Cardinal Calling

• Shout out to Rosa Calvillo for being a Champion for our GAIN students and staff. Everyday your hardwork does not go unnoticed! We appreciate you! - MP

• Shout out to Mrs. Prukop for truly helping us Rise Together!
  Because of her initiative and heart for our students, our GAIN students were fully equipped with shorts, t‑shirts, and shin guards for the Special Olympics soccer tournament. Her support ensured every student felt prepared, confident, and included as part of the team. Thank you, Mrs. Prukop, for going above and beyond to lift our students up and make this experience meaningful for all! (JR)

• Shout out to Ms. Mad‑E, Coach Hurst, Ms. Areil, Ms. Lewis, and Ms. Gomez for helping us truly Rise Together! Your support during the Special Olympics made a meaningful difference for our students. From encouragement and supervision to stepping in wherever help was needed, each of you played a role in creating a positive, inclusive, and successful experience. Thank you for showing up for our students and working together to make the day memorable and empowering! (JR)

• Huge shout out to Ms. Rosa for Persisting with Purpose! By taking the lead and serving as the point of contact for Special Olympics, she ensured every detail came together smoothly for our students. Her organization, communication, and dedication made the experience successful and stress‑free for everyone involved. Thank you, Ms. Rosa, for your leadership and commitment to creating meaningful opportunities for our students! (JR)

• Shout out to Coach Hurst for Chasing Excellence not only in all thing's sports (including Girls Flag Football) but Honors Biology. You have made so many of our students confident in their science abilities as you prepare them for their upcoming STAAR exam. This is why you are the forever work wife/bestie! DH Duo for life! (Hill)

• Shout out to Kent, Robinson, Tijerina and Fragoso for Rising Together for not only being your amazing selves but viewing our seniors as a whole person and not just a student. We have so many students who are going through so many difficult times, but you all step in action quickly by including myself and their other trusted adults to make sure they can be their best selves and walk across that stage next month! (Hill)

• Shout out to Coach Lett for Bringing Joy after learning about our mighty GAIN students who came back as Special Olympics medalists. You shouted them out and also quickly made sure staff and students honored their success in the hallways. I guess that's why you are a 5(almost 6)-time State Champ! (Hill)

• Shout out to Love for persisting with purpose by bringing me students to help set up the cafeteria for report card night! You have no idea how appreciative I was. Thank you for your support! and I appreciate you so much!

• Shout out to Manny persisting with purpose for covering SOA FO he's killing it and has a great rapport with the students and staff. Thank you Manny for stepping up and helping me with tables. I appreciate your dedication. I 👀 see you!!!

• Shout out to Pyle for persisting with purpose for taking charge setting place cards on the tables for report card night and knowing where everyone needed to be! That was a huge help

• Shout out to Marinette Martin and Andrea Gutierrez for Rising Together to help me get my hours for my teaching certification! I am at 18:40 hours/25 hours so far!

Here are some highlights from our Algebra 1 course in Week 3

This is week 4 of Crescendo! Algebra 1 has successfully launched Crescendo while Biology Crescendo is still going strong. We finish Biology and US History on Tuesday this week as the STAAR test is on Wednesday (Biology) and Thursday (US History). We have also started AP Crescendo - Calculus last week, Pre-Calculus, Statistics, CSA and English Language all start this week!

The Cardinal Team will be laser focused on ensuring that Crescendo is launched successfully and will be observing crescendo classrooms daily.

Please see the Crescendo Calendar below for start dates and where school leadership will be focused on.

In the link below, you will access the document that will have instructional updates. This use to come as the "Content Team Update" weekly - it has the same format, just now provided in one place and updated in time for the Cardinal Calling each week.

Please note - there is updated bell schedules and summer school guidance located in this document.

Are you interested in participating in faculty council next year? We will be zooming into a particular area of focus around a particular aspect of academic culture at KAC. If you are interested in supporting in this initiative, please submit this form.

In preparation for next school year, and in alignment with our approved Academic Calendar, we have finalized our Teacher Duty Dates for next year.

Teacher Return/Start Date: Thursday, July 23rd, 2026

Teacher Last Date of Work: Friday, May 28th, 2027

Teachers will have the same number of duty days as this school year, 195. To accommodate the last day of Friday, May 28th, the last day of school, for students, has been adjusted to Thursday, May 27th. This allows our students and teachers to end the year prior to the Memorial Day Holiday.

All KIPP Texas High Schools will be moving to a full block schedule everyday next year. What this looks like is:
- Tuesday and Thursday is always an "A" Day (meaning we see 1st-4th periods)

- Wednesday and Friday is always an "B" Day (meaning we see 5th-8th periods)
- Monday will rotate between "A" and "B" - one week A, one week B, etc.
The purpose of this is to ensure that students who are participating in dual credit courses have some stability in their schedule when they need to transport to ACC.

Hi team, as the year comes to an end, we want to keep everyone updated on data and updates on our 3 main focuses as we finish strong this school year. We are focusing on tardies to school, personal technology, and dress code.

Tardies: We want to ensure all students are here on time, so seat time does not accumulate as the semester comes to an end. This includes transitions to class. We have seen a spike in the amount of tardies to individual classes over the last few weeks. Leaders will ensure that they are present and ready to support students who are tardy and we are working on a system to hold students accountable. Teachers - please do your part in helping us with this by closing your door as soon as the bell rings.

Personal Tech: We are also prioritizing all D2 referrals that come in for technology. As soon as the tech has been collected, you should see the referral be solved. If you do not see it as resolved by the end of the period, please message your API privately. If tech is seen, you should put in a referral under D2- Misuse of Technology or School Device. Expectations are for you to tell students a referral has been put in; however, you should not be collecting it.

Dress Code: We will also continue to monitor the dress code during arrival. Students are expected to wear a grey KIPP Texas polo and sweatshirt with black or khaki bottoms. Students are also permitted to wear a zip up jacket; however, must continue to wear their polo every day. Non-KIPP Texas hoodies are not allowed any day of the week with the exception of college wear on Fridays. Students who are out of dress code are assigned lunch duty the day of with their grade level chair. Our ask is that you hold expectations in your space and remind students to get back into dress code if they change out.

Thank you for all that you do! We have a total of 800+ students on campus, and we wouldn't be able to do all this work without you!

Professional Expectations Reminder

As a reminder, staff are expected to be at work from 8am-5pm everyday. Staff are expected to arrive to campus and be in their spaces by 8am. Staff should be available to start testing meetings, GLTs or other meetings at 8am.

Staff Slack Channel Communication

Please see the NEW KAC Staff Communication Norms Document regarding communication norms, including changes to how we utilize Slack to communicate.

Q4 Week 6: Let’s Lock In Our Attendance Systems

As we settle back into our routines after spring break, let’s make sure we’re locking in two key practices that keep our systems running smoothly:

Dean’s List Pre-Attendance Texts

All 1st-period teachers (or 5th-period teachers on Thursdays) must send their required Dean’s List Pre-Attendance texts to any absent students.

Skyward Attendance: Submit Within the First 5 Minutes

While students are working on their Do-First, please submit attendance within the first five (5) minutes of class.

After marking absences, do a quick head count to confirm accuracy. For example:

If you’re about to submit 2 absences for a class of 25, make sure you physically count 23 students in the room. Then, call out the names of the absent students to double-check before hitting "Submit."

This small but powerful step helps prevent errors, saves our Front Office team valuable time, and spares you the hassle of filling out Attendance Correction Forms later.

Thanks for your attention to detail, it makes a big difference!

Please see this outage calendar for this week's staff outages