LISD Expect Excellence Newsletter

Hello Levelland Lobos!

It's the last week of the school year and in many ways the time has gone by quickly. This makes me think of the following quote by Orson Welles. "If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story." While our graduates are ending their time with Levelland ISD, their story doesn't stop and their next journey is just beginning.

Thank you to our amazing school nurses for always taking care of our students and the staff.

I hope you all have an amazing week and enjoy all the final events at the campuses.

Go Lobos!

Expect Excellence

Sincerely, Becky McCutchen

LISD teachers were honored all week long on each campus! We love our educators and appreciate how they are molding our students into productive citizens! Thank you for what you do!

We celebrated National School Nurse Day & honored our six school nurses who care for students. Our nurses see many children throughout each day that don’t feel well or who are hurt. But they also provide a wealth of information that supports a successful education. Our nurses provide more than bandaids and they do more than check fevers. They are first responders for medical concerns, administer mid-day doses of medication, and provide resources for parents. As team members, school nurses play a vital role in guiding students to healthy lifestyles. We are very thankful that we have nurses available in our schools. Thank you, ladies, for keeping LISD healthy!

LHS is proud to announce that they had six students graduate from South Plains College. Austin Ellis graduated last December. Grace Bateman, James Bunker, Michelle Bustillos, Grason Edens, and Zachary Swain graduated today! Congratulations to these Seniors graduating from LHS next Friday! Thank you SPC, for your partnership in educating our students through your dual credit program! https://files.gabbart.com/456/spcgradvideo24.mp4

LHS #expectsexcellence & is so proud to announce that Seniors Grason Edens, Michelle Bustillos and James Bunker received honors at South Plains College last night. Grason is the Outstanding Student in Behavioral Sciences-Socialogy. He is Salutatorian of the 2024 Graduating class. He is also active in NHS, YELL & UIL. Michelle is the Outstanding Student in Math, Engineering & Computer Science-Mathematics. Michelle is third in the 2024 Graduating Class. She is also active in DI, Band, NHS & YELL. James is the Outstanding Student in Biology. James is fifth in the 2024 Graduating Class. He is also active in NHS, UIL & YELL. We are so proud of these LHS students & we will be watching to see what they do in the future!

South Plains College #expectsexcellence and honored our Top Twenty 2024 Graduates this morning with a tributary breakfast. All of our Top Twenty have taken dual credit hours at SPC. We thank South Plains College for the opportunities offered to our LHS students and we appreciate the partnership that helps students grow!

Dr. Birdwell started the best tradition on Saturday! Seniors and their parents were invited to come spend some time together to paint a ceiling tile that would be placed in the LHS Hallway! There were all kinds of paintings, too, that showed each individual's personality. These ceiling tiles will be left up, and the Class of 24 will leave their legacy in the hallway forever. People, moms, dads, and friends will think of these 2024 graduates each time they enter LHS. This event will grow in the future now that everyone sees how awesome it is! Thank you Dr. Birdwell, for this amazing idea. Thank you to our LISD Maintenance Crew for hanging them for us! https://files.gabbart.com/456/tiles2024.mp4

ABC first graders in Mrs. Tammy Branch's reading classes read Tales from the Edge of the World. They strapped on their backpacks and took a virtual adventure, experiencing real-world explorers and inventors. Mrs. Branch challenged them to think critically about how teamwork and collaboration to face challenges from the oceans below to the space above! They learned that they too, can do anything they want to do after high school, that some careers require college and some don't, and that if they put their mind to it they can reach their dreams. Student made their own frame that symbolized their life now and later. They gave a presentation aloud to their class on what they wanted to be and how they would make it happen! Thank you Mrs. Branch, for making your learning come from each other! https://files.gabbart.com/463/framesvideobranch.mp4

You've heard the expression, "Were you born in a barn?" These first-graders performed Old McDonald's Farm under the Direction of Ms. Joanna Forbes and represented animals in the barnyard. The students took pride in picking their favorite costumes too! The programs were fantastic and included the student speaking parts! Thank you Ms. Forbes and first graders for a great show!
https://files.gabbart.com/463/abcmusicalvideo.mp4

