Tag Archives: Ysleta

27 bands took the field at Franklin High School Saturday, as El Paso ISD hosted their invitational contest for area marching bands.

Serving as adjudicators for the event were Valentino Leyba, Kevin Moreman, and Shawn Silva, all band directors in the Las Cruces Public Schools. Instrumental Coordinator Julio Castillo was the contest organizer.

Due to the large number of bands entered, the contest was divided into morning and afternoon sessions. An awards ceremony was held at 11:30 after the first 13 bands performed. After a lunch break, the afternoon saw another 14 bands take the field, capping the day with an awards ceremony for these bands at the final conclusion of the contest.

Receiving first divisions, which denotes a “Superior” performance, were Franklin, Riverside, Parkland, Hanks, Bel Air, Eastlake and Del Valle High Schools in the morning session, and Irvin, Burges, Americas, and Coronado High Schools in the afternoon.

Bands receiving second divisions, denoting an “excellent” performance, were Horizon, Eastwood, Ysleta, and Socorro High Schools in the morning, and El Paso, Andress, Jefferson Silva, and Chapin High Schools in the afternoon.

Bands receiving a third division, or “good” performance, were Canutillo, Anthony, Fabens, Clint, Bowie, San Elizario, and Austin High Schools.

This contest served as a tune up for the bands and was great for getting some last minute pointers from the judges before the UIL contest next Saturday. All the El Paso-area bands will compete in the state- sanctioned contest which this year will advance 2-, 4-, and 6-A bands to the Area marching band contests for each respective class.

Those contests will take place in Amarillo for the 2-As, Lubbock for the 4-As, and Odessa for the 6-As on October 27th.

Locally, there is plenty more action coming up in Band-tober. The aforementioned UIL contest is next Saturday, October 13, at the SAC. This contest will be for ratings, just as today’s contest was, with qualifying bands advancing to the Area round of contests on the 27th.

On October 20, bands from Texas and New Mexico will take the field again at the SAC for the SISD Marchfest. The Marchfest contest uses a 7- person judging panel and is a two-round contest.

After prelims, 6 bands from the small band class will advance to a finals round, while 8 bands in the large band class will advance. No division ratings are given at this contest. Instead, the bands are given numerical scores and ranked in first place, second place, and so on.

The experience of competing for those rankings will come in handy for the last weekend in October. The advancing bands attending the Area contests will be ranked, and the highest -placing bands will advance to the State marching band contest.

This contest is held at the Alamodome in San Antonio on November 5,6, and 7.

Meanwhile, most of those bands not advancing to Area contests will instead journey up to Las Cruces for the NMSU Tournament of Bands, also taking place on October 27th. This contest, too, uses a 7-person judging panel and a prelims/finals format.

The Tournament of Bands for many years has served as the penultimate contest for bragging rights around the area, and promises some amazing marching show action for local band fans.

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Author – Lorraine Kubala

The complete schedule can be viewed on the ‘Musical Notes- The Blog’ page on Facebook.  

Click here for a complete listing of all the ‘Bandtober’ Events

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Once again, the El Paso Herald-Post will be providing band fans with LIVE, STREAMING coverage of SISD’s Marchfest on October 20, 2018!   Our day-long coverage starts at 7:20 and goes on through the finals!

I passed San Lorenzo on my way home yesterday. I grew up right behind the adobe church in Clint. Passing the church, I was reminded of the May flower offerings to the Virgin Mary when I was growing up. This we did every May and every May I offered flowers, but I wasn’t always happy about it.

See, I was a tomboy as a kid. I was outside all day long every day playing in the irrigation ditches of Clint, climbing in and out of the cars in my grandfather’s junkyard, scaling houses, sheds, and rock walls, riding my bicycle, recruiting bugs for my bug armies, and challenging the neighborhood kids to roller skating races.

I was also busy breaking bones as a kid. I thought I was Evil Knievel for a time and ended up breaking my collarbone. Playing in the junkyard also proved dangerous as well as I ended up breaking the fingers in my left hand. That didn’t matter though, I loved playing outside. I rarely came inside for anything, not even to drink water or eat.

