Momentum for attitude change at WISD

I must confess that I was overwhelmed by the response received by my column last week.

I wrote about the need to instill a positive attitude within and about the Wharton ISD. That column was shared at least 75 times on Facebook and most of the comments were very positive and encouraging. As expected, there were a few detractors, generally from people who misunderstood what I was saying or had their own agenda.

I should clarify that I never said we shouldn’t address problems within the district. We should. It’s important that we work together and solve problems. What I said is it’s not good to constantly gripe and complain about them. Don’t air the dirty laundry. As a rule of thumb, it’s best to criticize in confidence and compliment in public.

I should also point out that I intend to follow-up on what I wrote. They weren’t empty words to fill space on the page only to be forgotten. I plan to use the newspaper to promote the positive things in the district. Yes, I will still stay on top of the news, even if it’s negative, but I want to make sure people see the good that is happening in the district.

I am hoping to run pictures and stories of the students of the month, teachers of the month, honor rolls, events and activities, etc., to highlight things going on in our schools. I want the different clubs and organizations to send us the pictures and information of the things they do throughout the year.

I also want to start running what I call weather art in the paper. This is where we get young children to draw pictures that depict the weather (sunny, rainy, snowy, cloudy, tornadoes, rainbows, etc.) that we run with the weather forecast. This is a great opportunity to showcase the artistic abilities of the kids, as well as provide a learning opportunity for them in the classroom.

There are many other things I hope to do with the schools, but I’m still early in the planning stages. It will be a work in progress, not something that happens overnight.

Don’t worry, I don’t plan to turn the newspaper into a school newsletter. We will continue to publish all the other news that we usually do. I just want to do what I can to shine a positive spotlight on the students and educators of the Wharton ISD.

 

Switching gears

Moving on to other things, I just sat down with my calendar and several schedules and it looks like the next few months are going to be insanely busy. Fall sports will be upon us very soon. I’m really looking forward to football. I know Wharton hasn’t won a game in a couple years, but I can’t help but feel that streak will soon come to an end. I think coach Alvin Dotson II will turn things around.

I’m excited about the opportunity to see El Campo’s Rueben Owens II play at running back. He’s the number one running back in the nation going into this season according to Maxpreps.com. If he stays the course at the University of Louisville after high school, he could very easily make the pros. It would be fun to say I saw him when…

I’m humbly optimistic about the Houston Texans this year. I think this team is highly underrated and will surprise a few folks this season. I bet they’ll be .500 or better. Conversely, I think the Dallas Cowboys are very overrated and will not surprise anyone this season. I expect them to be one-and-done come playoff time (which is a backhanded acknowledgement that they’ll be good enough to make the playoffs). Of course, anyone who knows me knows my team is the Denver Broncos. With new ownership and Russell Wilson at quarterback, I’m betting the Super Bowl isn’t out of reach.

One of the things that makes the fall busy is the latter part of the baseball season. The Houston Astros remain one of the best teams in baseball and are probably going to be playing deep into October. Their Triple-A affiliate, the Sugar Land Space Cowboys, aren’t expected to make it to October. On the other hand, there are a lot of former Space Cowboys on the Astros roster, so not all is lost.

My son is returning for his sophomore year at Texas A&M, which means there will be some college football to see this fall. He doesn’t play sports, but visiting him is always a good excuse for going to Kyle Field.

Of course there is a lot to the fall besides sports. We’ve got the Texas Renaissance Festival and the Wings Over Houston Airshow to look forward to. The one thing I think we can all agree on is that the fall will finally bring a break to all these 100-degree days we’ve been having. That will be really cool!

Joe Southern is managing editor of the Wharton Journal-Spectator and the East Bernard Express. He can be reached at news@journal-spectator.com.