May 15, 2024

Board Briefs graphic

Alamo Heights ISD is committed to keeping the community informed about the work of the Board of Trustees. This board summary highlights the action and recognitions from the latest Regular Meeting of the Board of Trustees.

Recognitions 

Organization of Trustees

Newly elected Trustees took the Oath of Office at the beginning of the Board Meeting. Lauren McLaughlin was sworn in to represent Place 6. Clay Page and Carey Hildebrand were sworn in for their second terms representing Place 5 and Place 7.

Outgoing Trustee Lisa Krenger was recognized for her years of service to AHISD and the Board of Trustees. She was first elected in 2015.

Trustees selected new officers: Stacy Sharp, President; Clay Page, Vice President; Carey Hildebrand, Secretary; and Ty Edwards, Assistant Secretary.

Recognitions

UIL Award of Merit- Yearbook
The Yearbook received the UIL Award of Distinguished Merit for the 16th straight year. It is the state's highest honor and the gold medal in publishing. Recognized were Bergen Alvheim, Henry Brewton, Bennett Childs, Caroline Crow, Landry Dozier, Derik Haynes, Bennett Hughes, Thomas Labatt, Jessica Mann, Louisa Matthews, Sloane McCarty, Illeana Mena, Madeline Northington, Syble Northington, Ellison Register, Emily Rodriguez, Magali Roibon, Drake Rowland, Kallie Schoenbaum, Harry Tankin, and Emma Terry.

UIL Award of Achievement - Hoof Print
The Hoof Print received the UIL's Award of Achievement which is the state's second highest honor and the silver medal in publishing. Recognized were Cade Barry, Jocelyn Bezner, Loren Christianson, Landry Dozier, Joseph Duperier, Ella Furst, Lillian Grassmuck, Mason Gutierrez, Caroline Hebert, William Runnels, Charlotte Stevens, Simon Stokes-Liss, and Madeleine Wallis.

UIL State Academic Qualifier - Copy Editing
Junior Mason Gutierrez is a UIL State Academic Qualifier in Journalism. He competed this week in Austin.

UIL State Track and Field Qualifier
Max Bacon
represented AHISD at the UIL State Track and Field Meet in Austin. He placed 7th in the 300 meter hurdles and 9th in the 110 meter hurdles.

UIL State Champion Girls Golf Team and Individual State Qualifier
Last week, the girls golf team, with Julia Vollmer, Lindsay Lee, Jordan Sandoval, Kat Salisbury, and Abbey Anderson, brought home their third state championship in the last four years. Jules Mahan also competed at state as an individual qualifier.

National Qualifiers- U.S. National Chemistry Olympiad
Junior Eli Yun and sophomore Andy Le placed in the top ten of the American Chemical Society regional Chemistry Olympiad in March. Le received the 1st place award and Yun the 5th place award. Both qualified to compete at the National Competition in April, but those scores have not been released yet.

UIL Science Team State Qualifiers
Andy Le, Eli Yun, Caleb Rice,
and Ben Klopfenstein qualified for the
UIL State Science Team competition after their first place finish at Regional Competition. They competed Tuesday at the state meet at UT Austin and earned 5th place.

State Science Olympiad
AHISD was represented at the State Science Olympiad by teams from both the High School and the Junior School. The High School team finished 11th out of 30 teams at the state competition.

Members of the High School Team are- Adriana Dippel, Ana Donahue, Andy Le, Ben Klopfenstein, Bennett Hall, Caleb Rice, Camila Green, Campbell Dixson, Eli Yun (captain), Francesco Caffrey, Juliana Araujo Rincon, Juliette Motamedian, Piper Smith, Sophia Lathrop, Wyatt Umlauf, Lucas Rodriguez, and Elaina Kinndt.

