EPISD campus administrators are back at work to rock upcoming school year
(FRANKLIN HIGH SCHOOL -- July 24, 2019) — EPISD kicked off the back-to-school season this week with the rocking edition of the annual Champions by Design workshop for campus administrators.
More than 200 administrators gathered at Franklin High School for a preview of what’s to come in EPISD this academic year, but also to celebrate the accomplishments from 2018-19.
“Champions by Design is our annual administrators conference that’s mostly for principals and assistant principals which really helps set the tone for the next school year,” said Kathy Seufert, EPISD’s director of staff development. “We’ll be looking at data, goals and the new adoption for English Language Arts – a lot of things that they will be working with their teachers on that first week back.”
The conference provides a vision for leadership at the campus level, and the tools principals need to be strategic and successful at their campus.
“We want them to be outcomes-focused so that they're looking at data to drive the decisions that they make,” said Dr. Tamekia Brown, chief academic officer. “And all of that is what we are defining as key leadership needed to lead in EPISD.”
Brown also said campuses should see a better communication process at central office between departments to ensure better outcomes.
“We are trying to organize ourselves differently to ensure that we are communicating across central office in a better way so that we are a better service to campuses,” she said. “Our principals are going to see a big difference this year in the way that we communicate and the way that we serve them.”
During the initial session, campus leaders got a recap of the accomplishments from the previous year. Highlights include: becoming the largest Social Emotional Learning district in the state; being the largest number of students who took and passed the PSAT and SAT in El Paso County; becoming the highest performing large urban district in Texas; and offering the greatest expansion of specialty programs with dual credit, IB and New Tech.
“I'm really excited about 2019-20 and how we're already moving up,” Brown said. “We've gone from an 86 to an 88 in terms of our district rating. I am convinced, and I'm confident that next year we will be in an A district because we have so many hardworking individuals that are committed to making EPISD the best district – not just in the state of Texas –but in the nation.”
Photos by Leonel Monroy