001Mhm. >> And welcome to the Wylie 2026 School Board Recognition Night. My name is Rick Herring, Chief Communications Officer for Argyle ISD, and thank you to everyone for attending tonight. We are very excited to honor so many talented Eagles we have in the room tonight from students, teachers, coaches, and staff. I would now like to introduce school board president Sam Slayton to officially open tonight's meeting. All right. Good evening. Thank you all for being here. This is technically an official school board meeting, so we've got to follow some little parliamentary house laws here going on. So, anyway, we'll go ahead and get this started. So, it is March 4th, 2026. The time is 6:32 p.m. and this is a special meeting of the Argyle ISD Board of Trustees. At this time, we will determine if
002a quorum is present. And I, Sam Slayton, present. We do have a quorum established. Uh now, if you'll please join me in the pledges. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to the Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible. All right. Thank you. And if you'll please uh join me in prayer to open this meeting. Dear Father God, thank you for the opportunity to be here tonight and celebrate all of our students, their accomplishments. Lord, I just want to thank you for their participation of the families, the parents. Um and thank you for our staff and faculty that pour into these kids every
003day selflessly. Lord, I pray you continue to watch over us, be with us, and guide us, uh and guide this district, guide our decisions, and it's in your son's holy name we pray. Amen. Thank you, Mr. Slayton. And as a reminder, we are live streaming the event. And again, thank you to Mr. Royer from our technology department and Mr. Ince for assisting us with that. The live stream is available on the Argyle ISD YouTube channel and will be archived following tonight's meeting. Also, for a copy of tonight's agenda and the groups we are recognizing and the order, please take a moment, if you haven't already, to scan the QR code that's on the screen. It will also be available on each slide during the presentation. Okay, so for everyone participating, here's how tonight will work.
004A representative from each group, school, or team will come to the podium and say a few brief comments about the recognized individual, and then each individual group, or team will come to the stage, receive an Argyle ISD medal, and then take a photo with the Board of Trustees and Dr. Carpenter. These photos will be available on social media, and all family members that are here in attendance tonight are welcome to take photos while students are on stage at any time. Again, thank you being part of this great event and celebration tonight of so many talented students we have tonight with our UIL elementary students. And now, I am pleased to welcome and introduce Argyle ISD Superintendent Dr. Courtney Carpenter. You good? Good evening, everyone. So glad to have all of you here. It's wonderful. Always
005love celebrating our UIL academic elementary students big night. Lots of smiles over there, so we're going to get you guys through here and celebrate you. And then also, we have some other academic and athletic and fine arts awards to celebrate tonight. So, welcome everyone. Uh we're excited to be here this evening collectively to celebrate 125 students, teachers, and coaches. Uh we did this in the fall back in December for the fall sports and uh fine arts and all academic recognitions. And we had over 100 then, and we have 125 tonight, and we'll have another large amount to celebrate at the May at the May recognition. So, it just uh continues to to show um the amount of excellence going on in this district. This event's a showcase of a lot of hard work, highlighting a
006wide range of successful individuals, departments, and teams, and we're thrilled to celebrate each and every one of you that represent Argyle ISD this evening. It shines a bright light on how high our Eagles are soaring. From their hard earned successes to the big wins, tonight we celebrate you. We will get started by making some introductions this evening. I know that our board president did a roll call, but I'm going to officially introduce our school board of trustees for you this evening. I would like to for everyone to recognize President Sam Slayton. Vice President Craig Hawksworth. Secretary Matt Slayton. Trustee Dr. Leona McDay. Trustee Leanne Artho. Trustee Rich McDowell. And Trustee Josh Westrum, who's not able to be with us this evening. I would now like to announce our district leadership team. We have uh some
