Prosper ISD is proud to announce the Top 10 graduates of the Class of 2019. These 10 graduates will be featured on the billboard in front of Prosper High School for the year following their graduation. Rankings at Prosper High School are incredibly competitive.  All of the graduates are to be commended.

Today we recognize our Top 10.

The Senior graduating tenth is Sarah Heagy. Sarah is the daughter of Brad and Traci Heagy. Sarah plans to attend the University of Texas at Austin to study Geography and Environmental Science.

 

 

The Senior graduating ninth is Brooke Blackstock. Brooke is the daughter of Denise and Shane Blackstock. Brooke plans to attend Oklahoma State University to major in Elementary Education.

  

 

The Senior graduating eighth is Taylor Sweet. Taylor is the daughter of Ed Sweet and Lisa Amoroso. Taylor plans to attend the University of Texas at Austin to major in Arts and Entertainment Technologies.

 

 

The Senior graduating seventh is Madison Whitmire. Madi is the daughter of Francesca Whitmire and Jason Whitmire. Madi plans to attend the University of Connecticut where she will play volleyball.

 

 

 The Senior graduating sixth is Jason Brown. Jason is the son of Scott and Dianne Brown. Scott will be going on mission to Colorado Springs and then attending Brigham Young University.

 

 

The Senior graduating fifth is Cole Choe. Cole is the son of Bo Kim and Tae Choe. Cole plans to attend the University of Texas to major in Electrical and Computer Engineering with a focus in analog circuit design.

 

  

The Senior graduating fourth is Christine Zheng. Christine is the daughter of Fan Gene. Christine plans to enter the workforce after graduation.

 

 

 The Senior graduating third is Nicholas Townsend. Nick is the son of Ryan Townsend and Ricquel Townsend. Nick plans to attend Brigham Young University to major in Electrical Engineering.

 

  

The Salutatorian of the Class of 2019 is Molly Leonard. Molly is the daughter of Elizabeth and Judson Leonard. Molly plans to attend Trinity University to major in Chemistry.

 

  

The Valedictorian of the Class of 2019 is Logan Davenport. Logan is the son of Lauren and Mays Davenport. Logan plans to attend the University of Texas at Austin to major in Computer Science.

On Friday, May 17th, PISD concluded our 2018 - 2019 Special Olympics season with the Annual Prosper Track Meet.  This year we welcomed over 400 athletes from 13 surrounding districts and 160 volunteers from the district and area businesses.  Each athlete participated in track and field events throughout the day including 100 m and 50 m dashes, javelin throw, shot put, tennis and softball throw and long jump.  Prosper Special Olympics is thankful for all of the support they have received over the course of this school year from the PISD and the PISD PTOs. We wrapped up the year with a Special Olympics Celebration on Tuesday night where we honored the accomplishments of our athletes.  They enter the summer looking forward to the start of our bocce season in the fall.

The evening of May 25th, 2019 will be an exciting one for the Prosper High School Class of 2019.  Not only will they officially be high school graduates but they will also be celebrating in style at Main Event thanks to a variety of sponsors and community supporters at an event called Project Graduation. From midnight until 5am, graduates are given a safe place to celebrate their graduation with their classmates. The event was created to give students an alternative to going to parties where drugs and alcohol may be available.

A Project Graduation committee has worked tirelessly this year raising funds to ensure that the free activities, food and give-a-ways are plentiful drawing graduates into the event to celebrate. The graduates will have unlimited access to all of the activities as well as games and food. There will be drawings throughout the evening where the graduates in attendance will have an opportunity to win prizes such as laptops, tv’s, gift cards, and much more.

Last minute donations are still being accepted. Contact PHSProjectGraduation2019@gmail.com if you would like to contribute.

Region 10 Educational Service Center recently hosted the first ever Region 10 ESC Young Storytellers Competition and Conference. The program provided students the opportunity to receive guidance in their chosen field from industry leaders while submitting current work for evaluation and competition.