Junior School Team- Brodie Smith, Jay Salinas, Cael Norris, George Clifton, William Montalvo, Davis Bratteli, Lucas Bowling, Graham Payne, Jimmy Puchalski, Aubrey Wang, Panashe Sykes, Audrey Walk, Maya Corey, Marcos McCarty, Ezra Shokrian, and alternates- Penelope Hrbek, Elijah Gardner, Dawson Lane and Grant Pease.

State and National Latin Qualifiers
Students from both the High School and the Junior School competed at the Texas State Junior Classical League state Latin competition in April. They brought home numerous top ten individual awards and as a team, AHHS won 6th place Sweepstakes in their division.

State Qualifiers from the Junior School: Catherine Farrer, Andy Furl, Paolo Lipari, Cassidy Marshburn, Liam Mayon, Jaeden Rangel, Ethan Rios, and Audrey Walk.

State Qualifiers from the High School: Lucas Barreto, George Braden, Allyson Cavazos, Michael Davis, Katherine Dickson, Betty Falvo, Ivory Hanzel, Claire Kardys, Jack Kelso, Kate Kelso, Lauren Kramer, Belle Losack, Henry Mossor, Josh Platts, Margaret Raney, Dani Rojas, Raul Rojo, Lily Seger, Ava Smolik, and Joseph Wilson.

Four students also qualified for the national competition based on their performance at state- Lucas Barreto, George Braden, Ivory Hanzel and Lily Seger.

State Odyssey of the Mind
This Spring, six teams represented AHISD at the State Odyssey of the Mind Competition. They are from Cambridge, Woodridge and the Junior School.

Combined Team- Max King, Alex Kuzmin, and Jaxon Levine from the Junior School and JC Rust, Callum Pavelka, Mia Luna, and Holden Turner from Woodridge.

Cambridge Team- Alex Porter, Otto Dorflinger, Brayden Draper, Phoenix Jackson, Charlie Walker and Allison Long

Woodridge Teams-

Memo Seale, Sophie Fair, Robby Barnum, Scarlett Isaac, Darcy Hightower
and Noah Edwards.

Leyton Crowell, June Kingman, Madeleine McKamie, Charlotte Ledford, Gibson Szeman, Luca Tozzi
and Michael Wolf.

London Moczygemba, Jack Lockard, Elliott Zeigler, Beau Ware, Haskell Embrey, Ryan Harrell,
and Joaquin Johnson-Esparza.

Fiona Barlekamp, Danica Hernandez, Gabi Scheuer, Elisa Yuan, Caleb Pickens, Seamus Norris
and Lee Matthews.

ROTC National Championships - Drill and Physical Fitness
Army JROTC cadets competed two weeks ago at the National High School Championships in Daytona. They placed 5th in Color Guard in the Unarmed Mixed Division and overall placed 8th out of 44 schools for Drill in the Unarmed Mixed Division.

The Physical Fitness team surpassed some personal records in their events.

Drill - Brooke Butler, Vivian Chaparro, Poppy Dixson, Galilea Gomez Garcia, William Kieffer, Jason Lacoy, Feliciano Luna, John Reed, Noah Stagg, Karly Wise and Peter Wright.

Fitness - Brooke Butler, Floyd Camp, Tyler Cobb, Poppy Dixson, Galilea Gomez Garcia, William Kieffer, Jason Lacoy, Jack Lewis, Feliciano Luna, Noah Stagg, Rosa Thompson, Bailey Voight, and Karly Wise.

UIL State Solo and Ensemble Qualifiers - Band, Orchestra, Choir and Piano

The following students qualified for the UIL State Solo and Ensemble
Contest for Band: Scarlett Alvarez, Celeste Arteaga, Kiera Iruegas, Kha Le,
Charmichael Mauricio, Julian Mendoza, Anjea Santiago, Sophia Sifuentes, Luciana Triana,
and Ryker Zepeda.

The following students qualified for the UIL State Solo and Ensemble Contest for Orchestra: Jaziel Varela, Roman Rodriguez, Lucas Rodriguez, Michal Harnicsh, Ben Klofenstein, Aiden Williams, and Jake Bowling.

