GCISD 2009 Elections

I want to welcome Mrs. Becky St. John to the GCISD School Board! I am very excited to have her on the Board. Becky won the election on May 9th, with 1095 out of 2082 votes (52.59%). 2082 votes make only 4.5% of the registered voters in GCISD. The low voter turnout for local elections in GCISD is normal, but disappointing. The quality of education in our school district is one of the key factors that makes these communities attractive to live in. The School Board sets the goals and priorities for the district, monitors district performance, adopts the annual budget and sets the property tax rate. Also, the Board ensures the community is kept informed about the district actions. Board members represent the community within the district. Don't you want to make sure we elect Board members that truly care about the quality of education in the district, for all our kids? Aren't you interested in electing members that want to challenge the district to improve in order to fulfill its mission to be the best? Voters have several opportunities to ask questions to Board candidates, during various candidate forums held a few weeks before the election. Also, you can usually contact candidates by email, to ask questions on issues you feel are important.

Now that we start a new year for the School Board, I would like to invite you to attend one of our monthly meetings and speak to us in the Open Forum. The Board is here to represent you. We take the needs of our community very seriously. If there are issues in the district you feel are not being properly addressed, we would love to hear from you. Improving our district is the responsibility of all of us. So please, get involved. Let your voice be heard!

Dyslexia Program at GCISD

The School Board had the opportunity to discuss the Dyslexia program at GCISD during the April 27th Board meeting. We heard from 5 parents that faced many difficulties to get the School District to correctly diagnose and treat their children. We also heard from the GCISD Administration, where they stated their success in their reading intervention and Dyslexia programs, based on the performance of the students in the Reading TASK. The administration mentioned there are currently 44 students in their Dyslexia program, and over 1000 students receiving assistance through the reading intervention program.

I have to admit I am no expert in Dyslexia or Special Needs education. However, I love to analyze statistics, in order to compare our District performance with other districts, state and national levels. Many studies on this subject suggest the incidence of Dyslexia within school age children in the United States is between 5 - 10%, while other studies state a wider rate, falling in between 1% and 20%. This suggests the number of GCISD students in our Dyslexia program is too small (0.3% rate). This becomes more obvious when you look at other districts in DFW, like HEB, where they have 600 students in their program (3% incidence rate). HEB has a total of 20,000 students, while GCISD has close to 13,900. Using the incidence rate at HEB of 3%, our Dyslexia program should have over 400 students.

At the end of the discussion, the Board requested a review of this program, suggesting that we need to look at both its effectiveness and the process we use to diagnose our kids. I am looking forward to discussing the improvement plan for this program in the near future.

Welcome to my GCISD Blog!

I am a member of the GCISD School Board and would like to give the opportunity to teachers, parents and all citizens to give their feedback about our District. I understand that some of you might feel more comfortable giving anonymous feedback about issues in our schools, and here is your opportunity.

If you ever wanted to ask a question to a Board member, well, here is your chance! If you want to discuss school finance or the work environment at your school, we can do it right here.

The purpose of this Blog is to work together to improve our district. The more ideas we exchange, the more issues we bring to the table, the better off our district will be. If you have any topics you would like to discuss, please let me know.

Please let others know about our site, www.gcisd.blogspot.com. To comment on my Blog, you can sign up using your Google email account, or you can create an account right here. Just click on the "comments" link below one of my posts. It is very easy. If you prefer to post anonymous comments, you can use a nickname (on the "Display Name" field when creating your account). In that case, your real name or email will not be visible when you post a comment.

If you have any questions about this Blog, please post a comment or contact me by email at jorge@jorgerodriguez.org.