A caring young voice provides perspective with Italy ISD undergoing many changes.

The junior class of Italy High School sponsored the 2014 Italy Junior High Valentines Dance as a prom fundraiser on Saturday inside George E. Scott Coliseum.

The IHS Junior class will sponsor a Valentines Dance for 6th, 7th and 8th grade Italy ISD students. The dance will be held at the old IHS gym on Saturday, February 15th from 7:00pm to 10:00pm. There will be a DJ and concessions.

Lots of fun and lots of awards to be had at Stafford Elementary’s first semester award assembly. Of course, as usual, the cafeteria was filled with proud grandparents, parents, friends and family. Everyone was there to see their loved one come up on stage and receive their award. There were very many names called and very many awards given.

Italy ISD has provided copies of the 2012 – 2013 School Report Cards (SRC) for Stafford Elementary School and Italy Junior High and High School. The SRC is a subset of the 2012 – 2013 Texas Academic Performance Report (TAPR) which contains more details and sources of data for the information in the SRC.

Perri Patterson (1st grade teacher) came up with a great idea to help students spend some quality time with their families. She called her idea the Snow People Family Project and it was only for first graders.

There were many medal winners from Stafford Elementary in the recent UIL competition. The competition was tough but Stafford’s students stood their ground and won the prize.

Thursday morning at 7:00 AM Stafford Elementary opened up the doors of the school to invite parents, students and teachers to come and enjoy some camaraderie and donuts.

Stafford PTO had their annual Christmas Store fundraiser last week. It was a wonderful way to raise money for the students and teach them about giving at the same time. Christmas time is all about giving and Stafford Elementary is all about teaching their students about giving.

You have heard of Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly, well Stafford Elementary decked their halls with tables of food! As you went down several of the halls you saw lots of tables with green beans, chicken nuggets, fresh carrots, turkey, sweet potatoes, macaroni and cheese and so much more and we haven’t even mentioned all the tables overflowing with desserts.

Sue Mendoza teaches special education at Stafford Elementary. Loving to write herself, Mendoza loves to have her students get excited about writing and what could be better than to have your own book published? So, she decided to make it a school project having the students write and illustrate their own books and get them published through Student Treasures Books.

The Italy Independent School District honored United States Veterans Monday morning with a community wide program. Students from elementary school through high school were involved in honoring the men and women who have served their country.

Stafford Elementary has released their first six-weeks’ honor rolls.

As part of their Halloween celebration, the Stafford Elementary students participated in Trunk-or-Treat which was held on the school’s parking lot behind the gymnasium.

What fun the students of Stafford Elementary had last week celebrating Red Ribbon Week! Each day of the school week students were seen walking down the halls dressed in all red, as nerds, in camoflauge, in 1940’s, 1950’s and 1960’s garb and last but not least black and gold from head to toe!

The Stafford Elementary PTO is once again planning a Trunk-or-Treat celebration for the students at Stafford Elementary and once again they need your help. If you can help out by supplying a trunk and treats OR a trunk OR treats please fill out the form below.

Every morning, Principal Nash has selected students help him with the announcements to start out everyone’s day on a high note. Up beat music is playing softly in the background as the announcements are made to make students aware of the agenda for the day.

Monday, October 21st thru Friday, October 25th, Stafford Elementary will be celebrating Red Ribbon Week with theme dress days and activities that will reinforce good choices regarding drugs.

The Stafford PTO will be selling spirit ribbons for this weeks game against the Crossroads Bobcats. Ribbons will be sold for $.75. We will be selling ribbons at both the high school campus and at Stafford during Thursday and Friday lunches. For more info please contact Tessa South at 469.285.9854. Go Gladiators!

Last week was fire safety week at Stafford Elementary. Students were being taught fire safety tips in their classrooms and practicing fire drills. But nothing is as fun as having the Italy volunteer firemen come in their big red fire engine and teach students how to be safe in the event of a fire.

Not only does Jonathan Nash (Stafford Elementary principal) have a passion for kids, but he also has a passion for theater. He has performed in more than 20 productions. And now he is playing the part of King Maximillian Godfrey Ladislaus Leopold Sidney Frederick John in the Waxahachie Community Theatre’s production of Cinderella.

Last week Stafford Elementary held their Student Council elections. This is the second year that Stafford Elementary has had a student council. Everyone was very happy to vote and have their voices heard.

Italy ISD nurse, DeeDee Hamilton, has coordinated a flu shot clinic to be held at both Italy ISD campuses on Monday, October 14th. The community is welcome, however; you must contact Mrs. Hamilton via phone or email by Thursday, October 10th to make sure that enough vaccine is made available. Please call 972/483-6342 or email [email protected].

