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JROTC Programs earn 'Honor Unit' accolades

February 25, 2013, 12:22 pm
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The Junior ROTC Battalions from Mansfield High School, Legacy High School and Summit High School earned or retained the highest JROTC unit commendation, Honor Unit with Distinction, during their Army-directed Formal Inspections last week.

The inspection looks at every aspect of the manner in which the cadet staff, commanders, and students run their Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps unit as a business. Logistics, Public Affairs, Administration, Finance, Management, and Reporting are all evaluated using checklists. The unit members are inspected both wearing their uniforms correctly and marching as a member of the combined unit.

“The effort of each cadet, coupled with a phenomenal battalion staff, was clearly evident during the day’s demanding activities”, says LTC Pat Easley, the Senior Army Instructor.

Inspectors noted how very pleased they were to see as a district, Mansfield ISD takes positive actions to promote JROTC as one of the most rewarding electives available to high school students.

SFC James Darrell Watkins, Mansfield High School JROTC Army Instructor



Legacy High School -Marching to Honor: JROTC Federal Inspection

According to Legacy High School's Sergeant Major Smith, evaluators were impressed on how well-organized the inspection went and how Legacy cadets looked and performed. Legacy JROTC members received a score of 590/600 placing them in the top 1% of 318 schools in the entire fifth JROTC Brigade covering eight states.

“Though we are happy with our results, we will strive to improve in the few areas noted we need work,” said Sgt. Major Eric Smith of the inspection process. View the Legacy HS JROTC Commend Inspection photo gallery.

"These Formal Inspections were conducted by our higher headquarters, 5th Brigade in San Antonio, TX," said Major James Fry. "We also received an honor unit with distinction (580 out of 600) as did Mansfield and Legacy."

Congratulations, cadets!

Editor's Note: Lake Ridge High School was not inspected as they are a new unit and the inspections are every three years.Also, the Timberview High School Air Force JROTC unit had their last formal inspection during the 2010-11 school year and received the AFJROTC Distinguished Unit Award.
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Orr Intermediate and Jones Middle win District Academic UIL Contest

February 27, 2013, 1:56 pm
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On Saturday, February 16 the Academic UIL competition for Intermediate and Middle School students was held at Timberview High School. The event was coordinated by Renee Cox, Matthew Swope and Marie Medina along with help from the Timberview’s Academic UIL team. Academic UIL is the academic competition with 16 academic events, three categories of art and one music event.

The contest had a total of 433 student competitors in 28 events from 12 schools; Worley Middle, Howard Middle, Wester Middle, Jones Middle, Coble Middle, Jobe Middle, Low Intermediate, Cross Timbers Intermediate, Orr Intermediate, Icenhower Intermediate, Shepard Intermediate and Lillard Intermediate.

Congratulations to our District Sweepstakes winning schools:

 Danny Jones Middle School

Mary Orr Intermediate School





Visit the Intermediate & Middle School Academic UIL Contest Photo Gallery.
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Impact Award: Center Director Draws Community Event to Mansfield

February 28, 2013, 1:06 pm
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When most people look at the MISD Center for the Performing Arts they envision choir and band concerts, graduations and district events. When Center Director, Flo Torres looks at the facility, she sees all of those things, plus a vast realm of exciting possibilities.

Torres joined Mansfield ISD as the Center Director in August of 2012, bringing with her over a decade of experience in the special events industry. It didn’t take long for Torres to recognize the potential for the Center and the positive impact the facility could have on the district and community.

After only a few months on the job, Torres set her sights on the upcoming Toys for Tots event. The nationwide campaign collects toys and funds for less fortunate children during the holiday season. She knew this event would be a fantastic way to showcase the Center while contributing to a worthy cause.

“The Toys for Tots event brings an opportunity for communities to get together,” said Torres. “I think we, as an entity, can bring so much to the table.”

After conversations and planning meetings, Torres announced that for the first time, MISD would be an official drop-off location for the Toys for Tots organization. To add to the excitement, Fox 4 News confirmed that the Center would be one of their designated sites for live news coverage.

Collection boxes were dispersed to all MISD campuses and dozens of local businesses, student performances were scheduled, vendor booths and activities were sponsored, and Santa Claus and his reindeer were rumored to be in attendance!

