Chambers honors the Best of Kennedale

Last month the Kennedale Chamber of Commerce held their annual luncheon to honors members of the community and schools that have been selected for their service. {{more:READ MORE …}}

The event was held Wednesday May 17 at Life Fellowship Church. The sponsor of the event was the EECU.

Honored for their contributions to their organizations and to the community ?

City of Kennedale – Mayor of Kennedale Brian Johnson presenter

Wilda Turner – Community Leader of the Year

Her family has been involved in this community for decades, her husband served on city council, her son serves on the city council and she has been very active in the Keep Kennedale Beautiful movement since the beginning – planting butterfly gardens, cleaning up areas including Sonora Park. She is devoted to this community.

Kennedale High School – Principal Justin Marshall presenter

Shelley Fijewski, Paraprofessional of the Year

She has worked 13 years for Kennedale ISD starting in special education at Delaney Elementary. Then moved to James Arthur and finally to Kennedale High School where she has just moved from a classroom aide to registrar. She has been married 32 years, has a son and three dogs, likes to work on cars, her house and likes to go camping.

Roger Aleman, Educator of the Year

He is very involved in the school and with the students. He teaches Spanish I, Spanish II, Pre-AP Spanish III as well as student leadership. He is the KHS Student Council advisor and is a Co-sponsor of Key club, and is one of the sponsors for the Senior Class. He coordinates Homecoming festivities and does so much for our school.

Kennedale Junior High School – Principal Michael Cagle presenter

Juan Rivera, Paraprofessional of the Year

He was a teacher for 19 years Puerto Rico where he was also a university track coach and a basketball coach. He and his family then moved to the DFW area to start a new life, a new language and a new career where he is still hoping to be a full time teacher. When I interviewed him, I knew immediately that he was the one. He has made a difference in his first year at Kennedale Junior High and he is our Paraprofessional of the Year.

David Boubel, Educator of the Year

If I was to start a new school who would be the first person that you would hire and that would be a pretty easy question. David Boubel has completely revamped and restructured the intervention system at the junior high level and what he has done has completely transformed our math department in to probably one of the best math departments that I have ever been associated with and is probably one of the best in Tarrant or Dallas County. Every year we have received an academic distinction for how much progress our students are making and being in the top 25% of schools in our demographics and I think that is owed to a lot of what this man has done. It is his in eight year of teaching in Kennedale ISD.

Arthur Intermediate – Principal Frankie Bryson presenter

Kelsey Ruck & Betsy Wolfskill – Paraprofessionals of the Year

Kelsey is a long time Kennedale community member who attended and graduated from KISD schools. She now she has students that attend JamesDelaney. When she applied for the position, she said that she loved the school district and the school and she wanted to be there to support it. She is one of the most dependable individual I have. She loves every one of the kids and is really hands on in every aspect of the school. Anywhere I need her in the building, she is willing to go. She has that smile on her face every time, saying just let me know what you need.

Betsy has a BA degree from UTA. She is not a new face in Kennedale because last year she completed her student teaching with Delaney and James Arthur. She returned this summer and walked into my office and said that I am here if you have a job. The job we had was a para-professional job opening and she gladly took on that role. She has done an amazing job. She is that go-to-person. She has a great work ethic and she is going to do everything and anything that is needed. She always supports our kids.

Sandra Yokeley – Educator of the Year

Sandra Yokeley she has been in the district a very long time – this is 33rd year in education. She started as a reading aide in 1982 and began working on her degree at Texas Wesleyan and took a couple of years off to complete her degree and then returned to take a teaching position in January of 1989. She taught 4th grade for 16 years. She has been a content mastery teacher, a math interventionist and, the past 3 years, she has been a inclusion support teacher with 6th grade students. She is phenomenal teacher. She going to retire at the end of this year and she will truly be irreplaceable. She has done an amazing job supporting teachers, the students and just working for that common goal for Kennedale ISD.

RF Patterson Elementary ? Principal Carri Blackstone, presenter

Pam Mantooth – Para-professional of the Year

Pam has worked KISD for 16 years. She worked in behavior classrooms, kindergarten classrooms and in essential academic classroom. She has lots of great experience. She truly had a heart for kids when she working with a student and the student shows progress, she has a genuine joy about that. The teachers trust her ability to help them in the classroom. The teachers and the students adore her. She makes a difference every day at Patterson.

