NBISD selects 2020 Silver Unicorn recipient
At an NBISD board of trustees meeting April 20, the board honored this year’s Silver Unicorn recipient, Mary Helen Philips.
The Silver Unicorn award has been given by the board annually since 1965 to recognize individuals who have served the children and youth of NBISD, according to the district website.
To date, more than 300 individuals have been presented with the award.
Since 2013, Philips has been involved in educating students about gardening and has helped to start and sustain school gardens throughout the district. She also introduced the Junior Master Gardener program and offers gardening training for teachers and parents.
Philips has also served on the NBISD School Health Advisory Council since 2016 and coordinates the annual Comal County Master Gardener’s Insect Exposition in collaboration with Texas AgriLife.
View a list of past honorees here.
Help name NBISD’s second high school
As part of the 2018 NBISD bond, the new campus for New Braunfels Middle School located on Settler’s Crossing is scheduled to be opened in August 2021.
When the new middle school is opened, the New Braunfels High School Ninth Grade Center will be relocated to the current New Braunfels Middle School building on Klein Meadow and will operate as a ninth-grade-only campus for at least two years.
The campus will then become the district’s second high school, and New Braunfels Middle School will become the feeder middle school to the new high school. Oak Run Middle School will become the feeder middle school for the current New Braunfels High School.
In preparation for the creation of the new high school, NBISD is now accepting nominations for naming the school. The name selected will first be used in fall 2021 for the Ninth Grade Center and carry over as the second high school.
Nomination forms are available online, and naming criteria are as follows:
- The name should reflect the name of the residential community or communities that the facility serves, or
- The facility should be named after a local geographic area or feature, a municipality, or a particular place such as a street or development.
Nominations will be accepted online through Nov. 1.
For more information, call 830-643-5705 or email [email protected].
Voss Farms Elementary principal accepts new position
Deborah Cary, the principal of Voss Farms Elementary School, has been named the new early education coordinator for NBISD.
Cary has been with NBISD for 20 years and has been an educator for 30 years.
The early education coordinator is a new position that will supervise the launch and implementation of the Texas Reading Academy for the district’s primary teachers and administrators, according to a press release from the district.
In addition to overseeing the execution of the reading academy, Cary will also serve as the district dyslexia coordinator and supervise the early intervention teachers and coaches once they are hired.
Melinda Villarreal, the assistant principal at Voss Farms, will take over as principal for the 2020-21 school year.
Villarreal has been an educator for 18 years and joined NBISD in 2006, when she taught first and fourth grades and later became a bilingual math interventionist at Klein Road Elementary. Villarreal has been assistant principal at Voss Farms for three years.
