I want everyone to know how proud I am of our staff, students, and the entire community of Crosby. There have been so many instances of people helping people in the wake of Hurricane Ike, going above and beyond in so many ways – much as I should not attempt to, knowing I will not mention everyone, I am going to list some examples:
* Crosby ISD Board of Trustees who had the foresight to support the acquisition of Connect-Ed, our phone communication system. With this resource, our student dismissal process, shelter information, recovery efforts at the high school, and back to school information were shared timely and efficiently with our community.
* Crosby ISD Staff, led by Maintenance Director Chuck Murray, that provided over 600 community members, 80 dogs, and 3 cats, with a safe place to stay at Crosby High School during Ike.
* Christy Graves and the entire ESD unit for providing medical care at the shelter and helping every day in the distribution of food, ice, and MREs at Crosby High School. Christy was the driving force behind having the National Guard come to CHS and we are lucky to have such a caring, community minded person here.
* Coach Flanigan and the athletes who spent 4 days going throughout the community cleaning yards and bringing smiles to peoples faces.
* Grasslands, Brad Walker Grass Farms, and Sunbelt Rentals for lending equipment at the high school so all the supplies could be unloaded. Special thanks to Ernest Roder and Jarrod Barrett who drove the fork lifts four straight days unloading semis.
* Members of the Crosby Volunteer Fire Department, our JROTC, Student Council, and various other students who helped distribute items at CHS. We had students, staff, and community members who volunteered many hours during the four days the National Guard was set up at CHS. It was an amazing experience – the National Guard and trucks showed up Wednesday morning at the high school with food, water, and MREs and members of the community stopped to help. The person in charge of the National Guard, Lieutenant Copeland, could not get over the warmth, help, and kindness shown by everyone.
* Lisa, Lindy, and Amy Ellender and Ms. Arroyo, who worked 26 hours straight at the shelter volunteering in the infirmary.
The community of Crosby is a very special place – while Ike took our electricity and trees, he could not take our resilience and our neighborly spirit that permeated the community. Crosby ISD is going to welcome our students back to class with open arms on Thursday. If students are hungry, we will feed them. If some need and want to take a shower, we will take care of them. And then we will get back to providing a quality education for our 5,000 students.
A Proud Superintendent,
Michael Joseph