Despite the frosty weather on the night of the event, the school district and community came out in full force. A collective donation of over 16,000 toys and $17,000 was presented to representatives of the Toys for Tots organization. It was one of the largest donations the organization had ever received from a single collection event in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.

“The Mansfield community responded in an amazing way,” said Interim Superintendent Dr. Jim Vaszauskas. “In my 31 years of education, the Mansfield Toys for Tots event was the greatest charitable effort that I have ever seen.”

Following the event, it was clear that the district and community were wowed by the successful outcome, but Torres was most impressed with the hard work put forth by her team and an army of volunteers.

“The commitment of the employees of the ISD is amazing,” Torres said. “I kept seeing people that we didn’t even call to help us showing up and helping, whether it was directing traffic or picking up trash, they looked around and saw a need and took care of it.”

Torres pursued the Toys for Tots event in hopes that she could show that the MISD Center for the Performing Arts has a lot to offer to the Mansfield community. In the end, she was able to meet that goal, and she also discovered that the community has much to offer in return.

“I was able to see firsthand the power of this community,” said Torres. “I am very proud to be part of the team.”

On behalf of the MISD Administration, congratulations to Flo Torres, our latest Impact Award Winner!

YouTube Video: MISD Impact Award - Flo Torres 

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The Impact Award was established to recognize individual staff members, departments, campuses or other district groups that have promoted teamwork and unity by initiating a program or event that made a positive impact within Mansfield ISD and the community. Impact Award winners may be nominated by staff, students or community members.

Winners are selected throughout the school year. Staff members who receive the Impact Award are eligible for other district honors.

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Summit and Legacy High Schools Among Top Teams at State Academic Decathlon

March 1, 2013, 8:26 am
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At the Texas Academic Decathlon State competition in San Antonio last weekend, Summit High School placed 11th in the state with a school-record 41,690 points. Earning gold medals for their performance as top honors, scholastic, and varsity team members were Nicholas Toliver, Sina Rahesh, and Ethan Kohner. Additionally James Smith earned a bronze medal for science and a bronze medal for music. Competition team members include James Smith, Victoria Miglets, Nicholas Toliver, Gina Shahidullah, Sina Rahesh, Caroline Rodgers, Ethan Kohner, Felicia Freeman, and Michael Moore. Additionally the team tied for 6th place in super quiz with a score of 2500.


Legacy High School placed 19th at state with a team total of 37,760. State medalists included: Laura Baker (3rd Economics, Legacy’s top Honors student); Amanda Hargett-Granato (3rd Art, Legacy’s top Scholastic student); Sammi Singarella (1st Essay); Austin Bailey (3rd Essay); Nathan Wright (3rd Essay); and Autumn McGaha (Legacy’s top Varsity student).

Congratulations Summit and Legacy Acadec teams.

Related: Acadec Teams Score Big at Regional Competition

About Academic Decathlon
The United States Academic Decathlon (USAD) is a program that provides high school students an opportunity to experience the challenges of rigorous academic competition through participation in team activities. In addition, the Academic Decathlon involves members of the business/industry as active supporters of a program promoting academic excellence.

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Getting Ready For Kindergarten (Prepararse Para el Kinder)

March 4, 2013, 7:09 am
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Kindergarten today is different in many ways than when you attended school. Many children come to Kindergarten with previous preschool or day care experience. Even though your child won’t begin school until the fall, there are many things you can do now to prepare him/her for kindergarten.

Here are some ideas:
  • Make sure your child knows as many alphabet letters as possible, both upper and lower case. Practice them in random order.
  • Help your child learn the sound for each of the letters. You can visit (www.havefunteaching.com)
  • Read with your child on a regular basis. Point out the title, author, front cover, back cover, capital letters.
  • Help your child to learn the difference between a letter, a word, and a sentence. Use books, newspapers, and magazines to find letters, words, and sentences. Count the words on a page- the words in the title, etc.
  • Be sure your child can write his/her name using a capital letter to start and all lower case for the rest, using a continuous movement.
  • Help your child learn his shapes and colors.
  • Let your child use scissors and practice cutting both on plain paper and on lines.
  • Write to your child. Encourage your child to write back even if what they write is just one letter. Let them try to sound out words themselves. Try not to spell everything for them.
  • Please work with your child on self help skills: Help him/her learn to use tissues alone and to practice good hygiene. Work on tying shoes, buckling a belt, buttoning/snapping clothes and zipping a coat.
  • Talk about what is more, less, or the same. Use vocabulary such as smaller, larger, longer, shorter, etc.
  • Introduce your child to the difference between letters and numbers.
  • Help your child learn to recognize numerals at least to 10.
Please remember these are ideas to help your child be more prepared for Kindergarten.