The following students qualified for the UIL State Solo and Ensemble Contest for Choir: Julia Newton, Allyson Cavazos, Audrey Davis, Mia Vargas, Sophia Sifuentes, Jason Lacoy, Lucy Yun, and Blakely Wogstad.

The following students qualified for the UIL State Solo and Ensemble Contest for Piano:
Adriana Dippel and Alexis Bley.

Superintendent’s Student Advisory Council
The Superintendent's Student Advisory Council is comprised of Alamo Heights High School Juniors, Alamo Heights Junior School 8th graders, and 5th graders from
Cambridge and Woodridge Elementary.

Cambridge- Blake Sykes, Zoey DeGray, Naomi Georges, Siddhi Patel, and Makenna Meyer.

Woodridge- Phillip "Matt" Rodriguez Jr., Sabella Rios, Genevieve Willcox, Alejandra Martinez and Henry Brittain.

Alamo Heights Junior School- Samuel "River" Rupp, Panashe Dean Sykes, Jay Salinas, Monica Calderon, George Clifton, Emily "Emmy" Allred, Dallas Anderson, Ella Martin, Hudson Hildebrand and Gavin Villanueva.

Alamo Heights High School- Michael Terry, Patrick Arriaga, Conway Hamilton, Claire Adkison, Chris Carpio-Walker, Eleanor Dibrell, Sophia Zadel, Nyla Floyd, Elijah Yun, and Addison Roberts.

Senior Ambassadors
Senior Ambassadors Victoria Foster, Richard "Cardo" Peacock, Jackson DeLeon, Adriana Kell, Ava Rocha, and Roman Rodriguez have shared their senior story multiple times this year at events for our community Senior and Grand Mules.

Student Council
Grace McCormick, P
resident of the Alamo Heights High School Student Council, shared a final update with Trustees. She also introduced 2024-25 Student Council President Daniel Corso.

Other Board Action and Presentations  

Trustees received an update on the District’s Target Areas from Dr. Jimmie Walker, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction; Frank Stanage, Assistant Superintendent for Operations; and Brian Grenier, Director of Technology.

Trustees approved the 2024 Senior Class Gift to the High School, a wishing well that will be located near Orem Stadium. The presentation was made by Principal Cory Smith.

Trustees approved the Allotment and TEKS Certification for the 2024-25 school year. In accordance with Texas Education Code, school districts and open-enrollment charter schools are required to certify annually to the State Board of Education and the commissioner that, for each subject in the required curriculum other than physical education, students have access to instructional materials that cover all the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) for the coming school year.

Trustees approved the renewal of the food service management contract with Southwest Foodservice Excellence, LLC. They also approved an increase in meal prices for the 2024-25, 2025-26, and 2026-27 school years. The increase of .10 cents each year for breakfast and lunch prices at Howard, Cambridge, Woodridge, and The Junior School brings the district in line with federal USDA regulations on meal pricing. Trustees also approved kitchen and equipment procurement.

Trustees approved: the 2024-25 Facility Rental Fee Schedule, the purchase of science instructional materials, a waiver for low attendance on April 8, 2024, and the plan for 2024-25 Employee Professional Development.

Trustees approved an amendment to increase the Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP) for the High School Project (Demo Package).

Donations were accepted from: AHHS PTO, Methodist HealthCare System, Howard PTO, Woodridge PTO, Alamo Heights Mule Team, AHJS PTO, Business Incubator Fund, and MulePushers. The accepted donations totaled $271,961.63.

Trustees accepted a report from the Alamo Heights School Foundation.

Superintendent's Communication

Dr. Bashara highlighted senior and end of year celebrations, athletic achievements, a bond construction update, and a look ahead to summer.

Next Regular Meeting: 

6 p.m., Wednesday, June 19, Board Room

Regular meetings are typically scheduled on the third Wednesday of the month and held in the AHISD Board Room, 7101 Broadway, 78209.

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