Fort Bend Independent School District NEWS RELEASE FROM COMMUNITY RELATIONS Keryn Miles, Communications Specialist keryn.miles@fortbendisd.com    281.634.1100

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Fort Bend ISD Earns Seven State Awards for Outstanding Partnership Programs

FORT BEND ISD ― The Texas Association of Partners in Education (TAPE) recognized Fort Bend ISD for seven outstanding partnership awards at its 2010 Education Partnership Awards Luncheon, held January 26 in Austin. The TAPE Partnership Awards Program recognizes exemplary educational partners and partnership programs from across the state and FBISD earned seven awards: four crystal (awarded to best of category winners) and three gold (awarded to the second highest scoring nominees).

The 2010 TAPE award winners for FBISD include:

Crystal Award Winners

• Barbara Adcock (TAPE Individual Partnership Award, Role Model) – As curator of the Colony Meadows Elementary School Guided Reading Library, Barbara has been involved with the guided reading library since its inception five years ago. The program began with 25 sets of books, and now contains 2,180 sets of books. Barbara developed a library system that not only lists the books, but cross references the books by reading level, title, and genre. She also implemented a computerized system for checking books in and out of the library.
• Bobbie Steinert (TAPE Individual Partnership Award, Partnership Advocate) –Bobbie has been the FBISD Shared Dreams Program full-time facilitator for the past five years. She works closely with all campus nurses, social workers, counselors and volunteers to help provide clothing and school supplies to children in need of assistance. With the help of volunteers, she opens the Shared Dreams facility three days a week to parents and guardians who qualify to participate in the program.
• Briana Gifford(TAPE Individual Partnership Award, Youth Leadership) – While a senior at Kempner High School, Briana is an active member of several service organizations including the Sugar Land Mayor’s Youth Advisory Council, the Keep Sugar Land Beautiful Youth Board and the Fort Bend ISD Youth Advisory Board. In her advisory capacity for these organizations, Briana helps keep the organizations informed about student concerns and issues, and provides important insight in sharing ways to impact on the community.
• CVS Pharmacy (TAPE Business Partnership Award, Career Education) – CVS opens doorways to learning for students across the Fort Bend ISD community. Through its internship program, CVS provides hands-on experiences for students, employment opportunities, funding for scholarships and continuing education for interns and pharmacy technicians who want to complete a six-year pharmacy program.

Gold Award Winners

• Don McGinty(TAPE Individual Partnership Award, Wisdom) – Retired Shell employee, Don McGinty, recognizes the need for mentors in Fort Bend ISD not only for at-risk students, but also for those who are academically able. He eagerly volunteers to mentor at his neighborhood school, Quail Valley Elementary. Last year, he mentored three children and visited their school once a week, spending approximately 40 minutes with each child. Don gladly provided a positive male role-model for each of these students.
• Rolls-Royce Energy Systems, Inc. and Optimized Systems & Solutions (OS&O) (TAPE Business Partnership Award, Academic Impact) – Rolls-Royce  Energy Systems, Inc. and OS&S “adopted” Blue Ridge Elementary School and regularly provide numerous levels of support to the students and teachers. Employees from both companies assist the school by providing mentors and volunteers for school-wide programs, especially those geared toward learning science and math concepts. They also provide financial and in-kind donations to the school.
• The Saturday Math and Science Workshop – The Satya Sai Organization and Elkins High School(TAPE Community Partnership Award, Academic Impact) – The Satya Sai Organization partnered with Elkins High School to provide tutorials to students in math and science. The organization provides more than 20 adult tutors (among them are teachers, lawyers, business professionals, college students and a retired surgeon), who work with nearly 90 Elkins students for two hours each Saturday.

Photo 1: Pictured (front row, from left) are: Renu Bhargava (TAPE Community Partnership Award, Academic Impact), Barbara Adcock (TAPE Individual Partnership Award, Role Model), Bobbie Steinert (TAPE Individual Partnership Award, Partnership Advocate); (middle row) Ram Nandam (TAPE Community Partnership Award, Academic Impact), Rao Tripani (TAPE Community Partnership Award, Academic Impact), Annette Rodriguez (TAPE Business Partnership Award, Academic Impact), Barbara Whitaker (TAPE Community Partnership Award, Academic Impact), and (back row) Ravi Iyengar (TAPE Community Partnership Award, Academic Impact), Vinod Patel (TAPE Community Partnership Award, Academic Impact), Lori Oliver (TAPE Community Partnership Award, Academic Impact), Anna Crabtree (TAPE Business Partnership Award, Academic Impact), Robert Wallace (TAPE Business Partnership Award, Academic Impact), Don McGinty (TAPE Individual Partnership Award, Wisdom), and Roma Desai (TAPE Business Partnership Award, Career Education).

Photo 2: Briana Gifford, a senior at Kempner High School, earned the 2010 TAPE Individual Partnership Award in Youth Leadership.

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