Will your child enter Kindergarten next year?Passport to Kindergarten for NEW Kindergarten Families: 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM on Saturday, April 13, 2013


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Prepararse Para el Kinder 
El Kinder de hoy es distinto en muchos aspectos a cuando usted asistió a la escuela. Muchos niños acuden al Kinder con experiencia de guardería o experiencia prescolar anterior. A pesar de que su hijo no comienza la escuela hasta agosto, hay muchas cosas que puede hacer ahora para prepararlo para el Kinder.

Aquí hay algunas ideas:
  • Asegúrese de que su hijo sepa tantas letras del alfabeto como sea posible, mayúsculas y minúsculas. Practíquenlas fuera de orden.
  • Ayudar a su hijo a aprender el sonido de cada una de las letras. Puede visitar (www.havefunteaching.com) lectura con su hijo seguido. Señale el título, autor, portada, contraportada, letras mayúsculas.
  • Ayudar a su hijo a aprender la diferencia entre una letra, una palabra, y una frase. Utilizar libros, periódicos y revistas para encontrar letras, palabras y frases. Contar las palabras en una página - las palabras en el título, etc..
  • Asegúrese de que su hijo puede escribir su nombre con una letra mayúscula para iniciar y todas minúsculas para el resto de su nombre.
  • Ayúdele a su hijo a aprender las formas y los colores.
  • Permita que su hijo utilice tijeras y practique cortando papel.
  • Escríbale a su hijo. Anime a su hijo a escribir aunque escriba sólo una letra.
  • Déjele a su intentar a leer palabras por sí mismo. No intente explicarle todo.
  • Trabaje con su niño en las habilidades que necesita para ayudarse a sí mismo: ayúdelo a aprender a utilizar pañuelo de papel solo y que practique la buena higiene. Enséñele a atarse los zapatos, a abrocharse el cinturón, abotonarse la ropa y a usar un cierre.
  • Háblele de lo que tiene más, menos o igual. Utilice el vocabulario apropiado, como menor, mayor, largo, corto, etc.
  • Introdúzcale a su hijo la diferencia entre las letras y los números.
  • Ayúdele a su hijo a aprender a reconocer los números del 1 al 10.
Por favor, recuerde estas son ideas para ayudar a su hijo a estar más preparado para entrar al Kinder.

¿Entrará su niño al Kinder el próximo año?Passport to Kindergarten para nuevas familias de Kinder: 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM en sábado 13 de abril del 2013.
 
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Collaborating with TASA and iTunes U for free course content

March 5, 2013, 9:12 am
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Four Mansfield ISD teachers are in Austin this week for the SXSWedu Conference and Festival to share presentations and help announce an initiative of the Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) to help train teachers to create course content for iTunes U.


The following Mansfield ISD teachers participated in the project launch with TASA: (pictured above from L-R) Michael Fore, pre-calculus teacher, Summit HS; Chrissy Boydstun, English teacher, Mansfield HS; Catherine McGuinness, social studies teacher, Legacy HS; and Jessica Crain, chemistry teacher, Timberview HS.

TASA joins iTunes U, offering free course content to transform Texas teaching, learning
The Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) today announced the launch of TASA on iTunes U to help transform Texas teaching and learning by providing course content for classroom teachers in the four core subject areas of mathematics, science, social studies and English language arts.

With more than 1 billion downloads, iTunes U is the world's largest online catalog of free educational content that helps educators create courses, including lectures, assignments, books, quizzes and syllabi. iTunes U is made available at no cost by Apple. The courses created by TASA will be available not only to Texas schools but also to millions of iOS users around the world.


The exponential increase of iPad implementations in Texas school districts (including MISD's high school iPad implementation this year), coupled with the need for educators to redesign instruction that empowers students, facilitates their understanding, and creates engaging experiences, prompted TASA to launch this initiative.

In the first phase of this initiative, to be completed by June 1, TASA on iTunes U will provide course content for a set of 18 high school courses that are fully aligned to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), free and accessible anywhere. This content — designed by teachers, for teachers — will foster creativity, collaboration and critical thinking skills in an engaging, digitally rich learning environment for Texas students, with special emphasis on high priority learning standards.