Prosper’s Audio/Visual program, under the direction of Michael Logan, created quite a presence at the competition walking away with five awards.

Finalist Narrative- "The Art of Improbable Love" Katie Larson, Renee Watters, Jack Peterson, Olivia Owens

1st Place PSA- "Go Green" Katie Larson, Judd Roberts, Chloe Selvey

Finalist Documentary- "Living With Dyslexia" Katie Larson

1st Place Narrative- "The Bootlegger" Caiden Jackson, Nick Lawless, Jacob Levin, Ryan Little

2nd Place Documentary- "When Worlds Collide"- Nico Ray

For Immediate Release

Prosper ISD Athletic Hall of Honor Inaugural Class Inductees

May 7, 2019  - Prosper Independent School District is pleased to announce the inaugural class of the Prosper ISD Athletics Hall of Honor. The Hall of Honor is designed to recognize and celebrate those athletes, coaches, supporters and teams who have laid the foundation for what Prosper ISD Athletics is today.  

• Prosper ISD Head Baseball Coach Rick Carpenter - Coach Carpenter has been in Prosper ISD for 12 years. During that time, he has coached his teams to a State Championship in 2015 as well as to the Regional Semi-finals four times, Regional Quarterfinals twice and the Area Championship four times prior to the 2019 season. He has been named the District Coach of the Year 19 times in his career as well as Coach of the Year from many other circuits including USA Today, MLB Players, National Federation of High Schools and many others. He has coached 34 professional players including his son Matt Carpenter. Coach Carpenter is a member of the Elkins High School, Franklin High School and Texas High School Baseball Coaches Halls of Fame.

 

• 1984 State Championship Baseball Team - The 1984 Prosper High School Baseball team was the first team to win a State Championship from Prosper winning the 1A State Championship in 1984 defeating Runge 18-7 and finishing with an overall record of 25-4. The team made three consecutive trips to the State tournament in 1982, 1983 and 1984. All Tournament Team members from Prosper included: Derek Stansell (1B), Roger Ricketts (2B), Jimbo Smotherman (3B), Tim James (SS), Denny Webb (OF), Chris Tolleson (OF), Richard Furr (OF) and Glenn Cashon (DH). The team was coached by Robert Boyd. In addition to the All Tournament Team members, the State Championship team consisted of: Steve Harpole, Scott Bailey, Craig Constant, Mike Standerfer, Daniel Crosswhite, Robbie Butler, Bobby Reneau and Bobby Boyd.

 

• Jim Hughes - Jim Hughes graduated from Prosper High School in 1951 where he was a four year letterman in Baseball, Basketball and Football where he served as Captain. He attended Sam Houston State University (SHSU) where he was named All Conference leading his team in both baseball and basketball. Mr. Hughes was inducted into the SHSU Hall of Honor in 1991. Mr. Hughes signed a baseball contract with the Detroit Tigers and later scouted for the Mets and the Toronto Blue Jays. A US Army vet, Mr. Hughes is known today as Mr. Prosper where he is a Charter member of the Prosper Historical Society and received the Prosper Founding Heritage Citizenship Award as well as the Community Builder Award from the Masons.

 

 

• Donnie Garrett - Donnie Garrett is a 1975 graduate of Prosper High School. While at PHS Mr. Garrett received 16 total letters with four each in Baseball, Basketball, Football and Track. He was a State Champion Pole Vaulter in 1972, 1973 and 1974 (the first pole vaulter in Texas to win three consecutive State Championships in any division) and was the first Prosper High School individual State Champion. He was also a state qualifier in the discus in 1975. A utility player in football, Garrett played running back, quarterback, half-back, defensive tackle and kicker. He was also named to the 2nd team All District team as a sophomore in Basketball.

