Community Collaborative Day 4
Community Collaborative Day 4
A visit to Caney Creek High School and an inside look on CTE, special education, extracurricular programs, and zoning.
Catch-up on Day 1, Day 2, or Day 3!
On the fourth meeting of the Conroe ISD Community Collaborative group, we met at Caney Creek High School, which is within the fastest growing area of Montgomery County. We toured the high school, getting a look into the amazing Career & Technical Education (CTE) programs within Conroe ISD, learned about special education within the district, listened to a panel of educators discuss Gifted & Talented (GT) programs, football, cheer, and counseling services, and closed out with an introduction into how zoning works within the district. It was a lot to cover!
Caney Creek
Often confused with being in New Caney (the city), Caney Creek High School has a Conroe, TX address, and is located outside the small town of Grangerland. The name makes more sense when you see where the school is located, which is along…Caney Creek:
The areas around the local schools are still very much rural, with many long, winding, single-lane roads that connect the community. Unfortunately for the locals, the recent road expansions and master planned communities are rapidly bringing a boom in population. It likely won’t be too long before Chick-fil-A, Whataburger, and Walmart show up.
The downside for the CISD schools in this area is that the common infrastructure you would expect for such large schools is not available. Things like water, sewage, and storm drainage must be managed or driven by the school district, which adds to the complexity of operations that must be managed to support these schools.
Caney Creek High School rapidly grew from a 3A to 6A school over the last decade. It is currently at 2,750 students, an increase of 500 students within the last two school years alone. Interestingly, 82% of their students are below the poverty line (4 out of 5 students!), but this is expected to decrease as more master planned communities are built within the area.
Yet even with the growth and high poverty statistics, it is obvious that this high school is thriving.
The atmosphere felt great, the staff are engaged, and our tour of their programs show that they are serious about education.
Also, their coed cheer team recently won the UIL State Championship:
The school also has some of the best implementation of CTE programs I have seen yet, and the teachers we met with are some of the most passionate we have spoken to as part of the Collaborative.
One of the CISD Teachers of the Year, Stephen Green, is at Caney Creek, and I was lucky to get in the tour group that he led (more on Stephen later).
Career & Technical Education
I previously wrote about CTE programs when people were debating Ag Barns as part of the 2023 CISD bond:
“Many people lament how kids are constantly bombarded with the idea of going into STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) and that they must go to college to pursue STEM careers. If we ignore that we live in 2023 where literally everything we do interacts with technology and engineering, the statements critics make are still very true:
“You don’t have to go to college!”
“We still need plumbers, electricians, and farmers!”
“You can still make good money working in the trades!”
These are all valid arguments, albeit as options for career paths and not against why STEM fields are a great choice for those looking for a wide range of career opportunities. Yet too many parents believe if their kid learns to code an app that they can become rich. That certainly can happen, but in reality we must find the things that kids enjoy doing so that they can have a chance at landing a career within their interests. Career and Technical Education programs are a method for doing this.
Texas CTE Programs of Study - Website
The Division of College, Career, and Military Preparation has engaged members of the workforce, secondary education, and higher education to advise on the development of programs of study, including coherent sequences of courses, industry-based certifications, and work-based learning to ensure students are prepared for in-demand, high-skill, and high-wage careers in Texas.
If you haven’t seen these programs already, know that gone are the days when you could wait until college to decide what you want to do in life for your career. You still can wait until college, but you’ll be behind your peers for a time while you catch up. Both approaches work fine as many people (me included) take time to find their place in the world. But if your kid knows what their passion is, they can pursue it very early.
Seeing these CTE programs in person has sold me on their importance. CISD schools are teaching real-world skills that can enable students to be ready for work right off the graduation stage. Students can even earn industry-based certifications while in school, with over 500 certifications offered and supported by CISD.
Here are pictures I took and from others in the collaborative group:
You can also watch the video on CTE at Caney Creek, made by students:
Or go check out their news website, also managed by students: https://cchscompass.com/
The most interesting thing about Caney Creek CTE, which I do not know is the same at other CISD high schools, is that they keep so much work in-house. Yearbooks are completely implemented by students, from the beginning to end, which includes writing, editing, photography, and even negotiating with vendors for printing. By doing this, it keeps yearbooks more affordable.
Mother’s Day projects, shown in the gallery above, are created in-house, from the wood working to the flower arrangements and custom cards.
If there is an ability to do something in-house, rather than relying on school funds (that they don’t have) or the PTO, then they do it themselves. This “we can do it” attitude seemed prevalent within all of the CTE programs we toured, and the staff there enable this drive.
