Trustees adopt calendars for '25-26, '26-27

The Board of Trustees adopted calendars for the 2025-2026 and 2026-2027 school years at the monthly meeting Monday night.

The district improvement committee has been meeting this semester and recommended the two calendars, which are very similar in design to this year's calendar.

According to Superintendent Donald McIntyre, PISD opts to approve calendars for two years at a time, which is an option for Districts of Innovation.

"Many times there are certain things that need to be scheduled more than six months out, such as the graduation ceremony and a speaker for our staff development when school starts," Mr. McIntyre said. "By approving a calendar in advance, it allows us the option of scheduling important dates."

Click here for a printable version of the 2025-26 calendar.

Click here for a printable version of the 2026-27 calendar.

Superintendent's contract renewed for 3 years

Trustees voted to extend the contract for the PISD superintendent, Donald McIntyre, who will be under a 3-year contract with this 1-year extension. In addition, they approved a pay increase.

"I am super grateful for the opportunity to continue to serve a district I love and call home," Mr. McIntyre said.

According to Mr. McIntyre, this process always sets in motion subsequent evaluations and actions.

At next month's board meeting, contracts for administrators will be considered, which will be followed by teacher and employee contracts set for April.

Trustees approve admin, additional staffing

As staffing preparations begin to open a new early childhood center this fall, a principal was hired at Monday's board meeting to lead the campus.

Coming from Community ISD where she has served as an assistant principal for the last five years, Courtney Croy has been named the principal for Perkins Early Childhood Center. Ms. Croy is in her 10th year of education and received her bachelor's degree from the University of Phoenix and a master's from Texas A&M-Commerce in administration and leadership.

In addition, trustees hired a new head volleyball coach for Princeton. Yolanda Beasley has been a coach at Sherman High School since 2021. She brings more than 30 years of coaching experience to the position. She has a bachelor's degree from Missouri Valley College, where she was a 2-sport varsity letterman in volleyball and track.

In other personnel items, the board OK'd additional elementary staffing positions for next school year by adding two bilingual teachers at James and two bilingual teachers at Lacy.

Pictured are, from left, Clark science teacher Michelle Swensen, Omar Hassan (Clark MS), Eric Tullis (Southard MS) and middle school instructional coach for science, Jody Gerber. Not pictured, Lexi Cassady (Mattei).

School board recognizes science fair winners

The PISD trustees recognized the grand prize winners from the districtwide 6th-grade science fair.

Students spent six weeks preparing their project for the fair. They researched a hypothesis in one of three categories, including chemistry, life science and physics, followed by experiments to test their theory.

Campus 1st-place winners:

Clark

Chemistry Abigail Posas Zacapa

Life science Omar Hasan

Physics Lorelai Coufal

Mattei

Chemistry Javier Nevarez

Life science Asomia Setene

Physics Lexi Cassady

Southard

Chemistry Eric Tullis

Life science Mateo Johnson

Physics Billie Nguyen

Topics ranged from studying the 5-second rule, acidic drinks, the battle of the bandage and melting chocolate to sunlight's impact on growth, sailboat speed, strawberry DNA and smooth butter in baking.

Grand prize was judged in all three categories from the 1st-place winners of each middle school. They are:

Lexi Cassady in physics for "Sailboat Race" (science teacher Raquel Lopez)

Omar Hasan in life science for "Smash 'Em Strawberries" (science teacher Michelle Swensen)

Eric Tullis in chemistry for "How Much Acid Do You Drink?" (science teacher Joshua Boyd)