Austin High School - Comet Yearbook (Austin, TX)

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.., ff ci X M.1x..?,J www!! ,, ldv, f . af si 4 'vi Austin State Senator Lloyd Doggett defeats Congressman Bob Krueger for place in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senator. g is 'jjj www., s E7 A, . EZ, V . , . , .. at . f siii lift . . I . ' . 'tl 1 ' f L ' ici' .fel A 1 , f 'W' J i'rr '.,s. .,rfi . -Y fc g ws I -fff', I A W, SJ. .K - Q i i it t . , wifi isri. ii'i Q. K L . I M ,gi K ' M ii if .'Leer.... , g . . . .QB 1- - I U - 'U aura Sanke, Angela Newnham, and Laura Vaselka, Junior Michael Quirozattractsacrowd of onlookers ophomores, en'o S rin Thin sno-cones on Ma with his break-dancin skills. Y I ...s,,,... f- ,... - V V W. A , 1 'Q iiis fli- My 7? sf . . - . fl? W ha f xnrr M L lp ' .,,. ' L ' cg! , My t Spring Thing Sheila Hall, Leah Martin, Tricia Hicks Mike Gaudion,junior, climbs the Jacob's Ladders at nd Keraem 'K.K.' Buckles jam with their own music. Spring Thing. -v 'I I for rades 9-10 only. The science and high-tech magnet emphasized mathematics, science, and computer science. Regular courses would continue at LBI for students not involved with the magnet pro ram. Efementary schools that would be affected by the final boundary changes were Brentwood, Andrews, Harris, Pecan Springs, Rosedale, Highland Park, Reilly, Ridgetop, Rosewood, Bryker Woods, Campbell, and Brooke. Perot Committee completes studyg issues report for reform After nine months of intensive study of Texas schools, the Select Committee on Public Education presented preliminary recommendations for changes in Texas education in late March. Gov. Mark White appointed H. Ross Perot of Dallas to chair a 19 member committee to study schools throughout the state to expose weaknesses in Texas education and to offer solutions. The committee was formed in july, 1983, when the Texas Legislature failed to agree on a teacher pay raise. Because Texas ranked among the bottom ten states in academic achievement, the committee recommended cutting out wasteful spending in non-academic areas such as extraecurricular activities. Throughout the nine months, Perot constantly criticized the role of extraecurricular activities in Texas schools. Consequently, the Select Committee wanted to establish a proper balance between school activities and academics. The Select Committee recommended: - Limiting the number of classroom absences for academic activities to ten per school year. - Eliminating extracurricular activities during final examinations week. - Requiring all students involved in extracurricular activities to have a passing average of 70 in all subjects. - Keeping Monday through Thursday nights free for homework and studv. Will Davis, a member of both the Select Committee and the state Board of Education, said that there were too many loopholes in the educational system because the state allowed local school boards to determine the role of extra-curriculars. The committee saw lengthening classroom time as a fair way to put extracurriculars in the proper perspective. Lengthening the school year and school day was one way to make up for the time lost to extracurricular activities. The Select Committee's recommendations included: - Requiring a seven hour academic day for all students from prekindergarten through high school. An olptional two hour period would be set aside or extracurricu ar activities and tutorial assistance. - Increasing the school year from the current 175 day requirement to a minimum of 185 days of instruction beginning the Tuesday after Labor Day. - Conducting a study of the feasibility of a 220 day school ear. y Among the advocates of the longer school day was Principal Iacqpelyn McGee. She believed that extended classtime would be eneficial to students because they would have more oppotunities to participate in extracurricular activities and e ectives. One of the subcommittees to the Select Committee had originally suggested a nine-hour school day, but the proposa drew criticism from the State Board of Education. The Select Committee compromised by suggesting a seven hour school day plus an optional two period for special activities. Although the Select Committee was originally formed to address the problem of teacher's pay, the problem did not meet a solution. Several proposals were considered to restore professionalism to the teaching world, but a specific pay raise plan was not cited, The committee did establish a teacher career ladder in which outstanding teachers receive extra compensation for their performance. According to this plan, teachers would progress through four levels. Criteria for advancement on the career ladder would include recommendations from a team of administrators, the amount of teaching experience, completion of advanced course work in their fields and satisfactory scores on the teacher competency tests. The committee recommended: - Establishing a beginning salary for teachers at no less than 51,520 per month. - Requiring all teachers employed by the state to pass a basic literary test administered by the Texas Education Agency. Any teacher who fails the test will be prohibited from teaching until an acceptable score is achieved, - Establishing a merit-based scholarshipffellowship loan program to attract the brightest high school graduates to college education schools and to the teaching field. - Reqxuiring potential teachers to complete one year of interns ip supervised by an experienced teacher. The internship would be preceeded by a term of student teaching. The availability of state funding would determine whether the teacher pay raise or the other educational reforms would be passed by the Legislature. State Comptroller Bob Bullock, who serves on the Select Committee, estimated that all of the recommendations would cost S19 billion over a five year period, He projected the first vear of implementing the reforms at 52,6 billion. The Legislature only expected to approve Sl billion for the first vear. ' The financial burden of Texas education is primarily carried by the local taxpayers, The revenue needed to fund education programs will most likely come from a one cent increase on sales tax and higher sin taxes on cigarettes and liquor. The committee expected to retain most of its plan, including - Estab ishing a nine member State Board of Education that is appointed by the governor, rather than elected by Texas voters. - Limiting waste and duplication in vocational programs. Vocational teachers would be required to teach other non-vocational courses. A minimum of 20 students would be required to sustain vocational programs. - Placing the University Interscholastic League CUILJ under supervision of the State Board of Education instead of the University of Texas. The Board would appoint the members of the UIL State Executive Committee in order to have more state control over extracurricular activities. District adopts new graduation requirements Beginning next fall, incoming freshmen will be required to take an extra year of English and math as well as an economics course. Currently, the state core curriculum required 18 credits for graduation, including three years of English and two years of math. However, the AISD has required 21 credits but with the same number of years of English and math as the state. Now, as a result of curriculum reforms implemented by the State Board of Education under House Bill 246, the entire state will offer three graduation plans - Ceneral!Vocational which requires 21 credits for graduation, academic which requires 22 credits, and academic honors which also requires 22 but designated specific electives. All plans require four years of Eng ish, more math and science and fewer electives. The new plan will affect 1984 incoming freshman only. The new graduation plans resulted from the Texas Education Agency's KTEAH revision of the state core curriculum. Two years ago, the 67th Legislature passed a bill mandating that the TEA study what needed to be revised. In the conclusion of the study, TEA decided that if the high school graduation requirements were raised, lower test score problems could possibly be solved and graduates going to college or work would be more prepared due to a higher academic senior year. Princpal jacquelyn McGee said that in spite of the AlSD's math and English requirements, Austin High already strongly suggests three years of math and requires four years of English. The Honors Graduation Program also requires four years of English and three of math, but it surpasses the total number of credits suggested with 24 credits needed for graduation. Therefore, even with the state raising its requirements for graduation, no major changes would not occur at Austin High except the addition of an economics course for the class of 1987. i I9

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Florence Thompson retires Homemaking instructor, Florence Thompson retired from her career of teaching in the Texas public school system after 42 years of service. Thompson first taught in Charlotte, Texas. From there, she moved to Galena Park and taught for 5 years, and then to Austin in 1959 to teach at Lamar Junior High. In 1966, Thompson began instructing at Austin High where she became Homemaking department chairman in 1969. In 1980, she was voted Texas Vocational Homemaking Association Teacher of the year. Thompson not only was an active member of home economics organizations, but she sponsored many groups at Austin High and developed the home economics curriculum for the AISD. lt was a ve rewarding experience, Thompson explained about her teadhling career. l certainly enjoyed it! Thompson was honored with a retirement dinner in early May. Faculty members contributed to a fund which resulted in a gift to Thompson of an expense-paid trip for her and her husband