MPCC Lunch and Learn

Posted by Carl Gerhardt

on Oct 27, 2015

On 10/27/2015, the Magnolia Rotary Club members went to the Magnolia Parkway Chamber of Commerce meeting to listen to the "Partners in Education" panel discuss what is going on in the surrounding school districts. Pictured from left to right are Dr. Todd Stephens (MISD Superintendent) and Denise Myers (MISD Communications).

MISD School Board President, Deborah Rose Miller welcomed everyone to the meeting and introduced the panel: Dr. Todd Stephens (MISD Superintendent), Denise Meyers (MISD Director of Communications), Charity Escot (Counselor at Concordia Lutheran High School), and Dr. Rebecca Riley (Lone Star College - Montgomery President).

Dr. Todd Stephens and Denise Meyers were the first panelists to talk and they presented an image of the great things that the MISD is doing by starting with the district vision of being the bet district in the State of Texas. Specifically, the mission of the Magnolia Independent School District is to provide an educational environment that will enable all students to develop essential academic skills for a lifetime of learning and to prepare students to be responsible, contributing citizens in a diverse and changing world.

Goal 1 MISD students will achieve their maximum academic potential.

Goal 2 MISD will provide a secure, nurturing, and disciplined learning environment.

Goal 3 MISD and the community will be partners in the continuing improvement of the educational system to insure unity and consistency throughout the district.

Goal 4 MISD will recruit, develop, and retain the high quality staff required to provide the best educational experience for all students.

Goal 5 MISD will effectively manage all District financial resources to maximize the educational resources available for students.

Goal 6 MISD will incorporate state of the art technology and other tools to maximize the academic potential of students and management skills of district personnel.

Denise Meyers told everyone that the MISD District is growing rapidly and that last year 80% of the 830 graduates went on to higher schools of learning and that this 80% pickup up more than $11 Million in college scholarships. In addition to many fine programs already in existence to prepare student for their futures, Dr. Todd Stephens explained that MISD has currently applied to be authorized for starting an International Baccalaureate (IB) Program for the 2016-2017 school year. The IB Diploma Programme is a world-renowned educational program that encompasses juniors and seniors in high school. This program has become a program of choice for high schools in the United States as it offers a world class college preparatory curriculum. Less than 60 public schools in Texas are allowed to offer this program.

Dr. Stephens and Denise Meyers talked about other programs such as Alpha Connections (connecting students with businessmen), the Job Shadow Program (MISD and Rotary joint program to get beginning high school students a chance to intern with local businesses), and the Student Leadership Program (Connecting high school students with the workings of local governments and business leadership). They also talked about the good that the Magnolia education Foundation does for our MISD students as well as the upcoming MISD bond election to improve our local school campuses.

The second speaker was Charity Escot, a counselor from Concordia Lutheran High School in Tomball, Texas. Charity spoke about how important it is for all our schools for our communities to be united in making our schools systems a great as possible for our kids. She also spoke of getting the students involved with local businessmen in order to help them grow and be productive citizens. One of the ways Concordia Lutheran high School is doing this is by bringing in local professionals to speak for 25 minutes each to 3 classes. the school also treats the speaker to lunch the day the come.

The last speaker was Dr. Rebecca Riley from the Lone Star College (LSC) System. She spoke about the when and where of the new LSC - Magnolia Center campus. She indicated that all they need is to find about 12-15 acres of land that meets their requirements of being close to current MISD high schools before they can start. The proposed 60,000 sq. ft. building will take about 18 months to complete once the ground breaking ceremony happens. Since they don't yet have the land, she estimates that the earliest the campus could open would be 2018. She also told the group that they have been taking with an advisory board made up of LSC administrators, teachers, and local residents in order to make sure that their educational programs are fullfiling local needs.

Some other photos from the event are below:

Dr. Riley also spoke about how the LSC system is geared to prepare students either for a 4 year college or prepare them with blue collar job skills that the local businesses need. Their goal is to lead students either to a career or a job.