Outside districts, New Tech Network visit Alamo

Nov. 13—Alamo STEAM Academy, on its way to implementing project-based learning, got a visit from the New Tech Network and other districts to get a look at how the elementary campus is doing on its transition.

The school, which has 353 students, joined the New Tech Network this fall. It will be a feeder school to George H.W. Bush New Tech Odessa. New Tech will begin offering a middle school on the second floor of the building when the new career and technical education center is built.

"This will create a feeder pattern pre-K all the way to 12 for the New Tech Network. And it will be, my understanding is, the only one in the state, which is pretty exciting," Principal Elisha Sessions said.

Sessions reviewed Alamo's progress and took questions from representatives of other districts who are working toward becoming New Tech schools as well.

Sessions noted that Ector County ISD has made a substantial investment in the campus becoming part of the New Tech Network, despite having a deficit budget this year due to lack of new state funding.

"I know that they believe in it and they support it. ...," she said. "I don't think that it's just one of those things that we're going to do it for a couple of years and then we're going to be out, because it does feed directly into the vision of the district, which is to have that feeder pattern. That's helped with staff as well, to get them on board and to get them to understand the importance of the work that we are doing."

The visitors also got to view classroom instruction and talk to teachers and students.

Representatives were brought in from Lubbock, El Paso and Maynard. Top ECISD officials were also on hand.

Sessions said it feels good to showcase all the work that's been going on at Alamo.

"I just believe in what's happening here and I know that we are learning and so it's not going to be perfect right off, but I know that the teachers have embraced this work and I think that's going to be reflected" in their visits to classrooms, Sessions said.

The school choice window opens Dec. 1 so they should know soon how many new students they can expect.

Sessions said they had some interest at the district's school choice fair in October.

"But it's always interesting to see when those applications start streaming in if there's a draw," she added.

She noted that Director of Partnerships and School Choice Mandy Hinojos, will be doing some more marketing to help Alamo out.

Six-year-old Khalea Torres is in Ariam Solis' first-grade class at Alamo. The students were told to pack a suitcase (in a manila file folder) with pictures of what they would need. But they didn't find out until after they had packed where they were going so they had to figure out if they had what they needed.

"It's fun and it good to learn what you need to pack ... it's good to learn and fun to learn," Torres said.

Steffany Batik, director of growth and district success at the New Tech Network said this is the second time she has been to the campus. She had visited Alamo before they started the transition to New Tech and project-based learning.

"The fact that I wanted to bring a group of people here from outside tells you a lot about how they're doing. I knew when I met the leadership here and in the district that they were really going to invest time to make this a successful implementation. So to hear how they've changed their processes, their planning time, the whole school project thing that just really shows that they are very intentional with making sure that this is a success for them and for the students," Batik said.