Good morning, Happy Friday and Happy 2016!
Congrats to the Lady Blues and Graham Steer basketball teams
in defeating Lake Worth this past Tuesday evening. Good luck and safe travels to both groups as
they travel this Friday. The Steers will be taking on Castleberry and the Lady
Blues open district play against Mineral Wells.
G-Factor Blog- I am looking to assemble a team of staff
members to assist with publishing the G-Factor Blog. Ideally, I would
like to have at least one person from each campus/department. If you would be
interested in working with me on this, please let me know.
Life Events- As a district we want to acknowledge the
life events experienced by members of our school family. This can take the form of sending Prayer
& Concern/Praise & Celebration messages to the GISD staff or by sending
cards and messages more privately to the person. The greatest challenge in
sharing this information is being informed.
In an effort to make this process easy, a simple form has been created
and can be accessed via http://goo.gl/forms/5p1G2fpLaC
. A link will also be placed in Staff section of our district webpage under
Teacher & Staff Resources.
Additionally, you can always email the information directly to me.
Stadium Fire- You may be aware but in case your not- The District experienced a fire yesterday afternoon at Newton Stadium. The fire occurred in the storage area below the middle section of the stadium on the home side. We do not know the exact cause of the fire. I can confirm that we had a GISD maintenance crew work on the topside of the structure removing pieces of rebar that remained from the stairs being removed. The storage area contained the District's track equipment and other items. Thanks a ton to the the Graham Fire Department and City of Graham Public Works Department for their assistance with the incident. Although we are disappointed by losing things, etc., we are very thankful no one was injured in the incident. Stuff and structure can be replaced and repaired. We will be meeting with our insurance claims rep this morning to determine our next steps. Stay tuned!
Stadium Fire- You may be aware but in case your not- The District experienced a fire yesterday afternoon at Newton Stadium. The fire occurred in the storage area below the middle section of the stadium on the home side. We do not know the exact cause of the fire. I can confirm that we had a GISD maintenance crew work on the topside of the structure removing pieces of rebar that remained from the stairs being removed. The storage area contained the District's track equipment and other items. Thanks a ton to the the Graham Fire Department and City of Graham Public Works Department for their assistance with the incident. Although we are disappointed by losing things, etc., we are very thankful no one was injured in the incident. Stuff and structure can be replaced and repaired. We will be meeting with our insurance claims rep this morning to determine our next steps. Stay tuned!
Take the Oath
Do you ever feel
frustrated and under appreciated? Do you wish our district had enough money to
do all the things we want to do for our students and teachers?
Do you wish we
could return to more creative and hands-on learning and let standardized tests
be just something you have to give one day? Do you wish there wasn’t the threat
of taking money from public schools and giving it to unregulated private
schools? Back in November, Lieutenant Governor, Dan Patrick said that school
districts “have to learn to live with less.”
WE CAN CHANGE
ALL OF THESE THINGS IF WE, AS EDUCATORS, VOTE! By voting for candidates who support public
education, we can have the reality we want. Based on recent data, there are
over 650,000 people working in Texas public schools. That is about the number
of people who determined the outcome of the elections in 2014. If Texas
educators vote, we can put people in the Texas capitol who support public
education!
TACS, TREA, and
Pastors for Texas Children are launching a get out the vote campaign. I have
signed our district up to participate in this extremely important endeavor to create a culture of voting and make voting a
priority in our district. The goal is to have 75% of our staff “take the oath”
to vote. You can find the oath here: http://texaseducatorsvote.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/oath.pdf. A copy of
the oath will be provided to each GISD team member. If you are willing, please
complete the document and return it to your principal/supervisor. I assure you there will be no repercussions
should you choose not to complete the oath.
The act of voting
is most important, but it is also vital to make sure our voters are educated
about which candidates support our schools. While you may agree with certain
candidates on other issues, those same candidates may support the privatization
of education and want to defund our schools, strangle them with high stakes
standardized testing, and give vouchers out to parents to take to private
schools. Let’s have an engaged and informed election season!
Most importantly… we need to be our own advocate! This begins with voting!
Most importantly… we need to be our own advocate! This begins with voting!
What did the big furry hat say to the warm wooly scarf?
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