National Merit Semifinalists recognized by school board

Prachurjya Shreya, Managing Editor

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  • Redhawk National Merit Semifinalists from 2019 stand during a recognition ceremony during Monday night’s monthly school board meeting. Recognized for their high scoring performance on the PSAT, the seniors have the chance to score thousands in scholarship funds.

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  • Seniors Samy Boutouis, Shruti Bindingnavile, Kelly Sun, and Elizabeth Piper smile after being honored by FISD administrators.

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  • Seniors Lisa Punnen, Elizabeth Piper, and Kelly Sun hold their certificates given to them by the district for their National Merit achievement.

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  • Each National Merit semifinalist shook hands with representatives of the district. All students received a certificate after their names were called out individually.

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  • Senior Samy Boutouis smiles after being recognized at the FISD Administration meeting. 18 National Merit semifinalists from Liberty were honored at the meeting.

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  • A sign at the district headquarters displays Frisco ISD’s status as being named to the 9th Annual AP District Honor Roll. Talks about the online processing fee for AP test registration was among topics discussed at the meeting.

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It was a busy night at Monday’s monthly meeting of the Frisco ISD Board of Trustees with student recognitions and a proposal to change vendors for student payments just a couple of the numerous items on the agenda.

Among the student recognitions, were the school’s 18 National Merit Semifinalists, the most in the district.

“It was a proud moment for me, since I felt that a lot of my hard work had paid off,” senior Lisa Punnen said. “It was also very special to be standing next to a lot of my friends on that stage, which made me feel like we’d represented Liberty well.”

One item on the agenda could provide a financial savings to parents throughout the district as there will be a new way to pay for school meals and student related fees.

“The goal here was to reduce that processing fee,” Frisco ISD Chief Financial Officer

Kimberly Smith said to the board at Monday’s meeting. “If you remember a couple of years ago we started passing the processing fee along to parents and it’s been 3.89 percent for the past couple of years. The [new] vendor that they have selected and the fees that they’ve negotiated are now down to 3.5 percent which is kind of below the industry standard that we saw in the original responses and then they’ll be accepting electronic checks at no cost so parents can pay online via e-check.”

Details on the new payment system will be released by the Frisco ISD Communications Department during the months leading up to the 2019-20 school year.