“I use iTunes U as a platform for teaching my courses and I love the way it offers a road map of what we will be doing in class but also gives students resources at their fingertips to facilitate learning,” said Mansfield High School teacher Chrissy Boydstun.

Last week, Apple announced that their iTunes U content topped one billion downloads. (That's billion with a "b.")

Earlier today, TASA shared a link to course content via Twitter that our teachers helped develop:

A total of 58 classroom teachers and content specialists, across 14 Texas school districts, are collaborating with TASA in the course and content development. TASA on iTunes U will make it easy for teachers to find and include high quality digital content from the App Store, iBookstore, and iTunes Store, as well as videos and other web based sources that align with the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills.
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Perry Elementary students learn about and share with students in Zimbabwe

March 8, 2013, 1:04 pm
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Earlier this week, Sarah Ewart, a tutor at Annette Perry Elementary School, presented to 2nd - 4th graders at the campus about a special opportunity she'll experience in the coming weeks. Ms. Ewart will travel to a small village in Zimbabwe called Badombe through a nonprofit organization called Buy A Brick to build schools. The village has 320 children between the primary school ages of 6 and 13. Currently 130 students squeeze into a former farmers' warehouse for their schooling, which is unfortunately also a home to a colony of bats. Because there is no room in their current facility, 190 children currently can not attend school.

Badombe Village (Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe)
During March 15-30, the Buy A Brick team will fix their bore hole pump, construct three school blocks, build toilets, an outdoor kitchen, and bath houses for their three teachers.

During the campus presentation, the Annette Perry students compared and contrasted their normal day to a day in the life of a Zimbabwean student. Some of the topics of discussion were breakfast foods, getting to school, school facilities, water availability, local wildlife, and making a positive international impact.

The students ate sugar from sugar cane, saw a normal Zimbabwean outfit, touched a Zimbabwean homemade soccer ball, and enjoyed lots of fun and interesting facts about Zimbabwe. At the end of the presentation the students were encouraged to write letters to the Zimbabwean students that would be placed in supply bags that the Zimbabwean students would receive.


The students asked if they could bring items to put in the supply bags. Within a couple of days the student body donated:
  • 40 bars of soap
  • 200 tubes of toothpaste
  • 70 tooth brushes
  • 16 crayon boxes
  • 155 small toys
  • 120 pens
  • 100 washcloths
  • 180 handwritten letters

"The excitement on the students faces and the compassion in their hearts was inspiring to behold," wrote Sarah Ewart.

The students look forward to reading letters from the Zimbabwean students and seeing pictures of the trip. Through their letters, compassion, and generosity Annette Perry students will impact families and students in Zimbabwe.

For more information please visit www.buyabrick.com.
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Anderson Elementary 3rd Grader impressive at Regional Spelling Bee

March 20, 2013, 9:59 am
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Mansfield High School Speech Team Awards

March 28, 2013, 9:10 am
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MHS Speech Team (L-R) Olivia Soliz, Zach Montou, Beaven Waller, Aldean Pearson II,
Brittany Davis, Kristy Thomas (coach), Daniel George

Mansfield High School Speech team represented the district well at state competition March 6-8 at South Grand Prairie High School. Awards are as follows:
  • Olivia Soliz & Beaven Waller - Semi finalist in duo interpretation
  • Olivia Soliz - semi finalist in dramatic interpretation
  • Olivia Soliz & Aldean Pearson II - semi finalist in duet acting
  • Beaven Waller - quarter finalist dramatic interpretation
  • Daniel George & Beaven Waller - quarter finalist in duet acting
  • Zach Montou & Brittany Davis - Semi finalist in duet acting
  • Aldean Pearson II - semi finalist in original oratory
  • Aldean Pearson II - State champion Dramatic Interpretation
Overall the team placed 14th out of 201 schools from around the state that competed. Congratulations to the team and to their coach, Kristy Thomas.


Mansfield High School senior, Aldean Pearson II won first place at the state speech and debate competition out of 136 entries from all over the state. He's pictured above with his coach, Kristy Thomas.
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2013 Multi-Cultural Festival (photos and thanks)

April 8, 2013, 3:37 pm
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Thank you to all who joined us for the inaugural Mansfield ISD Multi-Cultural Festival on Saturday, April 6 at The MISD Center for the Performing Arts. Attendees enjoyed a wide array of free activities, games, food, student showcases, performances, and more. We had a steady flow of people all day long. Culinary arts students from Ben Barber Career Tech Academy/Frontier High School provided an amazing selection of savory and sweet bites from over a dozen different countries and cultures. Many attendees asked for recipes from the students and chefs.

