R.Q. Sims Intermediate School

The MISD board of trustees approved an amendment to the 2022-2023 (current) school year calendar. MISD will be closed on Thursday, April 6, 2023 in order to accommodate the Little Dribblers National Tournament which will be conducted in all district gymnasiums.

Congrats to our Staff and Students of the Month!

Good evening Blackcats, Tonight the MISD Board of Trustees approved the 2023-2024 Instructional Calendar (attached). We will continue working on details of the Accelerated Instruction Weeks and share when those are finalized. Also, I am pleased to announce that Shelli Killingsworth will be moving into the role of Executive Director of Student Programs for the 2023-2024 school year. Prior to being the Executive Director of Human Resources, Mrs. Killingsworth worked with Bilingual/ESL, Migrant, Homeless, and Foster Care programs. She also spent time working with RtI and Gifted and Talented programs. Mrs. Killingsworth is very excited to continue to serve the students and staff of Mexia ISD in this new role. Have a great night and let's make the next two days of this week count. -- Ryder Appleton Superintendent Mexia ISD

Three new BUSES to transport our BLACKCATS to and from school, to extracurricular events, on field trips, etc. Thank you to our Administration and Board of Trustees for providing our kids with the BEST!!!

Mexia ISD invites you to join us as we Celebrate Black History Month. On Monday, February 27th, we are having a Black History Month Program in the Mexia High School Auditorium at 6:00 pm. The program will feature performances by students from every Mexia ISD campus. *Notice: Date of the program is subject to change depending on the High School Basketball playoff schedule.

R.Q. Sims Spelling Bee

Calling all talented MISD students, come audition for the Rotary Club of Mexia’s 67th annual Talent Show! See flyer for more information.

February 2, 2023 6:30 p.m. Blackcat family, Mexia ISD will have a two hour delay tomorrow, Friday February 3, 2023.

All MISD Campuses will be closed Tuesday, January 31, 2023 due to inclement weather.

Good afternoon Blackcats, With weather conditions seeming to deteriorate, all MISD activities have been canceled today, January 30, 2023. We continue to monitor travel conditions and communicate with local law enforcement along with Texas Dept of Transportation for most current and accurate information. It has been brought to our attention that KCEN prematurely made an announcement about closing that has now been redacted. THIS WAS FAKE NEWS and was not authorized or communication from MISD. Again, MISD has not made a decision to close early at this time. We are continuing to monitor the situation.

Good afternoon Blackcats, This announcement is to inform you that earlier today McBay Elementary had an incident in which the fire alarm was triggered. The students and staff at McBay Elementary were amazing and quickly and safely evacuated the building. The Mexia Fire Department were also amazing and very quick to respond. Fortunately, the alarm was only a result of a cooking issue in the kitchen. At no time were and students or staff in any danger.

Blackcat Parents: Mexia ISD is sharing this information about the district and your child’s campus with you as part of its obligations under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 (ESSA). Federal Report Cards for the state, the district, and each of the district’s campuses are now available on the district’s website at this link: https://www.mexiaisd.net/o/mexia-independent-school-district/page/federal-report-card or are also available on the Texas Education Agency’s website at: https://tea.texas.gov/texas-schools/accountability/academic-accountability/performance-reporting/federal-report-cards. For complete notice (English) click the following link: https://5il.co/1mx47 . For complete notice (Spanish) click the following link: https://5il.co/1mx4b .

