Superintendent Update - September 2012

Dr. Bob Morrison discusses the latest on the district's new high school iPad initiative, new construction and the MISD transition from Infinite Campus to the Skyward Family Access system.

Watch Dr. Morrison's update on YouTube or on the District's Video Portal (inside the district network).

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Note: The video references a status on the iPad deployment schedule. The High School iPad program for teachers and students is currently in the deployment phase. Devices have been distributed to students at Frontier HS, Lake Ridge HS, Mansfield HS, and Legacy HS. This week, students at Timberview HS will start the process followed by Summit HS during the week of September 24. (As a reminder, Frontier was first to receive the devices because it is a smaller number of students and technicians used it to test the process. A random drawing by the high school principals determined the order of deployment for the other schools.)

Solar Car Team Takes the Challenge

Students from the Ben Barber Career Tech Academy are voluntarily working through their summer vacation to compete in the Solar Car Challenge which will be held later this month at the Texas Motor Speedway.

Thanks to team advisors Jackie Bishop (auto tech teacher) and Rob Goodson (engineering teacher) along with a lot of help from generous sponsors, the students are building the District's first solar car for competition while learning some valuable skills. Approximately 25 students have been busy working on weekdays and a few Saturdays here and there in the BBCTA automotive garage to finish the solar car in time for the race week, July 15-19. The solar car team is primarily for engineering and auto tech students, but anyone can help according to advisor, Jackie Bishop.

While the car will sport large solar panels on its top for power, it has some some simple automotive roots. The chassis is from an old Legends Car that was donated. It has a four-wheeler front-end suspension and a motorcycle rear-suspension. In order to make this solar car and race a reality, students had to learn a lot about solar power, electronics, steel, construction, welding, and even amateur radio skills (and licenses) for track communication.

Check out the MISD Minutes video feature on the Solar Car Challenge (YouTube or MISD Video Portal).

December Construction Update

School Trustees get a monthly report that outlines the progress planned by the Construction Program Supervisor. The following items were included in the December 2011 report:

Lake Ridge High School 

The Lake Ridge High School sports facilities, including fields, will complete in January 2012 for early administrative staff move-in and use. The Complete Facility Substantial Completion Date for the campus is April 2012. The school is located at 101 N. Day Miar Road, Mansfield, TX.

December 1 aerial photo

Mansfield ISD Center for the Performing Arts 

The Substantial Completion Date for the Center for the Performing Arts is May 7, 2012, with MISD move-in date of May 1, 2012. The MISD Center for the Performing Arts is located at 1110 W. Debbie Lane, Mansfield, TX. 

As the first official use of the facility, all 2012 Mansfield ISD high school graduation ceremonies will be held at the Center for the Performing Arts. Get the graduations schedule.

December 1 aerial photo

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Note: The Executive Program Summaries are available through the School Board meeting agendas and minutes.

2011 by the numbers and interesting facts

Image by DrBacchus via FlickrAs the 2010-11 school year comes to a close and we head into the summer months, we would like to share some of the more interesting facts and figures from the District:

• We currently have 4 construction projects representing approximately 750,000 square feet of space.
• The Mansfield ISD Education Foundation has given over $2,000,000 in the form of educator grants to our teachers since 1998.
• We have approximately 75 applicants for every principal job that opens in our District.
• In the last 2 years, approximately 70% of our principals, directors, and coordinators level positions have been filled with internal candidates.
• 137 student teachers were placed this year with 213 cooperating teachers.
• We average 125 applicants for every assistant principal opening and have had as many as 182 applicants for a high school assistant principal job.
• On average we have 300 teacher applicants for every open position.
• We have 55 teachers going through an administrator's training class taught by Human Resources; so far 3 of our assistant principal positions were filled with these interns.
• 114 scholarships totaling $84,850 were awarded in the 2011 Mansfield ISD Community Multi-Scholarship program.
• The Mansfield ISD website has had over 4,900,000 hits since August 2010.
• There are over 110 languages spoken in Mansfield ISD other than English.
• The Technology Department handles approximately 150,000 e-mails per day.
• Generally speaking, it takes $1,000,000 per day to operate Mansfield ISD.
• Our Transportation Department carries 22,390 passengers per day traveling over 2.5 million miles per year.
• Our Student Nutrition Department  served 776,848 breakfasts, 2,892,222 lunches, and 3,093,032 cartons of milk.
• A staffing survey by the Texas Association of School Boards shows that Mansfield ISD has 512 fewer employees than comparible districts across the state.
• On average, MISD grows in enrollment by the size of a middle school each year.
• Mansfield ISD has 5,350,967 square feet of air conditioned space and 800 mowable acres of land.
• Mansfield ISD used 55,828,455 KwH of electricity last year - enough to power all the electricity needs for the homes of each of our students and staff for one year (approximately 37,000 homes).
• Mansfield ISD operates under budget.

Superintendent Update - April 2011

Dr. Morrison shares the latest information on the impending state budget shortfall, construction updates for the Center for the Performing Arts and Nancy Neal Elementary, end of school year activities, and graduation information.


Please note: Due to scheduling conflicts, this video update is being posted in May instead of the planned April release.

Superintendent Update - October 2010

District Superintendent Dr. Bob Morrison shares his monthly video series for the District community. This month he discusses our new phone notification system, health and fitness initiative with employees, and an update on the Center for the Performing Arts. in this October update.

(This video was shared on the District's YouTube channel earlier this month.)

Cows and construction don't mix

"Oh didn't you hear? We have cows."

And that's how it started. Last week, new assistant superintendent for student services and support, Lamar Goree mentioned our little cattle issue at the construction site for the Mansfield ISD Center for the Performing Arts.

Construction workers from Thos. S. Byrne Construction Services tipped us off to the cattle problem at the site located behind Ben Barber Career Tech Academy. After some field investigation work and armed with a digital camera, Goree and Dr. Ed Foster, Director of Career and Technology, located the cattle as well as their owner. (See the photo evidence above.)

Approximately 30 head of cattle have been roaming the land between an area owned to the North and East of the MISD property and our construction site. We are having a fence built between the two properties and construction has commenced on the $40.4 million facility. Yep, the cows have to be moooooved. (Sorry, I couldn't help it.)

Mansfield ISD Center for the Performing Arts
The Mansfield ISD Center for the Performing Arts will be a 149,650-square-foot home of the Claude Cunningham Performance Hall and John Washington Professional Development Center.

The performance hall will accommodate 5500 people with an additional 500 on the stage. This would allow for a seating capacity of 6000 to accommodate our high school graduations and other large-scale events. The main feature of the professional development center's design is one large room that can accommodate up to 500, but can also be divided into six separate rooms for training. This large professional development room could host other events that are currently being housed outside the district. The MISD Center for the Performing Arts is scheduled to open in the spring of 2012.