Points of Pride

Janine Hoke, Kathy Jahn and Dr. Walter Jackson were respectively announced as Alief ISD’s Director for Professional Growth and Improvement, Executive Director for Curriculum and Instruction and Area Superintendent. Hoke is currently the principal of Miller Intermediate, Jahn is the principal of Horn Elementary, and Dr. Jackson is the principal of Taylor High School.

About 50 participants graduated from Alief ISD’s Side by Side Program on May 16. Side by Side is a home-based school readiness program where parents come to school weekly and pick up lessons to teach to their own three-year-old children at home. The program is available to parents in English or Spanish at no charge.

Elsik High School student Kayode George was named the 2012-13 Gatorade Texas Boys Soccer Player of the Year. He was also named the 2013 Houston Chronicle Player of the Year.

Many Alief ISD teachers were rewarded with the 2013 Barbara Mathews Award for Excellence in Middle School Science Teaching. Albright’s Laura Smith and Conrad Fertitta, Holub’s Kenyata Ohuonu, Alief Middle’s Christa Hale, Olle’s Amelia Cote, O’Donnell’s David Covarrubias and Patty Adams and Killough’s Lauren Mitchell were recognized.

Youngblood Intermediate and Holub Middle School came out on top during the annual Battle of the Books competition. Intermediate and middle school students spent the year reading and studying a list of young adult titles and were tested on their knowledge at the contest.

The Alief ISD Education Foundation recently held its annual mini grant ceremony, and thirty grants were awarded to Alief ISD staff members. Recipients presented their projects to their peers, to members of the Alief ISD Education

Foundation and to Alief ISD Board Members and administrators. Chambers, Collins, Cummings, Hearne, Horn, Kennedy, Liestman, Mahanay, Rees, Youens, Mata, Olle, Hastings, Kerr and Taylor each had at least one winner as well.

Boone Elementary fourth grade student Kaleb Davis was awarded a camp scholarship to the Houston Museum of Natural Science Xplorations Summer Camp. He will spend a week as a junior engineer designing speedy motion machines and creating model cars, boats and planes.

The staff at Killough Middle School recently raised $500 to create the Soaring Eagle Scholarship. The scholarship will be awarded annually to a college-bound Alief senior who previously attended Killough. Eleven Alief high school seniors applied for the scholarship.

Elsik High School students Summer Roberson and Linda Yado were named the 2013 Scholar Athlete Finalists of the Touchdown Club of Houston and will be recognized on May 22 during the Spring Sports Scholar Athlete Dinner. Roberson is a finalist in the softball category, while Yado is a female soccer finalist. They are two of the 69 finalists that will be honored at the event from about 240 nominations that were submitted by coaches.

Petrosky Elementary’s kindergarten students came out on top in HEB’s Earth Day recycling contest. The winning grade level received a healthy snack and a visit from the HEB mascot Buddy. In this contest, each grade level was given a week to collect as many plastic bags as possible to be recycled. Petrosky students collected a total of 11,805 bags.