to Mexico City. Courses fare cuts in district budget squeeze As a result of educational reform and district budget cuts, high school elective programs and course offerings were threatened with being dropped in fall, 1984. Austin district high schools will be required to enforce a previous rule which required classes to have an enrollment of 20 students or receive district approval for classes with fewer than 20. Assistant superintendent for secondary education, Dr. Freda Holley, announced that the administrators wanted principals to observe the rule, although the district had not targeted specific classes for cancellation. Low current and projected class sizes were in danger of cancellation. Courses which would probably not be offered as a result of the enforcement of the class-size rule included many business and vocational office education courses, industrial arts and crafts courses, English, science and social studies electives and physical education course. Currently, SFA class sizes average 20 to 23, with 145 of 335 classes instructing 19 or fewer students. Many teachers and administrators had commented that the quality of education would be a stake with such a rule. Some predicted that the proposal would result in an increase of the drop-out level, an overloading of existing equipment and supplies, the loss of federal funding and the elimination of numerous educational opportunities for students. Teacher Competency exams loom The Select Committee on Public Education recommended that all public school teachers in Texas be tested for competency, With the quality of Texas education being questioned, some thought that testing teacher proficiency and knowledge of their fields could assist in improving the state's education, The chairman of the committee, H. Ross Perot, claimed that 90 percent of the teachers are producing more than adequate work, but the remaining 10 percent could be a threat to education. However, testing is already required for those who enter universities to become teachers. A ter a teacher has completed his education and is ready to find a job in his field, yet another competency test is administered. The main issue that kept teachers underfire was whether teachers alread existing in the field should be tested. In order to single out the small percent of incompetent teachers, the committee recommended all teachers take the test. The Houston Indefpendent School District has already implemented testing or teachers in the field. Consequently, most teachers and administrators felt that evaluation and observation of a teacher's work happens everyday in the classroom and throughout the school by fellow teachers and administrators, teachers can be examined without a competency test. 1 I Board grapples with proposed school boundaries change Considerable controversy raged across Austin during the spring as the AISD school board tried to find a way to add students to LBJ High School and subtract students from Crockett Hi h School. Several pTans were proposed to change the high school attendance zones. Two of the plans involved Austin High. One of the plans was nicknamed the Student Body-Right' which would have involved the transfer ofa substantial portion of the current attendance boundaries meaning the transfer of more than 10,000 students. First of all, Austin school administrators recommended 13 .. e. Htl! li? 52 cr 52 V. gf V in i S Q X I N ,. W uw? I T ,I 4 'f ll .se 'AE On Dedication Day on May 4, Cyndy Goodrich honored Charles Moody, Michelle Bourianoff, and Jody Hart into the Maroon Society. f f. or A ustln s special downtown loop bus, Armadill Egpress, begins Catcha DiIIo services on Mal I f Kami? A jg ,, ..- , , if i rr Q, , fi is t M - f rx f' 'T' A John Nance, a junior in George Avery's third period architecturefdrafting class, processes a design on an Appl Ile microcomputer. i 3 l boundary changes that would have affected 1,100 high school students of six senior high schools on April 24. Most of the changes were aimed at increasing the enrollment at LBJ High in Northeast Austin. A companion plan was presented to change the busing procedures of eight elementary schools in effort to keep busingxa minimum. LBJ Hi h School ad 1,172 students, of whom 59 percent were blaci and 8 percent were Hispanic. The school was built for 2,400 students. Under the plan, LBJ would gain 248 students from Reagan, 228 from McCallum, and 225 from Travis, LBJ would send 311 students to McCallum. The ethnic composition at LBJ would shift to 38 percent black, 12 percent Hispanic, and 50 percent Anglo. The enrollment would grow to 1,562. To provide relief for the overcrowding of Crockett High School, administrators recommended the transfer of 196 Crockett students to Austin High School. Crockett High had 2,796 students enrolled. An additional 116 Lanier students would also be bused to Reagan High. In exchange for the busing to new high schools, the district offered