Gary Independent School District

Next week is our book fair at the Elementary Library! The book fair will be open Mon-Thurs, 7:30-4, with Tuesday staying open until 6pm. To celebrate, we will be having Dr. Seuss Dress-Up days in the Elementary, and Parent Appreciation days in the morning during breakfast in the cafeteria. Check out the flyer for more details!

We have a lot to celebrate, so this is going to be a long post! Monse Chavez is an 8th grade student and member of both Gary 4-H & Gary FFA who has traveled the United States showing her market and breeding goats with great success this school year. As the show season wraps up here in Texas, she starts to prepare for summer, fall and next spring with the purchase of new goats. Monse also raises show goats locally that she sells to students that are having great success! Monse’s Successes 2024/2025: 💙East Texas State Fair- Intermediate Showmanship Champion, 1st & 4th in class 💛State Fair of Texas- 5th place 💙Heart of Texas- Reserve Champion Wether Doe, 💛Division Champion Wether Doe 💙NAILE- 3rd in Showmanship, 7th place in class 💛Arizona Nationals- 11th in class 💙Fort Worth- 3rd Overall Junior Showmanship, 8th in class 💛Panola County- Reserve Overall Market Doe, raised the Champion Overall Market GOAT, Champion Senior Showmanship 💙Houston- 8th place in class The “classes” at these shows are not small and only the “best” from around the country and state attend these events! Being in the top 20 on any given day is outstanding! Congrats Monse! Connally and Colston Cranford have spent the last year prepping for this years show season. This is not an easy or simple task! Raising lambs locally in Gary along with finding competitive lambs to show at county and every major livestock show in Texas is a family affair for the Cranford's. We would like to congratulate the entire family on their success both in and outside of the show ring! They have taken several families under their wings and assist Gary 4-H and FFA with all lamb projects! Connally even taught Ms. Shadix how to show a lamb! This years placings for the Cranfords: 🐑Houston -15th place FWX- MAKING THE SALE! 🐑Panola County - Grand Champion market lamb & 2nd place 🐑Fort Worth- 9th, 12th and 22nd place 🐑Heart Of Texas - 7th place FWX 12th place MW 🐑East Texas State Fair- 3rd & 4th place FWX They have both been showmanship champions, division and breed champions at many shows. Last, but never least this past week three Gary FFA students exhibited their Market Broilers at the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo against over 600 other showmen from across the state. Hannah Yarborough placed 35th and Brannan Stevens placed 64th, both of these placings qualified them for the live auction where they received $2400 and $2300, respectively. Brodey Seals did not place in the top 100, but exhibiting at the HLSR helps qualify him for a future $20,000 exhibitor scholarship! We even have students at the Houston today to compete with their Market Barrows, and hope to give updates about their performance soon! Congrats to all of these students and their families on their successes!

Congratulations to our GHS Production on their win today at district contest! They are now district champs and on to the next round next Saturday! Madison Smith earned honor tech as our stage manager. Tailor Willis and Molly Powell earned honorable mention all-star cast. Daxton Evans and Kobi Roehl earned all-star cast. Our senior performer, Jesse Goodman, earned top performer!

Coach Reed will be hosting basketball skills training for Elementary girls grades 1st-6th on Sunday on the Elementary gym! 1st-4th will be from 3PM-4PM and 5th-6th from 4PM-5PM.

Today’s Baseball game at West Rusk has been canceled and will be rescheduled at a later date!

We know you all have been waiting! Introducing our 2025-2026 Cheerleaders! We are proud of all students who participated in the tryouts this year!

Next week, Mr. Davis will be hosting a Freshman Orientation meeting for all 8th graders and their families! It will be on on Tuesday, March 18th at 5PM in the GISD Cafeteria. Students and parents will learn more about graduation plans, high school expectations, dual credit, as well as choosing their classes for their 9th grade year!

The results are in for this week in our eSports matches! Congratulations to all the teams that won!

We wish all of our students trying out for cheer the best of luck at today's tryouts! Parents, if you plan on coming, we ask that you do not park on the curb in front of the high school to help us with afternoon student pickup! Parents and families can start dropping off goodies for their student starting at 1PM in the HS Commons!

Yearbook orders have begun! The 2024-2025 yearbook, Beneath The Surface, is available for pre-order. Forms are going home today, but you can also purchase it online! Check out the flyer for more details.

This Saturday, Gary Production competes at the district level at Panola. The plays start at 11am and run back to back with Gary going 4th (around 1:45 or so). The OAP event will be held at the Q. M. Martin Auditorium. It means a lot to these young artists when you come to support them!

With cheer tryouts happening this Friday, we know many families and friends would like to drop off goodies for their students trying out! We will gladly hold them and deliver them to students, but we ask that you please do not begin dropping them off until Friday at 1PM!

This Wednesday, Lifetouch will be here to take our Spring Sports photos! If you are interested in purchasing these, check out the flyer!