Check out the photo gallery from the event:


What did you think?
We hope you enjoyed the event and would love to hear from you if you came. Please let us know your thoughts about Saturday's event in the comments or via email to mansfieldisd@gmail.com. (You can also email your event photos to the address above if you'd like to share your great pics.)

A special thank you goes out to our many volunteer staff, students, and parents who helped make the event a success.
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Shining Star Award Nominations

April 10, 2013, 3:07 pm
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The Communications Department is accepting the nominations for the District's annual Shining Star Award recognizing exceptional non-teaching Mansfield ISD staff members.

Please complete the Shining Star Nomination Form:


The six Shining Star Award winners will be selected and announced in May.

Note: Teachers are recognized through the campus and district Teachers of the Year program.
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Icenhower Intermediate students donate supplies for DFW homeless children

April 11, 2013, 9:29 am
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Della Icenhower Intermediate School held its annual Baby Supply Drive to benefit Captain Hope's Kids, which helps our area homeless children.

"The Icenhower Character Club has sponsored this drive the past four years and it's a pleasure and an honor to see kids helping kids," said Icenhower Counselor, Lisa Fields.


Captain Hope's Kids is dedicated to meeting the needs of homeless children. Over the past two years, Captain Hope’s Kids has raised and donated over $1.3 million in clothes, diapers, school supplies and much more to the homeless children of North Texas.
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Superintendent Update - April 2013

April 11, 2013, 11:30 am
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Mansfield ISD Interim Superintendent, Dr. Jim Vaszauskas, discusses new developments in the Texas Legislature, the MISD superintendent search, Passport to Kindergarten and upcoming improvements to MISD staffing and classroom sizes.

Superintendent Update - April 2013 watch on YouTube or the Video Portal (inside the MISD network).

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Elementary students to name surgical robot

April 12, 2013, 1:09 pm
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Methodist Mansfield Medical Center and Mansfield ISD Announce da Vinci Naming Contest

What would it be like to test drive a robot in a surgical operating room? Methodist Mansfield Medical Center and Mansfield ISD are partnering to give elementary students with an interest in robotics a chance to find out.

MISD elementary students will have an opportunity to name the da Vinci® robotic surgical system at Methodist Mansfield Medical Center as well as learn about its unique ability to assist surgeons to help patients recover more quickly. On Thursday, April 11 OR Director Shelley Cook discussed the da Vinci robotic surgical system used at the hospital with robotic team students at Willie Brown Elementary School:
“We are pleased to give kids an opportunity to experience real-world engineering through the da Vinci robot and work side by side with board certified surgeons to mentor children and help them learn about health and science in our community,” John Phillips, president of Methodist Mansfield Medical Center says. “We hope this fun contest inspires these ‘little surgeons’ to pursue careers in health, engineering, and business.”

da Vinci® naming contest
Methodist Mansfield invites all MISD elementary school students to submit one name that describes the da Vinci robotic surgical system. The deadline is 4 p.m. on Thursday, May 2, 2013. The winning name will be announced during an upcoming school board meeting at the MISD Center for the Performing Arts.

The student who submits the winning name will receive a commemorative award certificate and an opportunity for the student and up to five friends to have an opportunity to operate with the da Vinci Surgical System and take a behind the scenes tour of the hospital. The winning class will also receive a healthy pizza party along with a special video of the da Vinci in action.

Download the Robot Naming Contest coloring page (PDF).
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New District Website Launch

April 18, 2013, 6:55 am
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The Mansfield ISD website received a digital makeover this week to bring the district and department-level pages up to the same design and management standards as the campus websites. The new design and management uses the finalsite web software content management system. In May, 2011 the School Board approved the purchase agreement to put the website redesign project wheels in motion.

Following a comprehensive design and training schedule, the campus websites went live in April, 2012. After the campus sites were up and running, MISD Web Services Coordinator, Alicia Alford, moved on to the district and department redesign project.

