A Note from Principal Charles Lester

The year is off to a fantastic start. I cannot express to you how pleased I am with the caliber of students we have this year. I mentioned last week to someone that I had never been addressed with ‘yes, sir’ and ‘thank you’ by students so many times without having to force the courtesy. Of course, the credit for this goes to the parents. It has been a wonderful experience.

We have many new faces in the building, and I am very pleased with quality of our new staff; they complement the high energy and professionalism of the staff we already have.

Our academic emphasis is on math this year (as it is all over the district) and we have a very detailed plan in place to address the challenges ahead of us. You can sense the determination in the math teachers’ eyes to help students perform to the maximum of their potential.

I am deemphasizing the TAKS test this year. We are concentrating on engaging work and teaching each student as much as we can in the short amount of time we have. A mentor of mine once said during the first year of my teaching career, “The secret to middle school is to teach them as much as you can and have fun doing it.” I have found that to be true. If the teacher is having fun, the students are more likely to enjoy class.

The TAKS is important, but I believe it will take care of itself if we concentrate on the body of knowledge the test covers instead of the test itself. After all, the test only covers 10% of the TEKS, and it is a moving target every year. We did this last year and made some improvements. We have met and addressed our areas of concern, and this year should be even better. As always, please contact me with any suggestions, kudos for teachers, or concerns. My door is always open.

Charles Lester