The scholarship award ceremony took place at the Austin Marriott North in Round Rock. Recipients represent 20 Central Texas high schools including Austin, Bastrop, Georgetown, Pflugerville and Round Rock.

Among recipients were Anthony Guzman and Brittnee Lowrey, both of Hendrickson High School.

Former PHS gym, built in 1934, to be converted into meeting space

By Lauri Zachry
Pflag Reporter

Pflugerville ISD Board of Trustees member and longtime city resident Vernagene Mott loves recalling special memories of half-court basketball games she played with other Pflugerville High School students from 1957 to 1960 in the district’s Rock Gym.

The Rock Gym lives up to its name – having a rocky interior and exterior of limestone. The interior walls were covered with mats, so players wouldn’t hurt themselves if they happened to run into the wall, she said.

With no central heating or air in the gym, people gathered around a potbelly stove, or a cast-iron wood-burning stove, to stay warm during cold winter months, she said.

“We had great memories playing basketball in the Rock Gym,” Mott said. “Our team went to district and we always seemed to have a great team.”

The Rock Gym, which was built in 1934 through then-President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration initiative, served as the only high school volleyball and basketball gym in the Pflugerville and Round Rock areas during this time. It was next to the original two-story red brick Pflugerville High School constructed in 1921, which had been located next door to where Timmerman Elementary currently stands, Mott said.

In 1957, a tornado destroyed the two-story red brick high school but the Rock Gym remained unharmed. A new school, for seventh- through 12^th-grade students, was constructed in 1958 near where Timmerman stands. The current Pflugerville High School, located at 1301 West Pecan St., opened in 1974.

After PHS was constructed and new gyms were built, people still utilized the Rock Gym as a practice facility for drill teams in the 1980s and 1990s and for Little Dribblers basketball teams.

With the gym being unoccupied for about six years now, members of the PISD Board of Trustees and district administrators chose to renovate the Rock Gym and turn it into a meeting place, said Bill Clayton, PISD executive director of facilities and support services. The renovation will consist of replacing the windows and doors, adding central heating and air and large fans to the gym, redoing the current electrical structure of the facility, taking down the basketball goals and converting the girls and boys locker rooms into Americans with Disabilities Act compliant women’s and men’s restrooms.

The original wooden floors of the gym will be sanded, refinished with polyurethane and restriped to gym standards, Clayton said.

“The flooring is made from longleaf yellow pine, which is basically non-existent now,” Clayton said.

The outside look of the Rock Gym will remain the same. PISD employees replaced the roof of the gym five years ago.

Renovations will cost approximately $500,000, he said.

Former Pflugerville High School basketball coach Charles Kuempel is excited the Rock Gym will be renovated soon. He served as boys basketball coach at the school from 1955 until 1974. He has fond memories of playing teams in their district such as Leander (when the district only had one high school), Florence, Manor, Taylor and their biggest rival – Hutto.

“I can still remember the first time we beat Hutto in our gym in 1955,” Kuempel said. “We beat them 36 to 32. At the Rock Gym I remember us having to scrub the gym floor after almost every basketball game because the players’ shoes wouldn’t slide if the floor was too dirty. You also couldn’t shoot the ball too high in the air because the rafters were so low even though the ceiling was high.”

Mott said representatives from the Texas Historical Commission are set to present an historical marker at the site of the Rock Gym in early October.

District employees are currently in the final phase of the upgrade and will complete the project at the end of this summer, Clayton said.

PISD will offer both credit recovery and student success initiatives over the summer. High school students will also have the opportunity to earn first time credits or partake in TAKS and EOC prep courses over the summer.

Pflugerville ISD will also host enrichment camps for students from kindergarten through eighth grade. Each of the camps offers different skills for learning, and all of them are aimed at providing social educational opportunity for students to enjoy over the summer. Because these are elective camps there is a fee associated with each of them.

The district also provides its Extended Day program for nine weeks of the summer.

Placement is open first to students who are already part of the program. Registration for all PISD families opened April 16.

For more information on summer program, visit pflugervilleisd.net.

“The conference provides an outstanding opportunity for educators to participate in professional learning, geared toward creating inclusive school environments that meet the needs of all students,” Rachelle Warren, co-chair of the PISD Diversity Steering Committee, said in a written statement. “We are striving to develop a deeper understanding of the challenges faced by today’s students, and provide tools to address the needs of our diverse student population.”

The conference is free and registration is open to anyone who is interested in attending, including parents and community members.

The event was previously known as the Diversity Conference.

Those interested in presenting are encouraged to fill out registration forms online at cms.pflugervilleisd.net/cms/lib/TX01001527/Centricity/Domain/4/Callforpresenters12.pdf. The deadline is May 15.

For more information, contact Sara Lucas at 594-0110 or Rachelle Warren at 594-0044.

On Saturday, March 31, Texas State Students in Free Enterprise paired up with True Vineyards Ministries and set up a booth at the Attic Film Festival in Austin, to sell goods made by women in Rwanda, Madagascar, and Kenya. The proceeds from the festival were donated to disadvantaged women in Africa, in order to help provide for their children and to allow them a higher standard of living.

Pflugerville resident Sarah Moody was among the volunteers at the event.

