AISD rallies for DECA

ANAHUAC—During the school board meeting last week, Anahuac High School students shared details about the positive impact of a new initiative, and upper administration provided an update on a recent initiative.

Anahuac Independent School District met on Monday, Sept. 29, where AHS senior Tammy Ly discussed Texas DECA District 4, which Anahuac joined just this year.

Initiated by Ly and fellow students, the club offers students the opportunity to connect with peers in surrounding areas and develop leadership skills.

Ly said through DECA, the students had many opportunities to reach the Anahuac community and recently collaborated with East Chambers Independent School District students.

Ly added that on Monday, they attended the DECA Fall Leadership Conference.

"This organization has given us a lot of opportunities, and one of those has been the formation of the Panther Post, which is now our very first student-led business within the high school," Ly said.

Ideas for products come from students, and they lead sales efforts. As of now, they only have rally towels, but with the success brought from those, they plan to begin selling sweatshirts, shirts and other Panther gear in the coming months.

Initially, starting with 500 towels, the students sold 305 towels in two weeks.

"That has been an incredible milestone that we're incredibly proud of," Ly said.

Superintendent Cody Abshier, Ed.D., gave an update on the Texas Strategic Leadership initiative.

"This has to be a priority," Abshier said. "We have to stay loyal and faithful to it, and we have to stick closely together on this."

Abshier reiterated the purpose of joining the program, saying the students and teachers have "tremendous potential," but creating a formal and cohesive plan and curriculum will better the overall experience for students, staff and parents.

Deputy Superintendent Daniel Andrews provided a few more details on the district's progress in the TSL program, stating that the next steps are to submit curriculum and management plans.

Andrews added that AISD will begin reviewing all the collected data to start forming a strategic plan in late November to early December.

Additionally, individualized surveys were sent to parents, staff, teachers, students, and the board to identify the district's strengths and areas for improvement.

Abshier noted that Monday was the first day the district had campus walkthroughs, calling it a milestone for AISD.

Andrews added that it was a refreshing reminder that "this is why we do what we do, so that those teachers can have that impact directly on the students of our district on a daily basis."

"In order for them to be successful at that, we have to look to remove as many obstacles as we can for the campus admin, so they can remove obstacles for those teachers," Andrews said, noting there will be growing pains with the strategic plan, but it will make the district stronger.

Abshier also hopes to increase student attendance, noting that the attendance rate for the first six weeks was 96% for Anahuac Primary School, 98% for Anahuac Elementary School, 95% for Anahuac Middle School, and 95% for AHS.

During regular business, AISD Trustee Stacey Davis, who is also the vice president at Anahuac National Bank, gave a $500 donation to the AMS honors band on behalf of ANB to support their trip to Indianapolis, Indiana, where the band will perform in the Music for All National Festival.

After the executive session, the board approved hiring a technical education teacher and a high school counselor.