PSJA ISD Superintendent Danny King gave his State of the District address at the State Farm Arena in Hidalgo. (Photo: RGG/Steve Taylor)

SAN JUAN, Aug. 21 - Pharr-San Juan-Alamo ISD will have more than 32,000 students enrolled when the new school year starts next week, a reflection of the fast growing tri-city area.

The district is opening three new campuses: PSJA Southwest High School, Kennedy Middle School and Sgt. Leonel Treviño Elementary School. In addition, two additional new middle schools (Audie Murphy Middle School and Jaime Escalante Middle School) are opening at temporary sites while the new campuses are completed.

In his State of the District address at the State Farm Arena in Hidalgo last Wednesday, Superintendent Danny King spoke of the challenges facing a school district that has a high percentage of students from low-income families and that are not proficient at English.

However, King said these challenges should not be viewed in a negative light. He pointed to the many successes PSJA has achieved in recent years, including recognition as a state and national leader for connecting high school students to college.

“Instead of deficit thinking, we see the strength a child has,” King told the Guardian, at the end of his address. “For example, while probably half of the students have limited English when they start, we help them to be proficient in both languages, English and Spanish. We are probably graduating more bilingual graduates than any other district in the state right now.”

In his address, King highlighted the areas where PSJA has excelled in recent years. He said the district has had “tremendous success” in reducing the dropout rate. The rate has dropped by about 80 percent in three years, enough to warrant praise from the Texas Education Agency (TEA), the Communities Foundation of Texas, the American Policy Forum and Jobs for the Future. TEA even cited PSJA’s dropout recovery approach as an official “Best Practice.”

King said PSJA is also leading the way in increasing the number of students who graduate from high school, pointing out that in 2009-10 the district awarded diplomas to 1,800 young people. In 2006-07 the figure was only 966.

“This increase of more than 90 percent in system productivity is unprecedented,” King said. “Once cited as a failing district due to a high dropout rate, PSJA now enjoys a dropout rate that is far below the regional, state and national averages, and a high school completion rate that easily surpasses the region and the state.”

King also pointed to the success of the College, Career, and Technology Academy, which received a ‘Star Award’ from the Texas Higher Education and Coordinating Board for transforming dropouts into college students. The program has graduated about 500 high-school dropouts and non-completers aged 18-26 over the past three years. Most of these students earned college hours in the process.

Last year, PSJA had an initiative called Be On Time that provided extra assistance to high school students who had not reached the level of academic performance expected of them.

King told the Guardian that this year the program would be expanded, under the title On Level, On Time. He said the initiative will focus on two types of students – those who are at the right level but whose performances are below par and those who behind the level they need to be at.

“When you set very specific goals then the chances of achieving them become a lot more possible than if you just leave things to chance. We are trying to become very specific about this,” said PSJA ISD Superintendent Danny King. “To achieve this we are introducing On Level, On Time and taking it all the way down to the elementary levels. We are going to have specific plans for these students.”

In 2009-10, PSJA had more high school students taking college courses through dual enrollment than any other school district in the region. This year, more than 2,000 PSJA high school students will begin taking their first college courses.

King said one of the highlights of the last school year was Gov. Rick Perry’s visit to the new Kennedy Middle School to publicly declare that PSJA has a state and national model for high school students to college.

“If students are going to experience a successful, prosperous career, they need an education that will equip them to compete in the global marketplace,” said Perry, on his visit to PSJA in May.

“The Pharr-San Juan-Alamo school district is part of a larger effort across the state to continue improving the quality of a Texas education and ensure every student graduates ready for college or career.”

Perry announced a $2 million grant for PSJA from TEA is called the All Students: College Ready, College Connected grant. It is part of a new initiative by the state to promote district-wide college readiness.

“Using our successful T-STEM Early College High School as a model, PSJA will focus on moving all incoming freshmen into college connected career pathways, where they will be able to start college work in their area of interest before high school graduation,” King explained.

“TEA has already approved PSJA North High School as an official Early College High School site, giving PSJA two official Early College campuses, and dual enrollment opportunities at all of our regular and alternative high schools.”

King said that as a result of the “dramatic turn-around” the PSJA team has accomplished in recent years, the district has had many visitors wanting to learn how the success was achieved. Among the visitors have been the Carnegie Foundation, the Meadows Foundation, the Gates Foundation, the Texas High School Project, Jobs for the Future, the American Youth Policy Forum, TEA, local, state and national political and educational leaders, and many officials from other school districts.

“PSJA can be an Exemplary District through teamwork and an even greater performance focus. We must make no excuses. We can help our students achieve tremendous success through a total team effort,” King said.

“We must realize that every student counts. Language, immigration status, socio-economics, ethnicity, special education labels… none of these can be excuses or barriers to success.”

Write Steve Taylor

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