to keep students at their neighborhood elementary schools to relieve the overcrowding problems in northeast Austin. A week following the school district's first boundary changingxproposal, the administrators presented the student body-rig t or bump around busing plan that called for the redrawing of all junior and senior attendance boundary lines, which would have caused 10,000 students to change schools. This plan would have affected all senior and junior highs and included the closing of two junior highs. The plan would have shifted the current student bodies right - for instance, Austin High would have attended MacCallum5 MacCallum would Eve attended Anderson, Anderson would have attended nier, etc, Under the plan, LBJ enrollment would increase to 1,562, but would bring Anglo enrollment up to 50 percent. About one-quarter of the LBJ student body would be sent to McCallum High. In return, 228 McCallum students would be swappedhto LEJ. This was designed to provide ethnic balance among t e sc oo s, These proposed boundary chan es in Austin received hostile receptions from crowds numbering from 700 to 1,000 people in McCallum Hi h and LBJ High the nights following the annnouncement of Sie proposal. During the meetings, the board members explained that the plan was only one of the many proposed to secure district busing plans, but the opposed crowd continued to argue against the proposal. The bump around' plan died on May 14 when school tnistees voted unanimously against changing high school attendance boundaries in any way. In hopes of increasing LBJ attendance, the administration agreed to convert LBJ High School into a ma net school for science and high-tech courses. This plan would iecome effective with the 1985-86 school year is-new any

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l l Excellence ln Education Stephen F. Austin High named outstanding secondary school in U.5 n the south lawn of the White House on Sept. 28, the President of the United States conducted a ceremony honoring outstanding secondary schools in the nation. Instead of sitting at her desk, shuffling through routine paper work and supervising Austin High, Principal Iacquelyn McGee joined President Reagan and 139 principals of exemplary junior and senior high schools at that White House recognition ceremony. She was there because Stephen F. Austin High School was one of the high schools honored. It has been named exemplary by the U.S. Department of Education. Since Austin High was one of the only two schools in Texas and one of the 80 schools in the nation which received the honor, the school received an Excellence in Education banner from the President. It's a real honor, said Principal Iacquelyn McGee. It means that someone out there thinks we're doing a good job! The honor was part of the Secondary School Recognition Program initiated in january, 1983, by U.S. Secretary of Education, T.H. Bell. The final 80 schools were chosen for their work to overcome obstacles, improvements in education, and ability to maintain high educational standards. The honors graduation plan and the attendance policy are examples of steps SFA piloted to initiate better education. We place a strong emphasis on learning and try to do all of those things which, research indicates makes a difference in learning, McGee said. he recognition process began in the spring of 1983, when the Chief Education officers of each of the 50 states were asked to nominate junior highs and five high schools for the program. Austin High School and Churchill High School in San Antonio, were among the schools chosen from Texas by Raymon Bynum, the State Commissioner of Education. By March, 1983, 396 schools had been nominated. These nominees were reviewed by 15 member panels composed of parents, community leaders, and distinguished educators. During the second meeting of these panels, the list was narrowed down to 198 schools. These 198 schools were then visited by 27 educational experts from outside the federal government. Dr. O.L. Davis, Professor of curriculum and Instruction at the College of Education at U.T., visited Austin High. My role was to visit the school and examine it against a set of criteria that the national committee had developed, explained Davis. I found that Austin High met each of the 14 characteristics of an exemplary school. In evaluating the school, Davis considered these 14 characteristics: 1. Clear academic and behavior goals 2. High expectations for students 3. Order and discipline 4. Teacher leadership qualities 5. Rewards and incentives for teachers and students By Melanie DuPuy 6. Positive school environment 7. Administrative leadership 8. Community support 9. Extent of concentration on academic learning time 10. Frequent and monitored homework ll. Regular and frequent monitoring of student progress 12. Well-structured curriculum 13. Variety of teaching strategies 14. Opportunities for student