Voters Approve $55M Pine Tree ISD Bond Measure
I am so proud of the job our staff does, on a daily basis, to make Pine Tree ISD a place kids want to go to school. I feel very blessed to be in a community that values education and is willing to support our efforts with their time and their tax money.
Also, I want to thank our bond committee for their tireless efforts to make sure everyone had the right information so they could be informed voters. It was a great team effort, GO Pirates!!!
EXCEL
ExCEL would like to recognize and congratulate our Pirate of the Month for October, Landon Hamilton. Landon has shown by his excellent work ethic and determination to be worthy of this title. He came to ExCEL the second semester of his sophomore year and is a senior with a goal of completing his coursework by the end of this first semester.
After graduation, Landon plans to move back to Arizona where he has family and where he lived prior to coming to Pine Tree. When he relocates to Arizona, he plans to work with his grandmother who is an accountant there. While History is his favorite subject, Landon is very good with math and numbers. He plans on working alongside her for a while to get "a feel for" accounting.
Landon currently works at Chick Fil A and values hard work. His favorite hobby is playing video games. He describes himself as quiet, attentive and polite. Coach and teacher, Keith Smith, also describes Landon as being quiet and added that he "always does his work."
ExCEL High School would also like to acknowledge our students for exemplary attendance for the first nine weeks of school. Congratulations to Landon Hamilton, Colton Vestal, Ja'Bralon Deitz and Shelby Hayward. Each student received a gift card for their exemplary attendance.
MIDDLE
Pine Tree Middle School hosted a Fine Arts Fair last week. Our 5th and 6th grade choir students performed several selections. Our 5th and 6th grade art show displayed art in the halls as well as a “Glow” room with some black-light art. Students from Mrs. Vidaurri’s speech class preformed poetry selections for parents. Parents and students also visited the book fair while at the Fine Arts Fair.
PTMS was once again the winner of the district wide canned food drive! This is a great opportunity to give to our community. Our campus accumulated more than 1700 cans.
Our campus just completed our school fundraiser and the top sellers are: First place: Brannon Godfrey and Kaleb Evans; and second place went to Kingston Santos and Shelby Fair. Final total sales for the fundraiser was over $14,000.00! We are grateful to everyone who supported our campus fundraiser!
Our fifth grade students experienced Tyler State Park on November 3rd. Students explored ecosystems and erosion with a scavenger hunt. They rotated through stations to learn about the water cycle, order of the planets, a life size game board to review food webs and a game to show what over-crowding does to the survival of the animals and how it changes the environment. They also visited the Tyler Zoo.
A farm and stream truck visited the campus for science classes to see how streams can erode the landforms around them. Mrs. Streetman has a lot of science activities going on for our students at the Middle School.
Our campus PTO is hosting a parent & teacher contest for the class that has the most people join this month and the prize will be pizza party. Encourage your friends to join Middle PTO.
JUNIOR HIGH
UIL season is underway here at PTJH! All of our UIL coaches held a “Recruiting Day” in our foyer for a few days before school to load up their rosters with our excited and talented young minds!
We have intense expectations of gold medals and 1st place trophies this year. Our kids are ready to put in the work as practices begin! Good luck UIL teams this year!
BIRCH ELEMENTARY STORYBOOK PARADE
The 2023 Birch First Annual Storybook parade was truly a memorable experience for all in attendance. We had a record number of students and faculty strut through the hallways in a variety of costumes representing unique literary characters.
Our school is known for growing voracious readers and this event allowed our students to display the many delightful characters that are shared through their most loved stories. Many parents were overheard expressing that this year’s parade was more entertaining than the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade!
AWARDS ASSEMBLY
The first awards assembly of the year was a time for students, teachers, and parents to gather together and celebrate the achievements of our Birch First Family. Students were recognized for their diligent hard work and dedication to academic success as well as showing positive character attributes. As always, not a dry eye was left in the house as the teachers presented students with Pirate Pride awards.
We appreciate our Birch First parents for attending these assemblies and supporting our students and teachers.
FALL FESTIVAL
The BFF found great joy in participating in the Pine Tree Fall Fest at Pirate Stadium. We hosted a variety of games and activities for the children of Pine Tree. Mrs. Meadows led our Birch Beatles in a show-stopping performance that brought forth a riveting round of applause from the audience.
It is our greatest blessing to build relationships with our Pine Tree community.
PACE Volunteer Service Projects: PACE Promise Garden
Students have the opportunity to work in our PACE Promise Garden to earn community service hours. The garden offers hands-on horticulture experience and provides time for students to work on character growth, social skills, and allows them to have pride in their accomplishments.
