FBISD board members approved a memorandum of understanding with Super Neighborhood 41 at the Jan. 29 board meeting. The MOU outlines the district’s role in providing Title I funding to support the super neighborhood’s volunteering program within the Willowridge High School campuses.
The campuses, which have been performing academically lower than other schools in FBISD, has long been the topic of discussion between community members and the district, Jareth Jordan, deputy superintendent of teaching and learning, said at the Jan. 13 agenda review board meeting.
Board President Kristin Tassin said on Jan. 29 she believes utilizing retired educators will extend the academic support and mentorship that students could receive at home or in the classroom.
“We certainly have the subject matter experts," she said. "We certainly have the curriculum, we certainly have all the tools, but sometimes we don't have some of the intangibles, the community support for children who need a little extra [and] for children who don't have the support at home for children who need the extra tutoring."
The context
Located in the east portion of FBISD, the campuses include Willowridge and four other schools: McAuliffe Middle School, Blue Ridge - Briargate Elementary School, Ridgegate Elementary School and Ridgemont Elementary School, district officials said.
The last time the Texas Education Agency released accountability ratings for the 2021-22 school year, McAuliffe received a score of 69 and Willowridge received a 59, according to TEA data.
Per TEA data, the accountability ratings are based on the following metrics:
- State standardized tests scores
- Graduation rates
- College, career and military readiness outcomes
During the Jan. 29 board meeting, Super Neighborhood 41 President Willie Rainwater emphasized the need to implement new solutions to transform the low academic performance of students throughout the feeder pattern.
“If you keep doing the same thing that you've always done, you're going to get the same thing you've always gotten, which is failing students,” he said. “We don't need to [send students] from middle school to high school, and they're failing when they get to high school because they're reading on an elementary level.”
The details
With the new agreement between the super neighborhood and FBISD, super neighborhood officials will provide quarterly updates to the district on engagement activities, outreach efforts and participation rates, while recruiting volunteers with an expertise in education and/or early childhood development, per district documents.
The cooperation will be led through Jordan as liaison for the district and Rainwater as liaison for Superneighborhood 41, according to district documents.
The background
Launched in 1999, the super neighborhood initiative was launched by the Houston mayor’s office to provide guidance to local organizations to execute community action. Super Neighborhood 41 is a collection of members from local civic clubs between Beltway 8 and McHard Road, and between Hiram Clark and Fondren roads, according to the organization’s website.
Though members of the Willowridge community have long been involved in advocating for community action, this MOU is informed from the Super Neighborhood 41’s volunteer program at Blue Ridge-Briargate Elementary that started this fall, Regina Gardner, president of Super neighborhood 41’s Education Committee, said in an interview with Community Impact.
“We saw that the children on the east side were not scoring well at all. And so when we developed the Education Committee, then we started to come in, meeting with the district and saying, ‘What can we do to help our kids in our neighborhood?’” Gardner said.
After receiving approval from Superintendent Marc Smith and Principal Sonya Evans-Williams, the committee implemented volunteers within Blue Ridge-Briargate Elementary’s intervention periods, Gardner said.
Digging deeper
Volunteers are recruited through Super Neighborhood 41 and undergo training with school staff and reading specialists. While reading specialists work with students who require remedial help during the 50-minute intervention period, volunteers are assigned a small group of students that meet or exceed the expectations for their grade level, volunteer Cheryl Buford said in an interview.
“[The district administration is] mapping academic growth of all the students,” she said. “So they're not just concerned about bringing up the bottom. They want to make sure that kids that you know aren't identified as struggling, that they are still growing academically.”
What else?
Outside of the super neighborhood program, FBISD has implemented changes within the campuses.
During the 2023-24 school year, Willowridge High School officially exited the federal identification status, which grants schools money to execute a yearly improvement plan after meeting standard goals for three consecutive years, including the rise of standardized test scores, according to a district news release.
According to the release, the district was able to do this through:
- Increased parent engagement
- Educational software implementation
- Support from instructional coaches to improve day-to-day instruction
In February, district staff plan to order all of the materials needed for the super neighborhood to begin literacy tutoring at all five campuses, Jordan said.
By the 2025-26 school year, super neighborhood officials plan to recruit volunteers for the literacy intervention periods, Jordan said.
Meanwhile, staff will present a re-evaluation of intervention resources based on findings from the district’s ongoing literacy curriculum audit results in June 2026, at which point a new MOU will be presented to the board based on that information, Jordan said.
