THE PIRATE TREASURE
DECEMBER 9, 2021
HIGH SCHOOL
CHRISTMAS HAS ARRIVED AT PINE TREE HIGH SCHOOL
Ho, Ho, Ho! Christmas has arrived at Pine Tree High School, and it will be a much needed break for the administration, faculty, staff and students.
Before that can happen; however, there is a plethora of activities that need to unfold. Choir held its annual Christmas concert Tuesday night at Trinity Episcopal Church. Precision will perform Christmas Show Friday night at 7:30 p.m. in the Pine Tree Little Theatre. The Pine Tree High School Band will present its annual Winter Concert, December 13 at 6:30 p.m. at the Pine Tree Road Auditorium.
On December 2, Cheer, Band, Color Guard and Precision marched in the Longview Christmas Parade. The choir also participated in competition and had several people advance to state, while the Pine Tree E-Sports team competed and won initial matches to advance toward another state championship.
Cheer. drumline and the BUCS helped open the Pirate Outfitters at the East Texas Professional Credit Union. STAAR retakes are this week for students needing these exams to continue on their graduation path. English, Social Studies and Science are the exams that will be taken.
A BUC THE BULLIES rally will be held next week before school around the flagpole in front of the cafeteria. Program founder Luke Oxsheer will be speaking for a few minutes, and students will be asked to pledge support for the program the remainder of the year.
A host of holiday activities will unfold before school gets out next week, and faculty and students are looking forward to enjoying a little Christmas before heading into break.
Sportswise, basketball is in full swing and soccer has begun scrimmages in preparation for its season. Powerlifting is also working out and getting ready for a heavy spring schedule. Other sports such as tennis, golf, baseball and softball are also working out and staying ready for their seasons which begin around February 1.
There is never a shortage of activity at Pine Tree. One Act Play is getting ready to start while choir and band competitions are also under way as is UIL Academics. Students will remain on the run through the end of school, and Pine Tree is one of the top schools in East Texas when it comes to these events.
Have a Merry Christmas from Pine Tree High School and be sure to follow what is going on so patrons can support Pine Tree students as they unveil different programs and events during the school year.
JUNIOR HIGH
PTJH is finishing the semester strong, and our Pirates are working hard to continue accomplishing great things. Christmas break is close, and you can tell that everyone is excited!
We are in the middle of a busy performance season, with the Pirate Pride Band and Choir putting on impressive shows this week. Our UIL One Act Play Cast and Crew capped their season by offering a community performance of The Spirit of the Sea. They represented PTJH well at the district competition, capturing three individual medals: Zori Clark - Outstanding Crew, Kaleb Kelley - Honorable Mention All Star Cast, and Autumn Hunter - All Star Cast.
The PTJH Library hosted literary and technology focused events last week. Librarian Francetta McGowan transformed the library into a fine dining establishment for our recent Book Tasting. Students, staff, and even District Administrators had the opportunity to sample new books, reflect on their preferences, and choose genres, series, authors, and titles that piqued their interest.
PTJH and PTMS Robotics students then convened in the library to match programming and construction skills with their robots facing off in the arena.
Basketball season is in full swing! Our 7th grade Pirates and Lady Pirates are honing their skills in intramural competition while the 8th graders have worked hard to earn several wins. The boys and girls teams played well in recent tournaments in Marshall and Chapel Hill, and are set up well for district competition ahead. #PTJHRocks
One Act Play
PTJH Pirates of the Month Kayla Fornue, Jayden King, Hailey Gresham and Kingston Kraus
Robotics Competition
MIDDLE SCHOOL
Pine Tree Middle School hosted a wonderful Veterans Day parade and reception on November 11. Our campus veteran, Mrs. Vidaurri, helped the campus Student Council decorate and honor the soldiers among our campus. We had a small parade and refreshments. Students prepared speeches, and Judge Tim Bryan also spoke to honor our campus military friends.
Sixth grade PE classes with Coach Jones and Coach Barron did a campus community service project and cleaned up trash from around the campus. Students helped keep our campus clean with this project.
Middle School students rose above their reading goal for the month of November with a Whooo’s Reading Challenge of passing more than 500 quizzes. Our Pirates passed 1149 quizzes this month, doubling our goal! Mrs. Hick’s 6th period and 7th period classes passed the most quizzes and challenged each other to read more.
