Extra Credit

Mansfield to spend natural gas revenues

Mansfield school trustees decided how to use some of the district's gas well revenue Tuesday night. They voted to use about half of the $6.8 million collected in lease bonuses and royalties on technology upgrades.
Mansfield will spend $1.4 million on cabling projects; $151,215 on Microsoft Office installations; and about $2 million for switches and desktop computers that need replacing, according to board documents.

Also on Tuesday night, the board approved several new teaching and staff positions and new mascots and school colors for the district’s three new schools. Information about each school is online.

- Traci Shurley

Blog follows Mansfield students in national competition

Seven recent graduates from Mansfield high schools are competing in the national SkillsUSA competition in Kansas City this week and their teacher is blogging all the action.

SkillsUSA, formerly known as Vocational Industrial Clubs of America or VICA, is a competition for high schoolers and college students involved in technical and vocational education. The students from Mansfield were involved in various programs at the district's Ben Barber Career Tech Academy.

The blogger, Justin Dearing, teaches radio broadcasting/advertising design at Ben Barber. (At right is a picture from the blog.)

Here are the former students (they all graduated this spring) who are competing:

Construction Teamworks
Phillip Kriesman - Legacy HS
Francisco Rodriguez - Legacy HS
James Buford - Summit HS
Hugo Dominguez - Summit HS

Radio/Audio Production
Hileigh Armenta - Mansfield HS
Jonathan Solis - Mansfield HS

Technical Computer Applications
Alex Roman - Summit HS

- Traci Shurley

Mansfield coaches' losses = gains for students

Five 2009 graduates of Mansfield High School are leaving with an extra $500 each in scholarship money, thanks to some coaches who shed pounds earlier this year.

Coaches John Fazekas, Danny Huffman, John Strafford and Janale Stockett lost a total of more than 101.1 pounds to win the $2,500 Coaches Weight Loss Challenge Scholarship. The contest against other Mansfield coaches was sponsored by Methodist Mansfield Medical Center. (The picture of some of the happy students and coaches is courtesy of the hospital.)

The scholarship winners plan to study a variety of majors, including sports broadcasting and pre-medicine.

- Traci Shurley

Area schools put graduation photos online

Want to see some great pictures of local graduations? Or maybe try to pick out your favorite grad?

Several districts - including Fort Worth, Arlington and Mansfield- have lots posted on their Websites.

Here's a good one from Mansfield High School's Monday ceremony at The Potter's House.

- Traci Shurley

Mansfield student artist wins big with creative cow

The artistic skills of a senior at Mansfield’s Legacy High School recently helped him outdo a herd of competitors in a contest to decorate a fiberglass cow.

Abner Cabriales was one of three honorable achievement award winners in the Fourth Annual Lucerne The Art of Dairy art contest. The theme for this year’s competition was “Taste of Moo-sic.”

Students from across the nation submitted designs and Cabriales was one of 30 finalists who got to create their design using a life-size cow sculpture. Cabriales and the other honorable achievement winners each got $1,000, as did their art teachers. His design – “Plunge into the Moosic” - is on the Lucerne contest Web site.

Cabriales' design also featured a car stereo system inside, according to a March story in the online edition of The Rider, Legacy’s student newspaper. He told The Rider: “I tried to visualize the feelings that people associate with music and put that in my design.”

- Traci Shurley

Follow Mansfield speller in national competition

Elizabeth Adetiba, the eighth-grader at Mansfield's James Coble Middle School who won local spelling competitions to get into the Scripps National Spelling Bee, is competing this morning in Washington D.C.

It's her second trip to the national bee.

You can follow the action on Twitter @scrippsbee. Elizabeth, number 253, already spelled annoyance correctly (the picture is from Scripps).

- Traci Shurley

Health department investigating Mansfield TB case

A student at Legacy High School in the Mansfield district has tested positive for Tuberculosis and county health officials are providing free screenings for about 275 students who had contact with the student, according to information released by Mansfield officials.   

A letter went out Wednesday to parents of Legacy students, notifying them of the situation and telling them that there is a low risk of contracting the disease because significant exposure is required. The Tarrant County Public Health Department is identifying anyone who may have had close contacts with the student. They are receiving additional notification and opportunities for testing, the letter said. 

Legacy has a student body of 2,256.

“Let me assure you that the health and well being of our students is our top priority and we are doing everything possible to address the situation,” Principal David Wright wrote. Anyone with questions was asked to call the health department at 817-321-4900.

- Traci Shurley

Students back at Mansfield school

Administrators and teachers greeted students at Mansfield's Charlotte Anderson Elementary with cheery "good mornings" Wednesday, welcoming them back to a campus that district officials had previously planned to close for the rest of the week.

The closure, which only lasted one day, followed a Monday announcement of a possible case of swine flu at the school, which is in south Arlington. Mansfield school officials decided to re-open Anderson Tuesday afternoon following a change in recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"I'm glad they're taking precautions to try to keep the kids safe," parent Dawn Carr said when asked whether she agreed with the week's decisions. "If they feel it's the right thing to come back, I trust their judgment."

Joe Estrada said the change in plans alleviated a concern in his household - who would stay home to care for 8-year-old Christian. He said his wife, who works at Home Depot, was able to adjust her schedule and stay home Tuesday. But he's glad further adjustments don't have to be made.

Christian and Carr's two children, Amya, 7, and Jeramiah, 5, were less enthusiastic about the shortened break.

Carr eased the disappointment at her house with a reminder: "School is almost over anyway."

- Traci Shurley 

Mansfield closing school with probable swine flu case

Mansfield school officials are closing Charlotte Anderson Elementary in south Arlington for the rest of the week, after learning of a probable swine flu case there, school spokesman Terry Morawski said.

Morawski said officials are working to notify parents. The district canceled fields trips and extracurricular activities district-wide last week. They will resume Monday, the same day Anderson is scheduled to reopen.

The school, which has about 615 students in grades pre-k through 4, will be sanitized while it's closed, Morawski said.

- Traci Shurley

Lunch prices to go up at Mansfield schools

Providing school lunches is getting more and more expensive and officials at Mansfield schools say the situation is forcing them to raise prices. 

On Tuesday night, school trustees approved a 25 cent increase in student lunch prices for the 2009-2010 school year, bringing the price of a elementary school lunch to $2 and a secondary school lunch to $2.25.

Administrators said the higher prices are needed to cope with increases in the price of food and paper supplies. They also cite changes to the state’s school nutrition policy, which eliminates the sale of some pre-packaged items because of fat and sugar levels and bans the use of fryers, as a factor.

The price change will not affect students on the federal free and reduced-price lunch program. Prices for adults meals will also go up from $2.60 to $3. The last time Mansfield increased lunch prices was at least six years ago, officials said.

Keller schools also recently raised their prices.

- Traci Shurley