The staff finds great joy in sharing brand new experiences with our students. Way to lead, Mrs. Stark, PACE Elementary!
Candy Melt Science Experience
Which liquid will melt the candy first? hot water, oil, or cold water?
ABU Elementary students participated in a fun science experiment where they learned about mixtures. The students tested whether hot water, cold water, or oil would melt the candy first.
Which one would you guess to be correct? Answer: Hot water
Thanks, Team ABU Elementary, for making learning fun for our students!
PACE S.T.R.O.N.G. Student Spotlight
Brenda Mariano,11th grade, stated, “Learning and being PACE STRONG encouraged me to let people teach me the right way to do things. Whether it was for math or a rule, I eventually understood and was taught correctly.”
We celebrate Brenda for choosing to be a noteworthy life learner and completing the PACE STRONG journey!
PARKWAY ELEMENTARY Parkway Cafe
Our ladies in the cafeteria sure know how to get to our sweet students' tummies. They work so hard to provide a nice warm breakfast for our students and staff every single day. Immediately following breakfast, they are getting ready for all the lunches. Our students just love having a variety to choose from when they come to lunch.
Not only do our cafeteria ladies make amazing food, they sure know how to decorate their lines to create an awesome holiday feeling.
Thank you to Ms. Lindsay, Ms. Sujey, Ms. Teresa, Ms. Kim, and Ms. Leighann. We here at the Pack love you ladies and thank you for all you do for us!
DAY OF THE DEAD
Mrs. Muñiz’s class shared their altars they made at home for The Day of the Dead or Día de los Muertos celebration. The altar is an intentional space dedicated to a person or people that have passed away.
Parents sent pan de muerto (bread of the dead) and juice for the students to enjoy afterwards. They all had a wonderful time.
HIGH SCHOOL
Thanksgiving is just around the corner - how fast time has flown for the first part of the 2023-2024 school year. But, even with time flying by, Pine Tree has had enormous successes in the past three months.
The boys cross country team made state as a team for the first time since 1992. These young men came together with a purpose and blazed a trail through district and regionals to earn a trip to Round Rock as a team. They finished 11th in state and had a great time celebrating a great accomplishment with coaches Kyle Burns and Emily Bachman. Now the guys can look forward to track season and a trip to Austin in May.
The band also was historic this year, earning a trip to state with a fourth place finish in regionals. With an excellent program, Stranded, in place and a great core of students and color guard performers, Mark Perry and Dr. Jared Cronk led the PTHS Pride to a trip to state competition in San Antonio at the Alamodome. Their performance this past Monday was perfect and brought the crowd to its feet. They did not qualify for the finals but came away from San Antonio with the trip of a lifetime, the memory of a lifetime and the knowledge that they had represented Pine Tree well against the best 5A bands in the state.
Football also had a historic night this past Friday as the Pirates defeated the No. 4 ranked and undefeated Texas High Tigers in overtime on the Tigers home field. Pine Tree went into the game knowing it had already wrapped up a playoff spot in Coach Jason Bachman’s second year, but they wanted to end the regular season in historic fashion by beating the Tigers and having a huge amount of momentum heading into postseason play. Led by quarterback MJ Cates and a defense that throttled the Tigers all night, Pine Tree scored in overtime and then held the Tigers on four downs from inside the 5 to win the game and celebrate on the field.
Pine Tree now heads into a playoff game Friday at 7:30 p.m. against Lucas Lovejoy on their home field. Should the Pirates win that game, they will play on a neutral field the next week against Ennis or Kimbell.
PTHS is bustling with activity on the academic front as well. The UIL academics team hosted a meet on Saturday, November 4th that included 36 teams. Pine Tree finished second and had a host of students earn medals in the competition. The Pirate UIL team now will head to Lindale in early December and then bust into a full schedule of meets in January and February.
Choir had a successful trip to regional competition this past weekend and earned a host of honors. Danielle Warren and her choirs have had some of the best East Texas singers for years, and they continue to prove each year. The PTHS choir is getting ready for its annual Christmas Concert which will be held on Tuesday, December 4 at Trinity Episcopal Church in Longview. This is annually one of the favorite Pine Tree school events, and the church will be full as the students celebrate the season with music.
Students from cheer, band, Precision, BUCS and others will be marching in the Longview Christmas Parade in early December as well.
The time is flying by and everyone is trying to keep up with life, but at Pine Tree High School the busy year is seeing success that is historic and momentum that is pumping up students and staff and getting everyone in the mindset that anything is possible. Stay tuned for more exciting news.
