History

SHABE—A History

In the 1980’s Diana García Marion worked with others in the Houston area to create HAABE for bilingual teachers in the Houston area.  It became evident that very few teachers were able to travel to the HAABE events.  As the only participant in HAABE on a full time basis, Diana decided to create a break-away organization for the suburban school districts.  A committee was formed and a governing board elected and the Suburban Houston Association for Bilingual Education (SHABE) was founded in the fall of 1989.  Meetings were held on Saturdays, which brought approximately twenty teachers and paraprofessionals together to address bilingual education issues.  Invitations were given to other districts to participate, but all offers were refused.  Later it was learned that the other districts did not want to join the organization for fear that an attempt would be made to “steal” teachers from other districts to work in Cy-Fair.

After eleven years of working alone, and ready to disband the organization, an informal discussion with J.C. Harville, now a principal in Spring ISD, led to a new beginning for SHABE.  J.C. became an advocate and leader, bringing with him many members from Aldine ISD.  With Aldine teachers on board, others joined and the organization, became what was originally intended—a coalition of bilingual/ESL educators from the suburban Houston area, working together to strengthen their skills, build camaraderie outside of the schools and work as a team to support issues facing bilingual programs.

Needless to say, the baton has been passed to the leaders in Aldine ISD and Spring ISD and the organization has flourished and taken important steps in a new direction.  Our winners for SHABE teacher of the year have gone on to win statewide awards and we were able to work jointly with HAABE on the successful TABE conference held in Houston in October 2009.

There have been many ups and downs, many people have come and gone, but SHABE has continued to be a part of the lives of many.  Scholarship money has helped students with college expenditures; paraprofessionals have been helped financially with scholarship money; teachers have learned from the expertise of others; publishers have learned to respect the work of the organization and support its endeavors and those who believe in the vision of what can be, continue to work collaboratively to see that SHABE continues to flourish and does not die.