Briscoe Junior High’s PASS program was recently awarded a $1,000 grant from Sam’s Club.
The grant will be used to offset expenses for field trips, classroom supplies and awards.
PASS PROGRAM RECEIVES DONATION – Briscoe Junior High School’s PASS program recently received a $1,000 donation from Sam’s Club. Shown with the ceremonial check are, from left, Dee Villarreal, Bill Laubenberg, Alice Turner of Sam's Club, Briscoe principal Mike Semmler and Macey Drescher.
PASS stands for Positive Approach to Student success. Delia Villarreal, one of Briscoe’s PASS aides, said she was thrilled with the grant, especially since she applied for it on a whim.
“I was in the store one day and saw a notice about the grant so I filled out the form, which included a paragraph of why I thought our program should get the grant,” Villarreal explained. “I wrote about how the PASS program teaches students social skills and manners as well as the appropriate way to behave in the classroom,” Villarreal said. “The students in the PASS program are special to us because each one is a combination of different personalities that people overlook. But they are there.”
PASS teacher Bill Laubenberg, aide Macey Drescher and Villarreal monitor the students’ behavior and academic progress in their general education classrooms throughout the day, pulling them out for mentoring and tutoring, if needed.
They also take the students on mini-field trips to restaurants “to teach them how to eat out in public,” Villarreal said. “We also take them to visit a nursing home in Rosenberg where they read to the residents, give them crafts that they have made and spend time with them.”
The PASS students also visit elementary schools to read to younger students.
In addition to the Sam’s Club grant, PASS has received support from numerous other members of the Fort Bend community.
The PASS program received donations from local merchants, community members and parents for an end-of-semester Christmas party. The students were presented awards and gifts for Good Behavior, Good Grades, Citizenship and Most Improved.
Donors of cash, party supplies, gift cards or food for the party included Wal Mart (Richmond), Walgreens (Rosenberg), HEB (Greatwood), Little Caesar’s Pizza (Rosenberg), Pepperoni’s, Riverbend Baptist Church, Mr. and Mrs. Rufus Guebara, Turn it Around Church, Incredible Pizza, Galvan’s, Fiesta, Frito Lay, Darlene Carlisi, Randall’s (Pecan Grove), Chick-Fil-A, (Town Center), CVS (Rosenberg), CiCi’s Pizza (Rosenberg), Academy, Melinda Braswell and the 99 Cent Store (Rosenberg).
