Hermelinda Rodriguez Elementary School

Hermelinda Rodriguez Elementary School is named after the Austin Independent School District's (AISD) first female, Mexican-American principal. Over the course of her distinguished career as an educator, Hermelinda Rodriguez was a pioneer in bilingual education who left a tremendous footprint on Austin's school system. As a principal, she developed a bilingual curriculum that later became a state curriculum requirement, and she went on to serve as the district's director of elementary school management, making history as the institution's highest ranking Mexican-American woman.

It is in the spirit of its namesake's commitment to education that Hermelinda Rodriguez Elementary School approaches teaching. The school serves students pre-K through fifth grade (including free pre-K for qualifying families), and is committed to "develop the whole child academically, ethically, emotionally, physically, and socially to build lifelong learners."

In 2004, Hermelinda Rodriguez Elementary School implemented the innovative technological program KidBiz3000 for its students. The platform is a web-based reading and writing instruction program for second- through eighth-grade students that is designed to integrate with the teacher's lesson plans and curriculum. The program allows every teacher to assign individualized reading and writing assignments according to each student's personal level, offering personalized coursework that can improve proficiency.