Dear Vega ISD Community,
This week is the last week of school for the 2023-2024 school year. This week will be full of graduation ceremonies - from kindergarten, from 8th grade, and from high school. This week is also a time of reflection, excitement, and remembrance as our students embark on different milestones in their lives.
This week will mark the 26th high school graduation ceremony I’ve attended as a professional educator. I’ve attended these ceremonies as a teacher, a principal, an assistant superintendent, and for the first time, at the end of this week, as a superintendent. Next year, I will attend graduation as a parent, but that’s a story for another day. What I know is that as professional educators, it is a privilege for us to get to be part of this journey with your family. And we sincerely thank you for the opportunity to partner with you in the education of your student.
We wish our UIL Academic State Qualifiers good luck as they travel to Austin to compete in the UIL Academic Contest this week, before rushing back to be here at graduation.
This past week we were able to celebrate our student’s achievements this school year at the awards ceremonies at the middle school and the Scholastic Banquet and Athletic Banquet at the high school. Our elementary campus was able to host the Muffins for Mom and we were able to continue to provide different games and challenges throughout the week for our staff for Teacher Appreciation Week. A special thanks goes out to Christ’s Community Church for providing a teacher appreciation lunch for our staff on Friday. It was very good and very much appreciated.
Last Sunday was the annual Baccalaureate program for our graduating seniors. We appreciate our community clergy for working together on this program each year and for pouring into the lives of our students. The Baptist Church provided a meal for our seniors after the Baccalaureate program and a time for our students to fellowship together. Pastor Brian Hevrin shared with our seniors some good wisdom before the meal when he challenged them to enjoy every moment of their final week of high school and to embrace the memories.
This week was the annual elementary track meet. It was a lot of fun to see our elementary students compete in their events and our high school students partner with them and be their “buddies” throughout the event. It went so well and I am so glad that our students get this opportunity for the track meet, but more importantly, for our high school students to serve as mentors for our elementary students. Those elementary students will remember their high school “buddy” and our high schoolers will have some additional elementary students who will now be cheering them on next year at their extracurricular events and pep rallies.
Last week our tennis team competed at the UIL Regional Tennis meet and everyone did very well, even against some tough opponents. Two of our teams advanced to the final 8 of the region before ending their season. Our other teams all competed and represented Vega High School well. Check out our website and Facebook page for pictures and more information.
We keep mentioning this, but this is so important that we need to continue promoting it. As you know, our district has kicked off a transfer campaign on our website and social media in order to increase our student enrollment. An increase of 25 students throughout the district (that’s about two students per grade level or about eight families of three school-age children each) would go a long way in reducing our deficit budget. Please note that to be eligible to be accepted as a transfer student to Vega ISD, all students must be in good standing with their current school district, have good attendance, and have no discipline issues. Check out our transfer landing page on the district’s website that talks about our school and how to apply for a transfer. If you feel comfortable doing so, please “like” the social media posts and share them on your own social media pages. If you need any help in doing this, please reach out to our office. We would be glad to help.
More students means more funding from the state. An increase in student enrollment is one of the ways the state allows school districts to gain revenue since there was no increased funding provided for public schools in this past legislative session.
As always, if you have any questions or if we can help in any way, please reach out to your campus principal or to my office.
Thank you,
Jerry Adams
Superintendent
Vega ISD