Klein Independent School District Awards

Klein Independent School District AwardsApril 2008 Awards and AchievementsMs. Kasey Mathew, a bilingual teacher at Benignus Elementary School, and Mr. PaulWorosello, the band director of Klein Forest High School, have been named state finalistsin the H-E-B Excellence in Education contest.The art works of two Klein Intermediate students, Thao-Uyen Vu and Nataly Alcantar, havebeen on display at the Houston City Hall as part of a Youth Art Month ShowAfter earning a $7,000 scholarship from the National Geographic Student ExpeditionProgram, Klein Collins senior Evan McGrew will participate in a study abroad program inEcuador and the Galapagos.The Klein Forest High School cosmetology skills team earned first place at the statecompetition. Members of the team included the following: Carolina Aguirre, ChandiHameed, Quyen Le Ngo, Tiffany Tran, Ingrid Mercado, and Hennessys Pozo. Additionally,Quyen Le Ngo gained second at state in nail designs.At the Texas Color Guard Circuit State Championships, the Klein Forest Winter Guardgained third place in state winning a bronze medal.In the Glassell Junior School of Art annual portfolio assessment, six KISD students earneda scholarship for the fall semester to attend classes for 16 weeks at this prestigious artschool. The winners of the scholarships are as follows: Bethany Gentempo (grade 10)of Klein Forest High School, Eva Streckfuss (grade 9), of Klein Oak High School, MaceyVillares (grade 10), Klein High School, Sarah Scalia (grade 9) Klein High School, IsabellaFoster (grade 6), Krimmel Intermediate School, and Anna-Sophia Lagos (grade 4), ofKrahn Elementary School.The Klein High School Academic Challenge team finished 2 second at state. Team membersare: James Santucci, Will Estes, Jared Skidmore, Chance Marshall, Vincent Cheung, andAlexandra Rush.In the Chronicle Editorial Cartoon Contest, two students from Kleb Intermediate Schoolhave been recognized. Ruth Obnamia whose teacher is Ms. Patricia Franklin was a winnerin the intermediate level of the contest. Logan Scott whose teacher is Mr. John Rodakgained an honorable mention recognition.

The Klein High School UIL spelling and vocabulary team won first place at state. The teammembers were Romero Santiago and Adam Chu.Ms. Stephanie Ward, a teacher at Klein Oak High School, has been named a member ofthe 14-person Houston Zoo Teachers’ Council.The Klein High School boys varsity soccer team captured second place in the statefinals.Klein ISD students have earned the opportunity to represent the district at the nationalcompetition of Health Occupations Students of America. Representing Klein High Schoolwill be Destiny Dike and Nicole Gallo. Rakin Choudary, Vina Nguyen, Kirk Dunlap, andMelissa Daignault will participate as representatives of Klein Collins. Lauren Thomas ofKlein Oak will participate, also.In the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards Klein students whose works advanced to nationalsare as follows: Thuy Nguyen of Klein Forest High School, Janie Cheng of Klein Forest, andAriel Davidson of Klein High School, Haley Sloterdijk of Krimmel Intermediate School,Rachel Wesson of Wunderlich Intermediate School, and Jordan Yost of Klein Collins HighSchool.The Klein High School UIL mathematics team placed first at state. Alex Ryan earned aperfect score; other team members Steven Worlow, Akash Shah and Diana Lee. TheCalculator Team also finshed 1st at state. William Li gained second place and ; AlexRyan captured third place. Other team members Steven Worlow and Diane Lee. The UILNumber Sense Team also brought home a first place trophy. Steven Worlow gained firstplace and other team members were Akash Shah, William Li, and Pulak Mittal.Ms. Melissa Buron, the librarian of Epps Island Elementary School, has recently earned twogrants for her school. One was a $1,600 grant from the North Harris Branch of AmericanAssociation of University Women. The second grant was for $2,400 given by First ChoicePower.“Lord, You Satisfy My Soul” by Arthur Smith, P.E., the Klein ISD facility engineer, will bepublished in the Best Poems of 2007.Members of the Klein High School tennis team were successful at state. Ariel Mortonwon second place girls 5A singles; Micah Hermsdorf and Kelsie Lawson gained secondplace girls 5A doubles; Johnathan Alexander and Lauren Santacroce were the first placemixed doubles winners with a lifetime record of 56-0. Jonathan was named the Houstonarea male Tennis Scholar Athlete by the Houston Athletic Committee. Both Jonathan andLauren were named as the Tennis Athletes of the Year by the Chronicle.The Klein ISD is featured as one of six school districts profiled in “Learning in the 21stCentury”, published by Project Tomorrow and Blackboard. Klein Forest High School’ssuccess with the district’s initial pilot of online learning was referenced in the article. KleinForest students recovered 875 credit hours using online curriculum during scheduledperiods with close supervision by teachers at the school.

