LISD Expect Excellence Newsletter
April 8th, 2024
Hello Levelland Lobos!
We had such a great time in Levelland last week. It was an honor to showcase our student athletes, community, and gyms for the National Little Dribblers Tournament. Thank you to all our volunteers, staff, and the maintenance department for the numerous hours you spent making this event a success.
Congratulations to Dr. Birdwell on being named Region 17 Secondary High School Principal of the Year! Dr. Birdwell's leadership and passion for education is evident in everything he does for LHS and LISD!
Have a wonderful week.
Expect Excellence
Sincerely, Becky McCutchen
TASSP High School Principal of the Year!
Congratulations to Dr. Matthew Birdwell, who was named the 2024-2025 Texas Association of Secondary School Principals (TASSP) Region 17 High School Principal of the Year! Dr. Birdwell is serving in his 3rd year as the LHS principal. He has 18 years of experience in education and 11 of those as a school administrator. He earned his Bachelor of Science in History Education from West Texas A&M University in 2006, a Masters of Education in Educational Leadership from Lubbock Christian University in 2012, and a Doctorate of Philosophy in Curriculum and Instruction from Texas Tech University in 2018. In addition, Dr. Birdwell received an Advanced Leadership Certification from Harvard University in 2019, a Curriculum Leadership Certification from the Texas Association of School Curriculum Directors (TxASCD) in 2023, and is completing a Post-Doctoral Distinguished District Leadership Fellowship with Southern Methodist University. With this recognition, Dr. Birdwell will be considered for the TASSP High School Principal of the Year for the State of Texas that will be determined later this year. LHS and all of LISD are extremely proud of him! Congratulations Dr. Matthew Birdwell, 2024-2025 TASSP Region 17 High School Principal of the Year! Dr. Birdwell stated, "I am extremely honored to receive this award! This is a direct reflection of the hard work and dedication to excellence of the high school students and staff. I am thankful to have such a student body and staff that commit to excellence every single day! I am blessed to serve the high school campus, school district, and Levelland community." #LevellandISD
Librarian's Honored!
https://files.gabbart.com/455/librarianday.mp4
All Things LISD..................
Academic UIL
Congratulations to these LHS UIL students who brought home some hardware last week from the Academic UIL Event. In Number Sense Michelle Bustillos placed first, and Alvaro Loza placed 6th. Ada Niederhauser placed first in News Writing and third in Editorial Writing. In Accounting Austin Ellis placed first, and the Accounting Team made up of Austin, Alvaro Loza, Emma Pugh, and Cy'Jai Mitchell placed first also! James Bunker placed fourth in Science and third in Chemistry. Nathan Ellis brought home fourth in Math. The Computer Science Team comprised of Austin Ellis, Nathan Ellis & Damian West placed third as a Team. UIL takes a lot of extra hours to be successful at it and we are proud of you. These kids will compete again in Big Spring on April 6th! Bring home the gold!
Career Success through Culinary
Do you know your Marvel characters? LHS Culinary Teacher Khris Oaks #expectsexcellence and shares the results of her Skills USA State Competition in Corpus Christi last week! These students created Marvel Character cakes, and they did so well in that competition! They brought home six State Superior Ratings, two Best of Show, one Best of Cluster, one Overall Best of Show, and one second-place rating. The results are:
Turtle: Madi Hernandez-State Superior
Hulk: Destini Blair & Matt Almager-State Superior
Avenger Tower: Gavin French, Gage French, Brian Billington & Brent Billington-State Superior
Joker/Batman: Leilani Sanchez, Dusty Dodson & Audrey Valderas-State Superior
Thor: Jayda Sanchez, Jendall Maldonado, Sofia Cisneros & Ariani Lopez-State Superior
Super Woman: Mackenzie Dominguez, Destini Jones & N'Ya Washington-2nd Place
Incredibles: Gemini Coronado, Trinity Wafer & Evangalene Loa -State Superior
Superman/Hulk: Brody Moore-State Superior and Best of Show for the Commercial Baking 1-2 Tiered Cakes
Monkey Warrior: Lyric Muniz, Adrian Rodriquez, Nick Cruz & Jacob Rodriquez. Best of Show for the Commercial Baking Showpiece, Best of Show Cluster, and out of 1200 job exhibits, they won the Overall Best of Show award.
"This is Marvelous!" We are so proud of Mrs. Oaks' Culinary program that enables Career Success after high school!
https://files.gabbart.com/456/culinaryvideo.mp4
Perfect Attendance Noticed!
Levelland ABC celebrated students with Perfect Attendance today with an ice cream party! Everyone enjoyed the treat and getting to just sit and talk to friends! A boy & a girl from each grade level were also drawn to receive a bigger prize from City Bank & Landon McCormack. We send out a big thank you to the people that worked behind the scenes to make this event happen and to City Bank for your continued support of our Perfect Attendance prizes.
