JOURDANTON I.S.D. SUPERINTENDENT DR. LANA COLLAVO Jourdanton I.S.D. may have turned 100 years old this school year, but the education of their students continues to get is anything but aged. With the state implementing new testing standards once again, J.I.S.D. continues to stay on top of what is expected of them. Dr. Lana Collavo is in the middle of her seventh year during her second stint in the district, she continued to implement a vision she believes will help the future of the Jourdanton achieve at a high level.

Meet Superintendent Dr. Lana Collavo

Dr. Collavo is no stranger to South Texas, as she grew up about 100 miles south of Jourdanton in Taft.

“My father was the mayor of Taft and my mom was the school board president,” stated Dr. Collavo, as she explained how her family was always involved in their community.

Collavo graduated from Taft and went on to be a featured twirler at Baylor University in Waco. She was then able to graduate from Texas A& M in December of 1976 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree with a major in Curriculum and Instruction and a specialization in Spanish. She later received her Master of Science Degree in Educational Administration from Corpus Christi State University (now Texas A& M Corpus) and in 2002 earned her Doctorate in Education Leadership from a cooperative program between Texas A & M and Texas A & M Corpus Christi.

Dr. Collavo’s career in education began in 1977 as she began teaching in Austin where she taught 2nd grade. During her teaching career, she also spent stints at White Settlement as well as Taft and Sinton.

“I started my first job in administration in 1986 when I was an Assistant Principal at Tuloso Midway where I worked for six years,” Collavo explained.

Dr. Collavo then moved to Mathis when she accepted her first principal position where she served for five years before arriving in Jourdanton in 1997 for her first position at J.I.S.D.

“My first central administration job was here as I worked with Special Pro- grams and Special Education. It was a step up as this was my first central office job. I moved back to Beeville in 1998 for family reasons,” stated Collavo.

Collavo then worked for Beeville I.S.D. for six years serving in numerous central administration positions including Assistant Superintendent, special education and special programs before coming back to Jourdanton in January of 2005.

“This is just a great district which features a strong staff, experienced administration and strong campus principals,” stated Collavo who is in the middle of her 7th year back in Jourdanton. Dr. Collavo has grown children and has been married to her husband for 37-years.

A district moving forward- When Dr. Lana Collavo took her second job in Jourdanton, she was confident in the roll she was accepting.

“I was not really worried about having to come in and change a whole lot. I knew I had experienced principals and just a great group of staff to work with. We all work together and we have a common goal. One thing that helps our district is our district goals. I start off by meeting with the board each year as we sit down and review and edit our district goals. From there, we take them to our principals that work off of them and they are able to implement them all the way down through our staff,” stated Collavo.

According to Collavo, once the goals are set, it is constant communication amongst administrators and staff, which result in success. Aside from goals, it is important that the district work off of their district wide curriculum.

“We are starting to implement C-Scope this school year. We are training the district as we are working with Region 20 and Charlotte I.S.D. in our four core areas. In the past, we created our own curriculum, but are switching over to something that has a scope and sequence which will allow us to align what we are teaching our children a little better,” she stated.

Growth

Jourdanton I.S.D. has been a district which has been ranked highly according to TEA over the past ten years, but most recently was named as an Academic Acceptable School District. With the history of success on the academic side, growth has been consistent in the school district which includes numerous transfer students from area districts each year.

At the end of last school year (2009-2010, J.I.S.D. had a total of 1,261 students. At the first day of 2010-2011 school year, J.I.S.D. had 1,281 students. The enrollment as of a week ago stood at 1,435 students. Keep in mind this includes students at all four campuses as well as students at the Detention Center which are considered a part of J.I.S.D. Currently J.I.S.D. has around 200 transfer students.

“We get transfer students from Poteet, Charlotte, Pleasanton, Somerset and McMullen County usually. Included in the transfer students include about 38 staff children. Usually parents credit various academic activities and success as part of the season they send their children to our district,” stated Collavo.

When school districts see constant growth, the question on additional facilities usually arises in the community.

“We are not out of room yet. We have had to use a few rooms that were used as labs, but we are not out of classrooms for our students,” Collavo stated.

Dr. Lana Collavo agreed with the four other area superintendents in the statement that the Oil Boom is not to credit for the growth.

“We have seen almost nothing courtesy of the Oil Boom in the area of student growth. I think one of the things we have established is a good reputation and I like it that way. We are still small enough to give kids the attention they deserve. People bring their children here for academics, dual credit courses and for the family atmosphere,” Dr. Collavo added.

One building that is near completion is the new band hall, which is featured next to Jourdanton High School.

“Our band program is very strong and has continued to grow. Our new band hall is beautiful and will feature the band hall, an office, restrooms and practice rooms. It cost a little over $1Million. We are also renovating wings at the Jr. High and Elementary, which will add two classrooms at the Jr. High (converted from Labs to classrooms).

New testing standards

Just like every other public school district in Texas, Jourdanton I.S.D. is doing their best to prepare for the unknown. Even though new tests will begin soon, all of the specifics have not been made very clear by the state.

“Our campus principals are working on it. We don’t even know what the passing standards will be right now. We are doing our best to teach in a more rigorous style to prepare our children for it. We are planning to continue instruction to try and meet the assessment needs. We are working hard to give our staff the tools which will best prepare them,” stated Dr. Collavo.

According to the leader of J.I.S.D., aside from the state tests, they want to also be sure their children are prepared for what meets them following school.

“We have about half of our students who go on to college according to the Texas Higher Education. We want to also prepare our students for the ACT and SAT to help them after school. We also offer our students about 38 hours of dual credit which is through Palo Alto College,” she added.

Strong programs

Aside from your every day classes, Jourdanton I.S.D. is proud of a few of the programs they have to offer.

“We have a strong agriculture program. We have two agriculture teachers and one shop shop teacher who offer a variety of courses. We also have judging teams which allows them the opportunity to compete at numerous levels including nationals. We also have a strong FCCLA group that competes at numerous competitions as well as our Academic U.I.L. and One Act Play groups. Our football team also had one of their best years in a long time this school year. We are just really proud of all of our students and staff here at J.I.S.D.,” Dr. Lana Collavo added.

Continue to achieve thanks to the staff

Jourdanton I.S.D. currently has about 200 staff members that includes everyone from the transportation department all the way up to the Central Administration. In the 200 includes about 100 teachers in the district.

“I can not say enough about how hard my staff works and how hard the principals work in the district. They also follow our vision and that is to be the best in Texas,” stated Collavo.

Superintendent Contract

Dr. Lana Collavo was given an extension to her contract which runs through June 30th of 2014.

Dr. Collavo is paid an annual salary of $125,000 which includes a district vehicle. She also lives on J.I.S.D. property in a house in which she is required to live in per contracted agreement.

“The school board is a very good board. They are able to hash out issues them come back together to work for the children. I am just blessed to work with such great people. The board is led by our board president Raymond DeLeon who is very strong. There are only two members left of the original board who hired me, but I have worked great with all of the new members. They all have different backgrounds and they set the example of why we are here and that is for the children,” Dr. Lana Collavo stated in closing. NOTE: THIS concludes our 2011-2012 State of the School Addresses. During the previous four weeks we updated you on McMullen County I.S.D., Poteet I.S.D., Pleasanton I.S.D. and Charlotte I.S.D. If there is something you would like to read about concerning one of our area five school districts you feel is newsworthy, please let us know. E-mail Eric Smith at esmith@pleasantonexpress.com.