Message from the Principal

October Message from the Principal

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It is an honor to have been named the new principal of Menchaca Early Childhood Center.  I am excited to continue working to provide our littlest cardinals with a safe and caring learning environment where we instill the love of learning, guide them in making new friends, and above all enjoy coming to school each and every day. I am humbled to be leading our Menchaca ECC because at our campus we have staff members who are talented, dedicated, and committed to doing what is best for all of our students. 

I have lived in the Southside ISD Community for over 25 years. My husband, Joe, is an alumnus of Southside High School and we have raised our five children here. We have three daughters, Marcella, Angelica, Jozelle, and two sons, Jake and Rocky. All of them are out of school with the exception of our youngest son, Rocky, who attends Losoya Middle School. This is my 19th year in education, and 18 years of my career have been working at Southside ISD. I completed 10 years as a Special Education and English Language Arts teacher for 7th and 8th grade at Southside Middle School and then Matthey Middle School when it opened. I began my administrative career as an Assistant Principal at Losoya Intermediate, Pearce Elementary, and finally at Menchaca ECC. 

Southside ISD holds a special place in my heart because I truly love the community that I reside in and work for. You will see my husband and me eating breakfast at local restaurants, shopping at nearby stores, and attending district extracurricular activities to show support for our students and families. If you see us around the area please do not hesitate to introduce yourself and say hello. My door is always open for you, and I sincerely welcome your input and support to make Menchaca the best early childhood center for our young scholars. I look forward to what we can accomplish as we work together so that we may celebrate our successes throughout this school year and for years to come. 

Thank you again for the opportunity to work with each of you,

Tanya Mares

Principal

Tanya Mares Named Principal of Menchaca Early Childhood Center

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We are excited to announce that Mrs. Tanya Mares was named Principal of Menchaca Early Childhood Center at Wednesday’s School Board meeting. Mrs. Mares had been in the position of Assistant Principal at MECC prior to her selection. Additionally, she has 5 years as Assistant Principal at Pearce Elementary and 2 years at Losoya Middle School. She has been with Southside ISD since 2005 and has a passion for the Southside community like no other! Most importantly, Mrs. Mares believes in providing a safe and caring environment where all students are capable of high levels of learning. We are excited to have Mrs. Mares lead our campus and serve as a role model to our scholars!

January Message from the Principal

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January 3, 2022

Happy 2022 New Year and welcome back Cardinal Family!

I hope each of you had a restful and meaningful time with your family during this winter break. The students and teachers enjoyed being back at school and catching up about all we did during the holidays. Students drew pictures and shared their stories about their activities during those two weeks. We also enjoyed meeting our new students and can say that they are making nice friendships.

As educators, at Menchaca Early Childhood Center, we are thankful for all the great opportunities we have in order to impact the young lives of our students, especially during this pandemic. Our students are the reason we’re here. As they returned to school on Monday January 3, 2022, the atmosphere was encouraging and cheerful. So as the second semester begins, the teachers and administrators have one vision for our students and we hope it closely matches yours. We want ALL of our young Cardinal scholars to become all they can be. We want them to be successful through hard work, consistent attendance, perseverance, utilizing help from our faculty, and working diligently. We want this because these traits will build good habits that will carry them profitably throughout their Cardinal path. We expect a great deal from our scholars because they are very capable of producing great results!

Therefore parents, please be aware that attendance is very important for our students. Students in grades K-12 must be present 90 percent of the time in class in order to obtain credit or a final grade. https://tea.texas.gov/ The 90 percent rule applies to all absences, including excused absences.  If your child has missed 10 or more days during the first semester you should have received a letter from our attendance office. If you have questions in regards to your child’s attendance, please contact the attendance office or myself at 210-882-1610. 

We would also like to remind you if your child is sick or shows COVID-related symptoms, to please contact your doctor and seek advice before sending them to school. We ask that you report any possible COVID close encounters and/or positive cases that you may feel may affect your child’s learning to an administrator and/or Nurse Siebert for further recommendations. 

