For the remainder of the 2012-2013 school year, Dickinson High School students will be piloting a new cell phone/electronic device policy which gives students a little more leniency to use cell phones or electronic devices during non-instructional times of the school day. The Board of Trustees granted approval to the policy at their March 15 board meeting.

Under the pilot program, students may use their phone/electronic device for texting and listening during passing periods in the hallway and during their designated lunch period. Voice conversation is not allowed from 7:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. in any location on the DHS property. Students may not use their cell phone/electronic device in the classroom without the expressed permission of the classroom teacher.

Students found to be in violation of the pilot program policy, will have the device confiscated and not returned until the following Thursday for a $15 fee. The permanent implementation of this policy will be determined by the DHS student body's positive response and compliance with the pilot program, along with the approval of the Superintendent and Board of Trustees at the end of the school year.

To view the entire cell phone/electronic device pilot program policy, click here.

Students at Hughes Road Elementary have been raising money for some worthy causes this year. Jump Rope for Heart is an event sponsored by the American Heart Association and Pasta for Pennies benefits the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Christina Salinas and Estelle Harvey-Raleigh are the teachers who headed the events and they said the students raised more than $6,000 for these worthy causes. Jump Rope for Heart raised $2,813, while Pasta for Pennies brought in more than $3,500.

"These kids really got into this," Raleigh said. "With the Jump Rope for Heart, they had to get sponsors for them to jump rope a certain amount of time. The kids had a blast doing this. I think the fact that they knew they were going to help people receive medicines and different treatments made them work harder to get more sponsors.

The Olive Garden Restaurant chain was in partnership with the Lymphoma Society in Pasta for Pennies, according to Salinas. She said the restaurant awarded the top three teams with a pasta dinner to whoever brought the most money.

"The students had a small box they would carry home and gather change," Salinas said. "They would bring it back each day and fill a bigger box they had here at the school. They would repeat that every day."

She said many of the kids would go around their neighborhood to collect money to get their boxes full. "It was so exciting to watch them fill up their boxes each day and see whose box had the most," she said. "It was like a competition. They wanted to outdo each other every day. They had so much fun with it."

"This is the first year we have done this," Hughes Road Principal Patricia Lankford said. "I was so proud of our teachers and students for taking on two worthy causes like this. I think they had a lot of fun with it as well."

Five Dickinson High School students were awarded State medals after competing in the State Visual Arts Scholastic Event on April 4-5 in Bryan. Those top winners include Jorge Resendiz, Van Do, Kierra Stearns, Anna Novak and Vanessa Lortie.

Special recognition goes to Jorge, who received the highest award given, the Gold Seal Exhibit. 

His art piece was among only 150 outstanding works chosen from nearly 2,000 for the year-long traveling show that will be displayed at several venues including the Texas Capitol, The George Bush Library and the University of Houston. Congratulations to Jorge for earning this high honor for his sculptural piece, "Mr. Junk," pictured to the right. 

  
Thanks to the generosity and help of Lockheed Martin employees, Blaine Brown and Mark Messinger, McAdams Junior High students will be able to use 20 Dell laptops. Through the efforts of Jeannie Thielemann, Dickinson ISD Education Foundation Executive Director, and Dr. Melissa Williams, Director of Information Systems, it was determined that the students at McAdams would be able to best utilize the laptops. A portable learning lab will be set-up with the laptops so that all the students can benefit from this technology.

Dr. Jeff Pack, McAdams Principal, was very excited to see the laptops, since they have had to borrow laptops in the past from the high school to help students and parents register for classes. Thanks to the donation, they will have their own laptops to utilize all of the time. "These laptops will allow our teachers to spend more time helping students," said Education Foundation President Diane Mackey. "We appreciate Lockheed's donation so much!"

More than 150 family, friends, mentors and administrators came together Tuesday evening to honor Dickinson ISD's first year teachers. The group has been going through a First Year Teacher Academy over the past year to better equip them for what they will face in the classroom in the years to come.

"I am so very honored to have been a part of this training of all these great professionals," said Traci Goodwin. Goodwin is Director of Professional Development and Advanced Academics in Dickinson ISD. "These teachers worked very hard to learn so many different things to enhance their skills in classroom management, discipline, lesson planning and how to work well with other teachers. I'm proud of all of them."

A video was shown of the teachers talking about how they want the students they teach to remember them and what they want their legacy to be. Both the protege teachers and their individual mentor teacher were presented with certificates in honor of the achievements.