By KREIG KOHL
Special to the PRESS
On March 22 the Point Isabel Independent School District held their scheduled regular school board meeting. The meeting began with public comments where a culinary arts instructor for the district, Celia Galindo, spoke about the trip she and her students took to San Antonio this past weekend.
The trip began Friday March 18, which she described as their fun day. The group spent this day at SeaWorld. The day after this the group visited the San Antonio Culinary Institute. They were given a tour of all the facilities at the institute and were given the opportunity to speak with many judges at the competition being held, who happened to be primarily celebrity chefs from the food channel.
The groups of students had been given much freedom for this trip and cleaned and cooked for themselves every day they were there. The instructor felt confident in their abilities saying she had taught them everything they knew. The main problem the students faced in the competition was not knowing they needed a monologue explaining their Paella dish and where they themselves had come from.
Despite their outcome the students were determined that they were going to come back and win the competition next time. Each of the students were given a $10,000 scholarship to the Culinary Arts Institute if they choose to go to the school.
Following this was a presentation of the Point Isabel All State Band. Students that are selected for the Texas All State Band are chosen through an auditioning process that begins with over 70,000 students from across the state. Each student performs a selected piece for judges who rank them based on performance. Students who progress past this compete in regional area competitions and those that are selected from there are placed in a Texas All State Band Ensemble.
All State Band students practice for three days with recognized conductors and then perform before an audience at the end of the event. Six students from the Point Isabel Independent School District were able to join the Texas All State Band. Two of these students were ninth graders. Another Student was an eleventh grader who had made the All State Band for their second time this year. The three final students were all seniors, one of which marked this as their third time achieving All State Band. An ovation was given not only to the students who achieved this but also to their parents and band instructors.
Multiple board members spoke individually congratulating the students, instructors, and parents. A consistent theme was the expectation of great things for these students as well as recognition of the diligence the students showed in accomplishing this. Photos were then taken with the board and the students, which have been posted to the PIISD’s Facebook page, as well as presenting each student with a certificate for their accomplishment.
With the conclusion of this presentation the school board continued on to their usual agenda of approving budgetary items as well as going through routine education reports. These included going over the district’s college, career, and military readiness numbers evaluating how many students are prepared at graduation for the three fields.
With their business agenda it was shown that while renovations are continuing on multiple areas an obstacle was encountered at the bus barn which has prevented renovations from finishing in March as was predicted. A meter was needed for the sprinkler system water line from Laguna Madre Water. Laguna Madre ran into an issue getting the meter and had said it would be in by March, but new estimates say it will be July when the new meter arrives. The contractor on the renovations has said he will have the line placed in and they will leave a spot for the meter to be installed.
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