Pine Tree ISD is happy to announce our new website and mobile app! The new website and mobile app is a great tool to assist students, parents and community members know what is happening at PTISD. On the app, students, parents and community can read the latest announcements, find local staff contact information, review upcoming events and find important documents. The Pine Tree ISD app is available to download free from the Apple App Store or on the Google Play store. It's everything Pine Tree ISD, in your pocket.

Three Pine Tree High School students were among the five who advanced in the Black History Essay and Oratorical Contest sponsored by Texas Eastman. The students are Karima Mbeh, Chadea’ Gipson, and Elena Bazan. The students will compete in round two of competition February 28th when they deliver a memorized oratory.

Texas Eastman has sponsored the contest for four years and have awarded Pine Tree students more than $8000 so far. The first place winner will be awarded a $1500 scholarship, second place will receive $1000, third place will receive $750, fourth place will receive $500, and fifth place will receive $250.

The contest recognizes the work of African-Americans in any of the STEAM fields. This year, the students wrote about Marie Maynard Daly, whose work advanced the treatment of heart and lung diseases; Gladys West, whose work led to the invention of the Global Positioning System (GPS), and Elijah McCoy, who increased the efficiency of transportation and invented the portable ironing board and the lawn sprinkler.

Ms. Brutchin's class loved using the "bee bot" and bring coding into our classroom.

Mrs. Hall’s class enjoyed celebrating the 100th day of school, and students are excited about adding Transitional Words to their stories during Writers Workshop.

Last week PT Primary celebrated National Counselor Week and recognized Mrs. Jennifer Ellison. We are truly blessed to have such a caring and wonderful counselor on our campus. She is the true definition of Pirate Pride!

Dr. Seuss Week - February 27-March 3

Monday-Wear crazy socks

Tuesday-Wear a shirt with a number on it

Wednesday-Wear a shirt you can read

Thursday-Wear a shirt with an animal on it or animal print

Friday- Dress up as your favorite Dr. Seuss character and bring your favorite book to match your character

Ecoland - March 1st

8:30 am -2:30 pm

Greenlee, Horne, Anderson

End of Big Kahuna Fundraiser - March 2nd

All money is due by the end of the day

Jack & the Beanstalk Play - March 2nd

Pine Tree Auditorium

2:00 pm -3:00 pm

Birch Elementary School would like to celebrate the completion of another amazing Scholastic Book Fair. It was a wonderful week full of family events, students shopping for reading materials, and many acts of generosity from students and adults.

A special Thank You for your support of the Birch Elementary School library!

Birch staff had an incredible time at the 2023 Pine Tree EXPEDITION. Students, staff, and parents enjoyed learning what makes Birch First the best campus in the nation. We celebrate relationships, growth, and hard work each and every day.

EXPEDITION 2023

The Parkway Pack enjoyed ourselves at the Pine Tree ISD EXPEDITION 2023 on February 16. We enjoyed seeing each other and all of our wonderful students, past and present. We saw new faces, as well as familiar faces that work at other campuses.

Everyone at the Pack was well represented at the Expedition from all four grade levels, to our specials team, and our life skills and special education departments. Our Page Turners, UIL teams, Student Council, and even our Genius Hour stuff was there for everyone to see. It was such a blessing to come together to enjoy being a Pine Tree Pirate!

On Friday February 11th our Pack PTA hosted a Pack Ranch Hoedown at Parkway. Our students and their families were able to come out and support our PTA while having a blast with their family and friends. It was an amazing turnout! Everyone ate, danced, and played all types of games.

Our PTA here at the Pack spoiled us last week for Valentine’s Day. They set up a nice breakfast with donuts, coffee, and juices in addition to lunch the next day. Thank you so much to our wonderful PTA from all the staff members here at the Pack Ranch!

Pine Tree Middle School students attended the TAME Divisional Competition at Region 7 on Thursday, February 9th. Eighteen of our students attended this competition.

