It is my genuine pleasure to welcome you to the 2018-2019 school year. I am excited to have the opportunity to continue working with the students, staff and community of the Houston R-1 School District this year. This is a wonderful community and I look forward to continuing the work of educating our kids.
The mission of the Houston School District is: Striving for excellence….learning for all. Every student is different with various abilities and needs. Our mission is to provide students with the tools necessary to achieve excellence in their own unique way. This mission will be met by the following objectives set out in the Houston School District Comprehensive School Improvement Plan:
• Develop and enhance quality educational/instructional programs to improve performance and enable students to meet their personal, academic and career goals.
• Recruit, attract, develop, and retain highly qualified staff to carry out the district’s mission, goals and objectives.
• Provide and maintain appropriate instructional resources, support services, and functional and safe facilities.
• Promote, facilitate, and enhance parent, student and community involvement in district educational programs.
There are some changes in store for this year. As many of you are aware, we began a new STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) program through Project Lead The Way (PLTW) in our elementary in the spring of 2017. For 2017-2018, we expanded this program schoolwide in our elementary. In addition, with the help of grants from the state of Missouri and DESE, we expanded this program in to our middle school. This year, we will increase exposure to our middle school students through our science classes. It is our hope to incorporate high school programs within the next year or two.
Houston High School will have 24 students attending the SCCC (South Central Career Center) for vocational training. This is up from 10 students attending in our first year for 2017-2018. Students will have access to courses in Auto Mechanics, Auto Body, Health Occupations, Culinary Arts and more. This is an opportunity that Houston students have not had access to for many years. This coming spring, we will have our first completers in these new programs.
2018-2019 will also be the first year that our high school will be a 1:1 school. Each student will have a chromebook to utilize for their education here at Houston School. This will allow for better access to online resources for our staff and students and remove time spent checking chromebooks out and in at the library. This will also remove any need for cell phone use during a class. Student cell phone use will be limited to lunch and passing between classes.
Summer work is continuing. Floor refinishing is an annual job, but we are winding that down. New solid core doors will be in our high school and middle school with more being replaced even after school begins. These are being replaced for safety and security reasons. We will also be looking at replacing some of these doors in our elementary as well.
There will be some new faces in staffing this year, not only to Houston, but to education. Mr. Justin Copley will be joining our school as the new high school principal. Mrs. Amanda Munson will be serving as our new middle school principal. We will also have several new faces on our staff. I hope you will welcome them and continue to support the Houston Tigers!
Thank you for the opportunity and I look forward to working with you all for the benefit of our children.
Dr. Allen Moss, superintendent, Houston R-1 School District