I was also getting the vibe that the school may have a chip on its shoulder for feeling left out of the big CISD discussions. Being relegated as some small, country section of the school district may be fueling some rowdy motivation.
During our tour with Stephen, he showed us the various CTE classes that you saw in the pictures above. I wanted to recognize him here, as he’s kind of a big deal in the district. You know, THE Teacher of the Year, along with Wilkinson Elementary music teacher Joslyn Hallbauer.
From the CISD Teacher of the Year news release on Stephen Green:
Green has been teaching for eight years, including seven years in his current role of teaching ninth through twelfth grade journalism at Caney Creek. He oversees the student newspaper, yearbook, and the debate team. He allows students to “run the show,” because he believes “students learn best when they feel ownership of the work.” They hold each other accountable, teach their peers on important and entertaining issues, and celebrate their successes. Green is there to provide a safe place to struggle, fail and succeed. He said, “They just can’t fail. They have to be able to get back up and figure out how to succeed.”
Stephen talked about student ownership during the tour, reinforcing the importance of failure and enabling them to find their own way through issues. This reminded me of a few great mentors I have had, where they purposely allow you to spin your wheels on a problem, even though they know the answer. It is important for kids, and adults alike, to learn how to problem solve and find their own initiative. I was impressed to see this in action in these programs.
There is a lot more we could say about Caney Creek High School, but we still have a lot to cover!
Admin in the Hallways?
A quick note we saw during our tour of the high school - they station administrators throughout the hallways on computer carts. For most of the day, APs and the Principal do their work outside of their office, spread out across the school in the hallways.
According to the Principal, they began doing this within the last few months, and it has had very positive results. Tardies have dropped substantially. Referral counts (when kid’s get sent to office) have decreased by over 50%, but when referrals do happen, the student does not have to trek across the large school to the office and then wait to be seen. They go to the nearest admin in the hallway, work out the situation, and then get sent right back to class. Instead of spending 30-45 minutes with one referral, it can take just a few minutes to assist challenges with students.
Teachers get faster responses from admin, unruly students do not get the free time to wonder the hallways and sit in the office, and there is an improved sense of security. Students can feel heard by having quick access to admin, more familiar and friendly with staff as they are present during class change in hallways, and there’s a community effect found when staff are better supporting each other.
It seems like an easy win as long as your admin team is willing to put in the effort.
Special Education
Dr. Kendra Wiggins, Director of Special Education, was present to give a presentation on how Conroe ISD manages SPED across such a large district. Here are the SPED programs found within CISD:
There are over 400 staff members across the district dedicated towards special education, not including the campus teachers or paras who also assist. This includes the following:
Audiologists
Teachers of Auditory Impairment
Board Certified Behavior Analysis (BCBAs)
Brailists
Teachers of Visually Impaired
Counselors
Diagnosticians
Homebound Teachers Transition 18+ Teachers (TRAILS)
Instructional Facilitators
Job Coaches
Licensed School Psychologists
Licensed Vocational Nurses
Occupational Therapists
Orientation/Mobility Specialists
Physical Therapists
Registered Behavior Technicians (RBTs)
Registered Nurses
Social Workers
Speech Pathologists
Speech Therapists
Dr. Wiggins provided updated numbers related to dyslexia, and discussed the latest changes brought by Texas HB 3928, which includes improved dyslexia identification, intervention, and instruction.
Dyslexia is a complex subject, especially when you consider the different categories of SPED a student can fall under. As noted below, in the last six years the number of dyslexia students served within the district has nearly doubled.
Similarly, the number of SPED students being served overall continues to increase in CISD, reaching close to 10,000 total (roughly 1 out of 7 students).
I have not investigated this, but I do not see any substantial resource increases being made to assist these programs, whether at the state or district level.
Although we commend the district on how often it is able to do more with less, special education is one area where we need more to do more. However, Dr. Wiggins noted that the staff shortage for SPED is not only within CISD, but is a nationwide issue.
Most Public Schools Face Challenges in Hiring Teachers and Other Personnel Entering the 2023-24 Academic Year - October 17, 2023 (ed.gov)
The biggest barriers to hiring teachers were too few candidates applying for open positions (cited by 70 percent of public schools) and a lack of qualified applicants applying for open positions (cited by 66 percent). These were also the top two barriers identified in hiring for non-teacher positions, with roughly the same rates reported by public schools.
Among public schools employing these positions, the top two most prevalent teaching positions that needed to be filled entering the 2023-24 were general elementary teachers (71 percent) and special education teachers (70 percent).