There was no Xbox, no Playstation, no IPad. Heck, there wasn’t even Atari yet. My entertainment was outside.

If I was hungry, I’d run to my grandmother’s fig tree and swipe a fig. When I was thirsty I’d do what all the other kids did; I’d grab the manguera (Spanish for garden hose) to quench my thirst. It didn’t matter whose manguera we used.

Now, before I go any further, I need to explain how the  manguera is used.

There is a certain way to drink water from a  manguera and I feel I should point this out because it’s important. First, we’d never let the manguera touch our lips because we didn’t know where it had been. We’d turn the water on just enough so it wouldn’t run straight down.

We’d spread our legs slightly, and with our heads leaning forward we’d then drink. Now, we’d have to make sure trusted friends manned the spigot otherwise they’d turn the water on full force and we’d splash our faces.

There were no water bottles, no Dasani, no Evian, no Sam’s Choice. Nope, we got our water from the manguera.

However, my outdoor good times were cut short in May.

In May my mom would call me in early because as a young girl of a certain age belonging to the San Lorenzo parish, I had to make my daily offerings of flowers to the Virgin Mary along with the other little girls from the community. For me it was an ordeal though.

See, I hated wearing dresses. I couldn’t play outside in a dress. I couldn’t get on the roof of a shed in a dress. There was no way to explore the acequia in a dress. Certainly riding my bike in a dress would prove difficult. I mean Evil Knievel didn’t wear dresses! Dresses were inconvenient! Any self-respecting tomboy knew this and opposed them. I certainly did.

But, as a dutiful little Catholic girl that duty trumped everything and I acquiesced to my mother’s demands and donned the ruffles and lace so I could answer the call of the church bells summoning me and all the other little angels to make offerings to the Virgin Mary. It was our duty.

Plus, we did it out of fear. See, I grew up in the era of fearing the chancla (Spanish for sandal). For many of us if you didn’t do what your mother told you to do she’d throw a chancla at your head. In my house I also grew up with the fear of “making Baby Jesus cry.”

Yep, Abbie Franco never hesitated to pour on the Catholic guilt to get us to do things or to make us feel remorseful and rather miserable after we did something bad. She wasn’t opposed to reminding us that if we didn’t behave we were going to “make Baby Jesus cry.” I certainly didn’t want to do that so I obeyed.

Who am I kidding? I wasn’t always obedient. You’d think the fear of a chancla or making Baby Jesus cry would have kept me in line but if you ask my sister, I was quite the obstinate child, always doing exactly the opposite of what I was told.

If my mom said “don’t touch that,” I would look right at her and touch it, probably with a grin on my face. I guess I should apologize to the Baby Jesus for making him cry so much, should I ever make his acquaintance.

I wonder if apologizing to the Plaster of Paris infant Baby Jesus in a Nativity scene would suffice and absolve me of my childhood sins.

Anyway, back to the May flower offerings, I would run inside the house, and my mom would throw a dress on me. I’d be all sweaty and she’d barely wipe me down and get the frilly frock on me with just enough time for me to join my fellow innocent virgins at San Lorenzo.

Don Regino would still be ringing the church bells as we’d find our places in line and Ninfa would hand us our flowers. Ninfa was the San Lorenzo church lady. She was in charge of everything that had to do with the church. She taught catechism classes, supervised the choir, organized the offerings during mass, and to my recollection was more powerful than the priest and may have told off a bishop or two.

Looking back, I think she could have run the Vatican given the chance. Nobody ever messed with Ninfa. If we missed catechism, she’d drive around in her brown van, hunt us down, pick us up, and return us to catechism. Nope, we didn’t mess with her.

Oh my goodness, though, did this lady know how to make some mean gorditas.

But I digress. Now the flowers we offered weren’t real flowers. Nope, in typical, or stereotypical Mexican fashion, Ninfa would hand us plastic flowers to offer the Virgin Mary. We’d walk up to the altar single file and put our flowers in the vase at the feet of the Virgin de Guadalupe statue.

Little old Catholic ladies with lace doilies on their heads and rosary beads hanging from their hands would sing traditional hymns honoring the Virgin.