007of our district leaders here. We have Deputy Superintendent Dr. Chris Daniel. Assistant Superintendent for Learner Services Dr. Dawn Jordan. >> [applause] >> Our Chief Financial Officer Liz Stewart. And our Chief Communication Communications Officer, who you heard from earlier, Rick Herring. Would also like to take a moment to introduce our amazing campus leadership team. We have Hilltop Elementary Principal Holly Williams. So, if you're Hilltop, give her a shout out. Yeah, there you go. Argyle South Elementary Principal Kristen Haynes. I I knew I could create a competition, so it's only going to get better, right? Jane Rushing Elementary Principal Lauren Tolas. Argyle West Elementary Principal Katie Hayden. Sixth Grade Center Principal Heather Venoy. Argyle Middle School Principal Donna Lumpkin. Argyle High School Principal Shannon Knowles. There we go. There we go. See? And we also have our
008newest principal, Scott Gibson Middle School, Whitney Wheeler. All right. Now, it's time to recognize some very exceptional students, teachers, and coaches. So, I will now send it back to Mr. Haran in the booth. All right. Thank you, Dr. Carpenter. We will begin tonight's recognition by honoring two art students from Argyle South Elementary. Please welcome South Elementary Principal Kristen Haynes with art teacher Amber Jonas with this year's Cotton Bowl art winners. All right. Good evening. We want to recognize um our amazing art teacher Amber Jonas. She's always looking for opportunities to enter our students into art contest. And this was a really really amazing um it's our second year to participate and these students were chosen from over 10,000 entries for their artwork for the Cotton Bowl and their art is displayed Yes. Their art is
009displayed at AT&T Stadium. So look for it next time you're there. So first we have Callie Hurst. She's She won third place in her age category and then we have Maria Baker who won first place in her age category and Maria has won first place for the second year in a row. So really, really proud of these students. All right, if everyone can look right here at Mr. Sailor he'll get a few pics and give a thumbs up. Great. Congratulations Argyle South Cotton Bowl Art winners. All right, our next group is the district spelling bee winners from Jane Rueshman Elementary and Argyle Middle School. Please welcome JRE Principal Lauren Tellus and AMS Principal Donna Lumsden. Good evening. Can you believe they let us come up here together? Together. It's great. As Mr. Heron said, my
010name is Lauren Tellus and I have the honor of being the principal at Jane Rueshman Elementary. It is my honor to recognize Adhit Karthikeyan, a fourth grade student at Jane Rueshman. He won our campus level spelling bee and went on to represent JRE at the Denton County Spelling Bee. We are incredibly proud of his hard work, determination, and outstanding accomplishment. Congratulations, Adhit. >> [applause] >> And as they said, I'm Donna Lumston. I'm the principal at Argyle Middle School. Um I want to give a shout-out to my librarian who finally brought the spelling bee to the middle school. I'm very proud of her for making that happen for our kids. And at that spelling bee, we had 37 contestants from 7th and 8th grade, and the top five spellers from AMS advanced to the first ever
011Argyle ISD District Spelling Bee because we had so many schools involved. Where they competed against the top five spellers from the 6th Grade Center, Hilltop, and Jane Rueshman Elementary. Rayonsh Chaka, here standing in the center, was the district bee champion, and he advanced to the Denton County District Spelling Bee, and he made it all the way to the ninth round. So, we're very proud of him. All right, stu- students, if you can step forward a little bit toward the letters on the stage. Make sure your medals are facing forward. Perfect. And right here at Mr. Sailor, smile big. Again, congratulations to this year's spelling bee winners from JRE and AMS. And now we will honor the AP Honor Roll winner, and that winner is Argyle High School. And here to talk about the award is