 

 

• Woody Hamby - Woodrow “Woody” Hamby graduated from Prosper High School in 1963.  Mr. Hamby received four letters each in baseball, football and basketball and two letters in track. He was a long time holder of the PHS record in the 100 yard dash with a time of 10.1 seconds. In Football he was the area scoring leader and was named to the Basketball First team All-District team. Mr. Hamby received a baseball scholarship to Texas Christian University and played for the Cincinnati Reds until a career ending injury in 1964.

 

 

 

 

 

 The Inaugural Class will be introduced during halftime at the first home football game on Friday, August 30th, 2019 at 7:00 pm at the new Children’s Health Stadium at Prosper ISD and then formally inducted into the Hall of Honor at the ceremony on Monday, January 6th, 2020 in the community room of the new Children's Health Stadium.

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Few people get to explore the amazing world of the ocean, but Mr. Bellman’s 4th grade classes at Light Farms Elementary are getting an opportunity to do that while staying dry on land.

Mr. Bellman worked with Prosper ISD Instructional Technology to provide students with Google Expeditions paired with Virtual Reality (VR) headsets to explore marine ecosystems.  

Students discussed the living and nonliving parts that make up a marine ecosystem and specifically examined marine food webs.  During the discussion, students learned about the different types of producers and consumers that can be found in a marine food web and how the balance of a marine food web can be thrown off by disruptions such as overfishing or coral bleaching.  

The class then examined three underwater scenes around the world. The first was a Sea lion sanctuary in the Galapagos Islands. The second was a coral reef in Maldives that is home to the Indian Ocean Oriental Sweet lips fish and the Longfin Bannerfish. Finally, students examined the before and after of a 2014/2015 bleached coral reef.  

Students also were able to virtually visit the Queensland Museum and Science Centre in Australia, The Hall at the Natural History Museum of Venice, and the Milstein Family Hall of Ocean Life at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

The students ended the experience by discussing the importance of conservation and protecting different ecosystems and how how disrupting a food web is not only bad for the organisms that are currently living in it but can also have domino effects that hurt humans as well.

At Reynolds Middle School, students in Ms. Labhart’s class are exploring Mars. The project is titled Mars One: Future Frontier and is the final “exam” for the class. It is based on the Mars One website allowing students to have a real-world connection to the assignment. The assignment is broken into five different Missions.

Mission 1 is titled "Planetary Conditions" and the students use websites provided to research how Mars and Earth differ. The students look at everything from the diameter of the planet, atmospheric conditions, gravity, water, and much more. They then compare and contrast the two planets to each other based on each criterion.

Mission 2 is titled "Get to Packing." In this part of the assignment, the students have to determine what personal effects they are going to take to Mars. The catch is that theirs as well as all three other crewmates' belongings must fit into a 1 cubic meter box. This means students must research and calculate the volume of each item. They must make sure the item is actually going to function on Mars and in Space. If it runs on batteries they must have enough to last a lifetime. Students must provide a rationale as to why they are bringing each item. Students are encouraged to think about missing their families, dealing with the feeling of isolation, not being able to access new items, etc.

Mission 3 is titled "Effects of Traveling." The students create a Google Slide Portfolio to collect their learning on various topics. Those topics are: surviving in space, space does what to my body, and how do they do it? In the first topic, students explore what protects astronauts from radiation, gravity, extreme temperatures, and atmosphere in space. For the second topic, students learn how space actually impacts the body. In the third topic, students learn how astronauts wash their hair, use the restroom, eat and exercise.

Mission 4 is titled "Colonizing Mars" and students work with their crewmates to learn how certain requirements for life will be addressed on Mars. Students also research other possibilities to address these requirements and sustain them. Each student is responsible for becoming an expert on one of the following: water, food, shelter, generating power, and waste management. For water and food, the students will first use the Mars One website to research what the plan is for obtaining water and what food will be provided. Students then have to research and suggest other feasible ways to obtain water and food. Students have to predict possible issues for the shelter based on its description from the Mars One website and determine what tools and preparations they need to make to repair any potential damage.Students then research various power source options and determine the pros/cons of each before suggesting the best way or a mixture of ways to obtain energy. Finally, for waste management, students have to propose a possible method to deal with food, trash, and human waste.

