Welcome back Goose Creek CISD!
On behalf of the Board of Trustees and administration, we welcome our students and staff back for the 2023-2024 school year! We are so excited to open our arms and hearts to our 24,000-plus learners and nearly 4,000 employees for the first day of school on August 14th.
Every year, our district creates a theme that will be used throughout the school year. This theme aligns with the district’s vision, mission and goals and provides the focus for the year. Last year’s theme focused on “Growing Giants,” where we highlighted the trajectory of a student in Goose Creek CISD, from our tiniest learners to world-renowned scientists and engineers, in a heart-tugging video. It showed the endless possibilities that await a graduate of Goose Creek CISD. This year’s theme centers around the importance of supporting public education and what Texas public schools, like Goose Creek CISD, provide to its students and community. From extracurricular activities like the Special Olympics, to state-of-the-art technology, Robotics facility, and award-winning Fine Arts and athletics teams-the district provides its students with many opportunities to succeed and to find their passion, no matter their background.
Last year was one of our most successful and I have no doubt that this year will top that. We are excited to welcome Bonnie P. Hopper Primary to our Early Learning Academy roster. Jessie Lee Pumphrey and San Jacinto Elementary Schools along with the Shelia C. Liles Early Learning Academy started last school year on a mission to close any and all achievement gaps before they even exist. Our families that live in the Hopper area will now have an opportunity to enroll their youngest learners into our dynamic early learning program, which utilizes the Fueling Brains curriculum that focuses on cognitive, creative and executive functions of the brain at an early age while it is most impressionable regarding learning habits . If you have not had a chance to visit the Liles Early Learning Academy, you have no idea what you’re missing. What we provide our pre-K students is a seamless museum quality classroom experience on a pathway to elementary school through a scientific-based learning format. It is the truly the newest crown jewel of our district.
We opened our Robotics facility last year and since that time, the building has been used to host local and regional robotics events, as well as serve as the home base for the summer robotics program. The students in the program produced some of the most innovative projects I have ever seen, and these are just our elementary and middle school students! I am looking forward to seeing them develop their talents this school year.
Our Spanish-speaking families make up a large part of our community, state, and country. As a district, it is imperative that we provide the same level of communication and transparency to our non-English speakers as we do our English speakers. Our district’s translators do an amazing job in providing translation services for every facet of the educational process. From marketing materials to grade-level testing; they do it all. This year, the Community Engagement department took it one step further and created two projects that will provide our Spanish speaking families an additional outlet to receive district information. Conversaciones Gigantes, or loosely translated Giant Conversations, is one of the few all-Spanish Texas public school podcasts in the state of Texas. Cafecitas en Familia is a traveling program where members of the Community Engagement department, with support from the GCCISD Education Foundation, attend programs that are geared towards the bilingual community and share the district’s communication materials with the public, along with cookies, coffee, and juice. Their first event was the Dual Language night at Harlem Elementary School in April, and it was a success! For many families, this was their first time being introduced to the podcast and since then, we have seen the numbers increase from week to week.
The safety and security of our students and staff will continue to be our top priority. When our students feel safe, they feel comfortable expressing themselves and are more open to learning. Our Safe and Secure Schools and Technology departments work in tandem to ensure we follow the state’s safety guidelines and equip all our buildings with state-of-the-art equipment that allow us to monitor our campuses 24-7. We have hired more officers to be a part of GCCISD Police Department. They, along with our security officers, provide a strong presence for our campuses on a rotating basis.
In closing, I would like to thank our educators for stepping up to the plate year after year. Teaching isn’t easy and many of our children come to school with issues beyond our ability to simply fix. I thank you for continuing to love on them, even in the toughest of moments, and focusing on the end goal that education is the great equalizer. Please know that what you all do does make a huge difference for our society, as a whole.
We look forward to sharing more great news with you this year in the three editions of this magazine: Back to School, Early Spring and End of the Year.
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I am truly looking forward to another successful school year of growing our GIANT family in ways yet to be imagined.
With warm regards,
Dr. Randal O'Brien, Superintendent of Schools
Goose Creek CISD