School Scoop

       
Campus Showcase

The Dobie and Pasadena high school academic decathlon teams both competed in the Texas Academic Decathlon event recently - with Dobie falling just shy of advancing to the national tournament.

Dobie, who has captured the national title twice in the past seven years, finished second slightly behind Katy Taylor. Pasadena High ranked 32nd among the state qualifiers to advance to the competition and has advanced to the state 10 times in the last several years.

Dobie's team is coached by Latin teacher Richard Golenko and wife Jane coaches the Pasadena team. The Golenkos have been at the head of their teams for much of the two schools' 15 years of participation.

           Staff
Showcase

Kruse Elementary School third grade bilingual teacher was one of only 10 teachers in the nation to receive the Scott Foresman National Teacher Award. The award is sponsored by the Scott Foresman Co., a major elementary textbook publisher.

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For her creativity in the classroom and success rate among her students, Miller Intermediate Science teacher Cindy Bagwill received a $2,500 award from the National Science Teachers Association.

The Drug, Chemical & Allied Trades Association Education Foundation sponsored the award, which will be presented to Bagwill at a ceremony at DisneyWorld in Orlando, Fla. in May. The cash award will be used in a variety of ways in the school's science program.

The award recognizes and honors excellence in science programs developed and implemented by middle school science teachers. According to the association, Bagwill was chosen because of her innovative and effective teaching strategies that influence students to explore and investigate science and its application to global problems.

Voters in the Pasadena Independent School District approved a $199.05 million bond package to fund several building programs by an overwhelming 8-1 margin Feb. 12.

District voters cast 4,075 ballots in favor of the bonds, while only 549 voted against the measure. The funds will fund the construction of a fifth high school, which will alleviate overcrowding at two high schools in the district and allow for construction of a new Dobie High School to alleviate overcrowding problems at that campus.

In addition, approval of the bonds allows for several renovations and additions at schools throughout the district.

The need for the bond issue was prompted by the area's largest growth spurt since the 1960s. Demographic projections provided earlier this year by Texas School Planning, Inc., showed more than 5,700 new students in Pasadena ISD over the next seven to 10 years, with the first signs of growth already taking shape in the South Belt region.

District officials are pressing forward to apply for monetary assistance from the state. Several years ago, the state set aside funds to help property poor and fast growth districts pay for the cost of bonds used to build new facilities. The state is paying for almost 65 percent of this year's bonded indebtedness from the school district's 1995 bond issue.

Other projects funded by the bond will include:

* Major renovations and new air conditioning systems at both
   South Houston and Rayburn high schools, replacing the old
   systems throughout each building.

* Upgrading of the current Dobie facility at a cost of $12 million
   and converted to house Beverly Hills Intermediate School.
   Moving Beverly Hills to the current Dobie site would expand
   the enrollment at that school to approximately 1,400 students.
   This would handle the anticipated growth at the intermediate
   level.

* Building a new Genoa Elementary School at a cost of
   $11.3 million to replace the existing campus. Structural
   problems at the 60-year-old building already caused a portion
   of the building to be closed to staff and students.

* A $10.3 million Fifth Grade Campus will be built at the old
   Jackson Intermediate location to assist with enrollment
   increases at seven north Pasadena elementary schools. This
   move would provide classroom space at Richey, Kruse,
   Morales, South Shaver, Gardens, Pomeroy and Sparks.
   Queens Intermediate will receive $3.9 million in classroom
   additions and renovations.

In the district's previous bond issue, passed in 1995, the district began reorienting elementary school offices to face the front of the building for safety and security reasons. A portion of the proposed bond issue would continue that project.

Classroom additions totaling $5.2 million will take shape at Burnett, Frazier, McMasters and Garfield elementary schools. Renovations at Burnett includes the expansion of the library, reorienting the offices to the front door for student safety and enclosing classrooms within the grade level pods. Frazier, Garfield and McMasters also will expand their libraries and reorient their offices for security purposes.

Additional classrooms will be added at Red Bluff and Parks elementary schools at a cost of $1.8 million and $900,000, respectively. These are schools whose enrollments are increasing that could not be served by the new Fifth Grade Campus.

Plans for the bond also include air-conditioning the gyms at the secondary schools.

The district also plans a $1.05 million investment in distance learning at all its high schools as one answer to projected teacher shortages. Distance learning ties all high schools together through visual and interactive technology that would allow a teacher in an advanced class at one school to teach the course on all campuses.