Friday, August 19, 2011

District joins the City of Mansfield for "Daybreak" segment

On Friday, August 19, community members, staff, parents, and students took part in an early-morning opportunity to show some community spirit, while showcasing the City of Mansfield and the Mansfield ISD.

Mansfield ISD and the City of Mansfield was the featured community on Daybreak (WFAA Ch. 8) at Victory Plaza south of the American Airlines Center.

Many students helped out in providing some morning spirit including the Mansfield HS Band, Varsity Cheerleading squads from all 4 MISD High Schools; and some student athletes/teams that won a State Championship during the 2010-2011 school year. According to Daybreak anchor, Ch. 8's Cynthia Izaguirre, this morning's group set a record attendance.

Thanks to all who joined in on the fun.






Mansfield ISD launches iPhone App

The App's out of the bag!

Mansfield ISD has launched the long-awaited and planned iPhone App just in time for the start of the 2011-12 school year.

The idea for the iPhone App materialized last summer and we received some early interest, wishes and suggestions for functionality.

We listened to that feedback and put together a comprehensive mobile app for our community.


We wanted to provide our parents, students, and staff with as much of the relevant and useful Mansfield ISD information, links, documents, resources, etc. at their fingertips.

Through the MISD iPhone App, users will find:

  • Campus and department directory complete with phone numbers and maps
  • Cafeteria menus and meal pricing
  • Infinite Campus access for online grades, attendance and student information system
  • Interactive map and portal to our web search engine used for attendance zones and bus routes
  • News and blog updates, MISD YouTube videos, and quick access to our online photo galleries
  • and much more....
Why did we choose to do an iPhone App?
MISD iPhone App home screen
We're always looking for ways to expand, enhance, and improve our school district communication and this seemed like a pretty solid way to do that to reach an ever-increasing mobile audience.In the 2010-11 academic year, our website traffic increased in the area of mobile devices. Leading the pack of mobile devices was the iPhone, with over 102,000 visits. We took into consideration iPod and iPad device access to our site and determined that right now, the traffic could support an iPhone App.

Android users, we haven't forgot about you. Our current plans are to begin the process soon for an Android App since that platform brought the next highest number and percentage of mobile device traffic.

For now, please let all of the iPhone users in Mansfield ISD know about the District's app and be sure to let us know what you think.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Fan Fest 2011 Photos

Thank you to all who joined us last week for the 5th Annual Fan Fest.

The Mansfield ISD Athletics Department held the 5th Annual Fan Fest on Thursday, August 11, 2011 at Vernon Newsom Stadium. Fan Fest has become an annual free kick-off event at Newsom Stadium. It features the District's high school varsity football teams, drumlines, cheerleaders, and drill teams. Community members were invited to choose their seats, purchase football season tickets, meet the football players and coaches on the field while enjoying an evening in a pep rally-like atmosphere.

Friday, August 5, 2011

Reasons for the five minute earlier high school start


Mansfield ISD high school students will report to school five minutes earlier this year due to an adjusted bell schedule.

Mansfield HS, Legacy HS, Summit HS, Timberview HS will start school five minutes earlier at 7:10 AM (Classes are dismissed at 2:30 PM.)

Ben Barber Career Tech Academy/Frontier HS will begin the day at 7:00 AM (Classes are dismissed at 2:30 PM.)

So why the change?
The earlier start time was done for several reasons. Basically, the earlier start times create more flexibility for students taking courses at Ben Barber Career Tech Academy. We also had to adjust the schedule to transport students to and from BBCTA on the morning and afternoon bus schedule to ensure they would not miss class at their home campuses. Additionally, Tarrant County College Southeast Campus requested longer class times for duel credit courses that students can take at the BBCTA campus. And lastly, the adjustment will allowed Ben Barber CTA to qualify for additional funding which, in this economic climate could not be ignored.

Change can be tough (and maybe even a little unpopular according to a few of the Twitter replies we've seen from students) but we appreciate everyone's flexibility and understanding for this adjustment.

Get a printable copy of the high school bell schedule chart is available on the MISD website.

Photo credit: svenwerk

Thursday, July 28, 2011

New Campus Logos

During the summer of 2011, the Mansfield ISD Communications Department commissioned graphic design work for updates to several campus logos. The following schools received updated designs:
  • Charlotte Anderson Elementary
  • J.L. Boren Elementary
  • Willie Brown Elementary
  • Kenneth Davis Elementary
  • Imogene Gideon Elementary
  • Thelma Jones Elementary
  • D.P. Morris Elementary
  • Erma Nash Elementary
  • Alice Ponder Elementary
  • Mary Orr Intermediate
  • Donna Shepard Intermediate
  • Cross Timbers Intermediate
  • Rogene Worley Middle
  • Nancy Neal Elementary (new campus)
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New designs were needed once we determined that original campus logo art was either missing, old clipart or just too small and/or pixelated to be useful.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Feed the Kids for Summer - Update

Thanks to the efforts of the staff and volunteers from the Common Ground Network, the Feed the Kids for Summer program is in full-swing. According to organizers, the program is up nearly 30% over last year. As of July 20, they've distributed 4,798 bags of food to area families.

Phil Stover, Feed the Kids for Summer program co-chair, was happy for us to share the news about the group's progress.

"By all means encourage contributions and volunteering," said Stover. "The food bags cost nearly $5.00 each, so we are spending right at $3,500 a week and money is still needed."

Feed the Kids for Summer is designed to help supplement lunch and breakfast food for children by assisting Mansfield ISD area families to meet their grocery needs during the summer break from school. The food is kid friendly and does not require a stove or oven to prepare.

Families who depend on the government-sponsored school meal programs to help provide their children with nutritious food are left with a large void to fill during the summer months. Common Ground interviews hundreds of families to determine the most urgent needs and then goes into action to make sure that supplemental groceries can be provided to them for the duration of the summer.

If you are interested in helping, you can consider volunteering. You can also a tax-deductible donation, by making checks out to, "Common Ground", memo FKFS and mail to - Common Ground, P.O. Box 1049, Mansfield, TX 76063.

For questions, contact FKFS Co-Chair, Phil Stover at 817-709-1174 or philstover@charter.net.



Mansfield ISD is a partner with the Common Ground Network.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Signs of Summer

I hope you are all having a great summer and are staying cool.  It's been a while since we shared anything new on the blog so it was time to drop in and say hello.

Summer around Mansfield ISD means planning, preparing, fixing, learning, and resting a bit before the next school year.

Back to School
We'll have some new things to share in the coming days and weeks leading up to the start of school. Are you looking for back to school information? Each campus has (or will soon have) updates, school supply lists, and other back to school updates. As a reminder, school starts Monday, August 22.

Summer Hours
The administration is still on summer hours (Monday - Thursday, 7:30 AM - 5:00 PM. Closed Fridays) until July 29. We'll be back to normal office hours on August 1.

In the meantime, below is a sample of some campus marquees with messages for summer. Students should pay particular attention to the one that says, "READ, READ, READ." [Get the approved summer reading lists.]









What about you: How are you staying cool this summer?