well as October teacher of the month Tammy Dean and paraprofessional of the month Candi Baldwin. She also recognized recent praise for elementary teacher Jennifer Smith by Region 7 Education Service Center Curriculum Specialist Madolyn Wise.

Boone congratulated Waskom ISD Assistant Principal Portia Hood and ESL/GT Coordinator Erica Moore, who attended a recent Texas Statewide Network of Assessment Professionals conference and provided a presentation for those in attendance.

“They went to the TSNAP conference and actually did their own presentation there,” said Boone. “That’s really an awesome way to get Waskom on the map. They learned a lot about testing and also got to teach others about testing.”

Boone detailed the recent implementation of the Positive Behavior Intervention Supports committee and what the school calls a Dojo Store, which allows pre-K through fifth grade to earn virtual points and spend them at the store for select items like a beanbag chair or opportunities, including to be the office assistant or eat lunch with the principal.

“We’re seeing a lot of increase in positive behaviors and that’s a good thing,” said Boone.

The elementary campus received professional development over the summer break utilizing Kagan Structures, research-based instructional strategies which are described to have a proven track record of improving academic achievement and social outcomes. Boone emphasized the impact of this training and how it has helped communicating with students.

Boone discussed recent events such as the Grandparents Day and Thanksgiving luncheon provided to students by the staff, the beginning of the UIL practices, upcoming efforts by the student council, including the Fall Fest and Operation Christmas, as well as the newly introduced club Ladies on the Upswing (LOTUS) to help develop girl leaders in the school.

The campus recently held a dance event called the Attend Dance for students with either perfect attendance or one excuse to be absent with a doctor’s note. The dance included the participation of 186 students from Waskom elementary.

“They absolutely loved it,” said Boone. “They were asking when are we doing it again?”

Before detailing scores and student reports in the first two grading periods, Boone described the focus on goal setting across the campus and how it has helped students to achieve success in their lessons so far. With an emphasis on the recently changed STAAR testing methods such as the inclusion of extended constructive responses, Boone is confident the students will continuously receive increases in scores throughout the upcoming school year.

“One big thing this year is goal setting, it is every year, but this year we are just being even more intentional about it,” said Boone.

Waskom Middle School

The Waskom Middle School campus report was presented by Principal Bonita Cherry, who began by addressing the steps being taken by the campus following the presentation of the data of the first two grading periods. These steps include working with the curriculum instruction assessment department, including formative assessments every day, providing timely feedback and conducting walkthroughs.

“We’re continuing to work with the curriculum instruction assessment department to work with teachers to strengthen their techniques and knowledge for providing high level instruction to our students,” said Cherry. “They’re meeting with our teachers, weekly, biweekly and monthly.”

Cherry highlighted the three pep rallies the campus has held so far to support the fall sports program at Waskom ISD, including the recent honoring of breast cancer survivors at a rally. The Middle School campus also recently held their first ever Halloween band concert, which Cherry described as having a very large turnout.

“I have been around a lot of beginner bands, second year bands, and this is by far the best band that I’ve heard of seventh- and eighth-graders,” said Cherry. “They represented Waskom middle school very well in their performance.”

The presentation included pictures of recent events and initiatives on campus, including a recent PTO party, meetings for the student led faith-based group First Priority Group, several art projects from classes at the campus, an attendance dodgeball game, and Thanksgiving luncheon.

The campus report for the middle school also included a segment on the peer-to-peer support system which was implemented as an elective class to provide support for classmates with special needs. As the fifth year in the program, the course is offered to eighth grade general education students with a limited number of spots available. This year, 13 students were accepted.

The peer-to-peer program provides students with an opportunity to help peer-teach academic subjects and model social skills, helping special needs students to feel more included in the school system and its events. This includes the participation in events like pep rallies, dances, and sports. As part of the presentation, the staff and faculty brought up four students from the program who discussed what they enjoyed about the program and what they learned from it as well.

“My favorite thing about peer-to-peer is that I get to teach them vocabulary and I love to teach in different ways so they can understand it,” said Macy, one of the students who spoke to the Board of Trustees during the school board meeting.

Waskom ISD Superintendent Rae Ann Patty thanked the staff and faculty, and students who participated for the success of the peer-to-peer program and its impact on students at the campus.

The Middle School report came to a close with a recap of upcoming events for the campus including the PTO meeting schedule and the UIL one act play rehearsals with their next competitions.

Waskom High School

The Waskom High School campus report provided by Principal Thurman Brown began with photos of the Last First Day for seniors, the homecoming court presentation and the football players reading to the elementary students. Brown highlighted the band’s efforts for their recent send-offs, as well as the UIL competitions.

“We’re very proud of what the band did at the competition,” said Brown. “They did a great job.”

Brown discussed the recent events participated in by the Waskom High School Color Guard, including the Vicki Bowden Mobbs Classic hosted by Kilgore College where the unit earned several awards including first place Halftime Show and Single Flag Routine.

Brown also detailed the campus’ initiative to invite branches of the military, colleges, and universities to Waskom High School to visit with students about post-secondary options. So far this year, the campus has welcomed Texas State Technical College Marshall, Louisiana Tech, the Navy and the Army to meet with students during the lunch hour. The high school was also scheduled to have campus visits to East Texas Baptist University in November and Louisiana Tech in January.

“This is the second time that we have done that,” explained Brown. “We are going to continue doing it as well and exposing them to universities outside of East Texas.”

The report included a story from the principal regarding a student who recently visited the TSTC campus and was inspired to become a diesel mechanic because of the trip provided by the campus.

“I had a young man that struggled kind of with motivation. School is not something that he’s really interested in, but he went on this visit with Mr. Holton and he came back excited. He said Mr. Brown I know what I’m going to do, I’m going to be a diesel mechanic,” said Brown. “So, we were able to have those conversations about what it’s going to take to become a diesel mechanic and all those things, and he’s continued to talk about it since that trip every single day.”

Brown recapped recent academic achievements from students, staff and faculty, including the new culinary teacher Mr. Crabtree, student athletic trainers, FFA and the results from a recent spooky stories creative writing contest. Brown thanked the first employee of the month teacher Amy Crabtree and second teacher of the month Melanie Waldon. He also discussed several initiatives to incentivize attendance before allowing Waskom CTE Director and Ag Teacher Kyle Holton to discuss the College, Career, and Military Readiness (CCMR) component of the Student Achievement domain in academic accountability to bring the report to a close.

Holton explained the process of acquiring an industry based certification and the process that Career and Technical Education students can pursue depending on the different courses offered at the campus. Holton emphasized that the number of students earning their certifications this year compared to last year will be different because of the mass certification process that was done throughout the entire high school.

“I like to refer to this as the threes that we want our students to be when they graduate,” said Holton. “To be employed, enrolled, or listed. That’s our goal, to make sure that our students are prepared to do that when they graduate.”