Category: Howe News Bulletin

Howe Texas’ own Garrett Fulenchek made his 2015 debut on Saturday for the Danville Braves, which is an advanced rookie league.  A few in-person photos were taken by Howe class of 1992 graduate, Todd White.

A full recap of the outing will be found in Monday’s Howe Enterprise.

 

Nursery Director at New Beginning Fellowship
Pay $25 per service
Hours: Sundays 9:30 – 12:00
Wednesdays 6:30 – 8:30
Ages 0 to 4
Interview and background check required.

Job Description:
Adhere to policy and procedures of church and nursery.

Provide lesson, song and craft for students.

Provide the leadership a monthly supply list of things needed for the month.

Have a love and passion for children and God’s Word!

Please contact Heather Rains
469-569-8766 text or call
heather.rains@gmail.com

Howe’s own Garrett Fulenchek will make his first start of the season on Saturday for the Danville Braves of Virginia.  He suffered a setback when a line drive went off of his shin a few weeks ago, but he says he’s fully recovered and ready to go.

The Danville Braves are an Advanced Rookie-level team in the Appalachian League and have been a farm team of the Atlanta Braves since 1982.

Danville won their opener and Fulenchek was interviewed after the win by WSET-TV.

WSET.com – ABC13

The budget of $11,067,913 for the 2015-16 school year has been adopted by the Howe ISD Board of Trustees after a recommendation by Superintendent Kevin Wilson.  Of that, the general fund, which included teacher salaries is set for $9,354,625. Food service is budgeted at $456,22 while debt service is at $988,640 and federal funds of $268,426.

“The compensation plan (teacher salaries) encompasses 75 percent of the budget, so that’s always the first major expenditure that we look at.” Wilson told the board. “When we look at non-payroll, we look at campus needs and department needs and we always try to consider legislative action in odd number years because that will affect our revenue. And fortunately, we did see a little extra revenue from the legislature.”

The ISD added $1,000 to each step in the teacher salary structure. All staff that’s not on the step structure received a three percent increase in pay. That is one percent more than normal. Teachers that have 20 or more years experience that did not receive a salary step will receive a $500 increase. The total payroll came to $7,062,300 which is 75 percent of the overall budget.

A new teacher with no experience will start out at $36,000 (step zero). Howe ISD is expecting an increase in enrollment next year due to the small 2015 senior class that graduated. They are hoping for a normal kindergarten size class of 75-80 students. Enrollment in May at the elementary was 393. The Middle School listed 312 and the high school listed 291 for an overall enrollment at 996. Attendance was 979 for May.

The projections for property tax revenue is $189,000,000. The number is a projection based on new numbers. The school uses 96 percent of that number to base their budget until certified numbers come in in August. With the appraisals going up in the area, that will have a direct impact on the Howe ISD budget.

Wilson reported that he accepted resignations from Niki Hunt and Erin Vawter. Contracts have been offered to Matt Boykin to be the elementary school assistant principal. Jennifer Tucker will teach sixth grade science and Natalie McCall will teach high school math. Sherri Price will teach middle school math. Dana Schumaker will teach fifth grade math.

 

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Nat King Cole probably never envisioned lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer to be so athletic intense in North Texas. Back in 1963, the popular song was about bikinis hot dogs, beaches, and pretzels. That’s nearly everything that will send a football coach over the edge from his players in 2015.

The program of athletes working out with coaches in the summer is not a new concept, however, the attendance and participation level is new.

“The attendance before Coach (Zack) Hudson got here was pretty bad.” said assistant coach and football offensive coordinator Dale West.  “Last year, we had 40 total coming last year and now we’re averaging about 60 per day.”

West says that the difference is the expectation of the athletes from the coaches. It’s voluntary and not mandatory, but they set the expectations that the kids should show up regularly.

The program is not sport-specific due to University Interscholastic League rules. It’s general strength and conditioning for athletes entering seventh grade through senior year.

“We’ll do about a 45-minute weight workout and then we’ll go outside and do an agility station for about 30 minutes and then we’ll do the running station for 30 minutes.” said West.

The coaches split up the long-distance runners from the sprint runners. On Thursday, a group ran “the ladder” of 400 meters followed by 300, 200 and 100 meters. That particular run is not the most popular with the athletes.

