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May 21, 2018 by admin

Jefferson ISD Students at Starr Ranch

Jefferson ISD Students joined us for a day of water testing and teamwork in canoes at Starr Ranch on Caddo Lake.

May 20, 2018 by admin

JISD Awarded Pollinator Pal Grant from TPWD

On May 1, Jefferson Independent School District was awarded a $49,752 grant from Texas Parks and Wildlife Department for the Pollinator Pals project. It will provide hands-on approaches to increase conservation stewardship through native plant seed collection, greenhouse propagation of seedling plugs, and installation of Monarch Butterfly and other pollinator habitat at Caddo Lake State Park and Wildlife Management Area (WMA) as well as at campus gardens and other selected areas.

Vanessa Neace explains to students how to plant trees at Caddo Lake WMA

Vanessa Neace, TPWD Wildlife Biologist for the WMA, is a critical partner since she maintains the environmental integrity of the WMA and keeps a watchful eye on everything that comes and goes.

The responsible TPWD grant program is called CO-OP for Community Outdoor Outreach Program. The grants help fund community-based youth and family outdoors-oriented programs and activities like camping, hiking, kayaking, and service project for which Pollinator Pals qualifies. This and many more CO-OP Grant sponsored programs will explore the best of outdoor Texas from the Canyons of Caprock, to the Mysteries of Caddo Lake. All along the way, participants will discover why life is better outside.

Volunteers prepare garden at a JISD Campus

CO-OP was funded by TPWD in 1996 to help introduce underserved populations to environmental education, conservation and outdoor education programs. Collins Academy’s Dr. Marnie Erin researched the grant opportunity, presented ideas to JISD Administration including the Curriculum Director Lynn Fratangelo, High School Principal Mike Walker, Junior High Principal Clint Coyne, Elementary Principal McGill, and Primary Campus Principal Lindsey Whitaker; and wrote and submitted the proposal.

A milkweed seedling from the JISD High School greenhouse

Collins Academy looks forward to working closely with JISD at all campuses to help deliver extraordinary learning and increased conservation stewardship to all its students.

May 9, 2018 by admin

Jefferson High School Students Mentor Kindergarteners for Restoration Project

Robert Haynes shows students how to make a seed ball.

The Jefferson High School Horticulture Class under the direction of Mr. Ryne Sikes partnered with 100 Kindergarten students at Jefferson’s Primary School on April 16 to produce over 1000 native wildflower seed balls. The high school students showed the younger students how to mix wildflower seeds with clay and compost to form golf ball sized spheres for dispersal on private property in Cass County as part of the Big Cypress Bayou Restoration Project. This is the second time this school year for such an activity.

Back in the fall, seed balls were made and sent to a four acre area at Brushy Creek at Lake O’the Pines where the high school team used them in habitat remediation for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Kindergarten students make seed balls with the help of high school mentors

The reason for the Cass County selection as a Pollinator Pal site is that it is at the headwaters of Frazier Creek which is the water quality comparator creek for Northeast Texas. The property also belongs to the Gene Weerts family. Michael Weerts, Gene’s son, is with the Texas Forest Service and fully understands the value in converting to wildlife habitat. In response, the Weerts family has sectioned off about 5 acres in the Midway Community as Pollinator Pal habitat. “With abundant springs and seeps right at the watershed divide, this is important acreage for studying the water quality here and comparing it to the entire system all the way down to where Jim’s Bayou enters Caddo Lake in Louisiana,” said Gary Endsley of Collins Academy.

The Weerts family has been on the Midway property for well over 100 years.

Species planted include host plants like milkweed, nectar sources such as sunflower, prairie verbena, purple cone flower, caryopsis, mealy blue sage, standing cypress, and liatris.

More plugs and seeds will be added in successive fall and spring augmentations in order to make the Midway site a conservation demonstration area and a great native seed source for future Pollinator Pal sites.

Horticulture students plant milkweed plugs they raised in their greenhouse.

May 4, 2018 by admin

The Junior Historians are B-A-C-K

After several years of dormancy, one of Jefferson ISD’S most popular, extra curricular programs is reorganizing, thanks to the efforts of Gary Endsley, Rob Barnwell, Mike Walker, Clint Coyne, Leslie Whitaker and Lynn Fratangelo. The group, originally organized in 1971, recently held its first student outing at Collins Academy in Jefferson. Collins Executive director, Gary Endsley, along with archaeologist Kari Dickson gave students an overview of anthropology and archaeology by explaining that anthropology is the scientific study of humans and their ancestors and archaeology uses artifacts to learn about human culture. Students viewed slides and learned about Jefferson’s rich cultural history, in their efforts to decide what project they will chose to pursue and study as members of the Jefferson Junior Historians, which is affiliated with the Texas State Historical Association. The students were then taken on-site to the Union Missionary Baptist Church, currently undergoing major renovation by Collins Academy, and will ultimately become a heritage center. The grounds surrounding the church have already yielded many artifacts of past cultures in the Jefferson area.

Students were divided into two groups and taught how to grid and dig an area, sift their diggings for artifacts, document their finding and how to clean and catalog them. Students participating included Adrianna Blanton, Illigre Idir, Dayne Johnson, Logan Bloodworth, Zoe Brown-Robinson, Tawny Foster, Caden Rutz, Makala Williams-Pierson and Joseph Woods.

The students were treated to lunch both days by Collins Academy founder Richard Collins, where they discussed the days events and compared themselves to Indiana Jones and CIS investigators.

April 27, 2018 by admin

Archaeology Informs Restoration

Physical evidence of “hurricane” type kerosene lamps with decorative cast iron in use at UMBC

Restoration of the 1883 UMBC structure involves a lot of discovery and adaptation. With a primary goal of protecting and maintaining existing materials, our very careful crew is doing a lot of repair and replacement using traditional or substitute materials. In some cases, archaeology on the site or in the walls is informing our restoration decisions. For example, electricity was not available until after the first quarter of the 20th Century. Kerosene lamps lit homes, businesses, and churches prior to the arrival of the Edison bulb. For those more able, decorative cast iron mountings with swing arms and reflectors were popular.

Kari Dickson, project anthropologist and archaeologist, posed this question early in the discovery work, “would the church have access to the decorative cast iron mountings and chimneys of the more stylish lamps of the period?”

During the excavations, artifacts uncovered answered this question. To support this, the decorative beaded rim of the glass chimney was also found. “With these finds, we are able to conclude that these more basic lamps would have been present in this space prior to the introduction of electricity,” stated Ms. Dickson.

Responding to findings, Ms. Dickson recommended the inclusion of the sconce lighting shown at right, which comes very close to the style actually found. These, outfitted with Edison LED “flicker” bulbs, will adorn the walls and provide a special effect for services or events at night.

In addition, while removing bead board for reuse, an old structural arch was discovered over the entrance to the sanctuary. After scrutiny with the known chronology of the structure, it has been determined by our General Contractor that the archway was original and was “matched” with an arch between and above the pulpit and choir loft.

This matching may have been completed when the 10 ft. extension was added to the sancturary.

The arch between the pulpit and the choir loft

Framing for hidden arch inside the front entrance

Both arches were rounded using plywood over 2 X 4 studs behind. The framing was all that was visible inside the front entrance. Again, what was found using architectural archaeology was incorporated into our renovation plan.