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Como ES To Appear on The Ellen Show Today
The Ellen Degeneres Show in partnership with Cheerios and Box Tops for Education is donating $50,000 to Fort Worth ISD’s Leadership Academy at Como Elementary for technology and food.
Como Principal Valencia Rhines, Math Teacher Thomas Mayfield and Counselor Tomeka McGee will accept the donation on The Ellen Show at 3 p.m. Tuesday, April 16. Students will appear on the show via satellite.
“What an experience of a lifetime. I am so grateful and humbled by all of this,” Mrs. Rhines wrote on the campus Facebook page Tuesday. “There just are not enough words to express how full my heart is right now. I'm thankful for being chosen to lead such a fantastic group of staff. We are made better daily because of the students we have the honor of serving.”
The $50,000 donation will fund laptops for Como students and support the campus food pantry.
“We were extremely surprised and grateful that they would even do something like that for our campus,” Mrs. Rhines said.
Como first grabbed the attention of comedienne and talk show host Ellen DeGeneres with viral music videos written and created by Mr. Mayfield that feature students touting about excelling in school and making successes of themselves.
The campus is part of the District’s Leadership Academy Network. It is among five District schools that offer a campus model based on instructional excellence, extended learning, social-emotional support, highly-qualified principals and teachers and parent and community partnerships. FWISD’s leadership academies offer an extended school day, schools remain open daily to 6 p.m. and offer free dinner to students who stay for after-school support.
The appearance on The Ellen Show is the start to a big week at Como.
Students in the kindergarten through fifth-grade will represent the school as finalists in the Readers Become Leaders elementary literacy program finale, Thursday, April 18 at Fort Worth Convention Center. The students will attend Open Practice for teams competing at the National Collegiate Women’s Gymnastics Championship, April 19-20 and learn if the school earned the highest average reading minutes per student to become the overall Readers Become Leaders champion.
On Friday, teachers and students will appear on News 8 Daybreak’s Party in the Plaza segment on WFAA from 5 to 7 a.m.
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