Students show appreciation for school board at meeting
There was a packed house at Wednesday night’s Breckenridge Independent School District’s Board of Trustees meeting with students on hand to show their appreciation for the board during National School Board Appreciation Month.
Students from East Elementary and Breckenridge Junior High School read letters of appreciation to the trustees, and BISD Superintendent Tim Seymore presented members with certificates of appreciation.
Students from Breckenridge Junior High read letters of appreciation to the School Board on Wednesday night. Eighth graders Cortne Brown, Aniston Fincher, Laney Thibodeaux and Chad Wilcox from the Breckenridge Junior High careers and team leadership classes read letters at the meeting. (Photo by Tony Pilkington/Breckenridge Texan)
Students from North Elementary, South Elementary, and Breckenridge Junior High also created posters of appreciation that were displayed along the walls in the meeting room. The junior high students also created a slide show that was shown at the meeting.
In addition to the presentation of the posters and letters, there was also food provided for the meeting by the Breckenridge High School culinary class, as well as a cake from East Elementary Principal Barbara Collinsworth and Karen Lawson from the BISD Accelerated Learning Center.
The kids from East Elementary who read letters of appreciation were Gracyn Kelly, Audra Wimberley, Lindsey Boggs, Aiden Otwell and Adeline Farmer. Also, eighth graders Cortne Brown, Aniston Fincher, Laney Thibodeaux and Chad Wilcox from the BJHS careers and team leadership classes read letters of appreciation to the board members.
Following the board appreciation activities, Seymore used the Highlights on Learning segment of the meeting to discuss how the school board and administration can become more innovated in driving the school district toward changing education in the system to better meet the needs of today’s learning environment.
He showed a short video on learning in schools from TED Talks, which are influential videos from expert speakers on education, business, science, tech and creativity.
The video, The Surprising Truth About Learning in Schools by Will Richardson, talked about changing how school teach and how they can make learning more relevant to today’s learning environment. It showed how schools still cling to outdated ways of teaching and learning because that’s how most staff members and school officials learned and what they’re comfortable with.
Following the video, Seymore said school boards in Texas are going to be required to become more involved in the learning process in the future. He said the required training for school board members in the new year is going to include that type of training.
“That’s going to happen because legislation is driving it that way,” he said. “The commissioner is intent on it. Since we’re going to have to do that, I want to do it in a way that’s productive, that we get something out of it.
Seymore said he wanted to show the board the video so the board and administration, as a group, could start thinking in that direction as they go forward. He said the decisions they make need to lean toward making school more productive and not just do the same things they did 100 years ago better.
“Doing the wrong thing better is not more productive,” he said.
To see the video click here: https://youtu.be/sxyKNMrhEvY
During the meeting, the Students of the Month also were presented to the board. Their photos are featured below.
Story by Tony Pilkington/Breckenridge Texan
Cutline, top photo: Students from East Elementary read letters of appreciation during Wednesday’s school board meeting. The kids from East Elementary that read letters of appreciation were Gracyn Kelly, Audra Wimberley, Lindsey Boggs, Aiden Otwell and Adeline Farmer. (Photo by Tony Pilkington/Breckenridge Texan)
Students of the Month
East Elementary Student of the month Kindergartner Brylee Mendoza poses with East Elementary Principal Barbara Collinsworth. (Courtesy Photo)
North Elementary student Connor Salazar shows off his Student of the Month certificate with North Elementary Counselor Shannon Dean. (Photo by Tony Pilkington/Breckenridge Texan)
South Elementary student Carlos Alvarado Quinonez holds his Student of the Month certificate alongside South Principal Kenna Rainey. (Photo by Tony Pilkington/Breckenridge Texan)
