Renew your membership today!
TASA’s online Member Services Center is the place to go to become a member of TALAS. Please read these step-by-step directions or contact Debbie O’Donnell at 512.852.2108.
Texas News
Raul Trevino named interim superintendent of Rio Hondo ISD
An interim superintendent for the Rio Hondo Independent School District has been named by the board of trustees.

Raul Trevino is the district acting boss who is taking the seat vacated by Roger Ellis, who announced his retirement in May, citing health issues.

Ellis will be on board until the end of August and will be taking sick leave, beginning July 1.
Following departure of Stephanie Elizalde, Austin ISD names interim superintendent
We now know who will be leading Austin ISD for the time being. The Board of Trustees early Tuesday morning named Dr. Anthony Mays interim superintendent.

Mays is the district’s first Black male interim superintendent.

Mays was appointed with seven trustees voting yes and two abstaining.
Two Houston-area educators recognized as transformational leaders
Ellisor Elementary School Assistant Principal Angela Martinez was recognized as one of 26 transformational leaders by the College of Education and Human Development at Texas A&M University, Magnolia ISD announced.

The event was held at the 2022 Dean’s Roundtable in May at the Hildebrand Equine Complex in College Station. Martinez was joined by superintendents, administrators, classroom teachers, professors, and other professionals like Spring ISD Superintendent of Schools Lupita Hinojosa.
MISD implementing mental health and behavioral support for students next school year
MISD will be meeting the behavioral, social and mental health needs of their students and staff through a mental health and behavioral plan.

For the past school year, eight MISD schools took place in a pilot program to become trained on implementing a behavioral intervention and support action plan.

The goal is to help MISD schools meet the behavioral, social and mental health needs of their students.
Almost 100 Texas school districts have added their own police departments since 2017, but not everyone feels safer
Officials have called for more armed officers on campuses in the wake of the Uvalde shooting. Experts and some parents, though, say more law enforcement on campus doesn’t necessarily make schools safer.

In the 1980s, police officers were “almost nonexistent” in the Klein Independent School District north of Houston, according to David Kimberly, chief of the district’s police department.

There were only a few Harris County sheriff’s deputies on shift at any time during the day, he said, so it was difficult to get law enforcement to the rural district, which served a very small “pocket of communities.”
Upcoming Events
TALAS Summer Conference 2022
Tuesday, June 21, 2022
Kalahari Resort, Round Rock, TX
Are you interested in networking and learning more about how you can become involved with TALAS in your local community? We invite you to join your colleagues on Tuesday, June 21 from 9 – 11:45 at the Kalahari Resort in Kalahari Salon A.

During this time you’ll have an opportunity to meet with others from various TALAS affiliates, including Garland, Houston, El Paso, and Central Texas, as well as to discuss and share innovative practices, network with peers, address the issues administrators face every day, and gain fresh insights on how to support Latino learners and leaders in Texas.

Interested in learning more? Please reach out to TALAS Executive Director Dr. Robert Duron at Robert.Duron@tasb.org.
Looking for a new opportunity?
Leadership opportunities available:
Take a look at who’s hiring:
National News
What Barring Immigrant Students from School Would Mean for Them — & the Country
Suárez-Orozco: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s challenge to Plyler vs. Doe would harm not just millions of children, but all of us

Last month, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced plans to challenge the 1982 Supreme Court ruling in Plyler vs. Doe, a landmark decision holding that states could not constitutionally deny students a free public education on account of their immigration status. Basing its decision on the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, the court ruled that states were obligated to provide equal protection under the law. The justices warned that students brought into the country as children who were not provided with an education would “face life-long hardship,” consigned to a “shadow population.”
America’s Most Hispanic State Weighs Benefits of Language Programs
Jacqueline Powell and her 4th grade classmates toiled over pencil and paper to write a letter in Spanish about what they did in class this year.

Powell explained the assignment in perfect Spanish before struggling to translate the words to end her sentence. The 10-year-old charter school student raised her forearms to her temples in a show of mental effort, making her large round glasses seesaw up and down.
Most Hispanics believe more visible representation would boost Latino numbers in STEM: study
A new study from the Pew Research Center found more visible representation of Latinos in STEM would help make younger Latinos feel more welcome in science, technology and math jobs.

Latino workers remain underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) workforces, and a new Pew Research Center report found that more visible representation of successful Latinos in STEM would make those workforces more attractive to other Latinos.  
Latino activism leads in grassroot efforts on climate change
Students at a largely Hispanic elementary school in Phoenix have long lined up for morning classes on a dusty patch of dirt under a broiling sun.

So when Tony Mada learned of plans to plant 75 young trees at Borman Elementary School, the 30-year-old and his daughter Lilyth, 10, joined scores of volunteers to increase shade on campus.

Desert willows, oaks and mesquites just a few feet tall were among trees planted at the event organized by the local nonprofit Trees Matter and the environmental organization The Nature Conservancy, which is expanding its focus beyond the wildlands to urban areas impacted by climate-fueled heat.
How 100 Large and Urban Districts Are (and Aren’t) Engaging Stakeholders
Districts are supposed to gather local feedback on how to spend their ESSER pandemic relief money. One year in, 1 out of 3 may not be complying

More than one out of three large districts may not be following a federal law requiring school systems to collect local feedback on how to spend their pandemic relief money, according to a new review by the Center on Reinventing Public Education.

The law, passed last summer, requires districts to engage communities in “meaningful consultation” on spending federal recovery dollars. But just over half the 100 large and urban districts our organization has tracked during the pandemic — 57% — have created strategies for doing that, our latest numbers show. 
Las Tienditas
This Week’s Featured Sponsor
TALAS sponsors make this newsletter and other TALAS activities possible. Please support them. Click on the logo to learn more!
Achieve3000 partners with educators to deliver a comprehensive suite of digital solutions that significantly accelerate literacy and deepen learning across the content areas. Our personalized and differentiated solutions provide equity for remote and in the classroom instruction, enabling teachers to help ALL students achieve accelerated growth. For more than four million students in grades PreK-12, Achieve3000 improves high-stakes test performance and drives college and career readiness.

National Director for Strategic Partnerships
817.707.7600