012AHS principal, Shannon Knowles. Okay. Um I've got Ms. McGuire, who is our lead counselor, with me. Um I want to congratulate all the students and staff at Argyle High School, which was named the 2025 AP Scholar Honor Roll. The AP School Honor Roll recognizes schools whose AP programs are delivering results and broadening participation for students. Schools have earned Honor Roll recognition annually based on criteria that reflect a commitment to increasing their school's college- going culture, providing students with opportunities to earn college credit, and maximizing college readiness. And that's it. All right, let's take a photo with Mrs. Knowles and Ms. Maguire. >> You want just us for the picture? Yes. If you can step toward There we go. Toward the AISD. Congratulations to Argyle High School, the 2025 AP School Honor Roll winner. All right,
013next we will recognize the top students from Argyle High School, the Argyle High School National Merit Finalists. And Mrs. Knowles will introduce our three students. All right. That last award probably is talking about some of these students and they're sitting in the audience. Um, each year more than 1.5 million students across the country enter the National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the PSAT. From that pool, only 15,000 students nationwide advance to the finalist standing. This recognition reflects exceptional academic achievement, strong leadership, dedication to learning, and a commitment to excellence both inside and outside the classroom. These students have spent years challenging themselves with rigorous coursework, investing in their education, and representing Argyle High School with pride. Tonight, we are proud to celebrate three Eagles who exemplify what it means to pursue excellence. Please join me
014in congratulating our National Merit finalists, Leah Chaw, Riley Pazana, and Sri Abhinav Thatavarthi. Perfect. Let us take this photo real quick, students, and Perfect. Again, congratulations the Argyle High School National Merit finalists. A huge honor for these students. Mrs. Knowles will again handle this recognition. It is the Texas State Capitol Exhibit winner for AHS. All right. Congratulations to freshman Sanvi Natarajan who having her artwork selected for the Youth Art Month State Capitol Exhibit. An incredible and well-deserved achievement. This recognition places Sanvi among the top tier of young artists in the state of Texas. To put it in significance of this honor in to put the significance of this honor into perspective, thousands of students' artwork are submitted for public from public schools across Texas, yet only 100 pieces are selected each year for the prestigious
015state level exhibit. Congratulations again to Sanvi on this phenomenal accomplishment. We are incredibly proud of you and the way that you represent Argyle High School with such creativity and excellence. >> Great. Congratulations Sanvi, the Youth Art Month State Capital Exhibit winner. Next, we will shift to our award-winning Argyle High School Band program and recognize outstanding students who were selected all region, all area, and all state. Here to present them is AHS Band Director Jason Byrd. Good evening. Thank you so much. My name is Jason Byrd and I have the pleasure of serving Argyle ISD as a director of bands. Um we had a a special group of students, several students. I'm going to have all the band students just come up here for a second. We had several students. Many couldn't be here this evening,
016but the ones who are here, we're going to recognize everybody. Um but in the fall um the the students prepare etudes where they will go and compete at the region, area, and state level where thousands of students across the state will enter in the process of being named to the All-State Band program. Um along the way, we'll have students make the all region band, the area band, and the state band. I'm going to announce um first, I'm going to announce the all region band students and if you can just raise your hand uh when I call your call your name. Um but I'm going to announce everybody, even those who who are not here. Um >> [clears throat] >> the all region band uh is Eddie Acres, Hayden Blackman, Camden Cooper, Bradley Gover, Godwin Agbo,
017Piper Berryhill, Jacob Byrd, Camden Bolton, Brandon Cruz, Jackson Getz, Blake Landsberry, Luke Leos, Ephraim Moreno, Alexis Naum, Jackson Nelson, Eric Polo, Langley Shank, >> [clears throat] >> Aryan Boddeti, um Leah Breslin, uh Susie Busby, Aiden Dodd, Eric Ebling, Marshall Griffin, uh >> [clears throat] >> Jonathan Gibb, Addy Homer, uh Grayson Knight, Austin Lansberry, Aiden Nom, Nick Netzelmann, Nadish Orsu, Ayush Patel, Caleb Pittman, Lucas Potter, Isaac Salcedo, Ryan Sotile, Finn Thompson, Aaron Venegas, Wyatt Waldrep, Quinlan Wilson, and Micah Yingling. Our area students, um they made it past the region level on to the area level are Eddy Acres, Hayden Blackman, Camden Cooper, Bradley Gover, Godwin Agbo, Piper Berryhill, Jacob Bird, Camden Bolton, Brandon Cruz, Jackson Getz, Blake Lansberry, Luke Leos, Efren Moreno, Alexis Nom, Jackson Nelson, Eric Polo, and Langley Shank. And uh the final um