Tanya Wilder – Educator of the Year

The best example that I can think of about Tanya involves her students and their test results. We had been benchmarking in April, looking at what students have learned and what areas we needed to help them and I was looking at her classroom results. In Classroom A they all passed 100%. In Classroom B the same result, 100% success. And, in Classroom C all but three students passed. I was amazed. I had never seen benchmarks scores like this and I sent her a note to thank her. Later, she came to my office and surprisingly she was a little disappointed not only with the three students that didn?t pass but with at least five other students. She said that they had only passed by one question. She had to get them further up. And, that really said why she is our Teacher of the Year. She takes ownership of all her students in her classroom like they are her own. And, she wants them to succeed and not just by a little bit.

Delaney Elementary – Principal Katina Martinez presenter

Heather Gulseth – Paraprofessional of the Year

She is completing her fifth year in KISD and she has three students of her own in the school district. She started as a special education aide and then transformed herself into the attendance clerk and now our PEIMS clerk. She is so tech savvy, no matter what I need done, she is able to produce a report. But, she such a huge asset to the campus, because anytime I need her anywhere, she is there. She covers classrooms and all kinds of duties that we need her to do. She greets the students in the morning regardless of what type weather and in the afternoon she is doing dismissal duty.

Van Tran – Teacher of the Year

She is short and mighty. She is completing her 13th year at Delaney. She started teaching kindergarten and then went to 1st grade and now she says she has found her home in Pre-K. She teaches her kids, her kids make progress, they love her. But she is also the glue that holds everything together and it is because of all those little things she does. She takes care of each and every one of us. If there is something that we need, she says I have got it and she takes care of it in timely and efficient manner. She designs our yearbook, she creates things for the staff. She organizes our Christmas and end of year celebrations. It just amazing what she does. She has a true heart and does what she can to make everyone welcome.

Fellowship Academy – Principal Shannon Stoker presenter

Michelle Mallory – Paraprofessional of the Year

She been with us three years, she works in our front office but she so much more than that because she is a nurse, a cheer coach for kids but also for our staff and she does everything with a smile on her face. There not a day or a time that she doesn?t just smile through everything. She is a joy to work with and I am not surprised that she was selected.

Marcus Simmons – Teacher of the Year

He is our PE teacher who has a spouse at the KISD. He came to us three years ago. He is truly god-sent. He is an awesome, awesome teacher. He is also works as a basketball, football and track coach. The most important thing that he does is that he brings God into their [students] lives, he prays with them on a regular basis and he give them a safe and secure place. It is so important to children to come to school and to know that is going to be a happy place and a good place. He so much more that a PE teacher for us and again I was not surprised that he was selected.

KHS Senior Kylie Embry received

the 2017 Chamber Scholarship presented by Jack Thompson, KACC Director

City of Kennedale ? KPD Chief Tommy Williams presenter

Andre Lara – Police Officer of the Year

Andy joined us in 2012. He spent three and half years as a patrol officer and had one of the highest activity rates in the department. In September 2015, he applied and was accepted for the Auto Thief Task Force out of Mansfield. He quickly proved his worth for the task force and was responsible for developing the case that shut-down one of the largest auto thief operations in the North Texas area. As an investigator, he has cleared 39 new cases and made 27 felony arrest. Those were his cases but he also assisted on many others. He has also been singled out for his dedication to finding new investigative techniques and sharing those with fellow officers. He has brought an energy level to his job that proves his love of serving his community as well as his commitment to his fellow officers. He is well liked and respected by his peers and his supervisors.

City of Kennedale – Fire Chief Mike McMurray presenter

Justin Bradshaw – Fire fighter of the Year

He is an overachiever. He enjoys mentoring and training young firefighters and paramedics and he also volunteers to maintain our air-packs which keeps all our firefighters safe when they enter a burning building. Justin is an awesome firefighter and is the first guy to step forward to volunteer to do a difficult task.

City of Kennedale ? City Manager George Campbell presenter

Kelly Cooper – Administration Employee of the Year

She is the Director of Human Resources for the City of Kennedale with experience from the City of Colleyville and in private business. We are going through a time of transition in city government in Kennedale, not only on the city council but in the city administration with a new city manager and a new finance director. In the last 90 days, I have learned that I work for an in creditable team of professionals on the leadership team including the chiefs of police and fire departments. But when you come into a new position, you look for people who are in leadership positions that can help you, save you from what you don?t know. Kelly stepped up to the plate and has been the person that I have lean on most closely to help me through this period of transition. The entire leadership team is great but I appreciate what Kelly has done. She has been that mainstay in the city organization in this very critical transition period.

Kennedale Chamber of Commerce –

AZZ Galvanizing , City of Kennedale, Fellowship Academy, Frost Bank, Kennedale ISD, Kennedale Economic, Sabre FWT Corporation and Wells Fargo – Platinum Members of the Year