Finally, we urge you to continue to practice all safety protocols that San Antonio Metro Health has shared on social distancing for the safety of our students and staff.  Thank you for your support and we look forward to the amazing things that will be happening this second semester.  

Warmest Regards,

Rebecca Delgado-Herrera

Principal, Menchaca Early Childhood Center

December Message from the Principal

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In his 1926 classic, “Winnie the Pooh,” A. A. Milne wrote, “Piglet noticed that even though he had a very small heart, it could hold a rather large amount of gratitude.” Our little pink friend was grateful for the abundance he had in his life; great friends, a warm place to sleep, and a few tasty “haycorns” to eat.

As we conclude 2021, and break for the winter holiday, I want to take a moment to express my heartfelt gratitude to all who help make Menchaca Early Childhood Center an amazing place to be. We are a community with many gifts and talents, which we share daily with one another and most important, our students. From the classroom, to our living room and all points in-between, our collective efforts to raise the whole child are filled with passion, commitment and a willingness to make decisions that may be hard in the present, but will have a positive and lasting influence in the future for all. Parents, of course, are such a critical part of all we hope to accomplish on behalf of our MECC scholars. I am grateful to you for masterfully doing what I know firsthand is the hardest, most rewarding and joyous job of all. Thank you for entrusting us with your most precious gift. I am grateful to our wonderful, talented, creative, inquisitive, optimistic, resourceful and resilient students. Often, they make us laugh, sometimes they make us cry, but always they make us think. Most of all, they make us better.

In the spirit of this holiday season, I want to extend my thanks to all of you for everything that you do for our school. As we enjoy the upcoming holidays, it is my fervent wish that each of you receives and returns the seasonal bounty of blessings and good tidings that make these days truly special. It is also during this time that I am reminded of my own good fortune to serve as the proud principal of MECC. Indeed, my career as a public school educator has afforded me vast, varied and richly rewarding opportunities to teach and to learn from young people. Of course, I believe the faces of our children best express the true meaning of this holiday season. They radiate a sense of unbridled enthusiasm, untainted hope and unabashed joy for life and the opportunities that await them. To the parents and friends of the MECC community, please have a safe and joyous holiday season.

Respectfully,
Mrs. Rebecca Delgado-Herrera
Principal

November Message from the Principal

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And here it is… November. Thank you to the parents and guardians who joined us for the Storybook Character Parade on Friday, October 29th. The students were so excited to share about their costumes and what book their characters were from. Thank you to all staff members for their participation and leadership in the many opportunities that were available on campus and a huge thank you to our fantastic counselors, Dr. Morgan & Mrs. Hernandez, for organizing multiple spirit days this past month!

The majority of students from all ability levels are making significant gains in their learning. I have to give a huge shout out to the teachers and staff at Menchaca who work tirelessly to provide students with high expectations and clear learning targets, including the success criteria needed to produce quality work and enough feedback to know how they are doing. I also want to give a shout out to our students who engage in instruction, work hard, set goals and work to meet those goals. The art of teaching and learning is practiced daily and in every subject. We hope that you take the time to talk to your children about the exciting things that they are learning each day. We encourage you to spend a few minutes each day asking them some of the following questions.

  • What mistakes did you make today?
  • What did you learn from them?
  • How did you contribute to the learning today?
  • What challenges did you accept today?
  • What questions did you ask?
  • What feedback did you receive today?
  • What did you do with it?
  • How did you show that you weren’t going to give up?
  • How were you kind today?
  • How were you safe today?
  • How were you responsible today?

Obviously you probably won’t want to ask all of these questions every day, but over the course of a week I would challenge you to try and ask most of these questions. These questions are the key to what successful learners do.

Looking ahead at the month of November, we have some fun days planned, a food drive for our Southside ISD food pantry, field trips in PK-3 and PK-4, and will be continuing on our exciting journey of learning and fun here at Menchaca ECC. We will be having a fall break the week of Thanksgiving, November 22nd-26th before returning for a short 3 weeks before winter break arrives.