Gregory-Portland ISD and Superintendent Michelle Cavazos have been racking up accolades lately and “strategic alignment” is one of the keys to their success. That means the Texas district’s central office and each of its schools are pursuing the same four priorities: exceptional student performance, employee satisfaction, community engagement and effective operations.
“We equate it to rowing a boat—when you have all the rowers in alignment and in sync with their rowing, you go a lot further faster,” Cavazos explains. “When a system has a rower out of sync, they may be turning in circles or there may be extra paddling in there.”
Building leaders have the flexibility to use their school data to determine how to make improvements and reach their goals, which are measured on scorecards. Cavazos and her team deliver regular progress reports to the district’s school board.
That strong school board relationship has been another hallmark of the Gregory-Portland ISD’s achievements, which include being named a top small district in Texas. For her part, Cavazos, who recently won superintendent of the year in her region, meets regularly with each board member. She and the board conduct self-evaluations and hold three governance workshops each school year.
Since becoming superintendent in 2020, Cavazos and the board have been working on advocating for the district more forcefully at the state level and being transparent as responsible stewards of taxpayer funds, she points out.
‘Wonder constantly’
A new early learning center resembling a children’s museum will be one of the highlights of the new school year. The building is donut-shaped, with the playground safely nestled in the middle.
Half the classrooms are designed for experiential learning with features such as a replica Gulf Coast with magnetic fishing poles and fish. Though the district borders Corpus Christi Bay, not all students have visited the Gulf of Mexico.
Another classroom contains mannequins and an operating table that allows students to explore parts of the human body. There’s also a giant mouth, where students can practice dental hygiene. “Kids are working on fine motor control. They’re using tongs to take bones out of the body,” Cavazos explains. “But then they’re able to learn about the bones.”
Cavazos and Gregory-Portland ISD are also heading into 2023-24 fully staffed. That’s a result of raising teacher pay to the highest level in the region as well as keeping a tight focus on engagement and satisfaction. Cavazos says she and her team are deliberate about recognizing staff achievements and providing teachers with the resources to experiment and excel.
“Our theme this year is ‘wonder constantly,'” she concludes. “[We’re] challenging our employees throughout our entire system to intentionally be disruptive so that we can innovate and think differently about how we do things to meet the needs of all of our kids and equip them for success beyond us.”
