Construction and Remodel of Sports Fields/Stadium on Special Agenda for SSISD Board Friday
A new baseball field, remodel of Prim Stadium, and drainage issues and future remodel of the current softball field along with adoption of 15 resolutions allowing for reimbursement of the General Fund from proceeds of a future financing will be the focus of the Sulphur Springs School Board when they meet in special session Friday, May 20th at noon in the Superintendent’s Conference Room.
Action items to be presented by Superintendent Michael Lamb include:
- Discuss and consider approval of the construction of a new baseball field west of the current high school track.
- Discuss and consider approval of work to address drainage issues and future remodel of current softball field.
- Discuss and consider approval of using Construction Manager Agent as the delivery method for the remodel project of the football stadium.
- Discuss and consider approval of hiring Gallagher Construction Services as the Construction Manager Agent for the remodel project of the football stadium.
- Discuss and consider approval to enter into contract with Potter Architects for design services for remodel project of football stadium.
- Discuss and consider adoption of Resolution 2-16 allowing for reimbursement of General Fund from proceeds of a future financing.
The board will also conduct an executive session to discuss purchase, exchange, lease, or value of real property and to consider personnel to be employed, assigned, resignations, and other personnel matters.
Wylie Man’s Wild Ride Ends In Cumby
Morris David Roberts, 55, of Wylie, Texas was arrested Monday night after a tip was given to the Cumby Police Department. Cumby PD Sergeant Charles Walker was notified by a truck driver of a man driving naked on FM 499 in Cumby. According to the arrest report, the complainant told Sgt. Walker that she had observed Roberts “operating his vehicle naked and that he was fondling himself while driving down the road way.” Roberts was located on FM 513 at FM 499 while attempting to elude the officer to avoid being stopped. Sgt. Walker made contact with Roberts who admitted to operating his vehicle without wearing pants and also stated that he was in possession of two firearms. A .22 caliber rifle and a single shot 12 gauge shotgun were found in the vehicle. Sgt. Walker then arrested Roberts and transported him to the Hopkins County Jail where he now sits on $11,000 bond: $10,000 for Unlawful Possession of a Firearm by a Felon and $1,000 for Indecent Exposure. This is not the first indecent exposure incident for Roberts. KSST research found that Roberts was charged with Indecency with a Child by Exposure on March 7th, 2005 in Wylie, Texas.
SSHS Class of 2016: Valedictorian Kendall Wallace, Salutatorian Sidney Dietze
L to R, Valedictorian Kendall Wallace, SSHS Principal Derek Driver, Salutatorian Sidney Dietze
Valedictorian and Salutatorian for the 2016 Graduating Class at Sulphur Springs High School were introduced to the School Board Monday night. Tuesday morning local media spoke with Valedictorian Kendall Wallace, 18, daughter of Mark and Michelle Wallace and Salutatorian Sidney Dietze, 17, daughter of Jason and Jill Dietze.
Valedictorian Kendall Wallace, center, and parents Mark and Michelle Wallace
Kendall will graduate with a 4.35909 grade point average and plans to attend the University of Texas at Austin following graduation. Her goal is to become a surgeon. During her high school career her interests, accomplishments and activities include: National Honor Society, Health Science Technology Education Practicum, Health Occupations Students of America, Hopkins County High School Leadership Class, Hi-King Klub, and Key Club.
Salutatorian Sidney Dietze, center, and parents Jason and Jill Dietze
Sidney graduates with a 4.16905 grade point average and plans to attend Baylor University. Her career plan is to become a Cardiologist. During her high school career, she has been class president all four years, Vice President of the Gladys Alexander Chapter of the National Honor Society, Academic All-District 15 5-A Volleyball her junior and senior years, Honorable mention All-District Volleyball, 2016 Homecoming Court nominee, recipient of the James Cameron Fighting Heart Award, and Hopkins County Dairy Festival Queen. She is President of the Key Club this year, a member of Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, Sulphur Springs High School President’s Council Athlete’s Representative, National Thespian Society, and Hopkins County High School Leadership Class.