SIFE is a not-for-profit organization supported by individuals, foundations, and corporations whose mission is to build collegiate SIFE teams that teach free enterprise in order to better individuals, communities and countries.

Members of the Parks Board provide feedback and cast votes on Parks and Recreation Commission decisions. It’s a year-long commitment, from June to May 31, 2013.

Applicants must have been a city resident for at least the last 12 months and not employed by the City of Pflugerville in any other capacity. Apply online at pflugervilletx.gov or through the City Secretary’s office at 990-6101, citysecretary@pflugervilletx.gov. Application deadline is May 31.

Two student interns will staff the branch and receive school credit and pay for their work. A supervisor from the A+FCU Pflugerville branch will oversee office operations and conduct account opening and loan processes.

“We’re excited to welcome A+ Federal Credit Union at Hendrickson for the 2012-2013 school year and beyond,” Hendrickson Principal Devin Padavil said in a written statement. “By bringing A+FCU to HHS, we’re providing elementary, middle and high school students a close location to begin saving money and learning financial responsibility. We’re also creating opportunities for Hendrickson students to learn about the world of banking and finance through generous internship opportunities provided by A+FCU. Through the location of the branch and great touches like a Hendrickson Hawk Debit Card, we’re bringing in a real life resource for students and building on Hawk Pride.”

The branch’s grand opening is scheduled to take place this fall along with a formal ribbon-cutting ceremony involving A+FCU, PISD and HHS staff and students. For more information, visit aplusfcu.org.

A+ Federal Credit Union has 15 Austin-area locations.

Parents may provide input at the following websites:

Caldwell Elementary: surveymonkey.com/s/9G7HHPD_CWEapril2012

Wieland: surveymonkey.com/s/QVYC3P2_WLES_April2012

Dessau: surveymonkey.com/s/9QRWKCV_DMSprncpl_April2012

• Books for children and parents, VHS movies, parenting kits, and a storytime area. Computer resources include word processing, Internet access, database searching, educational games and online books. Black and white printing would also be available at a small fee.

School officials are seeking feedback from the public as they make summer plans. Visit surveymonkey.com/s/JXJPGM3 to provide opinions.

District will add teachers at elementary, middle school level

By Lauri Zachry
Pflag Reporter

The Pflugerville Board of Trustees on Thursday approved the district leadership’s recommendation for a comprehensive high school and new positions for the 2012-13 school year. Both recommendations were the result of months of collaborative planning between the district and stakeholder groups.

The district’s fourth high school, anticipated to open in 2015, will address expected growth at Hendrickson High School.

If another high school is not constructed in the district, Hendrickson may become overcrowded, with a projected student population of over 3,000 students in six years, PISD Superintendent Charles Dupre said April 3. Currently, 2,300 students attend the school, which has a 2,500-student capacity. PISD expects to add 300 students to the district for the 2012-13 school year.

PISD officials are planning projects that could become part of a bond election in May 2013. The bond election could include funds for a fourth high school, expanded high school career and technology education programs, technology needs and possibly a larger football stadium at Pflugerville High School, Dupre said.

“The new high school will accommodate our expected growth and be comparable to the district’s current high school campuses,” he said in a news release PISD officials released Friday. “We also heard clearly through our high school visioning and planning process, which involved about 75 people from various stakeholder groups, that we need to continue developing our career and technical opportunities for students. That will remain a high priority at our three high schools, and as we plan for high school four.”

The location of the campus has not yet been determined, but it will be a comprehensive high school, offering a broad range of academic, co-curricular and extracurricular opportunities for students, according to the release.

There are some possible locations for the high school – off Cele Road near the soon-to-be constructed Cele Middle School, which will open for the 2013-14 school year, and off Cameron Road and Killingsworth Lane.

The Cele Road location already has infrastructure for water and gas lines in place because of Cele Middle School and is a definite growth area, Bill Clayton, district facilities and support services executive director, said April 4.

Dupre said board members could also decide to seek out new land the district doesn’t currently own for the fourth high school.

PISD has $2.5 million left from previous bonds if officials want to purchase new land, said district finance officer Kenneth Adix April 4.

Board members will take action on the conceptual design of the fourth high school in August. They hope to have members of the Citizen’s Bond Committee selected by that time so they can began making decisions in September regarding PISD facility needs, Dupre said.

During the April 19 meeting, board members approved over $4 million in new educational positions, with a focus on intervention, special education, and technology support, along with new positions created to address continued growth across the district.

“Our budget and compensation committee, as well as campus leaders, brought into clear focus the areas of highest need across the district,” Dupre said in the release. “Based on their outstanding work, we were able to identify positions that will support campuses and enhance systems across the district.”

Board members also addressed front office needs at the district’s elementary schools by adding part-time clerical help at campuses that meet certain criteria, including the size of the campus and Title I status. Title I status is given to schools that have a high number of students who qualify for federal free and reduced lunch programs.

Some elementary schools will also receive additional help in the form of administrative interns, who will serve in much the same capacity as an assistant principal.

Board members approved staffing recommendations that included adding 96 new positions districtwide, with many of those teachers being assigned to Ruth Barron Elementary, which will open for the upcoming school year, and 15 extra middle school teachers, Adix said. Additional middle school teachers, who would be spread throughout the district, will be hired since PISD is bringing back an additional class period in the school day, as students will have a seven-period day, he said.