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FORT HOOD, Texas —Children, parents and teachers alike were excited to be back in the daily routine at Meadows Elementary School as the new school year began August 13, 2025..
As most first days of school go, there were many tears from children and parents, but there were also some children excited and ready for their parents to leave.
“My kid was a prior student here in Pre-K (prekindergarten) and he’s happy to come back,” said Pfc. Armando Suarez, Juliet Forward Support Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, and parent to a prekindergarten 3 and a first-grade student. “He really enjoyed (school). The teachers are really good; they put the attention on the kids … he was so excited to come back. My little one — it was his first day, which was kind of more difficult for him, but he was more happy than me (about) staying here.”
Meadows Elementary is starting out with a new principal, a new theme and new “houses,” making sure the school’s vision aligns with the district’s vision.
“The district is really focused on instructional excellence, and so a part of that instructional excellence is making sure that we’re looking at student achievement data,” said Kara Smith, principal. “We spent a lot of time before school started looking at what we call our data presentations and evaluating student needs and making decisions based on those students’ needs, specifically in the areas of reading, math and science.”
To promote this focus and foster a positive cultural vibe, the school leadership, instructional coaches and teachers came together and will be adopting the house system from the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta, Georgia, which Smith said has become a nationwide phenomenon.
“Essentially what it is, is you sort students into houses, you sort staff into houses,” she said. “So we have four houses on our campus. They have unique Road Runner names because our mascot is the Road Runner … So all of our teachers are already sorted, and when students come back to our campus on the first day, they will also be sorted into a house.”
Smith said the houses reinforce the core values for the campus and the district of working together, fostering a sense of belonging and building a sense of community. The names of the houses are Velocirena, Cactalume, Zephreign and Plumarex. Children from every grade will be split into houses using a digital sorting wheel. The whole theme gives a nod to Harry Potter, including using house points.
“… Students will earn house points for some of those positive behaviors, but it’s just not discipline,” Smith said. “It’s also academics and social emotional things and pro social behaviors like teamwork — anytime we capture them doing the right thing.”
Smith said their No. 1 goal this year is to create a community of learners, focusing on academics, student achievement and making data-informed decisions to benefit their students.
“But also that they feel safe and respected in our building,” she added. “And so really focusing on that culture piece on how we can invest in our students and in our teachers to make sure that they’re offering that safe and supportive environment.”
Smith said the amount of support Meadows receives will be a key component in the success of the school year.
“I think that we’re really lucky in this community. We have a lot of support not only from our parents but also from our community, the Fort Hood community,” she said. “So I think that we have the support of counselors, we have the support of the MFLC (Military and Family Life Counseling), and then we have a school behavioral health counselor. All of those people and all of those supports really make Meadows special and unique.”
Haley Sams, a parent to a new first grader, had a lot of hopes for her daughter this year, she said, which could be accomplished by the new initiatives.
“To have fun, to learn and expand her horizons, and basically really just have fun,” Sams said about her wishes for her daughter. “She’s excited to learn different things in first grade and make new friends.”
Smith said the first day of school is going to be all about creating a safe and supportive environment within the classrooms and with staff, making sure they remember children are military connected.
“It’s really important being a military-connected school. Sometimes you hear military children are resilient, and they absolutely are, but those things are necessary because they have to be adaptable to kind of the repeated exposure for change,” Smith said. “So that’s part of what we’re going to really kind of adopt here, is making sure that through our consistency and structured and strong relationships, that we’re teaching them those behaviors that they need in order to be resilient in this community.”
| Date Taken: | 08.14.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 08.15.2025 12:21 |
| Story ID: | 545717 |
| Location: | FORT HOOD, TEXAS, US |
| Web Views: | 15 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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