Spicewood Elementary a top Texas school
Spicewood Elementary School was ranked in the top 7 percent of elementary schools in Texas by U.S. News and World Report. Staff photo by Nathan Bush
Spicewood Elementary was ranked among the top 7 percent of elementary schools in Texas by U.S. News and World Report. The Marble Falls Independent School District campus officially ranked 427th out of 6,495 schools.
U.S. News and World Report is an American media company that posts news, consumer advice, rankings, and analyses. It rates K-12 schools each year by compiling standardized test scores from the U.S. Department of Education’s Common Core of Data to rate student success. Socioeconomic demographics are also considered when determining each school’s final ranking in the annual list.
Spicewood Elementary Principal Kara Gasaway said the school achieved the honor by following MFISD’s vision statement to “love and inspire” each student.
“This is a special place,” she said. “If you bring your kids here, I can guarantee they will be loved and that they’re going to learn something.”
Gasaway, who started at Spicewood Elementary in June 2022, also credited the staff’s hard work.
“The teachers are rockstars,” she said. “We have phenomenal teachers that dedicate a lot of time and a lot of energy into just pouring over kids. Our teachers are relentless when it comes to working with kids.”
The school’s low enrollment, roughly 300 students, is another advantage.
“We do have smaller numbers, so that helps,” Gasaway said.
However, the relatively small class sizes can present challenges.
“With smaller numbers comes less staff for some things,” she said. “We don’t have as many interventionists to help, so our classroom teachers have to fill those gaps.”
Motivated students with a passion for learning also play a role in the school’s success.
“Our kids are hard workers that want to succeed,” Gasaway said.
She noted that motivation is due to supportive parents.
“We just have good, sweet parents that want their kids to be successful,” she said.
Interactive classrooms, such as the school’s MakerSpace, a former computer lab-turned-workshop that encourages critical thinking and creativity, are a major plus.
“We’re lucky that we’re the only elementary school (within MFISD) that has a set room for a MakerSpace,” Gasaway said.
Past MakerSpace projects include cobbling shoes to raise money for the Highland Lakes Crisis Network, creating handmade restaurant models to pitch business concepts, and designing miniature golf courses using regular household items. Students in all grades recently designed carousels following the conclusion of a campus-wide book study of “The One and Only Ivan.”
“In that book, it talked about fairs and fairs have carousels,” Gasaway said. “All the kids had to research animals that they would like to put on their carousel, find pictures of them, and then actually make the carousel.”
Spicewood Elementary also uses a variety of data to identify areas of improvement for individual students.
“We look at data all the time to see if kids are growing,” Gasaway said. “If they’re not, we try to figure out what else we can do to help them that we’re not doing. We have teachers that are so dedicated to seeing our kids succeed, and it’s working.”
The onset of the district-wide after-school care program, ACE, has further solidified positive learning outcomes for students.
“We’ve been able to do some targeted tutoring and intervention after school with those kids who are staying,” Gasaway said. “We’re seeing gaps for those students being filled even earlier than we did before.”
She believes the recent honor from U.S. News and World Report brings Marble Falls ISD closer to its goal of becoming a “district of destination,” a phrase coined by Superintendent Dr. Jeff Gasaway, her husband, upon taking the district’s top job in March 2023.
“You want your kids to be in the best schools they can be in,” she said. This is one of the best places they can be. Marble Falls ISD is one of the best places they can be.”