A Website Redesign Committee was established and met to discuss the aspects of the district website that worked well in addition to things that needed improvement. Among the areas for improvement:
  • Header (navigation bar) needed to be compatible with all platforms
  • More consistency at lower level pages
  • Cleaner, more updated look similar to campus redesign
  • Mobile-friendly design and functionality
After the new design parameters were established, the redesign and content transfers began in November, 2012 and the site is ready for show @ www.mansfieldisd.org


Frequent users of the MISD website should notice some major changes and will hopefully be pleased with the new look. If you've bookmarked specific pages such as Skyward or Cafeteria Menus, you'll need to update those bookmarks to the new pages.
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Elementary Robotics Teams Compete at State

April 23, 2013, 11:51 am
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Congratulations to the Mary Jo Sheppard Elementary Colts Robotics and Willie Brown Elementary Eagles Robotics teams that qualified for and competed at the Annual State Robotics Competition hosted by the Texas Computer Education Association (TCEA).

The goal of the TCEA Robotics Competition is to inspire young people to become science and technology leaders. Robotics is an invaluable resource for teaching science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) skills. It also develops critical thinking, collaboration, and problem solving, along with other 21st century skills such as creativity, imagination, curiosity, innovation, and self-confidence.The contest was held April 13, 2013, at Deer Park High School South in Deer Park, Texas. View a photo slideshow from the state contest.

Colt Robots (pictured above front row L-R in black): Michelle Gery, Katelynn Veale, Morgan Bruton, Miles Shamburger, Mark Smith, and Rick McCase

Eagles Robotics (pictured above back row L-R in pink): Monica Abrams, William Osmus, Kyndal Waldo, Brynn Spicher, Sydney Webb

MISD Robotics 
Quick facts about the district-wide robotics initiative:
  • Aligned with Part One of MISD Strategic Plan: Innovative and Inspiring Teaching Methods
  • Established in 2011-12 with a pilot program at Willie Brown Elementary
  • $50,000 in grant funds (LEGO Smart Schools and MISD Education Foundation) were secured to launch this initiative; MISD Technology Development committed another $40,000 in required matching funds
  • 264 WeDo kits and resource packs and 96 Mindstorms NXT kits and resource packs were purchased with the funds.
  • All 22 elementary campuses are implementing WeDo robotics into Technology Applications classes
  • 18 campuses (elementary through high school) have launched after-school robotics programs using Mindstorms NXT robots this year
Related Information
Elementary students to name surgical robot
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Special Olympics Awards: Athlete and Unified Partner of the Year

April 23, 2013, 1:30 pm
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On Friday, April 19, two athletes from the Mansfield ISD All Stars Special Olympics team received awards at the opening ceremony for Area 11. Raeka Phelps was named the Female Athlete of the Year and Justin May was named Unified Partner of the Year. A unified partner is an athlete without disabilities that competes alongside an athlete with disabilities. Both of these athletes have been with the Manfield ISD All Stars for several years. They both attend Mansfield Legacy High School. Congratulations, Raeka and Justin.
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Impact Award: Career Prep Teacher Connects Students with Internships

April 24, 2013, 9:13 am
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When teachers are asked the question, “What do you teach?” most will respond in the form of a subject area, such as reading, language arts, or math. Melanie Stillings describes her role in a different way.

“I teach students,” Stillings says with a smile.

As the Career Prep teacher at Ben Barber Career Tech Academy, Stillings works to prepare students for the real world by connecting them with internships in the local business community.

By joining a local business as an intern, students get a one-of-a-kind learning experience, and the opportunity to connect what they are learning in the classroom to real life experiences in the workforce.

The response from the business community has been overwhelmingly supportive, but it took a bit of convincing in the beginning. One of the first businesses Stillings reached out to was Klein Tools. As a worldwide provider of tools, Klein has an honored reputation to uphold. Although the company had never hired interns before, they were willing to give Stillings’ students a shot.

“They met with us and were so impressed with our engineering program and our robotics program that they took the gamble and hired our students,” Stillings said. “They ended up hiring some of them on as employees because they were so impressed with the skillset they had and how prepared they were for the work force.”

Through her involvement with groups like the Mansfield AreaChamber of Commerce and Leadership Mansfield, Stillings has developed a wide range of contacts in the local business community, and has been able to connect students with internships in the field they are interested in.

