By Jena Seidemann
Managing Editor
@jena_seidemann
In addition to the regular business the Board of Trustees must cover at their meetings, they also recognized several Coppell High School organizations and individuals for their prestigious accomplishments on Monday.
For the first half hour, the awards were distributed by Board of Trustees President Anthony Hill. Nineteen section leaders of the Coppell High School Band were recognized for their eighth place finish at the UIL Band State Competition.
Soon after, senior setter Kylie Pickrell, was recognized as one of the top 30 volleyball players in the nation. She was recently named as a 2nd team All-American and will attend Arizona State University on a volleyball scholarship. Pickrell is a four-year varsity member and a two time, back to back Class 5A state volleyball champion.
Lastly for the awards, head STEM teacher, Mike Yakubovsky, was present on behalf of his team. For four months, the program of select students filled out the lengthy application. The $10,000 Lemelson MIT InvenTeam grant was used to build a module, which would help gauge how the special education students would learn, and only 15 people were awarded such an accolade. In the summer, they will return to Boston and present their project to MIT.
On the more business side of things, Director or Marketing and Business Lindsay Ayers delivered a report on how the Partners in Excellence program is doing. Fairly new to the job, for four and a half months, Ayers has been working diligently to create partners with local businesses for the district.
One of her largest goals is to attract more sponsors and partners through the video board during sporting events at Buddy Echols field specifically the Friday night home football games. Her accomplishments included signing contracts with Elite Care, Clay Cooley and FSSV. The new contracts range from one to five years. In total, it has brought in $40,000 revenue for the district.
With the money, she has been able to bring in speakers for the Excel and iExplore classes. As for the STEM academy, she has a virtual mentor, an Atmos energy engineer, that Skypes the academy classes. Ayers efforts have also given washer and dryers to the PSA academy and professional clothing for the Victory Place students.
Amongst her many goals, she has started up a website for businesses to contact the district and learn more about the Partners in Excellence. In the near future, her hope is to use connections from the school such as local business parents are involved in. Once the program is off the ground, she hopes to expand outside of Coppell.
