September 4, 2024
Dear AHISD Families-
We’re celebrating a wonderful opening of the 2024-2025 school year! I hope by now you and your family have settled into your school routines and are making plans to support our Mules through the many campus and community events this fall.
Bond Update
Demolition work continued in a major way this past month with most of the main AHHS building demolished. The haul off of debris is underway.
The Broadway North parking lot (formerly the Colony House apartments) is finished and is now available for student permit parking in addition to the Broadway South parking lot. With these two lots, there are actually more parking spots available on campus than last year!
This month was our third meeting of the Bond Community Council, a group of staff and community members who serve as a resource to our community, about the design, planning, and construction of Bond 2023 projects. They took a tour of “The Mods” and heard updates from our architects and bond manager.
We strive to keep the community informed with Bond 2023 construction, and in addition to my monthly messages, social media posts, and updates at Board Meetings, we also have the
Bond 2023 Construction Updates website.
Safety and Security
This is an excellent time for you to have thoughtful conversations with your child about safety in our schools. Campus safety features include vestibules, security fencing, crisis alert buttons, locked external doors, bullet resistant film and by the end of October, we will have a School Resource Officer (SRO) at all five campuses. The key to providing a safe school environment is through a community commitment to reporting concerns to responsible adults on campuses or through our Safety Concern
website. I encourage you to have on-going conversations with your child about providing us with information we need to proactively respond and plan. Again this year, campus administrators will provide our families with notifications each time one of our standard response protocols is practiced or implemented.
Budget Advisory Council
As you’re likely aware, the Texas Legislature has failed to provide any financial relief for school districts during the recent legislative session and multiple special sessions that followed even with billions of dollars in the state surplus budget. Despite rising costs, the state of Texas continues to fund public education at 2019 levels, with no adjustments for inflation.
For the past two years, we have been forced to adopt deficit budgets. As we plan for the 2025-26 school year, this lack of state support for public education continues to weigh heavily on us all. We are creating a Budget Advisory Council to meet this fall to plan for cuts that will need to be made if we do not get additional funding in this upcoming legislative session. Despite the absence of viable support from the state, we remain dedicated to making thoughtful decisions to ensure the best outcomes for our AHISD students and community.
Legislative Update
I encourage you to mark your calendars now for an opportunity in November to learn more about the upcoming legislative session in January and how to advocate for the needs of public education. This is a critical time for our community to be engaged and informed. We invite the AHISD community to attend a Legislative Update with guest speaker Dr. Brian T. Woods, from the Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA), and Sophie Torres from Raise Your Hand Texas on November 12 from 6 to 7 p.m. in the AHHS Oaks.
Teacher of the Year Finalist
I’m excited to end my September message with the announcement that our own Cambridge PE teacher, Kevin Criss, was named one of the top three finalists for Texas Elementary Teacher of the Year today! I’m grateful that Kevin chooses to share his talent and his heart with us in AHISD.
Take a minute to view our On Location Video that highlights the announcement!