This year the TAME Clubs have been diving into learning about water, water purification, and the role engineers play in delivering clean water around the world. During the competition students were placed in different groups with students from other schools around East Texas and were challenged to build an efficient transportation water system.

Caleb Davis was a member of the team that won 1st place at the divisional competition. Jordyn Theus and Facundo Schisano were members of the team that won 2nd place at the divisional competition. Nevaeh Amos Clugston was on the team that was awarded Judges Choice for displaying the 5C’s of Engineering. Melina Moore is the sponsor of the group.

Pine Tree EXPEDITION was a fun night for all. Sixth graders, Carsyn Smith and Kaailey Thomas, created their own logo and shirts for the Pine Tree EXPEDITION project. They created a Genre Cafe with a menu of specific books from various genres for their guests. It was a fun time for friends and family with Mrs. McMullan's and Mrs. Kyle’s Reading booth at the Maude Cobb Convention Center at Pine Tree EXPEDITION 2023.

Our Middle School Fundraiser with APEX color team was a success this year. Many students enjoyed the color battle and had a great time at a wildly colorful recess.

We want to congratulate our very own Kaleigh Robertson for receiving an Above and Beyond Award! Thank you for making a difference for our students and our team!

PTJH is celebrating Black History Month in several amazing ways! Mrs. Boswell’s art students made these incredible masks that were on display in our library and at the district Black History Month program!

Pine Tree hosted a Texas Math and Science Coaches (TMSCA) Meet on Saturday, February 11th at Pine Tree Junior High. Pine Tree won 58 individual medals and was the 1st place team!

Congratulations to our Junior High Winners:

Number Sense 7th grade division

2nd place, Levi Walker

5th place, Raiden Gaw

Number Sense 8th grade division

1st place, Alex Chen

2nd place, Mae Shen

3rd place, Ashlyn Dunn

Calculator 7th grade division

1st place, Levi Walker

2nd place, MaKenna Griffin

3rd place, Amy Orona

Calculator 8th grade division

1st place, Alex Chen

2nd place, Morgan Rue

4th place, Ashlyn Dunn

5th place, Keagan McCord

Math 7th grade division

2nd place, Raiden Gaw

3rd place, MaKenna Griffin

4th place, Gabriel Cabudoy

5th place, Levi Walker

Math 8th grade division

1st place, Alex Chen

3rd place, Ashlyn Dunn

4th place, Morgan Rue

5th place, Mae Shen

Science 7th grade division

1st place, Raiden Gaw

2nd place, Levi Walker

3rd place, Gabriel Cabudoy

Science 8th grade division

1st place, Alex Chen

2nd place, Isaiah Sims

3rd place, Jimmy Stafford

5th place, Morgan Rue

The incredible Francetta Mcgowan, our PTJH librarian, has been working with students to teach them about famous African American influencers throughout history with a fun Bingo style game. Kids are loving it and learning about these amazing people and the impact they had on our world.

Our three Pirate Pride Award Winners this month are 8th graders Jakayden Watters and Takayla Davis, and 7th Grader Sha’taya Oliver. Great job, Pirates!

Here are a few highlights from our EXPEDITION 2023! We had 7th graders dress in period clothing to discuss the exciting opportunities that moving to Texas in the 1700's offered! Our science team had some awesome experiments set up and ready to go. Robotics really showed off what our students can do too! Theater was involved with giant props of their upcoming Jack and the Beanstalk presentation, and our Student Council, CEER, and Life Skills classes showed off too! It was a tremendous event and we want to thank everyone involved!

Winter may be keeping its grip on East Texas outside, but in the classrooms of Pine Tree High School it is anything but frigid. Administrators, teachers and students are bustling with activity right now as the third nine weeks is nearly over, Spring Break is nearly here and the spring time flurry of activities before graduation is just down the road.

Students will be taking TELPAS exams this week at the high school. Students have been working all year in preparation for this, and teachers are excited for what they feel will be excellent results. This helps those students to further their education and progress in a very positive way.

