Following suit of a two-day principals’ learning trip to two school districts in Texas, about 16 Vicksburg Warren School District teachers and administrators will embark on the same trip before December.

The Board of Trustees unanimously agreed Thursday to fund the trip that many of the VWSD principals have said was meaningful. A cost has not been determined, officials said.

“I found the experience to be a great professional developmental opportunity for me,” Vicksburg High School principal Derrick Reed said. “I was able to have meaningful conversations with teachers, administrators and students.”

VWSD’s 15 principals and other administrators last week visited the Aldine and Alief independent school districts in Houston. Both have been judged high-performing Title 1 districts, which means they qualified for federal funding based on high level of poverty. The purpose of the visit was to see how school districts that face obstacles such as high poverty and a high number of minorities whose second language is English become successful, Superintendent Dr. Elizabeth Duran Swinford said.

Those two districts were chosen because of their similarities to the VWSD, she said.

At VWSD, which receives Title 1 federal funds, the free and reduced meal program enrolled 74 percent of its 9,000-student population last year and about the same this year. Two-thirds of the students are minority.

Aldine, in northeast Houston, has 62,055 students in 73 schools. Of those students, 67 percent are Hispanic and 28 percent are black, according to its website. The district was labeled by the Texas Education Agency under the Distinguished Progress Schools in Texas category in the 2009-10 academic year as Academically Acceptable, the best of four ratings, its website said.

Alief, in west Houston, has 45,000 students in 45 schools. It was “Recognized” in the Distinguished Performance Schools in Texas category, its website said. That means at least 80 percent of the tested students passed each of the subject tests. The only other standards, with “Exemplary” being the better one and meaning 90 percent passed in every subject. Race information for Alief was unavailable.

The 15 local principals visited three schools in each Houston district, and the same schools will be visited on the second trip, which has not been scheduled.

Reed said he noted one strategy that he will try to implement.

“Elsik High School has a faculty member whose job is to track incoming ninth-graders until they have successfully exited their schools,” he said. “This was an ah-ha moment for me as this would be a perfect way for us to increase our graduation rate as well as our high school completion index.”

Bowmar Elementary principal Tammy Burris also praised the trip.

“I felt I walked out of the dark ages and into the present,” she said. “Students were there for a purpose and it was evident. Not only were they able to excel in academics, but their own interests were fueled by classes fused into their school day.”

The next school board meeting is scheduled for Nov. 17.