Hello East Harris County and Crosby ISD families,
We are moving full steam ahead with the final nine weeks of the spring semester. This is the time of the year when we are focused on ending the current school year strong academically, and we are also in the detailed planning stages for our next school year. I would like to share a huge “Thank You” to Friendly Ford of Crosby and the Salinas family for working with us on child care solutions for the 2023- 2024 School Year. Friendly Ford will assist our efforts with the YMCA to offer child care services on Fridays when the District shifts to a 4-Day Instructional Week. We look forward to working with other Crosby and Barrett Station businesses to offer discounts or other incentives for families in need of child care on days school is not in session. We love to see hometown help for our families!
One of the topics on the minds of many is the growth you can see around Crosby ISD, which will include new students joining us throughout the 2023-2024 School Year. We want to be good stewards of our current facilities and good stewards of taxpayer dollars, so therefore we are making a couple of reconfigurations. Starting in August, kindergarten students who live in the Drew Elementary and Barrett Elementary zones will attend those schools instead of Crosby Kindergarten Center. Both Drew and Barrett Elementary are under capacity and are not predicted to be near capacity due to growth. All other kindergarten students and all Pre-K students will continue to attend Crosby Kindergarten Center. Although this move is to make good use of facilities, there are some benefits for our families as well. Parents will be closer to their child’s school with them attending their neighborhood school. If the kindergartner has older elementary-aged siblings, they will attend the same school as their brothers and sisters. We look forward to welcoming kinder students to Drew Elementary and Barrett Elementary next school year.
I want to brag about our third-grade students at Newport Elementary School. They finished third out of nearly 200 schools in the Read to the Final Four literacy competition. On Friday, March 31, Newport students had one of their best days ever! They traveled to the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston to be recognized as a Top 4 reading school. Principal Price and I were thrilled to accept a $2000 check the students earned for their campus. Newport third graders read 3.7 million minutes during the 20-week competition. After the big celebration, Newport students met up with their third-grade friends from Crosby, Drew, and Barrett Elementary Schools. All our third-grade readers received a special field trip to NRG Stadium to watch the NCAA Men’s College Basketball Final 4 teams practice. It was a great way to wrap up the Read to the Final Four competition, that promoted reading like it was an Olympic sport. Our third graders read more than 11 million minutes in all.
Congratulations to the Crosby High School Treble and Show Choir for receiving two Sweepstakes awards at the UIL Concert and Sight-Reading Competition last month. Sweepstakes is the highest rating a group can earn in the competition. Kudos to CHS Choir Director, Ms. Bridget Perez, for growing the CHS Choral Program.
We are also growing our talented bench of student-athletes. The Crosby High School Junior Varsity Track and Field team were just crowned District Champions. We can’t wait to see what they do when they move into the varsity ranks. Also, bravo to the Crosby High School Boys’ and Girls’ varsity soccer teams for earning a spot in the playoffs this season. Although their seasons have come to an end, both teams showed grit and determination throughout these last four months.
Finally, a note of gratitude to one of the members of the Crosby ISD Maintenance team. Mr. Kenneth Frank put some muscle into helping one of our students at Drew Elementary School. She lost a bracelet that belonged to her late mother. Mr. Frank went above and beyond, by taking apart a bench at the school to find the precious keepsake. Mr. Frank made that student’s day, and he is an example of how our staff members put kindness into action.
We are Better Together! Go Coogs!