Palestine ISD board cancels May trustee election

March 26--PALESTINE -- Palestine Independent School District Board of Trustees officially canceled the May 10 school board election at its regular meeting Monday.

School board incumbents Stanley Sokolowski (Place 6) and Michael Bennett (Place 7) were both running for re-election unopposed, which allowed the district to cancel the election.

"We thank you both for your service to the district and your quality efforts," PISD Superintendent Jason Marshall said to the men during the meeting.

Sokolowski and Bennett will be sworn in for their new terms at the May school board meeting.

Also during the Monday meeting, the school board approved term contracts and probationary contracts for employees.

Term contracts were approved for the following employees: John Absalom, Summer Alcauter, Kristina Anderson, Angelique Arent, Tammy Armstrong, Kathy Asher, Leah Atkeisson, Deanne Atkinson, Christina Ault, Millye Bailey, Sharon Bailey, Johnny Baker, Joseph Baker, Silvia Banuelos, Donna Barnett, Julie Bell, Danielle Blank, Karen Bledsoe, Georgia Booker, Michelle Boone, Stephanie Boone, Bret Botard, Mary Bowden Linda Bowser, Sandra Bristow, Kathleen Brown, Karen Buckland, Virgil Buell, Michelle Bullock, Shannon Butler, Jodie Calcote, Paul Carr, Ivette Carrizales, Susan Cate, Eric Cates, Deborah Caveness, Andrew Chybowski, David Clardy, Donna Clark, James Coker, Tiffany Cooksey, Charles Corb, Patti Corbell, Lisa Covington, Chaundra Dantin, Johnny Davenport, Carmen Davis, Susan Davis, Michael Dear, Angelia Decou, Felicia Delgado, Carolina Dominguez, Michelle Dorsett, Stacie Drinning-Britt, Juli Durham, Jocelyn Ealy, Penny Estes, San Juana Estrada, Austin Evans, Chadin Everhart, Teresa Everhart, Happy Fenton, Melissa Firmin, Tammy Flood, Drusillia Forward, Lydia Franks, Rebecca Garcia, Laura Glenn, Karla Gregory, George Gwin, Jacqueline Hamel, Lisa Hampton, Jennifer Hardin, Kathryn Hardy, Kendrick Harmon, Margaret Hazel, Mayra Hernandez, Ernesto Hernandez Rivas, Luis Hernandez Bustos, Carol Herring, Judith Hobbs, Sukari Holmes and Ronda Hubert.

Term contracts also were approved for the following employees: Tamela Ives, Jeanne Jackson, Melanie Jackson, Jessica Jenkins, Sarah Johnson, Stephanie Johnson, Susan Johnson, David Jones, Flor Jordan, Philllippe LaFontaine, John Lamb, Shannon Leisure, Janet Lewis, Melinda Limbaugh, Laura Love, Linda Luce, Janice Magee, Sharon Main, Lynn Maness, Justin Marcellus, Melanie Marino, Marisa Massey, Karen Masters, Rebecca May, Carrie McComas, Kitty McComas, Janet McCreary, Eleanoree McGowan, Deborah McGraw, Diana Mendietta, Melanie Meza, Jackie Miller, Ida Missildine, Dae Moers, Michelle Moore, Miranda Moore, Mark Moseley, Meredith Murray, Debra Nethery, Angela Nichols, Cynthia Oliva, Jane Paris, Iris Perry, Leanne Petty, Kayla Pritchett, Traci Ratliff, Adrian Reagan, Tracey Reed, Sherry Richmond, Janet Robbins, Janeva Robertson, Kathy Rodgers, Maria Roman-Riley, Amy Rosson, Mark Schrader, Jimmy Shelton, Lauren Sheridan, Lora Sims, Dennis Smith, Richard Sylvester, Connie Teal, Rachel Thigpen, Yvonne Thomason, Faithie Timms, Lucretia Titlow, Kathy Tomme, Candace Turner, Gary Turner, Lauren Tyler, Pamela Vallance, Sheila Van Deman, Sherolynn Villa, Cheryl Walding, Ruth Webb, Pamela White, Gary Williams, Donna Wortham, Dejoran Wright, Pamela Wright, Paula Yarbrough and Jewell Zenn.