I just remember hoping this daily offering would end soon so I could dash outside.

Maybe if time allowed I’d make a quick stop at Don Poli’s store for some stale, old candy that I had to dust off before eating. I’d then run home and get out of my lace imprisonment in the hopes of catching more daylight and good times in the ditches, on the streets, or in my grandfather’s junkyard in my beloved dusty border town.

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Author: Christina Franco

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Voices from the Valley is a continuing series of stories, videos and live events from our Mission Valley, stretching from Ysleta to Tornillo.

It a battle of the YISD originals, the Ysleta Indians traveled up the road to take on their rivals of 30 years, the Del Valle Conquistadores.

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For the second year in a row, high school football fans at the Ysleta Independent School District will be able to purchase 2017 season tickets that entitle them to reserved VIP seating at five home games, with priority being given to last year’s season ticketholders.

By purchasing season tickets, fans can enjoy watching home games from prime viewing areas not available to other ticketholders, such as the 50-yard line. In addition, season ticketholders sit in individual stadium seats featuring sturdy chair backs, rather than standard
bleacher seats.

Season tickets are $40 per person and will be sold to the public on a first-come, first-served basis. Due to staffing variations at each high school, ticket sales will begin on different dates at different campuses. The schedule is as follows:

 Hanks, Eastwood, Parkland, Riverside, and Ysleta high schools:
2016 season ticketholders may purchase the same seats for 2017 beginning Monday, July 31. Tickets go on sale to the general public Tuesday, Aug. 8.

 Bel Air and Del Valle high schools:
2016 season ticketholders may purchase the same seats for 2017 beginning Monday, Aug. 7. Tickets go on sale to the general public Tuesday, Aug. 15.

Tickets can only be purchased with cash through the business clerk at each high school on weekdays from 8 a.m. to noon, or 1 to 4 p.m. Tickets will not be sold Friday, Aug. 4, when YISD campuses are closed.

Season tickets are good only for home football games at the high school where the tickets were purchased.

Beginning Sept. 1, any reserved seats from unsold season tickets will be available for purchase on the Friday of each home game at a cost of $10 apiece.

For more information, call your high school or visit the district’s Athletics Department page.

The Texas Library Association (TLA) Powered Libraries campaign / road trip through West Texas to highlight the wonderful, creative work libraries are doing in their communities, ends this week in El Paso.

The campaign tour has already visited libraries in San Angelo, Midland, Fort Davis, Marathon  to produce video spotlights dedicated to each library.  The tour’s final stops will be El Paso on Monday, and Ysleta on Tuesday.

TLA officials say, “Everyone is invited to join us to experience this engaging library tour, where cutting edge technology and old-school pastimes combine to create an exciting programming, power civic engagement, enrich economic development and foster a lifelong passion for learning and discovery. ”

Over the course of five days, staff from TLA and the Texas State Library and Archives Commission visited the five cities and six libraries – from one of the smallest public libraries in the state to an academic/research library nestled in the McDonald Observatory – unveiling the unique programming and collections each library offers.

Below is the schedule for El Paso:

Monday, July 17 at 11:30am | El Paso Public Library Sow. Grow. RepEat. Seed Library
Out in the western-most Texas town of El Paso, green-thumbed patrons can get back to their roots at the Sow. Grow. RepEat. Seed Library. Seed libraries are places that share or lend seeds. Urban farmers can “check-out” seeds to grow themselves and return seeds to the library once they have harvested the fruits (and vegetables) of their labor to share with others.

The program provides an alternative to genetically modified seeds, increases biodiversity and plant resilience, and reconnects El Paso residents with their food systems. The library offers classes and partners with the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension El Paso Master Gardeners to share best practices and time-tested tricks to ensure a successful harvest for even the brownest of thumbs.

El Paso, TX
Monday, July 17 at 3:30pm | University of Texas – El Paso Image Collections
The University of Texas El Paso provides innovative services, programs, and resources that support the school’s mission of education, research, scholarship, and community service. The library is the home to a range of print and electronic information resources that meet the unique needs of its users in the multicultural university community and the U.S.–Mexico border region.