Friday morning the Italy Lions Club had a large vision bus parked at Stafford Elementary ready to supply students with glasses. This bus has an eye doctor, vision equipment, glasses and helpful Italy Lions Club members ready to make sure every student that needs glasses receives glasses. It is like an eye doctors office on wheels. Italy Lions Club has been doing this for five years now.

When I pulled up to Stafford Elementary Thursday, I was very surprised to see a very large, shiny black limousine pulling up in front of the school! Shortly after the limo pulled up I saw many smiling students walking towards the limousine and the chauffeur helping them in. What was going on you might ask?

Italy ISD offers services to gifted and talented students in a variety of formats. If your student is not currently identified as gifted and talented, and you believe that your child shows these tendencies, then you may nominate him/her for the screening process which is divided into three elements: standardized test of mental ability, teacher judgment based on observation and characteristics, and standardized achievement test scores (if available).

Stafford Elementary Library will host its annual Scholastic Book Fair the week of September 16-20. The fair will be open Monday-Thursday from 8:30 a.m. until 3 p.m. and on Friday from 8:30-10 a.m. in the library.

Holly Spraberry has taught at Stafford Elementary for 13 years. She taught kindergarten for ten years and for the last two years she taught pre-K. She is so excited about teaching 5th and 6th grade Social Studies this year. There was a need for a teacher and she filled the bill.

After working at the Italy high school for twenty some years in various positions, Kim Varner now works at Stafford Elementary as the secretary to the principal. She misses her “kids” at the high school but is excited about taking on this new challenge at the elementary.

Grandparents, grandparents, everywhere! Grandparents in Italy really take Grandparents Day to heart. Stafford Elementary was overflowing with smiling grandparents and excited students sharing lunch on this special day.

Jennifer Aguado has been teaching at Stafford Elementary for eleven years. She taught pre-K for nine years, kindergarten for one year and last year she taught fourth grade. She loved the experience of teaching fourth graders but her heart is with the little ones.

On Monday, September 9th at 6:30 pm in the Stafford Cafeteria the Stafford PTO will be holding their first meeting for the 2013-2014 school year. We hope to get a lot of things accomplished this year, the main goal is to get more parents involved with the PTO. We have so many activities planned this year for the kids, with more parents involved all these things will surely be a success.

Grandparents Day will be celebrated at Stafford Elementary on Friday, September 6. A menu of BBQ rib patty or ground beef and macaroni, garden salad, broccoli, pineapple tidbits and a wheat roll will be served. Adult lunches are $3.25 and reservations must be made by Thursday, September 5.

The long summer is over, the new school year is starting and as always was kicked off with students meeting their teachers. The ‘house,’ so to speak, was packed with excited students, parents and teachers Friday night for Meet the Teacher Night at Stafford Elementary.

Christie is no stranger to Italy ISD. She has taught Pre-K through 6th grade Physical Education at Stafford and coached girls athletics at Italy High School. All in all she has taught eight years for Stafford Elementary and now is coming back to teach 2nd grade.

Angela Chambers is the new CBI teacher for Stafford Elementary. She has been teaching for eight years and loves her job.

Maggie Westrick is Stafford Elementary’s new fifth and sixth grade science teacher. She hopes to bring her love of science to her students, get them excited about science and have fun with it as they learn.

Coming from a family of teachers, it is no wonder that Brandon Ganske decided to become a teacher too. His dad retired after 33 years of teaching physical education, his brother has also been teaching physical education for several years. So following in their footsteps, Brandon went straight from college right into the world of teaching as a physical education teacher and has joined the team of teachers at Stafford Elementary teaching physical education.

Azlin Itson, 5, is a kindergardener attending Stafford Elementary in Italy and is adding her celebrity as a beauty queen to help collect donated school supplies for her fellow schoolmates.

Melinda Haake will be bringing her teaching skills to the third grade classroom at Stafford Elementary this year and boy is she excited. She will be teaching math and science this year along with all the other subjects and can’t wait to get started.

Stafford Elementary and Italy High School has always had dedicated teachers. We have known that for a long time, so anything they do should not amaze me. But never the less they never cease to amaze me.

As a convenience to Stafford Elementary students and their families, Stafford Elementary Principal, Jonathan Nash, has released the school supply list for the 2013-2014 school year.

Jonathan Nash loves being principal of Stafford Elementary. Now that he has had a little experience under his belt this year, he knows he made the right decision.

Sue Mendoza is ready to get started as Stafford Elementary’s new special education teacher. She has been teaching for eight years and is now ready to bring her expertise to Stafford students.