Arlington School & Family
As part of their commitment to foster a college-going culture, Tarrant County College Southeast Campus and Arlington Independent School District joined together to open TCC’s new $13 million Tarrant County College Southeast/Arlington ISD Collegiate High School. TCC and AISD officials were joined by community leaders to officially open the 30,000-square-foot building with a ribbon-cutting ceremony in August 2014. The Early College High School (ECHS) includes nine classrooms, two science laboratories with a preparatory room between them and one computer laboratory. It also includes a learning resource center, a 400-seat cafeteria/ auditorium, administrative offices and 250-parking spaces. As part of the partnership, Texas Trust Credit Union donated $35,000 to help launch the new school and will provide financial education resources and workshops throughout the school year for students, parents and faculty. The ECHS has the designation of an early college high school by the Texas Education Agency. This designation is for innovative high schools located on or near a college campus that will allow students who are at risk of dropping out of school and likely would not otherwise consider attending college an opportunity to earn a high school diploma and up to 60 college credit hours. Students have access to Tarrant County College facilities, resources and services, including the faculty, libraries, labs, artistic and cultural activities and extracurricular activities, as appropriate. There is no cost to the student to attend the school. The Arlington ISD will pay for tuition, fees and required textbooks to the extent those charges are not waived by Tarrant County College. “A clear objective in our strategic plan is for our students to have leading-edge learning experiences, and opening an early college high school certainly helps us to fulfill that goal,” Arlington ISD Superintendent Marcelo Cavazos said. “A collaboration such as this with our community partner Tarrant County College is vital to our students’ success and will make a tremendous positive impact on their future.”
As part of their commitment to foster
a college-going culture, Tarrant
County College Southeast Campus and
Arlington Independent School District
joined together to open TCC’s new
$13 million Tarrant County College
Southeast/Arlington ISD Collegiate
High School.
TCC and AISD officials were joined
by community leaders to officially open
the 30,000-square-foot building with
a ribbon-cutting ceremony in August
2014. The Early College High School
(ECHS) includes nine classrooms, two
science laboratories with a preparatory
room between them and one computer
laboratory. It also includes a learning
resource center, a 400-seat cafeteria/
auditorium, administrative offices and
250-parking spaces.
As part of the partnership, Texas Trust
Credit Union donated $35,000 to help
launch the new school and will provide
financial education resources and
workshops throughout the school year
for students, parents and faculty.
The ECHS has the designation of an
early college high school by the Texas
Education Agency. This designation is
for innovative high schools located on
or near a college campus that will allow
students who are at risk of dropping out
of school and likely would not otherwise
consider attending college an opportunity
to earn a high school diploma and up to
60 college credit hours.
Students have access to Tarrant County
College facilities, resources and services,
including the faculty, libraries, labs,
artistic and cultural activities and
extracurricular activities, as appropriate.
There is no cost to the student to attend
the school. The Arlington ISD will pay
for tuition, fees and required textbooks
to the extent those charges are not
waived by Tarrant County College.
“A clear objective in our strategic plan
is for our students to have leading-edge
learning experiences, and opening an
early college high school certainly helps
us to fulfill that goal,” Arlington ISD
Superintendent Marcelo Cavazos said.
“A collaboration such as this with our
community partner Tarrant County
College is vital to our students’ success
and will make a tremendous positive
impact on their future.”
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District Programs<br />
are able to incorporate more challenging materials. Some<br />
favorite books during the fall 2014 session were Leonardo the<br />
Terrible Monster by Mo Willems, This is Not My Hat by Jon<br />
Klassen, Open Very Carefully by Nick Bromley, and the ever<br />
popular Pete the Cat by Eric Litwin.<br />
Starting in 2015, iPads with educational apps and ebooks will<br />
also be included in this experience to promote digital literacy<br />
in the classroom.<br />
These storytimes are also wonderful chances to introduce<br />
students to important guests throughout the <strong>Arlington</strong><br />
community. In October, hundreds of children were<br />
mesmerized by the city’s own firefighters, who took turns<br />
reading books and singing songs about fire safety.<br />
In an effort to increase the number of books the students<br />
read every day, the library started a program called Little<br />
Libraries in the fall of 2014. The Little Libraries are small<br />
book collections circulated to all the centers as part of the<br />
biweekly storytime visits. The goal of the program is to<br />
make library books easily accessible for the childcare center<br />
educators, who otherwise might be limited by a static<br />
classroom collection or little time in which to visit the library<br />
on their own. Hundreds of children have benefited from<br />
these portable collections, which include titles on a variety<br />
of topics.<br />
Taking Storytime<br />
Beyond the Walls<br />
of the Library<br />
Storytime is a great way to help young children discover the<br />
many joys of books, as well as an opportunity to build early<br />
literacy skills in a fun and engaging environment. While<br />
many children are fortunate enough to attend storytime<br />
at the library, there are many more who miss the chance<br />
because they attend childcare while their parents are at work.<br />
Recognizing that these children would also benefit from<br />
such a program, the <strong>Arlington</strong> Public Library teamed up<br />
with AISD Community Childcare Centers to bring biweekly<br />
storytimes to the 3 and 4-year-old prekindergarten students<br />
at 15 schools across <strong>Arlington</strong>.<br />
Thanks to generous funding from the Texas Literacy Initiative<br />
Grant, children at these centers receive biweekly visits from<br />
library programming staff who present fun and engaging<br />
storytimes that incorporate songs, rhymes, puppets, and of<br />
course, books. As comprehension increases, staff members<br />
Along with these programs, childcare center students had<br />
the opportunity in December to meet renowned author and<br />
illustrator Will Hillenbrand at a private author visit. Leading<br />
up to the event, Hillenbrand’s books, such as Spring is Here<br />
and Off We Go! were shared in the classrooms. This helped<br />
reinforce the power of the writing and illustrating process and<br />
may have even inspired students to become future authors<br />
and illustrators!<br />
The entire reading experience has been enhanced by the<br />
supportive AISD teachers who sing, dance, and participate<br />
with the students, to the great appreciation of the storytellers.<br />
Although working with over 1,000 students makes it difficult<br />
to know them on a personal level, the children greet library<br />
staff with continuous warmth and enthusiasm. A few of the<br />
students have even gone so far as to scout out the storytime<br />
leaders in their natural habitat at the public library – a fun<br />
surprise for everyone.<br />
The library continues to assess the early literacy needs<br />
of the <strong>Arlington</strong> community, and looks forward to future<br />
possibilities with the childcare center partnerships. †<br />
8 <strong>Arlington</strong> <strong>School</strong> & <strong>Family</strong> - January 2015
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