SCHOOL NEWS
New Nocona band director excited to join a full creative team
By BARBARA GREEN
editor@bowienewsonline.com
Lori Jech (pronounced like Yech) is looking forward to working with a creative team in the Nocona High School Band program as she picks up the director’ baton for the “Pride of the Tribe.”
Jech joins Randy Brooks, who served as a director last year moving up from the middle school band program. The pair are not strangers as they both attended Southwestern Oklahoma State University and they discovered a photo from a teenage band camp that both attended.
The 60-year-old director comes to Nocona after a two-year run at Windthorst High School. She grew up in Kingfisher, OK the oldest of five siblings. In turn she grew up to have six of her own children, four boys and two girls ranging from 21-year-old twins to her oldest at 39.
She earned her bachelor of music education from the University of Oklahoma and began her career as a teacher in the Duncan schools. Why music education? Jech laughs she was something of a klux and her mom wanted to put her in dance, but no studio in Kingfisher, so baton twirling was the next best thing.
“I have been marching since I was four, exclaims Jech. “I fell in love with John Phillip Sousa marches and the like. That was all it took. In the back of my mind I wanted to pursue music, but my parents wanted a doctor or lawyer. I played basketball and softball and it was fun, but my saxophone was it.”
Read the full story on the new band director at Nocona High in the Thursday Bowie News.
Bowie Independent School Trustees continued work on the 2026-27 budget during its Aug. 17 meeting including the creation of a salary schedule and establishing a proposed tax rate.
The budget and 2026 proposed tax rate will be up for adoption in an early morning meeting at 7 a.m. on Aug. 31, just at the brink of the new fiscal year.
The salary schedule is based in large part on the Texas Association of School Board’s salary study commissioned by the district. Per the study teacher salaries are above the market median at most benchmarked years. They are most competitive at year 0 where they are 5% above the market median and least competitive at year five where they are 1% below the marked median.
District officials initiated the salary study to get more definitive information where its salaries fall and while some areas were in the range, other category of employees fell below the market. Trustees discussed the need to move auxiliary staff and custodial closer to the market level.
Superintendent Donna Hale and Finance Director Paula Peterson explained the new schedule will not be an across-the-board percentage increase, but focus on getting all employee pay scales closer to the market averages.
Read the full story in the Thursday Bowie News.
By BARBARA GREEN
editor@bowienewsonnline.com
Bowie Independent School District Trustees began plowing through the 2026-27 budget at its first workshop on Aug. 3.
The center of discussion was presentation of the salary study commissioned by the district through the Texas Association of School Boards. Laura Wurman of TASB explained how the data was gathered and developed into recommendations for the district.
Purpose of the study is to assess competitive pay levels for common jobs. Wurman said they analyses market data to determine where the district is at risk and identified priorities for pay system improvements.
Read the full story in the Thursday Bowie News.
Diana Calderon will join the Bowie High School staff as assistant principal in the new school year.
She comes to Bowie from Lake Dallas Elementary School where she served as assistant principal since 2024. Her prior positions include administrator at Decatur High School from 2022-2024, and English as a second language director at Ponder High School and Middle School from 2017 to 2022.
Calderon’s educational background began with a bachelor of business management in 2007 from the University of Phoenix. She earned her master degree in bilingual education from Southern Methodist University in 2018 and a master’s in educational leadership also in 2018.
The educator is working on her doctorate of educational leadership.
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