School Board Hears Reports, Seeks Grants; Auditorium Nears Completion
Salutatorian Sidney Dietze, daughter of Jason and Jill Dietze
The annual Dairy Festival Queen contest should be conducted in the auditorium at the Regional Civic Center. That’s the conditional assurance given by Don Roundtree to the Sulphur Springs school board Tuesday night during their regular May meeting. The board also heard a variety of reports and approved action items including applications for Head Start and Early Head Start grants for expansion and cost of living increases for staff. Graduating Class 2016 Valedictorian Kendall Wallace and Salutatorian Sidney Dietze were introduced to the board. The board also unanimously chose KSST to serve as the official sports radio outlet for the district.
Valedictorian Kendall Wallace, daughter of Mark and Michelle Wallace
Regarding the auditorium, Don Roundtree, consultant, stated that much of the outside work, sidewalks and parking, is in place. The acoustical wall panels, ramps and stairs, seating, stage manager’s rack dimming racks, stage air conditioning, and rooftop equipment access ladders are all in place. He said 70% of the theatrical lighting is installed, mechanical and electrical systems are being installed, and the floor should be finished by the end of the week. Curtains for the stage should be hung next week.
Head Start will seek an additional $22,469 cost of living (COLA) grant that will increase the permanent annual grant to $1.4 million. The COLA will increase staff salaries.
Early head start seeks to add 24 additional students utilizing two day care centers to house infants and toddlers and staff, according to Hillary Young, Director of Head Start and Early Head Start. SSISD will supply the staff but no district money will be spent. The infants and toddlers will be brought into the program to enable parents to begin receiving the benefits of growth in parenting skills and in involvement in educating their children. School staff and day care staff will receive training, playgrounds will be maintained, a janitor will be provided, and minimum liability will cover the children; all paid for by the grant. Sulphur Springs Christian School will have 16 infants and toddlers if the grant is approved and Little Texans Learning Center will have 8 infants and toddlers. When the children reach 3-years of age, their families must re-apply for head start. Seventy-five grants will be given nationwide. The program will run 11 to 12 months each year for the five years covered in the grant. Application will be made in July and the district will know if the grant has been awarded to the local district in February, 2017.
The board voted to request waivers for two student days to be turned into staff development days focused on math and science. The application to increase professional days will be made to the state.
Josh Williams, Assistant Superintendent, reported to the board that campus plans are now aligned with district plans following the four priorities set by the board.
An easement was also granted to the City of Sulphur Springs by the board. The city will be using grant funds to connect city sidewalk to the school sidewalk in front of the school.
PERSONNEL
Resignations
Sherry McCarter LSSP Intern Dist-Wide
Randa Massey 3rd Grade Teacher SS Elementary
Amanda Pennington Library Aide High School
New Personnel
Sonia Yanez Title I Aide ECLC
Lesli Ray Grade 1 Bowie Primary
Ruth Fernandez SpEd Aide Lamar Primary
Patricia Cooper Grade 3 SS Elementary
Brittany Cox Grade 3 SS Elementary
Ellie Denton Grade 4 SS Elementary
Jessica Gilbert Grade 4 SS Elementary
Chandra Maddox Grade 4 SS Elementary
Rachel Tubb Grade 4 SS Elementary
John Mark Francis English Middle School
Hannah Garrett Science High School
Lacie Stracener HSTE High School
Meredith Townsend Digital Learning Spec. High School
Personnel Changes New position/campus Former position/campus
Carmen Hammack Dist. Math Coordinator/Admin. Math/Middle School
Jennifer Harrington Head Start 3/ECLC SpEd Aide/ECLC
Pam Tomany PPCD/ECLC Grade 4/SS Elem
Chandra Crawford Academic Spec./Bowie Literacy Support/Bowie
Kim Slaughter Grade 2/Bowie Grade 4/SS Elem
Amanda Thompson Grade 1/Bowie Grade 4/SS Elem
Tye Boatman Elem. Counselor/Lamar Trans 1st /ECLC
Teresa Parker SpEd Aide/Lamar SpEd Aide/Middle School
Joanna Foster Academic Spec./Travis Literacy Support/ECLC
Maria Rivera Bilingual & SpED/SSES & Travis Grade 1 Bilingual/Travis
Mackenzie Cross Instructional Tech. Spec/SSES Grade3/SS Elementary
Shelby Gammill Grade 3/SSES Grade 5/Douglas
Sulema Martinez Grade 3 Bilingual/SSES Bilingual & ESL Aide/SSES
Kimberly Smith Grade 3/SS Elementary Grade 5/Douglas
Tim Thomas Science/Douglas P.E./Douglas
Lance Brandenburgh Spanish/High School HS Success/Middle School
Amber Nix Art/High School Art/Middle School
“Movie Night on the Square” Returning to Celebration Plaza
The Sulphur Springs Community Development Center will be hosting “Movie Night on the Square” for the third year in a row every Friday night starting June 3, 2016. This weekly event will feature family and teen friendly movies with free admissions. “The idea was to have an activity on Friday night, because there’s stuff going on downtown, but not a lot,” Community Development Director Shane Shepard said. “We thought that we’d try to have some family oriented entertainment on the square. In that first year we had 30 or 40 come out at each one, and last year the average was about 2oo to 300 people.”
