TALAS – Make 2020 the year you join!
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TALAS News
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Congratulations to Garland ISD Superintendent
Dr. Ricardo Lopez, new President of TALAS
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On Sunday, January 26, in front of a standing room only crowd, Texas House Representative Victoria Neave swore in Garland ISD Superintendent Dr. Ricardo Lopez as the new President of TALAS. In addition, Ysleta ISD Superintendent Dr. Xavier De La Torre and Dallas ISD Superintendent Dr. Michael Hinojosa were sworn in as officers.
Re-acquaint yourself with Superintendent Dr. Lopez
here
Mil gracias to everyone who attended the TALAS workshops and events, and especially our sponsors at Midwinter!
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From Immediate Past President of TALAS Dr. Martha Salazar-Zamora
Thanks to the entire
@TexasALAS
executive board for honoring me last night for my Presidency and work with our organization. It was a pleasure to serve with all of you amazing leaders as President the last two years. Thanks for working with Balfour for the Presidents ring.
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Tomball Superintendent Dr. Martha Salazar-Zamora and immediate past president of TALAS, with TALAS Board Members
Hutto Superintendent Dr. Celina Estrada Thomas and Fabens Superintendent Dr. Veronica Vigil
From Aldine Superintendent Dr. LaTonya Goffney
During a session on equity, my #sistersupt
@m_salazarzamora
shared with a packed room at #TASA20 that we only have 18 Latina and 4 African American female superintendents in Texas!
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TALAS and TABSE Join Together
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During the TASA Midwinter Conference, TABSE extended an invitation to TALAS to join them for a discussion and lunch. A robust conversation was held around common interests and challenges. This luncheon was the first of many more gatherings to come this year. TALAS extends its appreciation to TABSE for their outreach and support.
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Explore New Career Postings
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- Learning and Development Director – San Antonio, TX
- Impact Manager – Dallas, TX
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- Executive Director of Construction Management Services
- Technology Project Manager
- Construction Project Manager
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Texas superintendent Matthew Gutierrez to be next
Madison schools leader
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Matthew Gutierrez, superintendent of Seguin, Texas, schools, will be the next leader of the Madison School District.
The School Board announced Friday it chose Gutierrez from three finalists to become Madison superintendent.
Gutierrez, who is Latino, will be Madison’s first superintendent of color. It will be his first job outside Texas in a 18-year career.
“We believe we have selected the right leader for our district, someone with a strong reputation of being a very collaborative leader, with an excellent track record of academic success,” board President Gloria Reyes said at a news conference Friday.
Gutierrez plans to finish out the school year in Texas before starting in Madison on June 1. He will succeed Jennifer Cheatham, who resigned in August after six years as superintendent. Jane Belmore has led the district in the interim.
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Houston ISD finance chief Rene Barajas takes new post in San Antonio
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Houston ISD’s Chief Financial Officer Rene Barajas has accepted a position in San Antonio at Northside ISD, the fourth-largest school district in the state.
Billy “Glenn” Reed, who has 20 years of experience with HISD, will serve as interim chief financial officer effective immediately, according to a statement from interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan.
“I have full confidence that he will continue the standard of excellence that exists in our finance department,” Lathan said.
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Mission CISD to add pre-K3 to all elementary schools in the fall
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The Mission Consolidated Independent School District (CISD) will be adding pre-K3 to all their elementary schools for the 2020- 2021 school year.
According to the release, the district piloted the program at three elementary schools.
“The interest and demand for the services was so strong that we actually started to open Pre-K services at a couple of additional schools beyond the original three chosen to pilot the program,” explained Dr. Carol G. Perez, superintendent in the release. “We are excited that the demand and interest in quality, early-childhood education is so strong in our area that we can expand the services to all schools, making it easier for our families.”
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Explore Career Opportunities Today
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Oprah Winfrey’s Best Career Advice Is
What I Use All The Time At My Job
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When Oprah Winfrey gives career advice, she gets me to listen. As a master orator, the media executive, former daytime talk show host and self-made billionaire makes a living out of finding divine meaning in mundane questions, like the difference between a job and a calling, or what you would tell your younger self.
For me personally, though, what has encouraged me through a layoff, career disappointment and unreasonable managers is her advice on how to handle challenging career losses that feel overwhelming.
Oprah Winfrey taught me to reframe career setbacks as learning moments
One grim winter, when I was unemployed after a layoff and worried I was unemployable, I encountered a YouTube clip from Winfrey’s 2014 lecture to Stanford Graduate School of Business students, in which she shared the one piece of career advice she wanted to leave with them.
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Why Men of Color Like Me Are Leaving the Classroom
At the same time, we’re needed more than ever
I had never taught Tatiana before. Yet, after a Latinx student meeting in Oakland, the 12th grader unexpectedly embraced me, sobbing: “You’re the first Mexican teacher I’ve seen at this school; I just wanted to say thank you.”