The Athletic Boosters honored our LHS athletes last night at the Sports Banquet! Our Athletic Boosters work all year to give back to our students. This year the Boosters gave over $26,000 to our athletes in equipment and sports gear. Thank you to the Boosters for supporting our athletes and for a wonderful evening filled with fun, friends, food and honors!
https://files.gabbart.com/456/sportshonorsvideo24.mp4

Last week 110 of our graduating seniors participated in the LHS Annual Signing Day to commit to attending college or joining a military branch after high school! Thank you to LHS Counselors Waddill and Smith for organizing this prestigious event. Thank you to the Cheer Squad for the school logo artwork! Congratulations to these students on the next step in molding their future!
https://files.gabbart.com/456/signingdayvideo24.mp4

Dr. Matthew Birdwell and the LHS teachers #expectexcellence and they hosted the NHS underclassmen Honors Assembly last Tuesday night. They honored many deserving students. These students were nominated for the awards by their teachers for going above and beyond expectations! Congratulations to all of these scholars! https://files.gabbart.com/456/91011honorsvideo24.mp4

LHS eSports teacher April Austin shares that her eSports students did well in the State eSports Tournament. It was held at Six Flags Fiesta Texas and of the 4 teams taken, LHS had one team make it to the quarter-finals. Mrs. Austin says, "Players got to experience the different levels of play and this will prepare them for next year." We are so proud of our growing eSports program!

2036 Graduates? That's right! These Levelland ABC students graduated from Kindergarten today and their next graduation will be in 2036! These littles are our future and they sang a song to end the ceremony called "We Are Building Honor." Congratulations to these honorable students moving on up to first grade! https://files.gabbart.com/463/kgraduationvideo24.mp4

LHS shares that UIL's Intercollegiate League Press Conference includes some contests for advisers of student publications every year. One of them was for objective writing, and Ms. Buckner won with her storm chaser story! She says, "I had just written a story about Araseli Torres for the yearbook, so I sent it in." Congratulations to Ms. Buckner on setting an example for her journalism students to follow!

Levelland FFA #expectsexcellence and hosted their annual end-of-year Honors Banquet last night! Many accolades were awarded for LDEs, CDEs, and Showing projects, as well as scholarships! Congratulations to these amazing kids who go above and beyond what is expected in the classroom! https://files.gabbart.com/456/ffabanquetvideo24.mp4

South's Career Day was fabulous yesterday. Counselor Mrs. Robyn Parkinson teaches every week that it's never too early to start thinking about their future. She teaches that some careers require college and come don't. During Career Day students learned about various career choices from a musician, a veterinarian, a farmer, Code Ninjas, our Levelland Police Force, a farrier, a truck driver, a barber, from Keep Levelland Beautiful, and Excel Energy. Our children are our future and days like this enable them to decide what they want to pursue after high school! Thank you Mrs. Parkinson and all the community members who came out to teach our kids about career choices! It was a great day! Ask your child what he/she liked best! https://files.gabbart.com/461/southcareerdayvideo24.mp4

So much learning is still going on! Capitol fourth-graders in Mrs. Clara Sanders' science class learned about animal adaptations last week. Animal adaptations are things on animals' bodies or things they do with their bodies that help them find food, water, mates, and shelter. By dissecting animals, they were able to see the changes and adaptations within and between classes of animals. This is a science lesson these fourth-graders will never forget. You can see that some loved the lesson and others were a little creeped out! What fun! Thank you Mrs. Sanders, for #expectingexcellence!

Capitol's Crazy Monkey Jaguars, Mrs. Alexander & Mrs. Utley #expectexcellence and are moving on to Destination Imagination Globals in Kansas City right after school is out! Mrs. Alexander found Levelland native Kinna McInroe at a Texas Library Convention Improv Workshop and invited her to come work with the Capitol Improv Team. Kinna is famous! She is an actress and known for her role on Office Space, CSI, and Where the Heart Is. She has guest-starred in many other shows as well, and just finished a movie named Honey Don't. After getting to know the Crazy Monkey Jaguars she worked with our them on team building, reading each other by looking them in the eye, and feeding off of each other to help each other succeed. She taught them never to object but to always agree and exaggerate on it! They went through many exercises that will enable them to perform better at the DI Globals in another week! Thank you Kinna, for taking the time to work with our students to help them succeed!
https://files.gabbart.com/462/monkeyjaguarsdi24.mp4

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