Many classes had more than 60 percent of students passing quizzes and a drawing was held for a Reading Celebration. Mrs. Hick’s 1st period won the drawing and will celebrate their reading skills this Friday.
Honoring Our Veterans
PTJH Serving Our Community
Whooo's Reading Challenge
PARKWAY ELEMENTARY
Jolly Roger Jam Band Touring Longview
Our amazing Jolly Roger Jam band is making its stops performing all over Longview. They started off by performing with the high school theater program on the production of The Addams Family. They did such an amazing job performing with the high school students. The next stop on their tour was a performance with the Birch Beatles at Breakfast with Santa. They used their ukuleles, their voices and had a jolly ole time performing for everyone. The tour doesn’t stop there.
On Friday, December 10, the Jolly Roger band will perform at Texas Bank and Trust on Gilmer Road, at the City of Longview Library and complete their performances at the downtown location of TB &T. The Jolly Roger Jam band is in full swing this season.
Stack Up
The week before Thanksgiving break our Parkway Pack participated in the annual Stack Up in their PE classes. The objective of the competition was to see how many people could cup stack in multiple locations in one day. This year we had three days to participate.
Our goal at Parkway was to have 720 people take part in cup stacking. We crushed our goal with 736 people that participated. There were more than 1,800 schools from 16 countries that participated. We joined together with other schools, people around the world with over a half a million stackers (509,544 stackers to be exact). Our students played Builders and Bulldozers, jumbo cup relays. They timed themselves on timing mats, team building the largest pyramid and a 3 stack relay.
December Pirates of the Month
1st Grade: Emilio Tapia (Clay)
2nd Grade: Leland Mires (White)
4th Grade Sebastian Gabe Maddox (Sike)
Jolly Roger Jam Band
December Pirates of
the Month
Stack Up Competition
BIRCH ELEMENTARY
Stuff-A-Turkey
The Stuff-a-turkey fundraiser hosted by our Birch First PTA was a HUGE success bringing in a total of $652.98! Congratulations to Birch 1st graders for raising the most money with a total of $254.66! Students received a Big Blue slide pass as their reward! As promised, Mr. Stuard dressed as a turkey and brought so much excitement during lunch as he waddled among the children spreading good cheer.
November Students and Pirates of the Month
Congratulations to our Students and Pirates of the Month for November.
These students have gone above and beyond and exude Pirate Pride each and every day. They are excellent role models for their peers! We are so proud of them all, keep up the good work Birch First Pirates!
What I Am Thankful For
A few words from our Birch First family: “What gift in your life are you most thankful for this year?”
Kathryn Darden, Third Grade Teacher: “The opportunity to join the Birch Elementary family has truly been a highlight of my family moving to Longview this past year. The relationships that I have formed with other faculty and staff along with the relationships built with my students have made me so thankful for our relocation to East Texas.”
Martin Amaya, Second Grader: “My mom is my biggest gift because she loves me and cleans the house. She helps me learn new things and learn a new language.”
Joshua Fierros, Third Grader: “The best gifts in my life are my teachers and my friends. My teachers always teach me and help me for my future with my education. My friends are always supportive of me.”
Shelby Fair, Fourth Grader: “The gifts I am thankful for are my home and family.”
Order your Birch First Yearbook today!
PACE
Honoring Veterans! The Pine Tree PACE Campus students observed Veterans Day by designing and creating original cards with hand-written notes to honor our veterans. The cards were delivered to a veteran serving agency in collaboration with the Delta Kappa Gamma: Kappa Mu Chapter Women Educator Society. Thank you, Mrs. Becky Alexander, for leading the art students in this project!
As the district prepared for fall break, PACE Program participants engaged in critical conversations and activities to embrace the concept of being thankful and showing gratitude.
Chief Meteorologist Marcus Bagwell of FOX 51 News Station - KETK TV visited PACE Campus PACE & ABU elementary students and staff on December 1st. What an absolutely awesome experience it was!
Mr. Bagwell informed and excited students and staff alike about all things weather! PTISD were absolutely delighted to celebrate the beginning of the Meteorological Winter!
Kudos to ABU Elementary Teacher Dana Taylor for listening to a student's passion and making it happen! Stormchasers in the making!
Honoring Our Veterans
Learning About Meteorological Weather
Critical Conversations in Gratitude
EXCEL
The ExCEL campus would like to celebrate their first graduate of the 2021-2022 school year, Jacqueline Marquez-Cerda.