018destination, we had four students advanced to the All-State band, um and they represented Argyle High School in San Antonio. And those four students are Eddy Acres, Hayden Blackman, Camden Cooper, and Bradley Gover. Thank you so much, and we are so proud of you. We're proud of all the students in our in our fine band program, and um we look forward to see what you're going to do again next year. All right, uh here we go. Yeah, all the middles are facing forward, perfect. Everybody can find a window. Mr. Bird, that's perfect, right there. Again, one more round of applause for the Argyle High School Band and the talented students under direction of Jason Bird. All right, next we will shift to athletics and welcome Argyle High School swimming coach Daniel Lundy who will recognize his
019regional and state qualifying swimmers. Good evening. We have a team of four here. These four ladies, okay, though small in number did finish fourth overall okay, in our district K meet which is quite impressive and all four of them did qualify for regionals. First off, we have Haley Travis. She's a junior. She qualified in both her relays. We have Story Rogers, a sophomore who also qualified in both relays. Then we have Hayden Rogers, sophomore qualified in both relays as well as the 200 free and the 100 free. And then we have our senior captain as denoted by her beautiful hat. She did make me one. I should have worn it. Okay, I did wear it down at the state meet though, didn't I? Yes. Okay. All right. Senior captain qualified in both relays and was
020the regional champion and the in her individual medley and the regional runner-up in the breaststroke. That performance at regionals qualified her for state for a second year in a row. Zoe wound up finishing 13th at the state K in the individual medley and right now is going on to study art in Georgia. Yes. Okay. Savannah, Georgia. All right, here we go. Look at Mr. Right here at Mr. Sailor. Big smile. Great shot. Congratulations, Argyle High School swimming. >> All right, next recognition is the Argyle High School wrestling team. And here to present this year's regional and state qualifiers is coach Bobby Morse. So proud of how all of our kids did this season. We're going to start with the boys tonight. Um our post season starts with district. And in our 17 team district, we
021finished as a team second runner-up. Um and then we move on to regions. And in region as a team, we finished third. The boys had a wonderful season throughout. We had eight regional qualifiers at district. Think I've got five of them here. Hunter Mazon, Jacob Davis, Obadiah Doyle, Colin Gates, and Chandler Neff. Out of them, four of those guys were district champs. Um two that aren't here tonight, Tobias Gilman, Dominic Hartman, Chandler, and Colin were all district champs. As we move on to region, uh the top four qualified for state. We had four that qualified for state. Obadiah Doyle was fifth place. Tobias Gilman was second. Dominic Hartman was the regional champ. And Colin Gates was the regional champ. Um then so as we move on to the state tournament in Houston, three of those
022guys ended up being on the podium at the state meet. Colin Gates placed sixth in our state. Dominic Hartman placed fifth. And Tobias Gilman was the state runner-up. Thank you, guys. If y'all can step forward toward the letters. Perfect. Smile big. >> All right. Again, big congratulations to our Argyle High School boys wrestling team. I also get the privilege of coaching our girls team. Um Here they come. This year the girls were district team champions. It's their second championship in 3 years. We had 12 regional qualifiers and six district champs. Our district champs this year were Payton Major, Grace Valdez, Faith Gatlin, Gabby Assong, Kaylee Owen, and Annie E. Garcia. As we moved on to the Region 2 5A championships, the girls team won that, too. We had seven qualifiers for state and three region