Contracts also were approved for employees who are probationary for current year and moving to term contracts for the 2014-15 school year, including: Jacqueline Adams, Melissa Barraza, Keesa Boyd, Emily Camp, Elizabeth Carroll, Michaela Chybowski, Shannon Clakley, Michelle Clark, Megan Clingman, Jessica Cooper, Katie Covington, Allison Dean, Gena Eikner, Wendy Fincher, Wendy Hallmark, Eric Haltom, Julie Hearn, Melissa Hendricks, Olivia Henry, Christi Herrington, Vicki Hills, Byron Humphreys, Joseph Jackson, Jana Jones, Karl Kilgore, Bonita Killgo, Misti King, Alan Linson, Rachael Nolan, Sandra Norman, Hugo Perez, Ramona Ramirez, Stephany Rosas, Cinda Seeker, Lacie Sloan, Sherry Smith, Kimberli Sprague, Kendale Stoker, Scott Tyler, Wendy Wheat and Carol White.

Probationary contracts were approved for the following employees: Robin Adams, Dustin Barron, Ashley Barton, Melinda Boehm, Susan Bovard, Clarissa Campbell, Stefanie Carr, Scott Catchot, George Clark, Marlena Cook, Abby Cowley, William Cowley, Chad Cox, Sammie Davis, Stephanie Dickson, Charles Drane, Casey Enox, Luis Giron, Victor Gonzalez, Katrina Gray, Leslie Hasler-Gail, William Hawthorne, Brittany Hickerson, Eric Higginbotham, Ashley Hudson, Courtney Johnson, Kyle Johnson, Zerita Johnson-Thomas, Selina Jowell, Rebekah Kelly, Tamara Lacy, Colleen Lawson, Crystal Looney, Kristy Marcellus, Jami McCoy, Michele Merryman, Nicholas Meyers, Sulema Meyers, Michael Moore, Charles Murray, Alexandra Naismith, Leizel Nichols, Sisha Palacio, Erin Palmer, Kirk Palmer, Ashly Perry, William Phelps, Robin Pilette, Ashley Pritchett, Sheryl Quarles, Emily Ramsey, Charles Reeves, Matthew Reimer, Linnetrice Riden, Grace Sharp, Jennifer Sheets, Kelsie Shultz, Terry Sloan, Mallory Smith, Renda Songer, Sara Stevens, Rebecca Tapia, Samantha Templin, Hailey Unger, Terri Walston, Kristin Willmott and Jessica Wooden.

Resignations and/or retirements approved at the meeting included: Tiva Dixon, Kayla Fields, Scott Johnston, Charles King, Holley Marshall, Lynece Standley and Stephen Wickham.

In other business, the board:

--RECOGNIZED the Ladycat powerlifting team; the Palestine High School Choir; Junior Rotarians for February Kiare Jackson and Alex Wehling; Junior Rotarians for March, Shannon Smalley and Sam Snyder; PHS Students of the Month for February, Abigail Earle and Jaren Crist; and PHS Students of the Month for March, Natalie Dickerson and Parker Hamon.

--HELD the first reading of district goals for 2014-15. The district goals were reviewed by the District Action Team and were updated to meet the STAAR standards of postsecondary readiness and the district's forward move into the integration of science, technology, engineering, art and math with the implementation of STEAM Centers.

The centers will serve Northside Primary, Southside Elementary, A.M. Story Intermediate and Palestine Junior High school. These goals will insure that the district is on target to meet the state postsecondary readiness goal of 2020, according to PISD Assistant Superintendent of Instructional Services Carolyn A. Martin.

--APPROVED internet safety guidelines (current content filtering in use by the district as required by the Texas Education Agency). This FortiNet hardware appliance recognizes staff and students by their unique login identification and applies the necessary Internet content filtering accordingly. Additionally, each student with a school-supplied email account is required to view and pass a test on Internet safety before they can use their web account on Gaggle.

--APPROVED the financial report

--APPROVED consent items which included: minutes of the Feb. 17 regular meeting; bills paid for February; financial report; monthly investment report; tax collection report; budget amendments; donations; Roth 403b and 457 plan agreement for employees, 2014-15 local textbook adoption; certification of EMAT system for the 2014-15 textbook order; out-of-state field trip for PHS choir.

--HEARD Superintendent's report which included: enrollment report; April-May activities discussion; Texas Association of School Board Summer Leadership Institute Dates for school board members.

--TABLED nominations for Texas Association of School Board Media Honor Roll.

At the beginning of the meeting, Southside Elementary School students led the Pledge of Allegiance. The Rev. Woody Meredith from First Presbyterian Church gave the invocation.

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