Jacqueline finished her coursework for graduation on November 15th and has met all other requirements to graduate. She transferred from the main high school campus to ExCEL the second semester of her sophomore year. She came to ExCEL because she found it was easier for her to learn things online so ExCEL fit her perfectly.
She was also determined to graduate early so that she could start college sooner and start her career.
English teacher, Jennifer Wilbur, describes Jacqueline as "determined and self motivated." She commented that she is "quiet and focused on what she wants to accomplish." Lead teacher, Brittney Jones, agrees and describes Jacqueline as "kindhearted, peaceful and an overall sweet person."
When asked what she enjoyed most about ExCEL, Jacqueline referred to some of the friendships she made due to the small environment at ExCEL. She plans on attending Tyler Junior College and become a pharmacy tech. She says that a family friend had talked to her about becoming a pharmacy tech and it sounded very interesting to her. She has always wanted to do something that involved medicine.
With her level of determination, Jacqueline will no doubt be successful in whatever she pursues.
PARENT LIAISON - LESLY SUAREZ
Pine Tree ISD has been blessed to have amazing organizations, community members, and staff to help our families that are in need.
This past October, Ashley Atkins from Greggton United Methodist Church reached out to our school to let us know that their church was going to be helping any of our families that needed a Thanksgiving meal. Thanks to Greggton United Methodist Church, 30 families from Pine Tree were able to receive a Thanksgiving box this November!
Also, this October the school started raising funds to help families with Christmas presents this year. This year we had 213 students coming from 62 different families that needed assistance this year for the holidays. In order to be able to meet the needs of these families , Pine Tree raised funds and relied on individuals to adopt these families.
Through the funds that were raised from the t-shirt sales, all the campuses were able to shop for 5-7 families each. In total, 157 students were able to have presents purchased from those proceeds.
The remaining 28 families were able to receive help through family adoption by PTISD staff, community members and PTHS student organizations.
Special thanks to Mrs. Angel Cubine's Health Science classes, every present that was bought by the campuses were able to be beautifully wrapped for parents that will be picking up gifts on Friday, December 10th.
Without the support that was received, Christmas would've been impossible this year for 213 students. Many thanks to everyone that was involved with helping make this possible!
Pine Tree ISD ha tenido la bendición de tener organizaciones, miembros de la comunidad y personal increíbles para ayudar a nuestras familias que lo necesitan.
En octubre pasado, Ashley Atkins de la Iglesia Metodista Unida de Greggton se acercó a nuestra escuela para informarnos que su iglesia ayudaría a cualquiera de nuestras familias que necesitaran una comida de Acción de Gracias. Gracias a la Iglesia Metodista Unida de Greggton, ¡30 familias de Pine Tree pudieron recibir una caja de Acción de Gracias este noviembre!
Además, este octubre la escuela comenzó a recaudar fondos para ayudar a las familias con los regalos de Navidad de este año. Este año tuvimos 213 estudiantes provenientes de 62 familias diferentes que necesitaban ayuda este año para las vacaciones. Para poder satisfacer las necesidades de estas familias este año, Pine Tree tuvo que recaudar fondos y depender de la gente para adoptar a algunas de estas familias.
A través de los fondos que se recaudaron con la venta de camisetas, todos los campus pudieron comprar para 5-7 familias cada uno. En total, 157 estudiantes pudieron comprar regalos con esos ingresos.
Las 28 familias restantes pudieron recibir ayuda al ponerlas a disposición para adopción. ¡Todas estas familias fueron rápidamente adoptadas por nuestro personal, otras personas de nuestra comunidad e incluso por organizaciones estudiantiles en la escuela secundaria! Además, gracias a las clases de la Sra. Cubine, todos y cada uno de los regalos de Navidad que fueron comprados por los campus se pudieron envolver bellamente para los padres que recogerán los regalos este viernes 10 de diciembre.
Sin todo el apoyo recibido, la Navidad hubiera sido imposible este año para 213 estudiantes. ¡Muchas gracias a todos los que participaron en ayudar a hacer esto posible!
PINE TREE ISD
Email: info@ptisd.org
Website: www.ptisd.org
Location: 1701 Pine Tree Road, Longview, TX, USA
Phone: 903-295-5000
Facebook: facebook.com/PTISD
Twitter: @PTISD