Celebrating its 50th anniversary, the C. L. Sonnichsen Special Collections Department features impressive archival and photographic collections including the Chicano Collection, the Judaica Collection, the S. L. A. Marshall Military History Collection, the Southwest and Border Studies Collection, as well as collections of art and rare books.

These special collections help paint a colorful depiction of the people that call the El Paso region home.

Ysleta del Sur Pueblo, TX
Tuesday, July 18 at 12:00pm | Ysleta Del Sur Pueblo Tribal Empowerment Library
Ysleta Del Sur Tigua Reservation Tribal Empowerment Library serves the members of the Pueblo through resources including youth programming and a specially designed Tuy Pathu “I am Tigua” curriculum blending cultural lessons with the foundational elements of science, technology, engineering, arts, and math.

The Tribal Empowerment Library houses more than 18,000 titles including a large native American collection and a recently added T’aiki Tiwa reference section. The library hosts a variety of intergenerational cultural activities that invite tribal elders to engage with younger members of the community to reinforce traditional values, methods, and culinary practices while instilling new skills to ready young minds for the challenges of today.

Three campuses in the Ysleta Independent School District (YISD) were among 727 in the state to be named to the 2016 Texas Honor Roll after demonstrating high levels of academic achievement and reductions in achievement gaps during state testing last spring.

The honor-roll campuses are Ramona and Eastwood Heights elementary schools, and Valle Verde Early College High School (VVECHS). Earlier this year, VVECHS was nominated for the 2017 national Blue Ribbon award, and is the top-ranked public school in El Paso, according to two national publications.

The Texas Honor Roll, compiled by the Educational Results Partnership (ERP) and the Institute for Productivity in Education (IPE), analyzes data from the Texas Academic Performance Report to identify public elementary, middle, and high schools that demonstrate consistently high levels of student academic achievement, improvement in achievement over time, and reduction in achievement gaps. For high schools, the Honor Roll recognition includes measures of college readiness.

The Honor Roll is comprised of two different awards, the Star Schools Award and Scholar Schools Award. All three YISD schools were recognized as Star Schools, or those with significant populations of socio-economically disadvantaged students that have shown a significant increase in grade-level proficiency over time.

“The Honor Roll proves that all schools, no matter what zip code they are in, can achieve this kind of success,” said Jim Lanich, President and Chief Executive Officer of ERP. “School and school district leaders have a great opportunity to find out what’s working at these Honor Roll schools and replicate it.”

Honor Roll researchers say they have identified a common set of success factors in higher performing schools, which include:

 Clear, specific learning objectives aligned to college and career readiness, along with evidence-based instructional practices;

 Establishing a system-wide mission of college and career readiness for all students;

 Investing in human capital;

 Maintaining data and assessment systems to monitor school and student performance; and

 Deploying resources and guidance to support schools’ efforts to prepare all students for college and career.

Honor Roll schools will receive a banner to display on their campuses and be featured on the ERP website, where educators and policymakers seek out high-performing schools so they can replicate success.

A full list of the Honor Roll schools, districts, and the STEM awardees can be found HERE.

The Ysleta Independent School District is among 11 districts in the state invited to participate in the Texas Capitol Schoolhouse, an annual event that brings students and staff to the state Capitol to show legislators how technology is being used in the classroom to prepare students for the 21 st century.

The Schoolhouse event takes place from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday, Jan. 30, in the Texas Capitol Basement Rotunda in Austin. Representing YISD at the event this year is Parkland Middle School, which will send teacher Raquel Kuker and students Rebecca Enriquez, Jesus Garcia, Abraham Haggerty and Marvin Parker to participate in the event.

YISD Director of Innovative Learning Micha Villarreal is also scheduled to be on hand.

As part of the event, Parkland Middle School students and staff will join other invited participants in setting up a temporary classroom at the Capitol at 8 a.m., and conducting class as they normally would at their home schools. Throughout the day, state legislators and invited guests have the opportunity to venture through these temporary classrooms to observe and experience how state-of- the-art educational technology is integrated into students’ daily learning environment.