9th January 2023 Dear Blackcat Parent: Mexia ISD is sharing this information about the district and your child’s campus with you as part of its obligations under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 (ESSA). Federal Report Cards for the state, the district, and each of the district’s campuses are now available on the district’s website at this link: https://www.mexiaisd.net/o/mexia-independent-school-district/page/federal-report-card or are also available on the Texas Education Agency’s website at: https://tea.texas.gov/texas-schools/accountability/academic-accountability/performance-reporting/federal-report-cards. Information on these report cards includes: Part (i): General Description of the Texas State Accountability System (I) the minimum number of students that the State determines are necessary to be included in each of the subgroups of students for use in the accountability system; (II) the long-term goals and measurements of interim progress for all students and for each of the subgroups of students; (III) the indicators used to meaningfully differentiate all public schools in the State; (IV) the State’s system for meaningfully differentiating all public schools in the State, including— (aa) the specific weight of the indicators in such differentiation; (bb) the methodology by which the State differentiates all such schools; (cc) the methodology by which the State differentiates a school as consistently underperforming for any subgroup of students; and (dd) the methodology by which the State identifies a school for comprehensive support and improvement; (V) the number and names of all public schools in the State identified by the State for comprehensive support and improvement or implementing targeted support and improvement plans; (VI) the exit criteria established by the State, including the length of years established. Part (ii): Student Achievement by Proficiency Level This section provides information on student achievement on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) performance for mathematics, reading/ELA, and science by grade level and proficiency level for the 2021-22 school year. These results include all students tested, regardless of whether they were in the accountability subset. Part (iii)(I): Academic Growth This section provides information on students’ academic growth for mathematics and reading/ELA for public elementary schools and secondary schools without a graduation rate, for the 2021-22 school year. These results include all students tested, regardless of whether they were in the accountability subset. Part (iii)(II): Graduation Rate This section provides information on high school graduation rates for the class of 2021. Part (iv): English Language Proficiency This section provides information on the number and percentage of English learners achieving English language proficiency based on the 2022 Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System (TELPAS) data.   Part (v): School Quality or Student Success (SQSS) This section provides information on school quality or student success, which is college, career and military readiness (CCMR) for high schools and average performance rate of the three STAAR performance levels of all students, regardless of whether they were in the accountability subset, for elementary and secondary schools without a graduation rate. Part (vi): Goal Meeting Status This section provides information on the progress of all students and each student group toward meeting the long-term goals or interim objectives on STAAR academic performance, federal graduation rate, and English learners’ language proficiency. Part (vii): STAAR Participation This section provides the percentage of students assessed and not assessed on STAAR for mathematics, reading/ELA, and science. Part (viii): Civil Rights Data Part (viii)(I): The section provides information from the 2017-18 Civil Right Data Collection (CRDC) surveys, submitted by school districts to the Office for Civil Rights, on measures of school quality, climate, and safety, including counts of in-school suspensions, out-of-school suspensions, expulsions, school related arrests, referrals to law enforcement, chronic absenteeism (including both excused and unexcused absences), incidences of violence, including bullying and harassment. Part (viii)(II): This section provides information from the 2017-18 Civil Right Data Collection (CRDC) surveys, submitted by school districts to the Office for Civil Rights, on the number of students enrolled in preschool programs and accelerated coursework to earn postsecondary credit while still in high school. Part (ix): Teacher Quality Data This section provides information on the professional qualifications of teachers, including information disaggregated by high- and low-poverty schools on the number and percentage of (I) inexperienced teacher, principals, and other school leaders; (II) teachers teaching with emergency or provisional credentials; and (III) teachers who are not teaching in the subject or field for which the teacher is certified or licensed. Part (x): Per-pupil Expenditure This section provides information on the per-pupil expenditures of federal, state, and local funds, including actual personnel expenditures and actual non-personnel expenditures, disaggregated by source of funds, for each school district and campus for the preceding fiscal year. To be updated by June 30th, 2023. Part (xi): STAAR Alternate 2 Participation This section provides information on the number and percentage of students with the most-significant cognitive disabilities who take STAAR Alternate 2, by grade and subject for the 2021-22 school year. Part (xii): Statewide National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) This section provides results on the state academic assessments in reading and mathematics in grades 4 and 8 of the 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress, compared to the national average of such results. Part (xiii): Cohort Rate of Graduates Enrolled in Postsecondary Education This section provides information on the cohort rate at which students who graduated from high school in the 2019-20 school year enrolled in the 2020-21 academic year in (I) programs of public postsecondary education in Texas; (II) programs of private postsecondary education in Texas; and (III) programs of postsecondary education outside Texas.   Part (xiv): Additional Information – Chronic Absenteeism This section provides information on the Chronic Absenteeism per EDFacts definition: percent of unduplicated number of K – 12 students enrolled in a school for at least 10 days and absent for 10% or more days during the 2020-21 school year. If you have difficulty accessing the information from the website, hard copies of the reports are available at the district or campus office. If you have questions about the information, please contact assistant superintendent Garcia at dgarcia@mexiaisd.net Sincerely, Dimitri Garcia Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction | Mexia ISD dgarcia@mexiaisd.net Work: (254) 562-4000 "Relationships before rigor; grace before grades; patience before programs; love before lessons." - Dr. Brad Johnson

January is School Board Recognition Month and Mexia ISD is celebrating its trustees for their dedication and commitment to the district and its students. “Recognizing the efforts of our volunteer school board is so important because of all the hard work trustees put in to making our district a success,” Superintendent Ryder Appleton said. Please take a moment this month to show your appreciation.

REMINDER: Early Release tomorrow, Friday, December 16th.

Summer 2022 P-EBT Benefits are now being distributed by HHC on Lone Star or P-EBT cards. MISD students born on or after Aug. 1, 2015, who received SNAP food benefits or who were enrolled in MISD grades K-12 during the last month of the 2021–2022 school year are eligible for Summer 2022 P-EBT Benefits. Please call P-EBT at 833-442-1255 for information regarding missing benefits.

Reminder: Early Release Friday, November 18th. Thanksgiving Break 11/21 - 11/25

Good evening Blackcats, This announcement is to inform you that MISD will be conducting practice campus evacuation drills tomorrow and Thursday. There has not been an event that has caused us to practice these drills, we are just being proactive in the event something does happen in the future. Our top priority is the safety of our students and staff and these drills are being conducted in the event we ever need to evacuate our campuses for purposes like a weather event (tornado) or some other type of emergency. These practice drills are being conducted in accordance to recommendations from the Texas State School Safety Center. Students will be 100% in the care of their teachers as well as campus and district administrators at all times. For practice purposes students will be transported from their campus on buses to an alternate location such as the football stadium. Students will then immediately be returned to campus so please make sure they wear their coats over the next couple of days as they will be outdoors for a few minutes during these practice drills. Also, you may notice some extra police & fire department vehicles around our campuses. There is no need to be alarmed as they will be assisting us and participating in these practice drills. We are appreciative of their partnership with Mexia ISD.

Please join us for the Inaugural Hispanic Heritage Festival presented by Mexia High School. *See Information below

Mexia ISD would like to thank some of our community partners for helping create fun learning opportunities for our students. Local banks donated the funds to purchase gingerbread houses for each 3rd grader to be able participate in a competition for who can make the most creative one! Big thank you’s to Centex Citizens Credit Union, Farmer’s State Bank, Incommons Bank and Vera Bank for making this opportunity a reality! Also, thank you to HEB for sponsoring the prizes for the students! It’s a great day to be a Blackcat!