Students are also still preparing for the STAAR tests in a couple of months. Coursework geared toward these exams is helping students to be better equipped on the information needed to be successful. Also, a large group of students on March 1 will be taking the SAT exam for possible entrance into college. This benchmark exam helps them to be ready for the challenges they will face at a college or university.

Spring testing is important, but so is regular classroom work. Students are busy finishing and preparing projects in culinary, automotive, construction and welding to take to a state competition in March. They have been working hard on these projects for months and are now ready to put them to the test against other students from across Texas.

Choir and Band students are preparing for solo and ensemble work in the coming weeks. They, too, have been preparing their presentations for several months and, if history can repeat itself, Pine Tree will be well represented at state in both areas.

UIL Academics recently competed well at Hallsville, a very important meet for them, and are now on the downhill slide into district competition. Lee Branson, Fine Arts and UIL Director, said this could very well be the year that Pine Tree, on all sides of UIL competition, wins a district championship and sends a host of students to regionals and state. He said all teams have worked very hard this year and have shown well in each of the meets in which they have competed.

The Pine Tree Precision Drill team competed well in the Dallas area several weeks ago. The team was rewarded for an excellent year with a trip to Disney World. The girls had an excellent time at the World’s Happiest Place and came back to school with plenty of outstanding memories to share with other students. The team is busy with Spring Show plans.

Cheerleaders have had a meeting to prepare for tryouts. Those will occur in the next month for girls wanting to be part of the 2023-2024 team.

BUCS for the coming year were named recently. These new men, in addition to the seven returning, include Hayden Berryhill, Carter Martinez, Damil Arogo, Chris Ahumada, Hayes Daugbjerg, Brooks Brown, Erik Guzman and Jeronimo Galvan. Officers for next year include Jose Aranda, President; Dominic Balint, Vice President; Josue Roque, Vice President and Kaleb Lampkin, Vice President.

On the sports front, girls basketball and boys basketball have ended their seasons, while boys soccer and girls soccer are close to ending their regular seasons. The girls are near the top of the district standings while the boys are in the hunt.

Baseball, softball and track are all entering the first games of the season, while powerlifting is just a few weeks away from district, regionals and state.

Winter is holding on fast, and the weather has remained cold for a few weeks now, but it is hot in the classroom and getting hotter.

ExCEL would like to congratulate Pirate of the Month, Brooklyn Hill. Brooklyn came to ExCEL in September of this year. Brooklyn came to ExCEL because she wanted to graduate early. Though currently listed as a junior this year, she is well on track to graduate this May as an early graduate.

When asked what she liked best about ExCEL, Brooklyn was quick to say "Mrs. Jones!" She also said she liked that the program allows her to work from home over the breaks so she can get even further ahead. In her spare time, Brooklyn enjoys swimming and dancing. She describes herself as being motivated and she seeks to always be friendly.

Mrs. Jennifer Wilbur, English teacher at ExCEL, says that one of the reasons she chose Brooklyn as the January Pirate of the Month was because she can really see the difference in Brooklyn's motivation from the start of her journey at ExCEL until now. Mrs. Wilbur says that she is more determined and motivated as she gets closer to finishing her high school journey.

Brooklyn says she is most motivated by her mom. Brooklyn's mother was diagnosed with cancer and it is because of her mom's diagnosis that Brooklyn wants to pursue becoming a nurse. She plans to attend Prairie View University after graduation. She admits though her bigger goal is to become a doctor and study the brain.

These Pine Tree PACE Volunteers enjoyed representing the campus at the Pine Tree EXPEDITION. The focus activity was the writing of Hope Notes by the Pine Tree community. Hope Notes are shared in several ways. Weekly, they are added to the Pine Tree Backpack Project which reaches an average of 100 students throughout the district weekly. Go PACE!

PACE Campus Volunteer Service Project

Kudos to these selfless PACE volunteers who served at the Longview Dream Center at 9:30 am on a school holiday. These students are learning life lessons on empathy and giving back to a community that supports them.