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From: Dr. Shepherd Date: December 20, 2019 Re: “Q’s News” Valued Community Member: Thank you for subscribing to Q’s News and serving as a communication ambassador for all the great things happening at Victoria ISD. Please feel free to contact me regarding any questions, concerns, thoughts or feedback. #ItsTime

• Congratulations to Victoria East High School Titan Baseball players, Jacob Martinez & Nate Vela, on being named to the 2020 South Texas Preseason Large School Baseball All-Star

Team! ⚾️❤️ #VISDProud

Celebrations!

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• Congratulations to Dudley Elementary! The Unicorns received 50 books for their library from Imagine Learning to celebrate their school having the MOST usage out of any other elementary school in Imagine Learning Language and Literacy! #VISDProud

• Congrats to our Vickers Elementary School Spelling Bee Champion, Kylie Alvarez (right) and runner-up Abdul Majid Nusayr (left). #VISDProud

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• The Stroman Middle School A+ Academic team had 42 students compete at the Edna Junior High District UIL Meet and placed 4th overall! This is the first year Stroman has had an academic UIL team.

• Harold Cade Middle School's Kindness Club and members of Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church pinned blankets that will later be sewn for cancer patients and people going through dialysis treatment. The Kindness Club is a new student organization with close to 60 members who are doing good things within our community. We are so thankful for the ladies from Trinity Lutheran Church who came and taught our kids how to spread kindness through blanket making. #VISDProud

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• We have received several messages praising the talent of VISD’s Mariachi group, which has performed at Christmas parties for local businesses and organizations. Here is just one of those messages:

“My name is Rebecca Gaytan and I work for Golden Crescent Habitat for Humanity here in Victoria, TX. I contacted Jacob Rosales to see if the mariachi students would like to perform for our office Christmas party, our theme was Feliz Navidad, and with great enthusiasm he agreed to come. Yesterday was our staff Christmas party and they arrived on time and with great big smiles. The Habitat staff was wowed by the performance, it was amazing. The young women have great voices and everyone is very talented. This is a great program for VISD and appreciate them coming out to our staff party to show their talents. We will definitely keep them in mind when we need mariachi's again. We appreciate this opportunity and are very proud of these young men and women. VISD PROUD!”

• Adolfo Trevino, a 5th grade student at DeLeon Elementary, was also one of three students in Texas that was awarded a Kindle Fire from Imagine Learning for having the MOST usage in the Imagine Learning Language and Literacy Program!

• First United Methodist taught Shields Elementary students the “Gift of Giving” last

week 💙 Church members set up a store at the campus where every student received two tickets to "buy" a gift for someone they love. The stories these students told just melted your heart. One student wanted a cookbook so her and her mom could have quality time together in the kitchen. Another student wanted to give his dad a football, so when he came home on the weekends they could play outside together. Thank you so much FUMC

for your generosity💛

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• A special shout-out to our wonderful cosmetology teacher Mr. Reyna and his students! Every year, he and his elves decorate the Administration Building and the Career & Technology Institute for the holidays. Thank you for spreading holiday cheer and

magic🎄❤️

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• Stroman 7th graders recently stopped by Torres Elementary to work with their 1st graders. How awesome! #VISDProud

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• Smith Elementary School student council members read Christmas stories to Pre-K and Kinder students!

• AMAZING! 🌟 Usborne Books and an anonymous donor made sure every student at Rowland Elementary School (463 students) went home with a brand new book for the

holidays! ❤️🎄

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Traditions

At this time of the year the list of traditions is nearly endless. Many families have numerous traditions leading up to Christmas, traditions on Christmas day, traditions around the new year, etc. A tradition is “a belief or behavior passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past” (thanks, Wikipedia). Growing up, my mother’s side of the family would always gather on Christmas eve at my maternal grandfather’s house for dinner. He lived in a rural part of the country on a path that included in its directions, “turn off the paved road”. His house was so small it is probably better described as a shack, which he built by hand and with a team of horses. Needless to say, there was never enough room for everyone to gather around the table, but we figured out how to make it work in order to have a prayer, a meal, a great time together, and a few gifts. We would then depart with just enough time to make it to the late evening church service. Part of my family tradition also included chores on Christmas morning before breakfast and presents. Anyone who grew up on a working livestock farm knows there is never a day off! Sometimes traditions last for generations or centuries even. Often, our traditions change over time. My grandfather has long passed on. I think about him often and carry him with me, but he is gone. His children (my parents and my cousin’s parents) are mostly still with us, but travel has become increasingly difficult. My brothers, my cousins, and I have scattered ourselves around the country and we all have families of our own. Although the physical meal and time together was a tradition, the deeper purpose was what it stood for of course. Those purposes live on with each of us as we make new traditions. Last year, I went back to the Midwest over the holidays, but this year I am staying home... in Texas. It’s time for some new traditions. These days, I am also spending a lot of time thinking about our task force work and strategic planning happening in our district. All our task forces are bumping up against traditions right now as well. Our boundary analysis group is agonizing over traditional school feeder patterns and recognizing there are some traditions in our community (which houses are assigned to what campuses) and knowing change is coming. Our strategic planning group is carrying the proud history of VISD in our minds as we wrestle with how we can maintain the great things happening in our district (holding on to our purpose) and still forge a path forward that might include new traditions. When I think back to my grandfather’s table, it is easy for my mind to want to go back to that time. In many ways it was an easier time (prior to cell phones!). Most of us are amazingly adept at remembering only the best parts of our lives and overlooking the difficulties, and it becomes easy to long for bygone customs and traditions. I think back fondly at doing chores on Christmas morning, but in reality, I know there is no possible way I could have enjoyed it when I was ten years old! I am sure my parents could tell you stories of endless complaining. Somehow, my brain rewired itself over four decades to reframe the experience and remember the purpose. As I think back on it now, the meaning I took away was the importance of making certain to

Closing Thoughts

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always be responsible for the job entrusted to me, do something physical every day of the year, working together as a team to get big jobs done, etc. I suspect this is the secret in successfully drawing customs and traditions into the future... once we can get past “this is how we do it” tradition and figure out what made it special (the purpose), we can keep the meaning in our hearts and minds so it can continue to live on both in us and through us.