responsibilities Davis said he was mainly impressed with the leadership qualities of the teachers and admin- istrators. He noted that there seemed to be good relations between them and the students. McGee agreed that the teachers are not only strong in their subject areas, but also responsive to student needs and are willing to help them. As evidence of that, Davis pointed to the school's student publications, an area quoted in the national Kiplinger magazine Changing Times lt's a real honor. It means someone out there thinks we 're doing a good job! -Jacquelyn McGee in April 1984. The article, called Good Schools and How They Got That Way tells of Austin High: I I ree, responsible and tough-minded was a visitor's description of the student newspaper at Austin High on the banks of the Colorado River just a mile downtown. When the paper take issue with school administration policies, school officials take it in stride, applying the same philosophy to divergent opinions that they do the school's mix of ethnic and economic backgrounds. 'We find strength in diversity,' Principal jacquelyn McGee explains. 'We are proud of it. We do not try to make everyone over in a single mold, but we do try to make everyone stretch somewhatf Austin high is unique because it incorporates the best attributes, the wide range of personal interests, and the tastes and intellects of the student body, faculty, and staff, said drama instructor, Larry Preas. I believe the institution and its population take seriously the message 'Everyone is Someone at Austin High' and extends that to mean that everyone has something good to offer. This school engenders a genuine pride in its significant century of accomplisment and develops in its staff and student body a determination to strive for more excellence. On the criteria of order and discipline, Davis said, There appears to be a fair development of fair rules and fair administration of those rules. He liked the fact that everyone, including parents and teachers, participated in the developing and planning of the school rules. Austin High provides opportunities for all level students and for students of varying interests, noted Mary Ruiz, home economics teacher. Davis added that Austin High has a sound program of course offerings and very fine school organizations. Another characteristic was the amount of rewards and incentives for teachers and students. Davis said that the school seemed to be proud of its award winners and recognized their achievements. Although there are many things which contribute to academic excellence at Austin High, the one I would like to highlight is leadership of the students and their teachers. Having a principal who is intelligent, well-educated, and well informed in the management and operation of an educational program has been important to staff and student performance and achievement, commented science teacher, Elizabeth Essary. ach nominated school also has to complete an extensive questionnaire or self-evaluation con- tract about the school's percentage of students who go on to attend college or some other form of post-secondary educationg percentage of students receiving scholarshipsg percentage of students who are successful in academically oriented competitions, dropout rates, and student performance on standardized tests. Davis found that SFA test scores were clearly above average for the state, and the dropout rates were low. Government teacher, Brian Schenk added, Austin High feels good. A person gets a special good feeing here. It's a good place to be. There is real truth behind the 'Everybody is Somebody' slogan. Hovering over your shoulder is the tradition of excellence built over more than a century. It's a place where people are expected to perform, to excel, to develop. It's a part of the landscape. In a special assembly held on Dec, 7, officially declared Austin High Day by the City Council, SFA students clearly realized that their school was an outstanding educational institution. You are purely and simply the very best in the nation, said Hunter Harrison, special counsel to the Secretary of Education T.H. Bell. The entire audience responded in a standing ovation as Harrison presented a plaque to Principal ,lacquelyn McGee in recognition of a commitment to academic excellence. The award was given in behalf of the President of the United States and U.S. Secretary of Education Terrel Bell. I wish every student could have his own copy of this plaque, said McGee upon receiving the award. It really belongs to you. ongressman 1.1. lake Pickle, Mayor Ron Mullen, and AISD School Board President Ed Small attended the assembly. Instead of declining, Austin High has gotten better, said Mayor Mullen who added that SFA, Demonstrated the possibilities can be achieved. I am proud to be back at my old school, remarked Congressman Pickle. l often brag about SFA to my colleagues on Capitol Hill. .20-S44:14n 8 School