Category: Howe News Bulletin

Kendall Nelms just graduated from Howe High School and one of the first things she’s doing is spending time in Richardson this week in competition for the coveted Miss Texas crown.

Nelms began competing in pageants at the age of 12 just to help her get over her severe introverted personality. “My first pageant was in a mall and there were only three in my division and I was so scared out of my mind.” said Nelms. “I had glitter eye-liner and I looked like someone out of the 80’s because we didn’t know anything. But it was so much fun.”

In that pageant, Nelms spoke in front of people for the first time and she realized that she survived the experience and actually had fun. It took Nelms a couple of months before she won her first pageant, which was at a state fair competition.

Nelms entered her fourth preliminary competition earlier this year and competed for Miss Lake Worth against 12 competitors. When she was named Miss Lake Worth, that qualified her for the Miss Texas competition which is taking place now.

The Miss Texas contestants checked into the Eisemann Center in Richardson on Saturday morning and immediately had a fashion show and gala. After those events, the contestants are completely sequestered with their phones taken away.

“I don’t get any contact.” said Nelms in a Friday interview. “Our parents aren’t allowed to talk to us except for visitation which is after each competition. We don’t have our phones from 6 am to 11 pm and we’re completely cut off from everyone.”

This schedule will take place until Sunday. On Tuesday, Nelms will interview, which is a 10 minute process where judges ask the contestants anything from political questions to current affairs. After that interview, she’ll get two minutes with her parents before doing the swimsuit and evening gown performances. Wednesday is the talent portion of the contest which Nelms is a talented flute player. On Thursday, Nelms will face the on-stage questions.

“You have to really know yourself.” said Nelms. “You have to know what you think and have an opinion. They don’t care what your opinion is, you just need to be able to defend your opinion.”

With media today, everything is scrutinized so Nelms wants to make sure and avoid the moments of losing train of thought.

“You just can’t allow yourself to get scared.” said Nelms. “One time I fell on stage and it was an awesome face-plant. When my family gets together, my dad will play it on a loop.”

The cost of the pageant life can add up, but it has also paid off for Nelms who has received over $2,000 in scholarships from pageants.

“It’s not cheap, but you get so much out of it.” said Nelms. “I have great interview skills now. I have a job because I can interview well and I can now talk in front of thousands of people. So it is expensive and it offsets the scholarships, but it gives you so much more.”

Nelms says that her favorite part of the pageant is the interview.  “It’s the only part that you can control what they think about you.” said Nelms. “Everything else is based on how you look and present yourself. But in the interview, you get to actually have a conversation with them. I love talking to people.”

This confident girl used to hide behind her mom and cry at school because she was so afraid to talk to people. My how far this little girl from Howe has come.

Nelms wants to be a surgical nurse, but first wants to be Miss Texas and then Miss America.

Nelms will soon be attending Midwestern State University and plans to take the first year off from pageants. She has taken a year off from pageants before, but returned this year.

“I just want to get into the groove of college, but I do want to come back because my goal is to be Miss America.” said Nelms.

She is the daughter of Robin and Kenneth Nelms and is the youngest child to siblings Layne and Brice. Her brother Brice suffers from Dysautonomia, which is a type of neuropathy affecting the nerves that carry information from the brain and spinal cord to the heart, bladder, intestines, sweat glands, pupils, and blood vessels. Kendall Nelms’ platform for her bid to become Miss Texas is based on Dysautonomia.

“When I go to programs, I always talk about him and how this has affected our family.” said Nelms, who has volunteered at the Ronald McDonald House.

Whether Nelms is crowned Miss Texas this week or not, the achievement of having the opportunity is overwhelmingly rare. She may wear a Miss Lake Worth banner when she walks on the stage, but this town really knows what city she represents.

 

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.

 

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Wednesdays 6:30 – 8:30
Ages 0 to 4
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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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