People, Places & Events

Miss Kemp contest to be held at July Fest
Monitor Staff Reports
KEMP–Five young ladies have thrown their hats into the ring for the title of Miss Kemp.
The event is part of the Kemp July Fest, Saturday.
Contestants will ride in the parade that starts at 2 p.m.
Interviews with the contestants begin at 2:30 p.m., and a talent show is set for 6 p.m. An evening gown competition concludes the day’s activities at 8 p.m. followed by the crowning of Miss Kemp at the new city park pavilion.
The youngest contestant is 13-year-old Amber Tatum. She is a freshman at Kemp High School and has been Student Council president. She has participated in volleyball, basketball and running track.
Tatum’s hobbies include singing, attending church and participating in church activities, and being with friends.
Samantha Hulick is a senior at Kemp High School and is a Kemp resident. She participates in extracurricular activities with the FCCLA, BETA Club, Spanish Club and Student Council.
Hulick qualified for state competition with the Business Professionals of America and recently received the Board of Director’s Award.
She’s traveled to Europe as a student ambassador for People to People and have been an active member in the National Honor Society and Who’s Who Among American High School students since her freshman year.
This past spring, she competed in UIL events and power lifting competitions.
Meagan Lacy, 17, is the daughter of Sandra Lacy and the late Ben Lacy. She’s lived in Kemp all her life and attended Kemp ISD since kindergarten. She currently serves as the head cheerleader for Kemp High School, with four years of cheering squad experience with both Junior Varsity and Varsity teams.
She has also played volleyball and varsity basketball for three years and ran track for the varsity team the past three years.
She is currently a member of the Business Professionals of America, BETA Club and National Honor Society. She has also been a member of the Superintendent’s Student Advisory Council for the past two years.
Honors and awards include All-American Cheerleader for the past three years, Who’s Who Among High School Students, Academic All District varsity basketball for three years, All-District “Freshman of the Year,” 2005 for varsity basketball, along with “Defensive Player of the Year,” two years, and KHS “Female Athlete of the Year” for 2005.
Her classmates have voted Lacy “Best Dressed” and “Most Athletic” three years running. She has also served one year as class president. A senior this year, Lacy hopes to attend Texas A&M upon graduation in pursuit of a business degree.
Hillary Ables, 17, is the daughter of Christi Neal and Andy Ables.
Hillary is a KHS senior and has attended Kemp ISD since kindergarten.
She has participated on the junior varsity cheerleading squad as a freshman, has been a varsity cheerleader the past two years, and is now the assistant head cheerleader.
She has been a member of the Student Council for two years and the vice-president of her sophomore class.
She has taken part in UIL academic competitions for the past three years and is a member of the Business Professionals of America, the BETA Club, Spanish Club, Who’s Who Among High School Students, and she is an honor student.
Hillary plans to study occupational therapy at Baylor University after graduation.
Chelsey Mulvany, 17, is the daughter of Melissa Mulvany and Chris Harris and a senior at Kemp High School. She has made the “A” team for Freshman and Sophomore basketball, and the Varsity basketball team her junior year.
She has also participated in track for three years. While attending Plano ISD, she was involved in theatre for one year and Heath Occupations Students of America for two years.
At Kemp her activities include Business Professionals of America, National Honor Society and BETA Club. She has been enrolled in honors and advanced placement courses.
She received the 2007-08 varsity basketball sportsmanship award and best in Spanish I in the same year. She also received Academic All-District her junior year, and best all-around in English her freshman year.
Extracurricular activities include volunteering after school for the Adopt-a-Highway cleanups, fund-raising and participating in the Leukemia and Lymphoma Light-the-Night Walk and making crafts for the Autism festival.
Upon graduation, Chelsey plans to attend Texas Tech, earn a degree in nursing and join the National Guard as a medic.

Gasoline costs negatively impact
Kemp School District
By Barbara Gartman
Monitor Staff Writer
KEMP–Gasoline prices have increased the cost to bus students, and raised the price of almost everything the Kemp Independent School District buys.
But even worse, it has affected the district’s average daily attendance (ADA), the number the state uses to provide funding to the district.
Tuesday, KISD trustees sat quietly as they heard the ADA report.
“Parents are moving closer to their jobs,” Superintendent Dr. Peter Running said.
The district’s 2007-08 budget was based on 1,573 students. But the actual total was 1,519, about 54 students less than anticipated, he explained.
The state pays districts $3,500 per student, he added, leaving the revenue coming to the district almost $190,000 short of what was anticipated.
Business manager Kim Johnson said the district is about where she expected it to be at this point.
The district received a bit more than $12 million in revenue, and most bills were within an estimated range – except for the fuel bill.
Transportation director Dewey Haley said the district has about a 180-mile radius to cover, the longest bus trips of any area school district.
In other business, trustees:
• discussed standing water on the track with Fisher Tracks southern operation manager Victor Quiroga.
“The track is porous and water is supposed to be absorbed. We need to wait until there’s a period of dry weather to check it out,” he added. “I want to take a deeper look into the sprinklers.”
Haley said the water from the sprinklers is spraying right onto the track.
“The contractor is coming out to re-aim the sprinkler heads,” he said.
• heard a tax collection report from Johnson.
“As of May 31, 85.3 percent of the current taxes were collected,” she said.
Kaufman County Tax Collector/Assessor Dick Murphy and county tax attorney Jess Brown were on hand to answer questions as to why the KISD’s tax collection rate is so much lower than other local school districts.
Murphy brought a list of the 2007-08 top 20 delinquent taxpayers and then another list of 160 delinquent taxpayers.
“Some are already involved in tax lawsuits,” Murphy said.
“When it comes to tax collecting, Kemp has the lowest rate,” Trustee Steve Greenhaw said, and asked Murphy to rationalize that fact for him.
Kemp ISD has more senior citizens, Murphy said, thus more people are paying out their taxes in installments.
“But, by the end of the year, it should even out. I have looked at it (the problem) but I cannot rationalize why,” he said.
Trustees discussed printing delinquent names in the paper, but no decisions were made.
Brown said letters to delinquent taxpayers are being mailed from his office in July.
• approved a 5 percent raise for non-contract employees.
Teachers, librarians and nurses will receive the state-mandated pay increase.
• agreed to switch to a per diem system for teachers and students when they travel, instead of requiring receipts for meals and lodging.
• increased lunch prices for the 2008-09 school year.
Student breakfast cost will increase 25 cents to $1, and lunches for grades four through 12 will increase by 50 cents to $2.
Adult lunches will be increased to $3.
• heard Chartwell food service was approved by the state.
• awarded a contract to install speakers on the football scoreboard to Universal Times Equipment company.

Zoology Class 101


Monitor Photos/Pearl Cantrell
ABOVE: Wildlife educator Allison Blankenship holds a fennec fox for children
to pet during a visit with the traveling Zooniversity at The Library at Cedar Creek
Lake June 24. This exotic fox lives in the Sahara Desert, borrows up to 20 feet deep
during the day and with the aid of its “ear-conditioning” stays cool deep underground.
It hunts only at night, running up to 30 mph on fur-bottomed splayed feet and using
its enormous eyes. It makes the worst house pet, needing its cage cleaned at least four
times a day. BELOW: Faith Spratt reaches out to pet Ellie, a red-tailed boa constrictor
from South America, who was abandoned on an empty Dallas garage for a year. “She’s
surprisingly tame and gentle considering the poor treatment she has had from humans,”
Blankenship said.