A COMMITMENT TO SUCCESS At the core of Tornillo Independent School District’s mission are four pillars: academic and career readiness, professional development, social-emotional learning, and family-community partnerships. “The first area is the reason why we’re in education, and that is that every student is going to be academically and college and career ready when they leave our school,” Vega-Barrio outlines. “That pillar really takes shape with not just the academic sense of it, but the whole child.” As part of this, each student is expected to complete service work every year from Kindergarten to graduation, as well as participating in an extracurricular activity. When it comes to professional development for teachers, Vega-Barrio says, “We ground ourselves, and we make sure that data is driving our instruction. We are also making sure that the culture within our community fits into all aspects of our academics.” With new teachers joining the district each year, Tornillo is committed to equipping them with the tools for success in the classroom. “The only way to do that is to provide our teachers with professional development and mentorship that allows them to understand our culture,” she adds.“It’s very different, making sure that we understand what equitable access to an education is in the classroom for all of our kids.” Tornillo prioritizes social emotional learning, providing a well rounded experience for students and staff. “We strive to keep a counselor at each of our campuses where their loads are literally less than 200 students per counselor,” Vega-Barrio imparts. Each classroom begins the day with a social emotion lesson, as a way for educators to connect with students. “Our kids face a lot of challenges that perhaps some other rural districts don’t go through,” she acknowledges. “A lot of our kids come from Mexico not knowing the language, not knowing the culture. We have a lot of kids that commute every single day because we’re so close to the Mexico border here in Juarez and El Paso.” As far as family and community connection, the emphasis is on identifying what parents really value in education and providing opportunities for families to be partners, offering professional development that allows them to help students at home. “I can say that we live these every day,” asserts Vega-Barrio. “They’re symbolic pillars, but you can see them in action through our scheduling, through the professional development and materials that we pick, and most importantly, on graduation night, 3 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 06, ISSUE 07 TORNILLO INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT
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