“You can do more stuff in the summer because you have more time.” said West. “We’re not on a time crunch, so we can work them up to two hours where during the school day you only get 45 minutes.”

The high school kids are encouraged to attend the first session which starts at 7:30 because it is a little more high intense. The junior high kids come later as the coaches slow things down in order to get them more acclimated to the lifting process. Most of the entering seventh graders are lifting for the first time.

“We try to show them (junior high kids) how to do the workout without heavy weights just to show them how to do a workout.” said West.

One benefit that the coaches receive from this is the ability to find out which kids are motivated enough to attend the workouts.

“In August, you can tell which kids have been here and which ones haven’t.” said West. “First of all, you can tell by the condition that they’re in. If they haven’t been working, they’re exhausted. The kids that show up, it’s just another day for them.”

The first week was all teaching for the junior high kids. Seeing some of the lifting techniques for the first time, they learned proper safety for becoming an athlete.

“Once we put the weights on them and ran them, they had jelly legs.” said West. “But we’re already seeing improvements by leaps and bounds. They’re going to be really sore in these first couple of weeks. They’re going to be sore in places that they didn’t even know they had muscles. That’s a good thing.”

The athletic department measures the progression of the strength and conditioning program by tracking the athletes max weights in August, December and just before spring break. As of right now, Joel Menjivar is the leading lifter in bench press. He suffered a torn Achilles Cruciate Ligament on Halloween night versus Whitewright.

“If he weren’t injured, he’d probably be our biggest lifter across the board. He’s getting pretty strong.” said West. “If his knee wasn’t hurt and he could do a full squat, he’d be our biggest squatter by far.”

As far as the running part, Andrew Griffin had the best 40 meter time with a low 4.6.

“Some people were surprised by that, maybe because he’s so young, but short and jacked up, but he’s fast.” said West.

Griffin is one of the ones that is penciled in to replace the graduated Anthony Hawthorne, who set the all-time Howe school rushing records last season.

Brandon Wall should replace Joaquin Lopez at quarterback, while the homerun hitter of the offense Stratton Carroll will return after suffering a torn ACL the same night as Menjivar. Tyler Grisham will also return and this could create one of the best backfields in school history.

 

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For the second year in a row, the City of Howe has invested in a program that has sent Howe ISD teachers through a program to help bring real Grayson County job skills to the classroom to prepare students for life after high school.

This year, Howe Development Alliance sent two teachers through the program. Tammy Camp, a chemistry teacher at Howe High School spent a week at the Sunny Delight Beverages plant in Sherman. Elizabeth Friedman, a physics teacher at Howe High School spent her week at Heritage Park Surgical Hospital, also in Sherman.

The program is put together by Workforce Solutions Texoma and supported by surrounding Economic Development Corporations or cities in Grayson County.

The experiences that the teachers gain from working in local factory or industry settings gives them an idea of what a lot of their students are facing when they leave their classroom.

Before the week, Camp told Workforce Solutions Texoma, ” I expect to learn how what I teach in the classroom will work in the real world. I want to be able to teach them what the company needs them to know in order to be successful, and teach collegebound students what type of degrees to pursue.”

After her experience she said that very few of the workers had college degrees, but most of them were making more money than she was. She said that they do have more stress in their lives, however.

Friedman also had a good experience, saying, “I was able to see how important math is. From payment systems to nurses who use geometry every day. The experience was above and beyond what I expected.”

 

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Last month, Dennis Bozeman stepped down from his seat on the Howe City Council due to family health issues that have him spending most of his time in Louisiana.

With the seat vacated, Howe Mayor Jeff Stanley appointed Darren Foster to the seat, which the council fully and unanimously supported with their motion to approve in Tuesday’s city council meeting.

Foster was approached, or recruited, initially by longtime Council Member Sam Haigis. With Haigis’ recommendation to Mayor Stanley and a willingness to serve his community, Foster agreed to fill the seat if the council would support the nomination.

“I was very humbled to be asked by Mr. Haigis.” said Foster.

The council position does require some time and Foster says that he’s able to give some time despite having three children in the Howe ISD school system.

“I thought about that and I’m going to have kids here (in Howe) for a long time.” said Foster. “One time a month is not much to sacrifice.”

