NEWS
Bowie school board has furry visitor
Bowie Independent School District Trustees were happy to meet a new canine friend at Monday’s school board meeting.
Bowie Elementary School principal Kathy Green brought her dog, Cooper, who volunteers his services two to three times a week at the school as a therapy dog to uplift spirits of both students and staff alike.
Cooper is a three-year-old Shih Tzu/Schnauzer mix who began training as an emotional support animal. He passed his canine good citizenship test in September and was certified as a therapy dog through the Bright and Beautiful Therapy dog organization.
“He’s working with kids in the morning who have separation anxiety and stuff like that and just helps calm them down a little bit,” Green said. “Some of my frequent fliers that have some self-regulation issues tend to calm down a lot faster if you promise them they get to pet the dog.”
Bowie High School principal Joanne Keeler presented a plan for her school to start an E-Sports Club, or a competitive video game team, with the goal to start competing in January after prepping all of this fall to try and get both interest and equipment up and running.
Kids would practice after school from 4:15-5 p.m. in a variety of games and genres. The competition would be through TexSEF, which is a teacher run Texas Scholastic E-sports organization.
While many in the room were a bit baffled at the prospect of kids playing more video games than they already do, several people pointed out how there are many scholarship opportunities for students in college as well as professional opportunities.
A short list of games potentially offered in the club are: Mario Kart Deluxe, Fortnite, chess, Super Smash Bros Ultimate, Street Fighter 6, League of Legends, Splatoon, Rocket League and Overwatch 2.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.
Several personnel issues including the superintendent’s summative evaluation and filling the vacant intermediate principal position face the Bowie School Trustees when they meet at 5:30 p.m. on June 16.
The superintendent’s review is usually done in two parts during the year with the summative an effort to evaluate overall progress. Donna Hale’s contract also will be considered. as she marks her first year leading the district.
For the intermediate principal’s job, Jason Childress left the post last month taking the new formed director of student services, which will handle many of the tasks the assistant superintendent handled such as curriculum and test scores. That assistant position was eliminated by the board after Lee Ann Farris left the job. Childress’ resignation has been submitted.
Filling the principal’s job and consideration of a rental agreement for a portion of the bus parking lot property also are set for executive session. Any action all these topics will be considered back in open session.
On the regular agenda, the board will receive the 2025 fiscal audit for Jack County. A small portion of the district runs into that county.
The superintendent will provide operational reports and personnel updates. Childress will present the preliminary STAAR scores and the status of board goals, while Paula Peterson, finance director, gives the monthly financial report.
Numerous annual items will be up for action: Contract for cafeteria software; budget amendments; consider the ESSA application, the Montague and Jack County Tax Appraisal District budgets; library books for the elementary; ESC 9 contracts and a Texas Association of School Boards policy updates.
The board also will consider offering open enrollment for pre-kindergarten students for the next school year.
Six Montague County volunteer fire department have received grants from the Texas A&M Forest Service.
The service recently approved $29.3 million in funding for grants to through the Rural Volunteer Fire Department Assistance Program.
In the fourth funding round of the year, the program awarded 531 grants addressing volunteer fire department requests for personal protective equipment, slip-on units, fire and rescue equipment, water tenders, small brush trucks and training aids.
Nocona Hills Volunteer Fire Department received a $300,000 grant for a water tender vehicle. Montague and Sunset VFDs each received $45,000 for a slip-on unit, and the Nocona rural, Nocona city and Saint Jo VFDs each received $25,000 for fire and rescue equipment.
Read the full story in the Thursday Bowie News.
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