Foerster OK'd as Lady Marlins coach
BY DAN PARKER SOUTH JETTY REPORTER

The Port Aransas ISD Board of Trustees has approved hiring Stephanie Foerster to be the next coach of the Port Aransas High School Lady Marlins basketball team.

Foerster is head girls' basketball coach at Corrigan-Camden High School in East Texas.

Trustees voted during a meeting on May 15 to approve the hiring of Foerster, who had been recommended by a PAHS hiring committee made up of school employees.

Foerster replaces Randy Henderson, who has resigned to take a job coaching at Salado High School.

After graduating from Bishop High School in 1998, Foerster earned a Bachelor of Science in kinesiology from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi in 2001 and got a Master's Degree in educational administration in 2003 from TAMU-CC.

She taught and coached at Flour Bluff Junior High School for three years, then served as coach of JV girls basketball and other sports at Brewer High School in Fort Worth before moving on to Corrigan-Camden High School in Corrigan, about 30 miles south of Lufkin.

In addition to coaching varsity girls' basketball, Foerster, 27, serves as girls' athletic coordinator at CCHS and at Corrigan-Camden Junior High School. She also teaches algebra and pre-calculus at CCHS.

Foerster's teaching responsibilities at PAHS will involve supervising two groups of PAHS students: Those in District Alternative Education Placement (DAEP) and those in a NovaNET classroom.

DAEP, which typically involves a handful of students at PAHS, is for students who have been put in a classroom separate from other students for days at a time due to disciplinary problems.

NovaNET is computer software that allows students to accomplish a wide variety of tasks while working at a computer at their own pace and being supervised by a teacher. Some students might use it because they are in danger of dropping out of school, falling at least a year behind from failing courses.

NovaNET also can be used by students practicing for ACT and SAT college entrance tests. The software also can be used to get prepared for the state-mandated tests known as TAKS - the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills.