Contrary to what our students believe, it’s not 1995 at PHS. We got to navigate through a day and a half of no internet at the school this week, which was quite interesting to say the least. But we survived and are better for it. This past week was National School Counselors week. We’re so blessed to have Kate Devoll, April Petit, Kristi Wagner, and Paula Black serving the social, emotional, and learning needs of our students. The efforts of these ladies and their office help our students in so many ways and we could not create a complete educational experience for our students without them. Thank you ladies! Tuesday was a big day for our sport teams. Both the Hustlin’ Harvesters and Lady Harvester Basketball teams traveled to a hostile Dumas gym and left with district victories. The Lady Harvesters finished the regular season in 3rd place (behind State Tournament perennial power Canyon, and Randall who just dropped from 5A) and have advanced to playoffs. We are so excited and proud of their efforts! They will take on Midland Greenwood in Lubbock at Lubbock Christian University Tuesday, February 14th at 7:00. Best of luck ladies! Harvester Soccer defeated rival Borger (always an enjoyable experience) Tuesday night as well. In fine arts, PHS Choir students Kate Smith, Abigail White, Aidan Chapleau, and Clark Allen represented us at TMEA State and made us proud! Our counselors rolled out Local Scholarships on Thursday to our seniors. Every year I’ve been in admin at Pampa our senior class has collectively earned over $600,000 in scholarship money to help fund their post-secondary education. It’s awesome that we have so much support for our kids as they leave our walls. Friday, we got to surprise another one of our educators with an award. Kylee Armenta (Physics/Calculus/Algebra 2 teacher) was nominated by two of her current students and was named the Mrs. Baird’s Teacher on the Rise for January. Over 400 teachers were nominated by students across the region with 3 winners being named. One a side note, of the 3 monthly winners, Pampa ISD had two! This marks the second consecutive month PHS has had a staff member honored by their students for an award. As cool as the awards have been, I know our staff values the opinions of our students much more and are blown away by their generosity in taking the time to reach out and tell the Panhandle how awesome we are. Friday evening the Hustlin’ Harvesters traveled to West Plains, the Harvester Soccer team beat Canyon, and the Lady Harvester Soccer team traveled to Canyon for a district matchup. Saturday, Pampa Debate hosted their annual Debate Tournament at the High School. This tournament had over 150 students and coaches from 15 area schools. A huge thank you goes out to the 100 community judges who helped to make this event a success! Harvester Baseball also hosted their annual Alumni game Saturday and the Lady Harvester Softball team completed their last scrimmage before they start their season Monday. As we are set to turn the page from winter sports to spring sports, it’s still a great day to be a Harvester!