Mission 5 is titled "Colonizing Mars Model" and is when students create various views of their habitat. They must provide an aerial view, a detailed inside view of at least one section, a side view, and each student must discuss their portion from Mission 4. If the students choose to create a 3D model it must all be made out of recyclable materials. They are not allowed to purchase anything specifically for the model.

 

Prosper ISD Eagle Nation Online (ENO) Newspaper journalists earned the following awards:

UIL STATE ACADEMIC MEET -

Freshman Amanda Hare - State Champion Runner Up (Silver Medal) - Headline Writing

 

UIL INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE PRESS CONFERENCE -

The Eagle Nation Online Newspaper took a STAR AWARD - the highest given to publications.

This year ENO earned a Bronze STAR.  

 

The ENO student newspaper staff also claimed the following individual achievement honors:

FIRST PLACE "In-depth news/feature writing" honors went to this group, who worked together on a series of articles and photos:

Seniors Neha Madhira, Kester Muthalaly, and Nicole Miguez

Sophomores Katie Johnson, Haley Medeiros, Grace Williamson and Maddie Moats

Another team took 2nd place for headlines they had written throughout the year:

Senior Zach Markey

Junior Kennedy Wyles

Sophomores Katie Johnson and Grace Williamson

 

In addition, other individuals placed in these categories:

 

Sophomore Grace Williamson - Honorable Mention - Editorial Writing

Sophomore Grace Williamson - 2nd place - Sports News writing

Junior Kennedy Wyles - 2nd place - News writing

Junior Haley Stack - 2nd place - News feature

Junior Ana Arredondo - 3rd place - Sports News writing

Junior Ana Arredondo - 3rd place - Sports feature writing

Junior Ana Arredondo - Honorable Mention - General news Photo

Junior Ryan Stanley - Honorable Mention - Feature writing

Senior Kester Muthalaly - 3rd Place and Honorable Mention - Portraits

Senior Nicole Miguez - 2nd Place - Infographic/Sidebar

Senior Neha Madhira - 2nd place - Editorial Writing

 

Other students on the team who helped earn the STAR award include Junior Isabella Abraham and Senior Paige Ruder, both of whom also made it to UIL Regionals in Journalism, as well.

There are few places where you can hear an orchestra, experiment with electricity, look at a dissected frog, eat a deconstructed thin mint and learn to calculate math based on a ball’s movement. The Prosper ISD STEAM Expo is one such place. Prosper students and educators from across the district and from the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math came together on Thursday, April 25th at Prosper High School to demonstrate their learning for the community. Teachers and students alike were on hand to explain, demonstrate, teach, sell and perform helping others to learn from their knowledge and experience.

Well more than a thousand parents and students came to experience what STEAM has to offer. The band, thunder drums, choir and orchestra entertained throughout the evening and food trucks were available for STEAM attendees to enjoy. Voting was available for those wishing to exercise their right to vote in the most recent election which culminates on May 4th.

Prosper has committed to a STEAM focus beginning STEAM activities and classes in elementary schools before expanding to specific areas of study in the middle school and high school. The annual STEAM expo is a joint event developed with the cooperation of every campus as well as multiple departments from the Prosper ISD Central Office.

The Prosper Eagle Basketball team received confirmation of top honors of several players. Eleven Eagle players were notified that they were being recognized as members of the Academic All District team. The team members were recognized based upon their participation on the team as well as their academic success. Prosper Eagle Academic All District team members include: A. Allen, J. Davis, D. Holdge, C. Kingston, N. Ma, C. Reed, G. Shaw, K. Tolliver, N. Utrup, B. Willett, H. Young.