Berger Bulletin

When the calendar turns over, and we welcome a New Year, we often consider our lives and make resolutions to change. New Year's resolutions often turn into unkept promises to ourselves. The issue is our mindset around resolutions. We approach them from a position of "what is wrong" or "what I am doing needs to be more...". We see our actions or lives as broken. This is a defeatist approach.

I challenge all of us to move from resolution to resolve. To focus on our purpose, on what is working and approach self-care and improvement from a place of gratitude that leads us to deliberate daily action. Let's focus on something other than what is broken and instead focus on what we can grow. Growing takes intentional action, cultivation, and a positive perspective.

I resolve to see challenges as opportunities, setbacks as learning, and feedback as fuel to grow. Not every day will be perfect, and not every goal will be met on the established timeline, but with resolve, we can make positive change.

To Build Pearland Proud, we must have the courage to start, the strength to endure, and the resolve to finish

During the fall semester, we held the first rounds of parent forums, and I appreciate those who submitted questions and participated in the process. Like a good classroom teacher, I will adjust based on the information gathered during these sessions. I will also schedule future parent forum dates at different times and days of the week to allow others to be able to attend the sessions.

The forum’s purpose is to hear from our community on the items we need to celebrate and those we need to review and adjust. In Pearland ISD, we have great things happening and do not want to become complacent. We want to challenge ourselves constantly to improve.

Please click here to see the items addressed during the parent forums.

I hope to see and hear from the Pearland community at our subsequent forum sessions.

In Texas, public education GPA and class rank are as diverse as the high school mascots. If you did a Google search of ISD grading and calculation procedures, you would find a wide variety of what courses count in GPA calculations, how many points each course receives, how class ranking is reported, and many other variations.

Pearland ISD is a ranking system with three-tiered GPA points based on the level of courses a student completes. There has been a trend to adjust GPA calculation and class rank reporting, as seen by recent changes in Clear Creek ISD and Friendswood ISD.

When I became superintendent, the School Board expressed community-voiced concerns about our GPA and class ranking processes and the negative impact they might have on our students' well-being.

The complexity of GPA and class rank do not afford us a quick fix. The Executive Director of High Schools, along with high school principals, counselors, students, and stakeholders, has been reviewing possible changes that could be made to ensure our GPA and ranking system meet the needs of our students. We will continue to study possible changes to the GPA and class ranking system through committee and community input. Findings and suggestions for change will be presented to the School Board for consideration and vote.

We honor the community volunteers serving on our local school board each January. The 2023 Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) School Board Recognition theme is Forward, Together.

As Texas public schools continue to deal with the challenges of the past few years, school boards will lead the way. Schools and communities succeed when everyone works together for a brighter future — parents, teachers, students, and school leadership.

Governor Abbott proclaimed that to see the tomorrow of Texas, we must look into our classrooms of today. Classrooms that require standards of rigor, achievement, and discipline based on individual student needs and community values.

Our elected school board members set the vision for our district and govern with a student-first mentality.

I am honored to work with them and appreciate their time and dedication to Pearland ISD.

Email: bergerl@pearlandisd.org
Website: https://www.pearlandisd.org/pearland
Phone: (281) 485-3203
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pearlandisd
Twitter: @LarryBergerSupt