The Number Sense, Calculator, Mathematics and Science Teams of Klein High School won1st place Sweepstakes Honors at State Texas Mathematics and Science Coaches statecontest.Ms. Janice Taylor, an executive director of human resource services, has been named aClark Scholar for outstanding research in a doctoral program. As a result of her selection,she participated in the David L. Clark National Graduate Student Research Seminar inEducational Administration and Policy. She was one of 40 doctoral students selected forthis year’s seminar.Klein High School students who mad the Texas All-State Choir are Audra Matar, AllyMcGehee, Raul Dominguez and Rebekah Howell.In the from the National Geographic Student Expedition Program, Klein Collins senior EvanMcGrew will participate in a study abroad program in Ecuador and the Galapagos.This summer, seven Klein ISD students will represent the district at the national HealthOccupations Students of American contest. From Klein Oak, Lauren Thomas will advancein the healthcare issues examination event. Choudary Rakin who will be in the conceptsof health care event and Vina Nguyen who will be in the administrative medical assistantcontest will represent Klein Collins. Other Klein Collins students will be Kirk Dunlap andMelissa Daignault who will participate in the health care issues competition. Representativesfrom Klein High School will be Destiny Dike for home health aide and Nicole Gallo for theKaiser Permanente Health Care issues exam.The following Klein Speech and Debate students qualified for the National Forensic Leaguenational contest: Tyce Green, Jacob Buras, Cameron Harris, Rebecca Thomas and SeanMartin.Samantha Hall, a third grader, won 1st place for the third grade division of the HoustonPBS Reading Rainbow Young Writer’s and Illustrator’s Contest. Over 500 entries weresubmitted for grade levels K-3. This was Samantha’s third year to enter and win.KHS Girls Swim Team members participated in the state swim meet. Winning a first wasErica Dittmer (100 breaststroke) who also won a second (50 freestyle). KHS also claimedsecond at state for the Girls Medley Relay team (Morgan Smith, Chelsea Leary, CaseyClark and Erica Dittmer).From the State DECA competition, the following Klein High state winners advanced tonationals Edward Scott (Marketing Mgt.; Bethany Mackingtee (Quick Serve Restaurant);Andrea Kreuer and Jacob Trimm (Buying and Merchandising); Jordan Fischer and RyanCao (Internet Marketing) and Logan Koontz and Holly Burgess (Entrepreneurship)At the state BPA contest, Klein High won the following: third place-Skyler Wang(Entrepreneurship); second place -Ibi Tayyab (Administrative Support); first place -ZahraUsmani (Interview Skills).TICP/SKills USA state winners from Klein High School are as follows: 2nd place -Parliamentary

Procedure Team (Cory Germon, Josh Zamora, Michelle Bissey, Ashley Mohajer, MichaelDickinson and Cathia Castany); 2nd place - Customer Service (Andrew Shurtleff ); 1stplace - Projects (Brenda Legarda, Ashley Mohajer, Garrett Rogers, Blake Carter and LindsayWood); 2nd place - Projects (Daniela Lahoud and Dalia Sanders)Klein High Winterguard earned 2nd place at the Texas State Color Guard Championshipsand is now ranked 4th in World Rankings for 2008.