Gary Independent School District

Some of our students have been studying the life cycle of chickens, and yesterday after 21 days of patiently waiting they finally got some baby chicks!

Our Prose and Poetry UIL team performed well today at the UIL District Meet at SFASU! In Poetry, Kobi earned 2nd place and will advance to Regionals with Jesse Goodman earning 4th place, becoming an alternate for Regionals! In Prose, Dakota earned 1st place and will advance to Regionals with James Burgess earning 4th place, becoming an alternate for Regionals!

Gary FFA is trying new things this year! Floriculture is a Career Development CDE with many pieces and parts. Students must memorize over 180 florist plants and flowers and be able to identify them (sometimes by only a leaf!), tools and techniques as well as common pests and diseases associated with floral plants. They are required to take a written exam over 280 questions asked about floral designs, plants and information associated with the floral business process. There is a practicum piece that they have to use math equations to answer questions and figure problems. Then, they are given “classes” of floral plants and have to “place” them based on quality and “worth”. All of these pieces are totaled to give an over all score for their knowledge and skills. Team Members include: Katelyn Chambers McKenzie Coleman Makynze Adams Emma Holland These girls traveled to their last “practice” contest before Area on Thursday, 3/28 in Alvarado. On their way back, of course they had to find the bluebonnets, in floral design fashion!

Last Thursday, Ava Maloy and Tucker Grubbs competed in the 2024 district golf tournament. Ava won first place and placed 3rd overall in the Girls' division, and will advance to the regional tournament April 16th in Jacksonville!

Mrs. LaGrone's Elementary Art classes celebrated Easter with various arts and craft stations this week!

The 3rd graders celebrated finishing the book, The BFG by Roald Dahl. They made dream catchers, dream jars, drank Frobscottle and watched the movie!

Our Career Development Teams traveled to Stephen F. Austin State University to compete in their last contest in preparation for Area Competitions. Teams Include: 🌲FFA Forestry🌲 Della Kiper Abigail Johnson Abbie Cummings Caitlynn Ayers Braley Weems Emorie Comer Nicole Castillo Emma Newman Coach: Mr. Harvey 🌳4-H Forestry🌳 Bradley Cope Layla Rogers Connally Cranford Kalen McBride Logan McBride Ellie Young Bella Chapman Jake Stephenson Jackson Whitby Jaycee Whitby Case Rabon Coach: Ms. Shadix 🌸Floriculture🌸 Katelyn Chambers McKenzie Coleman Makynze Adams Emma Holland Coach: Ms. Shadix 🍃Nursery Landscape🍃 Kinsley Myron Hannah Yarborough Brannan Stevens Brodey Seals Coach: Ms. Shadix Invitational contests are much like “scrimmages” and give students real-contest experience before they compete against the 23 schools in our FFA District and the 110 schools in our FFA Area for a chance to advance to the state level!

Class of 2025 Juniors & Parents; Please click on the link below to reserve (not purchase) your cap and gown for next year; https://heygrad.net/ This will allow us to send information to you regarding senior items, caps and gowns, graduation rings, and letter jackets.

Career Development Events are contests where teams of 3-4 students compete against hundreds of others students in a specific area of “focus.” On Monday, 3/25 the Gary FFA Horse Judging Team traveled to the Area 6 Horse CDE Contest in Tyler to compete against over 100 schools from the Area 6 Association. To advance to the state contest, the team placing had to be in the top 8 of those possible 100+ schools. This CDE contest allows members to observe and evaluate in order to rank horses based on breed characteristics and conformation. Performance classes are evaluated within various equestrian styles. American Quarter Horse standards are used in performance classes. Three or four member teams with the top three scores counting toward team score. Team Members include: McCade Reaves Abbie Cummings Emorie Comer Braley Weems Advisor: Jessica Shadix Out of 164 individuals: Braley Weems placed 12th overall! Emorie Comer placed 22nd overall! Although we did not advance to state, scores for the team were OUTSTANDING and qualifying for state is in their future!

Today's Varsity baseball game also happens to fall on Taco Tuesday! Come cheer on our boys at 6PM and get some tacos from the concession stand!

April 3rd is the final Blood Drive of the year! Check out the flyer or go to https://donor.lifeshare.org/donor/schedules/drive_schedule/256048 to schedule your donation!

or some, showing livestock is a year round sport! Heifer projects can be shown for 2 years! Our Gary FFA President Caitlynn Ayers exhibits her Registered Limousin Heifers across the country and throughout the year! These heifers are special because they are either bred and raised here in Gary, Texas at Red Rock Limousin Ranch owned by Lee & Julie Osborn or they are future breeding pieces for their herd! Caitlynn’s list of shows includes, but is not limited to: East Texas State Fair, State Fair of Texas, Cattleman’s Congress, Fort Worth, San Antonio, Houston and Austin! She has brought home SEVERAL class wins as well as Division titles over the last year! We are extremely proud of Her hard work and dedication to showing livestock and want to thank Red Rock Limousin for their support of Gary FFA!

Parents, just a reminder that we still have some bunny grams and bunny photo slots left! The due date for both is fast approaching, stop by the Elementary front office if you need a form!

Here is the schedule of events for tomorrow's JH District Track Meet at Shelbyville! Events start at 2PM if you want to cheer on our athletes!

Due to the weather, today's Varsity Baseball home game against Martinsville has been rescheduled for tomorrow at 2PM!

Last night's 'Night with my Knight' event was wonderful! Thank you to everyone that came, and huge thank you to our hosts for setting this event up!

Mrs. LaGrone's Art classes celebrated Rainbow Week this week with some beautiful and fun projects!

Tonight’s Night with my Knight event begins shortly, with doors opening at 5pm! Parents, please park in the back by the cafeteria!

Bearkat Relays in Cushing, TX holds a Big Man Relay every year. This year, our Gary participants included Abigail Johnson, Hudson Ogg, Emma Newman, and Evan Chamness. Collectively, they ran the 400 m dash in 56. 65 seconds. Congratulations, guys!

With cheerleading tryouts complete, we are proud to introduce our 2024-2025 Junior High and High School cheerleaders; JH Kambri Benitez Gracie Hicks Aleigha Turner Madison Jones Alyssa Grubbs Gracey Copeland Dorothy Dickson Abby Collins Emeree Wright HS Caitlynn Ayers Makynze Adams McKenzie Coleman Madison Smith Kinsley Myron June LaGrone Sophie Hughes Aleigha Finley Colee Soape Bella Chapman Jillian Winters Congratulations cheerleaders! We are proud of your hard work and desire to represent our school!