The 2025 Panola County Junior Livestock & Ag Mechanics Show results are in!! Gary FFA & 4-H had exhibitors in every category at the show and all students represented Gary well! Some of these projects are two year commitments and require special feeding and management strategies, students are excelling in learning these strategies and are competitive at levels beyond our county because of it! We would like to congratulate all of our students and thank the sponsors and buyers of their projects! Students raise and create these projects as an investment, the funds raised are used for future projects, vehicle purchases, college plans and much more! These projects aren’t “just” an investment for students futures, but a way for students to learn about the agricultural industry through hands-on experiences that will help them become future leaders! There were over 400 entries in the show this year ranging from 3rd-12th grades from three FFA Chapters and six 4-H clubs from across the county. Project Fair Results: https://panola.agrilife.org/files/2025/03/2025-PF-Placings.pdf?fbclid=IwY2xjawI78dZleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHavM6GA8YdEhlJCLzZJrDynp3xl6hapEAkUIz-FHh64o_lcuv-DUbj19GA_aem_omnKDis5HgLqIeuj-g9FCQ Livestock Show Results: Champion Pen of Heifers: Caden Young Champion Senior Pen of Heifer Showmanship: Caden Young Champion Junior Pen of Heifer Showmanship: Reese Brady Champion Senior Pen of Heifer Recordbook: Paisley Islas Champion Market Steer: Jaycee Whitby Champion Lamb: Connally Cranford Champion Junior Lamb Showmanship: Kaydence Baisden Reserve Champion Goat: Monse Chavez Champion Senior Goat Showman: Monse Chavez Champion Junior Goat Showman: Preslea Rabon Champion Broilers: Hannah Yarborough Reserve Champion Broilers: Brannan Stevens Champion Exotic Heifer: Cash Stutes

Basketball season may be over, but we still want to celebrate our athletes! Here are our Academic All-District Selections for Gary: MVP - Mason Powell 1st Team - Cooper Johnson, Ben Stephens, Kohl Woodfin Honorable Mention - Evan Chamness, Hudson Ogg, Jayden Winters Academic All-District - Sam Colley, Brett Flowers, Mason Powell, Ben Stephens, Kohl Woodfin, Cooper Johnson, Evan Chamness, Hudson Ogg, Koby Bell, Jonas Prewitt, Shaun Ritter Team: District Champions and Regional Semifinalists We are so proud of all the work our students do both on and off the court!

Tomorrow starts our tryout clinic for students interested in trying out for our JH and HS Cheerleaders! The clinics will be held March 10th-12th from 4-6PM in the HS Gym, with the mock tryouts Thursday, March 13th at 4PM with the tryouts on Friday, March 14th at 4:30PM. Just a reminder that there is a mandatory parent meeting on Monday, March 10th at 5PM in the HS Commons Area that will give parents all the information needed about the program!

Just a reminder for our JH Students; there is a track meet on Monday March 10th in Beckville! Students will be leaving class at 11:30AM to eat lunch and meet in the Athletic hallway at 12PM. The field events start at 2PM, the 2400 meter race at 2:30PM, and the other scheduled events will be at 4:45PM! If you have any questions, contact Coach Reed.

Today’s Baseball game at 6pm has been rescheduled for tomorrow night at 6pm!

Students in Ms. Shadix’ Principles of Agriculture and Pre-Agriculture classes have been learning about chickens! In today’s economy with the price of eggs at the grocery store soaring, knowing the process of raising your own back yard flock is a valuable lesson! Students were able to learn about different breeds of chickens, why some eggs are a variety of colors, egg fertilization, incubation times and processes and more! They set 26 eggs in their classroom incubator and 23 hatched! 🐣 The three that didn’t hatch were used as a teaching moment to hypothesize why they didn’t make it out of the shells, which is a natural occurrence. Some cool things that were learned throughout the unit: 🐣The “white” of the egg will be the chick, the yolk is absorbed into the chicks belly before hatching and serves as their food, water and energy as they hatch themselves out of the egg 🐣It takes chickens 6-8 months to lay their first eggs and they lay consistently for roughly 2.5 years. 🐣It takes 21 days for a chick to hatch, once incubation begins. Incubators are set to 99.5 degrees for that time. 🐣Candling eggs is putting a light up to the “fat end” of the shell to check for development inside the egg. 🐣You should be able to see veins at day 7 when you candle if the egg is fertile and they have been at a constant 99.5 degrees. From days 1-18 eggs should be “turned”, on day 18 you “lockdown” the eggs- which means you take the egg turners out of the incubator, add water to raise the humidity and lay the eggs kn their sides so the chicks can prepare to hatch. 🐣 Do NOT open the incubator from day 18-21, you take the chance of lowering the temperature and humidity and harming eggs that haven’t hatched. 🐣Just because the egg laid, does NOT mean the chicken will “set” on it and hatch it. Most chickens don’t want to hatch their eggs and simply lay them and leave them. There is NO CHICK until the egg is heated to 99.5 for an extended amount of time. 🐣There is no visible difference in a fertilized egg and a non-fertilized egg when it is laid. Students had a fun time learning about the steps and processes and now get to hang out with their chicks in class until winter break!

First eSports gameday results of the season!