Partnership for Excellence

Victoria School District's student leaders make recommendations on new schools at their Governing Board meeting Victoria Student Leadership Team in Action In December, the Partnership for Excellence, in concert with the Victoria, Texas Independent School District, trained a group of 45 students in the principles of the High Performance Model and began the process of reviewing the Victoria goals and priorities while providing student input into the district’s strategic plan. Keeping true to their commitment to involve the students in the decision-making process, the Victoria School District recently gave these 45 students the opportunity to drive the process in selecting school colors and mascots for their two new elementary schools, new middle school and two high schools. Using quality tools, the students in grades 7 through 12 sorted through more than 24,000 mascot and color suggestions for the new schools in late March and presented their recommendations at the most recent Victoria Board Meeting. “From the beginning we said this would be a student-driven process, and that is our intent,” Board President Ray Walden said. Student committee members informed the board of the two most popular colors and mascots for each school and also gave a suggestion of their own, reported high school senior Allye Lykes. Administrators will make a recommendation to the board at the next meeting. “The students will get the most consideration for their suggestions. It is their schools,” Walden said. The Partnership would like to commend these student leaders as well as the Victoria Independent School District for committing to the development of leaders at all levels and demonstrating that student leadership can have a direct impact on the successful operation of their school district.