023champions. Payton Major finished fourth at region. Faith finished fourth. Kinsley Boller finished fourth. Addison Alford was second. Kaylee Owen was regional champ. Annie E. Garcia was regional champ. And Gabby Assong was regional champ. As we made our way down to the state tournament, we had our second state placer in this team's program history. Kaylee Owen placed third at 145 lbs. Notable mention here, Coach Moyer was voted assistant girls coach of the year for both our district and our region. Thank you for all your hard work. >> All right, everybody look right here at Mr. Sailor in the middle. Big congratulations for an incredible season by our Argyle High School boys and girls wrestlers. All right, how about a big round of applause for how well-behaved and quiet our elementary students have been. We wanted them
024to see the other recognitions tonight and see what it's like at this event. Kudos to you guys, great job. And finally, our next recognition is where UIL academic competitions in this district start, where tradition and excellence meet. It's our elementary UIL competitors, and here to recognize the winners of this year's competitions. First up, it's UIL campus coordinator Shelley Moses from Argyle West. This year our district proudly had 443 incredible students compete in our elementary UIL competition from our four elementary campuses. This These students came together to showcase their academic talents, dedication, and determination. We would like to extend our sincere appreciation to our administrators, district administration, and school board for the continued support of UIL and for making opportunities like this possible for our students. Tonight, we celebrate their achievement, effort, and commitment to excellence,
025sharing our top three individual winners from each event. For West Elementary, we have Laysna Ahaban. She was art smart, fourth grade, and she was first place. Next we have Neehashani Sudan, and it's And sorry, I went out of place. Okay, she's Art Smart fifth grade first place tie. We have Jeremy O, Art Smart fifth place fifth grade first place tie. We have Krithik Sam Vanantem, Art Smart fifth grade third place. We have Devishna Chukapalli and Chess Puzzles second grade first place. We have Aroush Palelli, Chess Puzzles third grade third place. We have Pragnan Aripalli, Chess Puzzles third grade first place. We have Ishaan Gadam, Chess Puzzles third grade second place. Penelope Hand, Dictionary Skills fifth grade third place. Anway Kanthal, Number Sense fifth grade first place. Shrinika Chatterjee, Storytelling third grade first place. >> [applause]
026>> All right. Students, if you can look forward and smile big right here at the middle. Mr. Sailor. Great shot. Congratulations. Next from Hilltop Elementary, Kristen Raschuber. Hi everyone. I'm so excited to announce these medal winners from Hilltop. Up first we have fourth grader Himaksh Pond who placed third in Art Smart. Second grader Veer Kishore who placed second in chess puzzles. Fifth grader Addison Kershaw who placed first in listening. Fifth grader Cash Kennedy who placed second in listening. Vinoda Patel who placed first in music memory. Third grader Grace Foster who placed second in music memory. Fourth grader Thomas Foster who placed first in music memory. Fourth grader Aradia Ajith who placed first in number sense. Fifth grader Sulagna Bondapalli who placed second in number sense. Third grader Amaya Amaya Bandara who placed first in ready
027writing. Fifth grader Claire Gannon who placed second in ready writing. Fourth grader Ashika Kedia who placed third in spelling. Fifth grader Himu Anna Parati who placed second in spelling. And second grader Ishana Bagdwal who placed third in storytelling. All right students, look forward. Big smiles. Mr. Sailor right here in the middle. We've got a few more from Hilltop right here. We've got Mr. Ball. Yes. Right right here. Awesome, great job Hilltop Elementary. UIL Academics All right, next please welcome April Torres from Jane Longman Elementary. >> [screaming] >> Thank you. I am so excited to share with you our medal winners from JRE. Audia Javaji was Art Smart fourth grade second place. Vivon Palakurthy chess puzzles fourth grade third place. Luka Taran Amarachinula chess puzzles fifth grade second place. Kevin John music memory fourth grade third
028place. Shreen Janakanti number sense fourth grade third place. Primrada Satsurtiwat fourth grade oral reading second place. Riley Brandis fifth grade oral reading second place. Lamar Abukhad ready writing third grade second place. Tulsi Bimmarapu ready writing third grade third place. Arham Sheikh spelling third grade tied for first place. Krishang Ray, spelling, fifth grade, third place. And Adeline Miranda, storytelling, third grade, second place. All right, let's get a big photo with this group. All right, students, look forward smiling at Mr. Sailor. Great smiles. Great. Congratulations, Jane Rustin Elementary UIL Academics. Before we start our final group, parents, after this event's over, you feel free to come take photos around the AISD photo the AISD letters and our banners that we have on stage. And our final group for UIL Academics is from Argyle South Elementary, and here