Foster said that he sees growth coming to Howe and wants to help with the plans that are in place and to help guide those efforts.

“We were in a meeting today and they mentioned that Collin County has 950,000 people and are about to have two more million.” said Foster. “They have to land somewhere. More than likely they’ll land here. So I want to help this city grow the right way.”

Foster, 46, is a native of Plainview, Texas and is a 1993 graduate of Texas Tech University. He married Howe native, Vanna Tate Foster 22 years ago and they have three kids, Darci (17), Dylan (15) and Dax (9).

Foster is a Texas Farm Bureau agent and was in the education field for 20 years. He’s been a youth pastor and a minister.

“I have a servant heart.” said Foster. “I just want to serve and help people. That’s what I do. I think this feels like a chance to reach out and help people in this community.”

Foster joins Haigis, Debbie Lowery, Georgia Richardson and Bill French on the council.

 

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Clyde Hepner and Bruce Evans spent their first year as co-coordinators of Great Days of Service, which is in their 10th year of existence in Howe. The organization helped numerous families on 19 different projects.

In order for Great Days of Service to consider a project, it must meet their criteria of a non-rental property. It also has to be someone in true need of help outlined by the organization guidelines. Those guidelines are that the person must be physically or financially unable to take care of their property. A lot of the jobs are given to Great Days by the code enforcement of the City of Howe. The city is more interested in helping out the residents, rather than fining them.

“Just to see the impact that we can make on people’s lives with a lot of care and labor and a little bit of money.” said Hepner. “We can make a huge different in people that don’t have a front door or people that don’t have a hot water heater or people that can’t walk in the front door because of the steps falling together.”

Hepner said that many of the residents came out with tears in their eyes and that the emotions were high all weekend.

“The one that’s been most impactful to me was a job that we did east of town that the deck was falling together.” said Hepner.

The project was for a lady who has been and is still in the hospital in rehab for a number of months. The daughter of the lady was on-site and emotions of seeing people help overcame her.

“She cried so often when we were there, it was amazing to see the impact on her just to know how happy her mother would be.” said Hepner.

Another location had a water heater that was not just leaking, but gushing. In order to do the necessities of life, they would switch the unit on and off. Eventually, the water damage flooded the floor and rotted out the flooring. Great Days of Service, replaced the portion of the rotted floor and purchased a new water heater for the home.

“The people were very appreciative.” said Hepner. “We rebuilt their porch and the entire family was out there have their picture made on the new porch.”

Due to the wet weather, they weren’t able to do two of the major yard cleanups. They still have some brush to pick up from other locations. Three projects were cut short because of the skillset needed to complete the job.

“We got a lot done, but didn’t get all of them, but we’ll continue to work through the rest of the month to get them finished.” said Hepner.

The organization was up in volunteers by 10 percent. The average age of the worker was reduced heavily with numerous teenagers volunteering to help on projects this year.

“One of the things that I want to see us do is focus specifically on projects that the youth can do.” said Hepner. “We have youth coming, they want to help and they’ve been great help. We had a real ambitious crew this year.”

Great Days of Service was started by members of the First United Methodist Church of Howe and the vast majority of workers are members of that church, however, members of other churches also joined in the effort for 2015.

Hepner talked about Great Days of Service at a men’s breakfast bible study at First Baptist Church of Howe several months back and two men from Dorchester Baptist Church stepped forward and said that they would help.

“Those two guys are top-notch.” said Hepner. “They really did help us out a lot” Evans, who co-coordinated with Hepner said that his most rewarding job was the family with the water heater issue.

“People ask us why we do this and I just tell them that it’s something that needs to be done.” said Evans. “You can do it and expect something in return or you can do it and just say it needed to be done. We do this because it’s community. It’s a band of brothers and it pulls people together as a church family and a community. People who live close together help each other out. My daddy used to tell me to throw a little bread on the water because when you throw the rock in, the ripples carry and sooner or later, it’ll come back to you.” The group works in the Howe ISD school district area. And one of the projects included the old First Christian Church.

The group cleaned up all of the brush and weeds around the building, boarded up the windows and are preparing for paint in coming weeks. Mame Roberts Garden, next to the old church was also groomed. Evans said he saw tears that ranged from more than three to less than a couple of thousand. That’s what it’s all about.

 

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