Brownsville ISD works ‘to make things better for our students’

The Brownsville Independent School District returned to classes on Monday with a resolve to work as a team to do what’s best for its more than 36,000 students.

“For me, remember it’s the first time opening up school here in Brownsville ISD,” Superintendent Jesus H. Chavez said mid-morning during an interview in the library at Oliveira Middle School. “Our theme for this year is One Team, One Dream.”

Chavez became BISD superintendent in March after serving as superintendent of the Harlingen, Corpus Christi and Round Rock school districts. He started his educational career as a teacher and assistant principal in Brownsville ISD.

On Monday, he spent the morning visiting classes at Burns and Hudson elementary schools, followed by Oliveira Middle School, and Perez elementary in the afternoon.

On Tuesday he was to visit Lucio Middle School, Ben Brite, Aiken and Palm Grove elementaries, as well as Lopez Early College High School.

He said the One Team, One Dream theme for the year boils down to everyone in the district doing their part and working together to make things better for BISD students.

The idea is “to promote teamwork in our district. It’s one of the pillars of my philosophy, all across, from myself being part of a team of eight with the board (of trustees.) We also have the administrative team, my executive team … so a lot of support for our schools, our teachers and having that one team philosophy across our entire district that yes, we’re going to do everything that is possible to do what is best for kids, so that kids are successful, which gets me to the second part, which is one dream,” Chavez said.

“I’ve been talking to teachers, to our leadership team, to our community about this concept that for every student I want them to do extremely well with us. I want them to succeed in the grades that they get, for them to progress from one grade level to the next, for them to perform well,” he said.

“Remember, for me performance is broad from the standpoint of I want them to perform well academically, but I also want our district to be very strong in the fine arts — dance, music, band, choir, the actual physical art, the instruction of ceramics and 3D art — all of that’s involved in the arts phase, but then the third phase that I want them to perform well in is not only PE and health but also the athletics piece,” he said.

“So yes, I want all of our students to perform very well, first of all with us, but then the second part of the dream is that they have an education beyond high school. That’s what we want,” Chavez said.

“So, I’ve talked with our counselors with the idea that we would have a plan for every student after high school, whether you think about attending a university, attending a college, attending a certification program.

“The dream part is for them to do really well with us, graduate from high school and get education beyond high school. That’s the one dream that I have, so I’m emphasizing that to everybody. I think that focuses everybody, teachers, central office, principals. It focuses the other support areas as it relates to maintenance, housekeeping. I mean they do what they do so that we have a good environment for students,” Chavez said.

“It’s a new year, so we brought this theme forward and I think it’s very appropriate and it fits very well with what I want to do here in the district, which is make things better for our students,” he said.

Chavez discussed getting good grades and post-secondary education with the students in Ismael Barron’s sixth-grade science class at Oliveira, a group made up of students making the transition from elementary to middle school.

The students said they were coming from Breeden, Egly, Hudson and Perez elementary schools. They said they were excited, nervous and tired.

Barron explained that middle school starts earlier in the morning than elementary.

“We’re just trying to make sure we get them started on the right foot,” he said.

Chavez said science is a subject they will be studying all the way through to high school and, along with English, history and many other courses, in college.

“We’re preparing you for college. If you get As and Bs in school, then you’re going to get As and Bs in college. Work hard and learn as much as you can,” he told the students.