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.
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.
By BARBARA GREEN
editor@bowienewsonline.com
New Bowie High School Principal Dean Johnson brings 15 years of experience as an educator to the campus and he is looking forward to settling down in his new town.
The 38-year-old comes to Bowie from Farmersville Independent School District where he was junior high principal since 2022 and prior to that he was assistant starting in 2019. In 2023 he was named Texas Association of Secondary School Personnel’s Region 10 Assistant Principal of the Year.
Born and raised in Sherman, Johnson always knew his career path was coaching/teaching. He followed in his mother’s footsteps as she worked 30-plus years as a high school math teacher. His sister is a middle school math teacher and her husband is a teacher/coach both at Bells ISD, along with a cousin who is elementary principal at Burkburnett.
And dad can’t be left out, Johnson said while his father did several jobs, for many years he drove a bus for Sherman ISD, including those athletic team trips.
“I would often go with him on those trips with the football team and at seven or eight years old you look up at the players. I also was a ball boy. My path was set early,” said the new principal.
Read the full feature in the Thursday Bowie News.
-
NEWS3 years agoSuspect indicted, jailed in Tia Hutson murder
-
NEWS4 years ago2 hurt, 1 jailed after shooting incident north of Nocona
-
NEWS3 years agoSO investigating possible murder/suicide
-
NEWS4 years agoWreck takes the life of BHS teen, 16
-
NEWS3 years agoMurder unsolved – 1 year later Tia Hutson’s family angry, frustrated with no arrest
-
Show us something good9 years agoCountry music star children perform in Bowie
-
100th Birthday4 years agoLooking back at the 1958 Centennial edition of The Bowie News
-
NEWS3 years ago
Sheriff’s office called out to infant’s death