Kickstart Kids pitches martial-arts character education program to Stafford Middle School

Derek Stinson, regional director for Kickstart Kids, told the Stafford Municipal School District board the nonprofit’s martial-arts program teaches discipline, respect and self-control while offering a values curriculum that can support districts’ character-education requirements.

Stinson said Kickstart Kids currently works in roughly 58 or 59 Texas schools and that the group provides a billing model that can be tailored to a district’s needs. “We teach character education through karate,” he said. “We’re teaching the kids discipline, respect, and self control by dangling the carrot in front of them towards karate and learning all these cool moves.”

Stinson told trustees he had prepared a packet with program details and billing examples and said the curriculum maps to Texas Education Agency expectations for instruction in positive character traits and personal skills. He also said two former Stafford students had gone on to become instructors while attending college.

The presentation was framed as an introduction to the district and an offer to answer questions about program costs, scheduling and how Kickstart Kids integrates with school-day or after-school activities. Stinson said the program aims to be “a part of the solution, not the problem” and described its emphasis on discipline and mentorship.

Provenance: Topic intro evidence: “Thank you all for having me today. My name is Derek Stinson. I'm with the Kickstart Kids program... We are here in Stafford Middle School amongst maybe 58 or 59 more schools in the state of Texas.” (Public comment/presentation, Derek Stinson, 00:31:30–00:32:00)

Topic finish evidence: “Mister Stinson. Okay. At this moment, I'd like to turn it over to my, colleague, vice president Aya Shamarani for a personal point of privilege.” (End of presentation hand-off, 00:36:46–00:36:52)

Speakers (attribution whitelist): [{"name":"Derek Stinson","role_title":"Regional director, Kickstart Kids","affiliation_type":"nonprofit","affiliation_name":"Kickstart Kids","first_reference":{"timecode":"00:31:30","transcript_line_range":[1890,1914]}},{"name":"Vice President Aya Shamarani","role_title":"Board vice president (point of privilege speaker)","affiliation_type":"government","affiliation_name":"Stafford MSD Board of Trustees","first_reference":{"timecode":"00:37:26","transcript_line_range":[2226,2251]}}]

Authorities referenced: [{"type":"other","name":"Texas Education Agency (TEA) character education expectations","referenced_by":["Derek Stinson"]}]

Clarifying details: Kickstart Kids representative said the program operates in roughly 58–59 Texas schools; two Stafford students are serving as instructors while in college; program materials and billing examples were provided to the board.

Why it matters: The program offers a paid extracurricular or in-school curricular option that the district could choose to adopt; the presenter emphasized alignment to state expectations for character instruction.

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