“We bring the schools together to show our legislators the wonderful things their technology funding has done for Texas classrooms,” said Schoolhouse organizer and Executive Director Dr. Deborah Jolly. “Each time the event becomes more and more impressive as the technology use becomes more and more sophisticated.”

This year, students will be working with video & sound editing, robotics, online virtual learning environments, and 1-to- 1 laptop computing, as well as full video production, developing educational gaming lessons, and robotics. All of these districts are using forms of blended technology, games and simulations, and personal learning environments.

“These students are eager to show their Representatives and Senators how these tools are used in the educational process and how much they benefit from their use,” Jolly said.

This year’s Schoolhouse participants include the Texas School for the Deaf and the following independent school districts: Coleman, Coppell, Deer Parks, Denton, Klein, New Braunfels, Pasadena, San Saba, Temple, and Ysleta.

Thanks to the quick action of Border Patrol agents, a migrant from El Salvador safely delivered a baby shortly after crossing into the US.

According to U.S. Border Patrol officials, while patrolling the border earlier this month, agents from Ysleta observed 11 migrants cross the international boundary four miles west of the Ysleta Port of Entry. Agents captured the group and they were transported to the Ysleta station for processing.

After arriving at the station, a 34-year- old female from El Salvador informed Agents that she was in her third trimester of pregnancy. While in custody, she began to complain of stomach pain. A female Border Patrol Agent quickly recognized that she was in fact experiencing labor pains, and sprang into action.

The Agent immediately began to comfort the expectant mother through breathing and relaxation techniques and EMS was contacted. The Agent gathered towels to prepare for the birth. Minutes later, a baby boy was delivered with the assistance of El Paso Fire and EMS personnel, who had arrived to the scene.

Both mother and child were then transported to Sierra Providence East Hospital for further medical care and evaluation.

On December 6, the mother and newborn were discharged from the hospital, and transported to the Temporary Holding Facility in Tornillo-Texas pending an immigration determination. The following morning, the new mom alerted agents at the facility that her newborn child appeared to be ill, and required medical attention.

Agents summoned EMS and subsequently transported the mother and child to El Paso Children’s Hospital, where the infant was admitted. The infant was treated and was released by the attending physician and is currently doing well.

Officials with the Border Patrol add that once they were deemed fit for travel, the baby and her mother were released from U.S. Border Patrol custody, pending an immigration hearing.

Week 4 was a hard-hitting week for the teams in action, as rivalries and memories were rekindled and re-formed. We chose Del Valle vs Ysleta and Eastlake vs Riverside because of the intensity of the play shown by all four teams.

Enjoy Andres Acosta’s view of the high school football action from week 4!

For the first time ever, the public will be able to buy 2016 season tickets with reserved VIP seating for home football games at all seven high schools in the Ysleta Independent School District, thanks to generous underwriting from Viva Auto Group.

Football season tickets will be sold on a first-come, first-served basis beginning Monday, Aug. 15, in the business office at each of the seven YISD high school campuses. The season tickets are good only for admission to the home football games at the school where the tickets were purchased.

Ticket prices are $40 per person at schools with five home games – Del Valle, Eastwood, Hanks, Parkland, Riverside, and Ysleta – and $32 per person at Bel Air High School, which has only four home football games this year. Season tickets must be paid by cash or check only.

Thanks to its partnership with Viva Auto Group, season ticketholders will be able to watch home football games from the comfort of individual stadium seats that include sturdy chair backs.

This reserved VIP seating will also be located in a prime viewing area of the stadium.

In addition, YISD officials said 2016 season ticketholders will have the option to purchase seats in this reserved VIP area for home football playoff games (prices may vary). They will also receive the first opportunity to renew their season tickets in 2017.

On Thursday, Ysleta ISD officials are announcing a new exclusive partnership with Nike and BSN. According to a release by district official, the new agreement will provide significant discounts on Nike products for all district high school and middle school athletic teams.

The five-year agreement will offer certain sports teams exclusive pricing and rewards programs to purchase game uniforms, practice uniforms, equipment, and accessories.

The total value of the discounts will benefit the district more than $1 million over the five-year contract.