Throughout the semester, students work closely with their mentors to develop a capstone project, which is evaluated by a panel at the Senior Showcase Night. The panel consists of business and community partners that donate their time to assist the students with their unique projects, which range from detailed business proposals to actual products such as a fully developed iPhone App to a custom-built engine that runs on fuel vapors.

Under Stillings’ guidance, her students have been able to build a strong foundation for the future and accomplish some truly amazing things.

“She has such a love for what she does,” said campus counselor Michelle Smith. “She cares about their future and really wants to see them succeed and be the kind of person that she sees each one of them can be.”

Watch the Impact Award video on YouTube or the MISD Video Portal:


On behalf of the Mansfield ISD Administration, congratulations to Melanie Stillings, our latest Impact Award Winner!

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The Impact Award was established to recognize individual staff members, departments, campuses or other groups that have promoted teamwork and unity by initiating a program or event that made a positive impact within Mansfield ISD and the community. Impact Award winners may be nominated by staff, students or community members.

Winners are selected each month throughout the school year. Staff members who receive The Impact Award are eligible for other district honors.
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High School Seniors Make Finals at DECA Internationals

May 2, 2013, 2:16 pm
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Congratulations to Frontier High School senior, Melany Gonzalez and her partner, Timberview High School senior, Andrew Bostic, for making the finals in Financial Analysis Team Decision Making, at the DECA International Career Development Conference. The conference was held in Anaheim CA, April 24-27, with over 15,000 student competitors from all over the world.

Their event included a rigorous financial exam as well as role-plays in front of judges from the finance industry . The team came in 1st place in Texas where they went on to represent  Ben Barber DECA, Frontier High School, Timberview High School, Mansfield ISD, and Texas. If you see Melany or Andrew, please congratulate them on a job well done.

The DECA International Career Development Conference (ICDC) is the highlight of the DECA year. Fourteen thousand high school students, advisors, businesspersons and alumni gather for several days of DECA excitement. Most participants at ICDC compete in one of DECA's competitive events. The top competitors in each event are recognized for their outstanding achievements. In addition to the competitive events, many students and advisors participate in a variety of leadership and career advancing academies.
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Gazebo Preserves a Kinder Community Spirit

May 3, 2013, 10:30 am
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Have you ever wondered about that seemingly random gazebo on the administrative complex property between the parking lot and Student Services? The following write-up shares some details about its history and upkeep: 

Although it may never be mentioned in conversation, the small pristine white Gazebo on North Walnut Creek Dr. is a subliminal reminder that Mansfield was a quiet, country town when the Women’s Division of the Mansfield Area Chamber of Commerce donated the Gazebo to MISD some twenty-three years ago. Whether it be the setting for a wedding, the meeting place for teenagers “cramming” for finals, the pretend castle of a group of youngsters or the backdrop for a family Christmas card the structure beckons any and all passersby to share in its splendor.

“The Gazebo belongs to the community,” said Lucretia Mills, who spearheaded efforts to care for the structure since 1990. “It is something that we can all be proud of.”

In the early years of the life of the Gazebo, Mrs. Mills enlisted the help of the Tarrant County Community Correction Facility which provided female inmates who did the painting, seasonal landscaping and decorating it for the holidays. The trainees took pride in their work at the Gazebo. This was their only opportunity to step off of the premises of the Boot Camp. They enjoyed taking ownership of the project and learned some valuable life lessons from their efforts.

In the past few weeks the gazebo has been given a facelift with a fresh coat of paint by Eagle Scout, Ethan T. Hurdsman of the Boy Scouts of America Troop 215. This was his Eagle Scout project for which he did a superb job. Ethan is a senior at Mansfield Legacy High School and excels in graphic design, 3D design and photography. His plans for college are to attend Tarrant County College the first two years. He was on site Saturday to watch the flower bed being spruced up with spring flowers and a new stone border by Store Managers from area Starbucks stores. Not only did these volunteers give of their time to the Gazebo but also helped with another project for one of our elderly citizens. The volunteers along with Ethan are pictured above.

The Gazebo is now under the supervision of the Keep Mansfield Beautiful Commission of which Mrs. Mills has been a long time member and will continue to oversee the Gazebo under the direction of KMBC and MISD.

Pride is an important factor in Mrs. Mills’ message. If Mansfield is to preserve and maintain the reputation that citizens have a certain “quality of life” complimentary to both small-town hospitality and rapid economic development, Mills said everyone must take responsibility for those efforts.
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