Round Rock Independent School District (ISD) is making headlines in Texas and around the country. This amazing district gained some national recognition, a new board of trustees and some big achievements recently! Students are also taking charge in their communities and being incredible ambassadors of Round Rock ISD.
A New Board for a New Year
Round Rock ISD brings a new board of trustees in for the new year! At its final meeting of 2018, Charles Chadwell was elected as the board’s new president with Nikki Gonzales as the VP. Steven Math was appointed board secretary as well as sworn into the board with, Amber Feller, Cory Vessa and Amy Weir. Read more about the officers elected.
Round Rock ISD Gains Recognition from College Board
In December of last year, Round Rock ISD was honored by College Board with a place on the Annual Advanced Placement District Honor Roll. This is the College Board’s 9th annual list and RRISD has made it for the second consecutive year! Only 373 school districts in the US and Canada earned a spot on this list that helps recognize growth and effort in the AP program. To become a part of those honored with this title, RRISD had to not only improve and maintain the percentage of students earning an AP exam score of 3% or higher, but they also had to increase the number of students participating in the program since 2016. Read more about the recognition.
Westwood High School’s Speech and Debate Team Win Big
The Westwood High School Speech and Debate team brought home gold after receiving first place and being awarded champion at a recent Speech and Debate tournament held at the University of Texas at Austin. The team is top ranking in Texas and the 10th best in the US. Read more about these amazing students.
Round Rock Students Are Determined to Rid Schools of E-Cigs
Students in Round Rock Independent School District are taking charge of the e-cig “epidemic” that many school districts and parents are trying to stop and prevent. The students say that kids at the middle school age are now being exposed to these electronic pens and they are rampant in classrooms. The student advisory board of Round Rock ISD are determined to get rid of e-cigs in their schools. In an interview with KXAN, a junior at Round Rock High School, Blake Herrera, said, “They think it’s cool, their friends think it’s cool, peer pressure. And it just kind of becomes an epidemic.” Read more about it.
Students Take on the Responsibility of Managing A Restaurant
Fourth graders at Fern Bluff Elementary in Round Rock ISD convert their classrooms into restaurants and the students organize the whole event. The students not only create the menus but also their work schedules, alternating between being a waiter and then being the one doing the reading. This “Reading Restaurant” allows the older students to help younger students with their reading and writing skills. When interviewed by CBS, 4th grader Josephine Nordhausen, said “I remember as a younger student I really enjoyed reading restaurant, so now I am glad that I can return the favor and it's just really fun for the younger students." Read the full story.
Central Texas Student Aces All Three College Entrance Exams
A student from Round Rock ISD’s own Westwood High School may be the only Central Texas student to ace all three college entrance exams, the ACT, SAT and PSAT! Pooja Enagala is now adding this accomplishment to her long list of others but is brushing it off as nothing too big. According to the statesman, “Pooja waves off the achievement as ‘not a big deal’ chiding her mother for notifying the media.” She said the success was due to her school and teachers that prepared her. A third-degree black belt in taekwondo, co-president of Westwood’s choir, secretary of the National Honor Society and in the top 4% of her senior class, she has automatic admission to any Texas public university, but has yet to decided where she will be in the fall. Enagala also has achieved the highest scores on the six Advanced Placement exams she took, making her a National AP Scholar and giving her college credit! We love to see our community’s children accomplish such great things! Read more about Pooja Enagala.
It looks like Round Rock ISD is in for an exciting second half of the school year! We love being a part of the Round Rock community and can’t wait to see what other great things come from the students and their educators in 2019.