Clint ISD Graduates inspiring younger students to graduate

More than 700 high school graduates in the Clint ISD are visiting students and teachers at their former elementary and middle schools this week.

Wednesday, 350 graduates from Horizon High School visited Frank Macias Elementary School and Ricardo Estrada Junior High.

Elementary school students chanted “Scorpions! Scorpions! Scorpions!” as the graduates walked through the halls.

Later, in the school cafeteria, the graduates tossed T-shirts with “Horizon High School Class of 2023” printed on the to the 5th graders at Frank Macias Elementary.

The program is the idea of CISD Superintendent Juan Martinez, who admitted he “borrowed” it from an East Texas school district.

Martinez said he hopes it inspires not only the younger students, but the graduates themselves and their former teachers as well.

Martinez said CISD seniors had a 98.9 percent graduation rate this year and he hopes to keep it that way.

Frank Macias Elementary second grade teacher Susie Macias recognized many of her former students.

“I got five invitations to graduation this year,” Foster said. She called the program inspiring for students and said she hopes it continues.

At Ricardo Estrada Junior High hundreds of graduates of Clint’s Early College High School walked through the gym as hundreds of freshmen students, who hope to graduate in three years, cheered them on.