LISD Expect Excellence Newsletter

Hello Levelland Lobos!

These are a few of our favorite things! Levelland ISD campuses ended their year with End-of-Year Highlight Walks again this year. If you could just see the learning going on in our campuses. There are always exciting things happening where students are engaged. A few things seen on these tours were math taught in all sorts of ways at every level, writing and English resume writing, physical fitness taught in the most innovative ways, music appreciation and dancing, cooking and culinary arts, reading in digital format and in the dark, technology that we need to learn too, artwork, culture appreciation, and LOC opportunities offered to students. The feeling on every campus was that the students were glad to be there and ready to learn. That should give you a warm feeling in your heart. These are only a few of our favorite things happening daily in LISD campuses! They are amazing! Everyone should be proud of their LISD campus because we #expectexcellence!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0A0X06mqblc

I hope you have a great summer but I'll see you on Wednesday at our Teacher Recognition and Retirement Brunch!

Go Lobos!

Expect Excellence

Sincerely, Becky McCutchen

May is National Speech Language and Hearing Month and Saturday was National Speech Pathologist Appreciation Day! Even though school is out, Levelland ISD shines our light on them! These ladies work to assess and improve the communication needs and skills of our students. These highly trained professionals serve students with hearing loss, voice problems, brain injury, speech sound errors, developmental delays, and much more. Thank you for all you do for our LISD students!

LMS students in Mrs. DeMerritt and Mrs. Lomeli-Guzman's 8th-Grade English classes put everything they've learned this year together to write children's picture books! After editing their books and illustrating them, these 8th-graders read to ABC Littles! Everyone enjoyed each other's company too. The Littles learned from these great LMS role models. The LMS students learned what it's like to be in a teacher's shoes for a few minutes. Thank you Mrs. DeMerritt, Mrs. LG & Levelland ABC for making this a great experience for everyone! https://files.gabbart.com/459/lmsreadsvideo.mp4

LMS celebrated the 2023-2024 School Year last week by honoring students who went above and beyond in the classroom. Many accolades were given to deserving students! It was a great year at LMS! https://files.gabbart.com/459/lmsawardsvideo24.mp4

LHS Art students showcased their work tonight in the Art Expo! We have some extremely talented students that we are so proud of! Thanks Mr. Suarez for a great year of creativity! https://files.gabbart.com/455/artvideo.mp4

LHS students in Coach Nelda Munoz's Forensic Science classes finished up their semester by learning about facial reconstruction. These crime solvers are reproducing the likeness of individuals from skeletal remains to identify missing persons. This class is so amazing and offers so many opportunities for LHS students! Thank you Coach Munoz for keeping students so engaged and interested in learning!

The LHS YELL Members held their third annual DuckPluck at lunch today. YELL members sold 1,000 ducks for $5 each to raise money for future scholarships. The first duck drawn brought in $750, the second duck gave $500 cash, the third $250, and the last duck plucked got $50. YELL sends out a huge thank you to all the Levelland organizations that let us come speak at your meetings and for your purchases of the Ducks. YELL also thank Jim Mara, Amber Smith & the Country Club for letting us use the pool! We appreciate everyone who helped make these scholarships happen! We are glad that these kids are leaving it better than they got it! https://files.gabbart.com/456/duckpluckvideo24.mp4

Our LHS UIL sponsors #expectexcellence and are glad to report that these students participated in the UIL Academic State Meet at the University of Texas in Austin. Austin Ellis placed 8th in Accounting, Elizabeth Hackler competed in Editorial Writing, Ada Niederhauser competed in News and placed 6th in Editorial Writing, and James Bunker competed in Science. Mr. Russell Hill says, "This is a major accomplishment for these students to be recognized in the top ten in Texas. Please congratulate them on this achievement when you see them." We are also proud of these students going above and beyond their studies in the classroom.

LMS held their annual National Junior Honor Society Induction last night and 40 students were inducted into the leadership organization. Thank you to Amanda Rodriguez for leading this great group of kids!

Dr. Birdwell and LHS hosted their annual Senior Honors Banquet last week! We #expectexcellence every day, and were thankful for the awards & scholarships from SPC & Community Organizations totaling $1,771,880! That is the biggest sum of awards & scholarships ever awarded. These scholarships open doors for our students. We thank SPC for their partnership & all the Levelland Community Organizations that support our youngsters who are our future leaders! Congratulations to all these outstanding students! https://files.gabbart.com/456/seniorhonors.mp4

The LMS Talent Show was fantastic! Levelland has so many talented students and one talented music teacher! Thank you Mr. Ballard for putting on a great show! Watch it here:
https://www.facebook.com/LevellandISD/videos/998836138280379

Bucky Demel and Merribeth Henry-Gregory’s LHS students ended the year by attending a lecture by Emily Dickerson, park ranger at Balmorhea State Park. She discussed that the San Saloman spring had been used as a water source for the Native Americans before the Anglo-American settlers to farm food crops for Fort Davis. The Spring releases 16 million gallons per day, and the Civilian Conservation Corps created the Balmorhea pool and motor-court motel between 1936-38. The Balmorhea Pool holds 3 million gallons and has a continuous recharge of 16 million gallons per day creating a continuous flow into the pool to help maintain a constant temperature of 73 degrees year-round. The students then toured one of the 40 remaining Cienaga desert wetlands in the US. The CCC had destroyed the original Cienaga, but it was restored in the 1990s. The Cienega houses Texas spiny soft-shell turtles and the endangered Comanche spring pupfish and Pecos gambusia. The canals that connect the cienagas to pool are protected by weirs and waterfalls, that prevent invasive species from entering the area. The students ended the day snorkeling and swimming in the pool. What a fun way to end the year! Thank Mr. Demel and Mrs. Gregory for #expectingexcellence and helping make memories!

Do these GT students see the world differently than ordinary folks? Yes! This semester, Mrs. Shayla Bruce challenged these GT entrepreneurs to think up their own business, create their marketing, and build a website featuring their businesses. LMS Gifted & Talented Students presented their projects to parents last week to show off what they had learned! Way to go kiddos!

LMS students in Ms. Leeann Jackson's Art Classes were challenged to recreate famous paintings and they did an amazing job! These seem to get more elaborate every year! Ms. Jackson says, "I'm so proud of their hard work!" LMS students have great creativity!

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10211508074174804&set=pcb.10211508106655616

Levelland ABC Librarian Abi Swain sends out a big thank you to all the people in the community who came to help make her Reading with Heroes Program a success this year. Our Littles loved having special guests, who are also great role models come read to them! "It was fun," they said! Thank you Mrs. Swain for inviting our community in to see what great things are happening in LISD!

Email: rmccutchen@levellandisd.net
Website: www.levellandisd.net
Location: 704 11th Street, Levelland, TX
Phone: 806-894-9628
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LevellandISD/
Instagram: @levellandindschooldistrict