The city uses a 20ft screen with JBL speakers and a modern projection system to display the movies. The movies were selected by members of the Community Development Center. “I go to staff, and people who have kids and select about 30 movies, and then we have to go out to a website to make sure that the movies are not going to be bad or innapropriate in any shape or form,” Director Shepard said. “We try to keep it kid friendly at PG, sometimes PG-13, but never above that.”
for the first time in “Movie Night” history, this year will feature a movie marathon of the Hunger Games Series. This will be the only marathon this year, but more marathons will be featured once a month in the years to come. “We have an event going on the square July 8 which put us in a conundrum, so we already have one of the Hunger Games movies playing this summer, so why not make it a movie marathon,” Community Development Specialist Sarah Dicus said. “So we’re going to show all four movies and put it out on Buford Park. We’ll have a big movie marathon with a bunch of teenagers hanging out and watching the Hunger Games.”
Some movies have been selected for families and children while others have been selected for teens. Parents who want to check if a movie is appropriate. Dates for the movies:
June 3: Goosebumps
June 10: Inside Out
June 17: Tomorrowland
June 24: E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial
July 8: The Hunger Games Marathon
July 15: Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens
July 22: The Good Dinosaur
July 29: Guardians of the Galaxy
August 5: Jurassic World
August 12: Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
To view movie trailers and to determine if appropriate for your family, go here.
Sulphur Bluff Bears All-District Baseball 2016
Sulphur Bluff Bears named to the All District Baseball Team include: Defensive Player of the Year, Marshall Anderson, a junior; First Team Outfield, Brennon Seymore, sophomore; First Team Designated Hitter, Taylor Josey, junior; First Team Outfield, Thomas Coberly, senior; First Team First Base, Cody Vance, senior; Second Team utility, Isaac Foley, sophomore; Second Team Pitcher, Jaden Goldsmith, junior; Second Team Outfield, Jacob Watts, sophomore; Second Team Outfield, Hunter Wallis, Freshman; Second Team 3rd Base, Joe Forshee, sophomore.
In announcing the Sulphur Bluff Bears who were named to the All District Baseball Team, Head Coach Jerry Burton stated, “I am very proud of this team, we lost some good players from last years team but some of the young or new guys stepped up and did great. We made it to the playoffs where we were defeated by a very good Maud baseball team. I am excited to see what this team can do with 8 returning starters in 2017.”
Academic All-District included: A Honor Roll: Jaden Goldsmith, Taylor Josey, Cody Vance; A-B Honor Roll: Brennon Seymore, Marshall Anderson, Jacob Watts, and Joe Forshee.
Sulphur Bluff Lady Bears All-District Team
Sulphur Bluff 18-AA Softball All-District. Pictured left to right: Emily Guajardo, Kaylon Hume, Kierstin Brown, Skylar Evans, Sierra Swanson, Makenna Morgan, Layna Early.
Over 12,330 lbs of Food Collected by Mail Carriers
U S Postal Service Letter Carriers in Sulphur Springs collected over 12,330 pounds of non-perishable food Saturday during the annual Letter Carrier Food Drive. Last year over 4,000 pounds of food were collected by mail carriers during the May drive.
Anyone wishing to contribute who may have failed to place their non-perishable food items in or near the mail box may drop off their donations at the Sulphur Springs Post Office on Church Street this week.
