Gary Independent School District

High school students all gathered outside today to safely view the solar eclipse! Keep watch over this post as more pictures are gathered!

Elementary students from Pre-K all the way to 6th participated in safely viewing the spectacular solar eclipse! Even our maintenance staff joined in on the fun! Be sure to keep watch over this post as new photos are added!

We are a little late, but we want to say a huge thank you to our maintenance men, John Smith, JD Strawn, and Steve Molitor for all that they do!

A huge shout out to our paraprofessionals. Thank you all so much for going above and beyond each and every day.

We appreciate our librarian so much. Thank you, Tricia Cranford, for being an important part of Gary Elementary!

Oh we are so excited, Pre-K Roundup is almost here! Reserve your spot now for our roundup party on Friday, April 12th from 10am-2pm!

All four of Mrs. Ava's RLA classes did a March Madness bracket for their IXLs! They received points for each skill completed on their STAAR skill plan, and they were tallied up on Fridays. They all worked super hard but 5A came out on top by ONE point at the very last minute and won a pizza and movie party!

Congratulations to all of our February Students of the Month at Gary Elementary! Keep being great leaders!

Shout out to local businesses, we still are looking for companies in need of help this summer! Hoping to have the fair in mid-May if we can get enough businesses! Contact the high school today!

Yesterday, our Journalism team competed at the UIL District competition at SFASU and did very well! McKenzie Coleman earned 2nd in News Writing and will advance to Regionals Abigail Monroe earned 2nd in Copy Editing and will advance to Regionals, as well as placing 6th in News Writing Jessica Walter earned 2nd in Feature Writing and will advance to Regionals Madison Smith earned 5th in Editorial Writing

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!