Ben Estlack

The sky is the limit for science, technology, engineering, and math educational efforts for Clarendon High School and four other schools in the Texas Panhandle.

Through $1,000 grants provided by Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS), the managing and operating contractor for Pantex, the schools will soon be advancing STEM education with projects ranging from robotics to drones. These grants fund STEM activities in the classroom and represent one of the many ways Pantex is investing in the development of the future workforce.

Pantex Education Outreach Specialist Darla Fish visited CHS Monday afternoon to present the $1,000 check to science teacher Timothy Leeper.

Leeper’s students will study drones and learn about education opportunities and occupations related to operating and designing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). CHS students will also be qualified to take the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Unmanned Aircraft Systems Drone Knowledge Test, receiving a two-year license for UAV operations in a variety of fields.

This year’s other grant recipients and projects are as follows:

Boys Ranch High School students will use four programmable drone sets to learn piloting, foundations of coding, and how to use the engineering design process to solve real-world challenges. Students will experience the role that technology and automation play in our world, and market themselves and the application of their skills to various career fields.

Fort Elliott CISD has already implemented robotics and engineering into the curriculum, and will use its grant to increase these programs and advance STEM opportunities for upper elementary students. This grant will help purchase coding design skill cards, coding robot sets, and STEM Bins.

Pampa High School’s program will instruct students how a computer works and how to repair a Personal Computer. It can be downloaded onto classroom computers, supporting an unlimited number of users. The application will instruct Principles of IT, Computer Maintenance, and Practicum of IT classes, using gamification to apply gaming strategies, improve learning, and create an engaging environment.

Rogers Elementary project in Amarillo is to offer students more opportunities in critical thinking, problem solving, and creativity. They will be tasked to collaborate with their peers, improve social skills, and work together through engineering and coding challenges. Students will gain knowledge of the four pillars of computation thinking: decomposition, pattern recognition, abstraction, and algorithms.

The goal of the CNS grants is to foster advancement of STEM activities in the classroom and to help develop Pantex’s future workforce. This is the second year that Pantex has offered STEM classroom grants to Amarillo and the top 26 counties of the Texas Panhandle.

Dozens of submissions were received and evaluated by a panel of knowledgeable employees at Pantex. The group carefully reviewed all the applications and narrowed the impressive list down in order to recommend the five winners.

“To help increase the number of young men and women entering STEM fields, Pantex has offered region-wide grants for the last couple years,” Fish said. “Often times, these successful students become part of the Pantex workforce as we are continually searching for talented professionals to join us in our ongoing mission of securing the nation.”

New members will be joining the Clarendon school board and the Hedley City Council following last Saturday’s local elections.

Former elementary principal Mike Word will join the Clarendon CISD Board of Trustees after he and incumbent Chrisi Tucek were chosen by voters in a three-person race to fill two positions.

Word had 191 votes, Tucek received 166 votes, and Ginnie Siefkas had 20.

In Hedley, six candidates were running for three positions on the city council. Challenger Tanya White Gibson was the top vote getter with 35 and will join the council with incumbent aldermen Trisha Chambless and Jennifer Floyd, who had 29 and 27 votes respectively. Also running were incumbent Alicia Hanes with 18 votes, Calvin Holland with 18 votes, and Christine Coyle with 15.

Voters in the City of Clarendon voted widely in favor of reauthorizing the quarter-percent sales tax for street maintenance by a margin of 111 to 30.
Clarendon residents first approved the street maintenance tax in 2019. The levy raises about $60,000 per year, which is directed toward street repairs and improvements.

Three city candidates were unopposed on the ballot and received the following votes: Mayor Jacob Fangman 131, Alderman Terri Floyd 126, and Alderman Eulaine McIntosh 93.

Donley County Sheriff Butch Blackburn is issuing a warning to parents and teens this week about the use of illegal vehicles on city streets.

The sheriff says with the end of school getting close, he is concerned that the growing problem will get only worse if parents don’t take action.

“Side-by-sides, golf carts, four-wheelers, and dirt bikes are all illegal on city streets,” Blackburn said. “Parents need to find a different place for kids to ride these toys.”

Blackburn says he doesn’t want to see anyone get hurt and his office will be cracking down on these violations.

Voters will head to the polls this Saturday, May 6, for elections for the cities of Clarendon and Hedley and the Clarendon Consolidated Independent School District.

Early voting closed Tuesday; and by 4:00 p.m., election officials in Hedley reported 21 people had cast early ballots while 112 people had cast ballots at the Donley County Courthouse Annex for the city and CCISD.

On the Clarendon CISD ballot, voters will select two school board members from among three candidates – incumbent Chrisi Tucek is joined on the ballot by candidates Mike Word and Ginnie Siefkas.

Clarendon residents will decide for or against reauthorizing the one-quarter cent sales tax for street maintenance. The tax is already in place but must be reauthorized by voters periodically. It raises about $60,000 per year that is dedicated to street maintenance.

The Clarendon city ballot also includes the candidacies of Mayor Jacob Fangman and Aldermen Terri Floyd and Eulaine McIntosh. Those candidates are all unopposed.

Hedley has six candidates running for three positions on the city council. Incumbents Trisha Chambless, Alicia Hanes, and Jennifer Floyd are facing challengers Christine Coyle, Calvin Holland, and Tanya White Gibson
Polling Saturday for the City of Clarendon and Clarendon CISD will be in the Donley County Courthouse Annex from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., and Hedley voters cast ballots at Hedley City Hall also from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Election results will be posted Saturday evening on ClarendonLive.com and Facebook.com/TheEnterprise.

Small nonfarm businesses in Donley County and seven neighboring counties are now eligible to apply for low interest federal disaster loans from the US Small Business Administration, according to Director Tanya N. Garfield of SBA’s Disaster Field Operations Center-West.

These loans offset economic losses because of reduced revenues caused by drought in the following primary county that began April 11, 2023.

Donley County is the primary county for the relief. Neighboring counties include Armstrong, Briscoe, Carson, Collingsworth, Gray, Hall, and Wheeler.

“SBA eligibility covers both the economic impacts on businesses dependent on farmers and ranchers that have suffered agricultural production losses caused by the disaster and businesses directly impacted by the disaster,” Garfield said.

Small nonfarm businesses, small agricultural cooperatives, small businesses engaged in aquaculture and most private nonprofit organizations of any size may qualify for Economic Injury Disaster Loans of up to $2 million to help meet financial obligations and operating.