Quitman UIL students Allison Van Vleet, Lola Hayes and Ava Coventry had the QISD board and audience in tears from laughing so hard Monday evening. The students, who between them won 8 UIL awards this year, read three stories – Coventry’s about a new take on the Cinderella story, Hayes’ about what crayons would say if they could talk and Van Vleet’s about the three little pigs who had a very “robust” vocabulary.

UIL Coordinator Ashlee Lingo thanked staff and students for their hard work to help QISD host the 2025 UIL event. The school hosted five other schools, which meant several hundred students coming in for the event. The school won first place for academics.

“It was a big undertaking for our staff…. There’s no way we could have done it without a great team,” Lingo said.

The board is also getting a head start on the construction they hope will happen if Quitman ISD residents pass the board’s proposed $30 million bond. They voted to select a construction manager at risk for the project, and to allow Superintendent Chris Mason to meet with the QISD architect and write specifications, rubric and a time window for the projects. He will send out a request for qualifications for a CMR and should have results for the board to discuss in March. These actions, Mason said, will help streamline the construction process by several months, should the bond pass in the election on May 3.

The Top Dog Award was given to the Quitman Athletic Booster Club. According to QISD Coach and Athletic Director Shane Webber, the club has previously bought new golf clubs to help foster the golf program, purchased playoff t-shirts for students throughout the year and bought two new drags for the baseball and softball fields.

“Whenever things are needed, and money is tight, they seem to help out wherever they can,” said Webber.

Pledges were presented by student McKenna Wood, who is civically involved in her school and in the local community. Quitman Junior High is continuing a model United Nations program that they had instituted through the GT program. Mason noted that the school’s income was slightly under their budget for January due to COVID, flu and other sickness-related absences; however, he said they’ve rebounded. The board voted to pay hourly employees for the time school was canceled for bad weather Jan. 9 and 10. 

Coach Webber said that “our kids are strong all over the place,” and that they have 388 students in athletics from junior high through 12th grade.

The board voted to extend contracts, including the assistant superintendent, athletic director, federal programs director and all the assistant principals and principals.