District honors Westlake High Tech crew
During the Aug. 25 Eanes school board meeting, trustees honored the award-winning Westlake High School student technical crew for their longstanding achievements, and for winning the top prize in technical directing at the state’s UIL broadcast journalism competition this year.
Westlake audiences experience the crew’s skills at football games, school musicals and the Hyline dance show, Zenith.
“For the past 16 years, we have created professional level broadcasts of Westlake’s football games which are broadcast live, or on tape, on TV (KBVO),” Kyle Beasley, a senior, and president of the Chap TV broadcast group told the board. “Essentially, what that means, is our 24-student crew filmed the games from seven different cameras while mixing audio, running graphics, creating replays and highlights, color engineering and doing everything you see on ESPN broadcasts.”
Beasley said the crew has been awarded 18 top UIL awards since 2008, including earning first in state out of all the Class 5A and Class 6 schools for broadcast journalism and technical directing.
“To reach the highest level of quality possible, we have to practice and watch films just like the football team. Last season, each video crew member invested almost 300 hours into the project including meetings, practices and games,” Beasley said to loud applause.
He thanked Westlake technical theatre teacher Jeff Strange, digital media instructor Dale Baker and Westlake PAC Director David Poole.
In other action, the board voted to pay-off a bond due in 2022.
“If we pay this off early, we’ll save approximately $1.5ish million dollars,” Superintendent Tom Leonard said.
Maria Rockstead, Eanes finance director, gave trustees more good news. There was a “savings of approximately $682,000 from the budgeted deficit,” so the fund balance is expected to be $25.8 million this year.
Leonard spoke of the recent teacher convocation, which begins each new school year. This year, special education is an added priority to the instructional goals, along with oral and written communication, social-emotional learning and innovation.
As he walked through classrooms before school began, Leonard said he saw a trend: Many teachers posted quotes about kindness after a recent documentary about the life of Fred Rogers and his show, “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.”
One of Rogers’ famous quotes posted was: “There are three ways to ultimate success: The first way is to be kind. The second way is to be kind. The third way is to be kind.”
“Teachers and staff seem to have grabbed on to this in ways I never thought they could.” Leonard said. “When things aren’t going well, sometimes ... be a little like Fred.”
The Eanes Education Foundation and district will offer a free showing of the documentary, “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” to Eanes staff, families and friends on Sept. 18 at 5 p.m. in the Westlake High School Performing Arts Center.