Based on public schools’ reports of positions being “somewhat” or “very difficult” to fill, some of the most difficult positions to fill entering this school year were special education (77 percent), physical science (77 percent), and foreign language teaching positions (76 percent).
And…
Why Special Education Teachers Quit—and What Schools Are Doing About It (edweek.org)
Twenty-one percent of public schools reported that they were not fully staffed in special education at the start of the 2023-24 school year, higher levels of reported shortages than for any other teaching specialty, federal data show. And about 8 percent of teachers who work with children who qualify for services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act are not fully certified.
To make matters worse, funding at the federal and state levels that supports special education programs continues to have large gaps, not unlike in our previous post on school finance, where we see that Texas continues to use outdated methods to calculate per student allotments.
Special education in Texas, and thus CISD, is understaffed and underfunded, yet laws and policies have been passed that are substantially increasing the number of students qualifying for SPED programs.
I know there are parents who complain about special education in CISD. Some parents have even sued the district (and won), based on decisions made by staff or the district in providing services to their children. Yet, outside of poor decision making by local admin to add students to SPED programs, it is obvious that Texas school districts are truly between a ‘rock and a hard place’ when it comes to supporting special education.
Here is a link to Dr. Wiggins’s slide deck on special education.
Staff Panel
We next listened to a panel of staff members at Caney Creek, which included their counselor, the athletic director, the GT coordinator, and fine arts. They actually all seemed to wear multiple hats at the school, and it was interesting to hear their perspectives and experiences on how their programs are doing.
Here were the highlights I noted:
GT within Conroe ISD is well recognized. We have 15 teams going to UIL this year, covering 12 different events.
A teacher who has GT kids in their classroom must also be GT certified (30 hours of training), which almost all CISD elementary teachers are GT certified.
Fine Arts programs are highly valued within CISD. Where other school districts tend to cut fine arts programs to save money, CISD understands how important fine arts is.
Sports participation across the district is “phenomenal”. Hardest part is finding enough equipment to support them.
Long discussion on the lack of resources with swimming programs, which touched on the recent bond prop failure for a 2nd natatorium.
Every campus has fundraising challenges depending on the feeder zone and the strength of PTOs.
There were some really great side conversations with this panel that I did not capture here, but as I have mentioned before, we continue to meet dedicated, passionate people that work in Conroe ISD. I continue to be impressed in the quality of educators and staff found in our district.
Zoning 101
School zoning in CISD was meant to be discussed in our Collab Day 2 as part of understanding district growth, but we ran out of time. Chris McCord was able to get some time at the end of our Caney Creek visit to present on zoning, and some collab members stayed behind to go through a zoning exercise similar to those done within district zoning committees.
As with most things within school districts, zoning is highly complex. I may eventually write a post solely on zoning, but we’ll recap the key points here.
“We never stop talking about zoning. It is a constant and must be evaluated every day.” - Chris McCord
Zoning is about managing where students go to school based on where they live, the space or resources available within nearby schools, the available transportation options to get students to those schools, and a plethora of other factors that the district must consider when deciding which schools kids go to.
The process to manage zoning is a lengthy one. Similar to Bonds and other important aspects that impact the community, there is also a Boundary Committee that is occasionally brought together to review zoning.
Chris McCord has some great one-liners in his presentations, so I am repeating them here:
No pros and cons to zoning, only considerations.
We prefer not to split up neighborhoods if we don’t have to.
Schools are part of the community, often the hub or foundation for the area.
High School zones are sacred, except when new schools are built.
Families often buy homes based on school zoning, so changes are only done if absolutely necessary.
(My favorite) The current floodplain is the next master planned community.
There is much more to say about zoning, and if you look at the slide below you will see just how detailed they get when reviewing options. My takeaway was that the district does everything it can to make the best decisions it can for deciding where our kids are zoned, and they do so by including the communities impacted by these decisions.
Perhaps I will volunteer on this committee one day to get the full, excruciating experience.
You can find Mr. McCord’s slides for zoning here.
Last note on Caney Creek High School - it is a TIA school (Teacher Incentive Allotment), where teachers can make substantially more salary based on student growth. TIA is on my list to write about. If anyone has detailed experience with TIA, I would love to chat with you.
That’s it for Collab Day 4. Our next (and last) collab meeting is at Conroe High School.
Thanks for reading!
Collab Meeting Summaries:
Meeting 1: Intro to Conroe ISD, Finance, Procurement
Meeting 2: Growth & Transportation
Meeting 3: Staff Development, Recruitment, Retention
Meeting 4: CTE, SPED, Extracurriculars, Zoning
Meeting 5: Planning & Construction, School Safety, Summer School