Translation: I’ve never seen someone like you in a position of academic importance.
I understood Tatiana. In my years as a student in Bay Area schools from kindergarten through high school, I only had one male teacher of color amid a stampede of mostly white women. This isn’t just a Bay Area problem, of course. My nine-year teaching career has allowed me to work with hundreds of diverse students from Louisiana to Massachusetts to California, but despite mostly Black, Brown, and Asian student populations, I’ve never worked with a male teaching colleague who was a person of color.
Sure, I’ve worked with counselors, student behavior specialists, security guards, custodial staff, gym teachers, visiting artists, and other employees who were men of color. But never a full-time academic teacher.
We do exist, just in alarmingly low numbers. The San Francisco Bay Area, along with every other district in the country, reflects our sad reality:
The U.S. Department of Education reports that nationwide, Latino and Black men each makeup only 2% of teachers.
(If our current education system were given a test, we would score a zero in this category.)
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More Than 60 Dreamers to Attend the Premiere of AMERICANO!
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While the U.S. Supreme Court continues to debate the fate of DACA (the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) some 60 DREAMers will be in the audience attending Wednesday’s Opening Night Premier of ¡Americano! at The Phoenix Theatre Company on January 29th.
The participating DACA organizations include LUCHA Arizona, Aliento AZ, ASU CAMP, and Undocumented Students of ASU. Another 30 DREAMers from Camelback High School will also attend the second night’s performance on Thursday, January 30th.
The DREAMers will be guests of The Phoenix Theatre Company as ¡Americano! is the first musical to depict the life of a DREAMer and is already being called one of the most timely and ambitious new works to come of Phoenix.
¡Americano! The Musical was inspired by real life story of Tony Valdovinos, the son of immigrants who only learns he’s a DREAMer when he goes to enlist on his 18th birthday into the Marines. With his lifelong dream of serving in the military vanishing quickly, Tony must confront his family, his heritage, and a deeply divided country. Featuring a sumptuous original score of new music, ¡Americano! casts a profoundly human light on what it means to be a DREAMer.
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News to share with our students and families:
McDonald’s® HACER® National Scholarship
Check out the requirements below to see if the HACER® National Scholarship is right for you:
You’re a high school senior
You’re a legal U.S. resident
You’re younger than 21 years old
You carry a minimum 3.0 GPA
You’re eligible to attend a two- or four-year college or university with a full-time course of study
You’ll disclose other scholarship programs that you’ve applied for
You’ll enroll and attend an accredited institution in the academic year after your selection (verification needed, as scholarship funds are paid directly to the schools)
You have at least one parent of Hispanic heritage
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USD Professor Awarded $579,000 NSF CAREER Award to Promote Latino Success in Engineering
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USD Assistant Professor of Integrated Engineering Alex Mejia has received the prestigious CAREER grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to promote Latino success in engineering.
While growing numbers of Latinos are attending college their participation and success in enginnering has lagged. According to the National Science Board, the percentage of engineering degrees awarded to Latinos has increased from 7.3 percent to 12.8 percent but the number of Latinos employed in science and engineering occupations accounts for only 6 percent. Latinos as a group continue to face many barriers that lead to underrepresentation in engineering fields.
“We want to change the perception that Latino and Latina students have deficits and start talking about the assets they bring to engineering,” said Mejia of USD’s Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering.
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Let’s dance & celebrate: MASBA has been closing gaps for Latinx students & English Language Learners for 50 years! Join us for ¡MASBAilemos!—our golden jubilee conference at the Wyndham San Antonio Riverwalk on February 20-23, 2020! Register today!
Special guests include Latino legend Gary Hobbs, motivational speakers Consuelo Castillo Kickbusch & Roy Juarez, keynote Jose Angel Gutierrez of UT Arlington, and we’ll be welcoming back all our MASBA Past Presidents! Because MASBA played a special role in securing UIL recognition of mariachi, we’ll have a special exhibit on MASBA’s hosting of the Texas High School Mariachi Competition from 2010 to 2015! And, in honor of our 50th anniversary, all attendees will receive our new 250-page work on the achievements & struggles of MASBA’s first 50 years!
Our conference kicks off on Thursday evening with our La Bienvenida reception. Come early & join us for our annual Tour of Best Practices on February 20, 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.! Register for our Tour of Best Practices today! This year, we’ll be visiting school sites in the Edgewood, Southside & Southwest ISDs!
Coming from outside of San Antonio? Reserve your room today at our conference hotel for only $132/night!
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Mil gracias to our sponsors
for their on-going support of TALAS!
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A University for Working Professionals
With work, family, and other life commitments, we know your schedule is full. That’s why we’ve designed an online learning experience to meet your needs.
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