“Grab a hard hat. The building has begun.” These two sentences kick off Fort Worth ISD’s 2009-2010 Annual Report published today by the District. A building theme runs through the report, which celebrates the progress of the Capital Improvement Program, including the completion of Hazel Harvey Peace Elementary – on time and under budget.

But the report’s greatest emphasis is on the exciting building going on inside our schools and throughout the District: programs and partnerships that are helping students succeed. The report offers details on numerous achievements in 2009-2010, including the unprecedented gains in the 2010 TAKS.

The design of the report itself plays creatively on the building theme beginning with the industrial look of the publication. We went with a work-like spiral binding for the report. And on the front cover, what appears at first glance to be abstract art is actually a photograph of building materials at the Benbrook Middle School construction site. The table of contents includes color-coded icons that suggest modernity and functionality.

Bold black and white photographs mark the beginning of each chapter along with artist renderings and interesting details about each of the District’s newly-built or soon-to-be-built schools. Crisp white pages are the foundation of each story, complete with photographs and informative graphs and charts that are strategically designed to be clean and geometric. Subtle impressions of blueprints underlie many stories.

Readers will enjoy and gain insights from the “FWISD Faces.” These features put the spotlight on teachers, students, administrators, business partners and parents. Their full page photographs are accompanied by interviews that offer interesting viewpoints on pertinent topics. The report ends with a moving story told from the perspectives of three of our coaches and the student whose life they saved.