029to introduce them is Christina Boyle. All right. Hi, good evening. I'm excited to introduce our our medalists as well. I'm going to start with the coaches and thank them for their commitment to our students. I have over there coaching social studies is Mrs. Khan. We have coaching music memory is Mr. K. Coaching Art Smart was Miss Jonas. Coaching storytelling was Mrs. Rosenbaum. Coaching Ready Writing is Mrs. Kirk. Coaching Spelling is Mrs. Bernie. Coaching Number Sense was Mrs. Johnson. Coaching Dictionary Skills, Mrs. Campton. And I I get y'all? Yeah, okay. All right. Um awesome. And so then, thank you to all these amazing coaches. >> [applause] >> All right, and now for our amazing students in fifth grade for maps, graphs, and charts, I have first place Maria Baker. For music memory fifth grade, we have
030first place Lenny Lopez. And third place, Ryan Punsalan. For music memory fourth grade, we have Hannah Averitt. Okay. For third grade music memory in third place, we have Jason Nishida. For second grade music memory in second place, we have Isaac Baker. And for our spelling team fifth grade in first place was Balraj Patra. In fourth grade, first place is Arjun Money. Third grade, we had a tie for third place with Tanvi Sriravapudi and Cara Wilkerson. For chess puzzles in fifth grade in third place, Shatadru Kalakuntla. Fourth grade, first place Chandradaya Bhupathi. And in second place, Prometh San. All right, for our ready writing in I'm so sorry, she was unable to come. For dictionary skills fifth grade, we have Kavalia Makaraju. For social studies fifth grade, first place, Abhinav Joseph Katimahanthi. And in second place,
031Carter Tran. And then oral reading, fourth grade, we have third place, Harper Hataian. For number sense, fourth grade, we have second place, Reyan Reddy Julakanti. Storytelling, third grade, we have third place, Jay Krishnamurthy. And in second grade, second place, Anika Kutamudi. And creative writing, second grade, in third place, Vasudha Boyapati. All right, Argyle South, let's get a photo. Everybody facing forward, big smiles. Great smiles. And we got it. Congratulations, Argyle South Elementary UIL academics. Big round of applause for all of our UIL academic students tonight. And Mr. Herron, I do believe we need to celebrate the fact that Argyle South won the entire UIL meet. So, congratulations, Argyle South Elementary. And Ms. Kimpton also has dictionary earrings, y'all. That's a coach that takes things seriously. Dictionary earrings. >> the number. Yeah. It's also a UIL
032tradition to hear the double metal clang of the metals, so >> Yes. that's pretty exciting here, too. There we go. Well, it has been a fantastic evening celebrating all of our students, um our directors, coaches, sponsors, and as you can tell, this UIL program is the pipeline to our high school UIL program, which is again the defending state champion right now, so we're looking forward to bringing home another state championship with UIL from Argyle High School hopefully in May. Um but again, thank you so much for being here this evening. We're so proud and honored to recognize each and every one of you, and like Mr. Herring said, once we adjourn, please come get some pictures. We have some props up here that we know you want to be able to take some pictures with
033your students. And we want to wish everyone a wonderful, restful spring break. Tomorrow's the last day before spring break. Yes. You're out Friday, you're out all next week, and then you're out THE FOLLOWING MONDAY. WOO! And so, that's a very exciting time. We hope you we wish you safe travels. We wish our Lady Eagle basketball team great luck at the state championship this Saturday. And so, let's give them a round of applause as they play Saturday. Mr. Slayton, I will turn it back over to you. All right, I just want to echo everything that Dr. Carpenter said. Hope everyone has a a safe, restful, enjoyable spring break. And thank you all for being here tonight. Congratulations again for all of your hard efforts and us being able to acknowledge that here tonight with this ceremony.
034And at with that being said, remember together we soar. Dr. Jordan, the time is 7:12 uh p.m. and we are adjourned.