The Director of Student Life and I have talked about how we could strengthen our programs for students after hours, to ensure that all students can benefit from what we can offer at TSD. We looked into the strengths of our former PE Supervisor, Nick Bannon, and what knowledge he brings us as well as what he could do to bring more to our student development program.
The PE department consisting of five teachers and a teacher assistant is now under the DOI purview and we are working on revisiting and refining the PK-5 PE/Wellness curriculum focusing on more developmental areas that bring us to structured PE/Wellness curriculum for 6-8 and revising our HS required PE/Wellness courses. While doing so, we are revisiting and revamping our current equipment and materials to support our program and students. The PE program will remain under the supervision of the DOI for next year (2025-2026) as well.
In January, we learned that Sisakoth Chhun, our current Middle School principal have decided to return to the classroom. Having seen Sisakoth teach prior to her becoming an administrator, I’m happy that she will be returning to the classroom doing what she loves and our students will receive excellent instruction from her.
With this development, along with the dialogue we’ve had in the Career Technical Education (CTE) and High School programs, we've leaned to some of the changes we’ve wanted to make for our 9th-12th students. This opportunity allows us to strengthen our CCMR (College, Career, Military Prep) focus at TSD. This also aligns with Governor Abbott’s emergency item earlier in the year to expand career training to prepare our students for the Texas workforce.
We are having Karl Hummel, our current HS Principal to oversee the 6-8 programming for the 2025-2026 school year and having Megan Scarboro, our current CTE Supervisor to oversee the four new Academies: Business and Industries, STEM, Visual Arts/Digital Media, and Human Services and strengthen our transition plans within the 6-12 programs the next school year (2025-2026). Creating Academies allow our CTE personnel to provide more than just courses—but to increase collaboration with various businesses and corporations that could create opportunities for field experiences for our students in the Academies. Our goal is to ensure our students can get as much experience they can in the field and build individual portfolios for their plans after graduation.
We are also looking at emphasizing an increased sense of literacy within all our classes to ensure our students have optimal access to both, ASL and English, before they graduate. We are also ensuring our students who have additional disabilities to have a stronger pathway to learn fundamental skills and ensure their transition plans are optimal and prepares them for exiting our programs at TSD.
The leadership team has been meeting weekly to structure this. We’ve shared a general announcement with our faculty and staff from grades 6-12 and have had initial dialogue with groups of staff/faculty to get their input and thoughts. In April, teachers will begin seeing what structure we’ve put together for their input and more information will be shared with our families and community then. It is our goal that we have a comprehensive plan in place to share more in May.
The Early Learning Center consisting of our preschool and prekindergarten classes have had a recent orientation with families who are going into Prekindergarten. The focus group feedback from our teachers, teacher assistants, the administrative team, and families have helped us see through a structured program that will begin this come fall. We are excited about the emphasis on family partnership and collaboration.