LMS Girl's Choir
LMS Choir Director Joshua Ballard shares more good news and this times about his ladies. The LMS Gil's Choir earned 2s (excellent) onstage and 1s (superior) in sightreading, so they brought home a UIL plaque for their hard work! Mr. Ballard says, "They sang beautifully! Thank you for everyone's love and support! I'm extremely proud and thankful for all of Levelland." Way to go girls! We are so proud of you too!
Students Teaching Students............
We all need to know this! Mrs. Barbara Utley’s 3rd grade GT students at Capitol got some help from Mr. Scott Lawson's Digital Media & Career Prep students on their News Show Production project. Students learned how to use a green screen, read from a teleprompter, crop, edit recorded videos, and insert backgrounds! Aren't we all just a little bit jealous? We are so glad our LHS students are willing to teach younger kids to follow in their footsteps! Thank you so much!
Solar Eclipse
What's better than peanut butter? A solar eclipse, of course! All over Levelland ISD, little kids and big kids enjoyed seeing the astronomical phenomenon when the Moon moved between the Sun and the Earth. It became cooler outside and a little eerie. Students and staff were caught everywhere in their special glasses watching and learning live! It was a day to remember!
Sports!
District Champs X 2!
Our LHS Boy's Golf Team are District Champs for the second year in a row! Wow! Senior Max Vergara is also the Individual District Champ! Junior Brendan Lawless shot his best round and finished District with 2nd place as well! Freshman Conner Grissom placed 7th. Our guys will move on to Regionals on April 15th at Shadow Hills in Lubbock! We are so proud of these guys and wish you the best of luck later this month!
On to Regionals..............
Our LHS Unified Track Team competed in Area today and came home with the Bronze Trophy! This third place secured their position to compete at Regionals in Abilene on the 17th! Way to go and we wish you the best of luck! (Photo courtesy Missy Patton)
Track!
LHS Track Coaches Marlon Winn and Nelda Munoz #expectexcellence and share that our track athletes had an awesome couple of days at the District 5-4A track meet that took place in San Angelo this week. The Girl's Varsity came in 4th as a team! The Girl's JV were District Runner Up: second as a team! The Boy's Varsity were District Runner Up: second as a team! The Boy's JV were District Champs as a team! Coach Winn says, "All students went out and exemplified what C.U.L.T.U.R.E. means. We are proud of the students and coaches for the hours of work that they have put into the district results and we look forward to the area meet next week in Abilene next Friday!" Many students are moving on to Area! They are:
ARIANI LOPEZ 800M
EVELYN MENDIAS
ARIANI LOPEZ 1600M
EMILY RAMIREZ
EVELYN MENDIAS
ARIANI LOPEZ 3200M
AVANI LOPEZ
KARINA LARA 100M HURDLES
ALLY MONGE
ZANITY SANCHEZ
WHITNEY WILLIAMS
EMILY RAMIREZ 4X100M RELAY
ALLY MONGE
EMILY PEREZ
ZANITY SANCHEZ
WHITNEY WILLIAMS 4X200M RELAY
BRITTANY ROSALES
ZANITY SANCHEZ
EMILY PEREZ
ERIKA BURLESON 4X400M RELAY
ADDI CAMPBELL POLE VAULT
EMILY PEREZ TRIPLE JUMP
EMERY SMITH SHOT PUT
KEYLEIGH BARRON & OLIVIA VELARDEZ DISCUS
BEN ALVARADO 100M
EZEKIEL ARIAS 200M
GAGE POTTER 400M
SAUL HERNANDEZ 800M
RYAN JEANNERET 1600M
SAUL HERNANDE 1600M
RYAN JEANNERET 3200M
ERYK JONES 300M HURDLES
BEN ALVARADO
EZEKIEL ARIAS
FRANCISCO BANDA 4X200M RELAY
JOSH DIAZ
GAGE POTTER
ZION CHILDERS 4X400M RELAY
EZEKIEL ARIAS
SAUL HERNANDEZ
SAUL HERNANDEZ POLE VAULT
ERYK JONES TRIPLE JUMP
AUSTIN ELLIS & ZARIAN VALDERAS SHOT PUT
AUSTIN ELLIS DISCUS
Congratulations to these track & field athletes! We wish you the best of luck and we will be watching!
Cheer Squad!
Levelland ISD sends out a big thank you to our cheerleaders who cheered our National Little Dribblers Boys and Girls to Championships. They went out of their way to make the extra effort and we noticed! Thanks girls! You make a difference and make Levelland a great place to live!
Bill's Backpacks!
Thank you!
Thank you to the Softball Team for the help with bagging!
BBP is always accepting donations.
Vienna Sausage
is the food item of the month!
Levelland ISD
Email: rmccutchen@levellandisd.net
Website: www.levellandisd.net
Location: 704 11th Street, Levelland, TX
Phone: 806-894-9628
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LevellandISD/
Twitter: @LevellandISD