Katy ISD approves names for three new schools opening in 2017

The board of trustees unanimously approved the names of each school during its April 25 meeting.

Sixteen people spoke during the board’s open forum to tell trustees why the schools should be named after certain nominees.

Catherine “Gigi” Bethke, a retired KISD educator, was the first speaker to tell the board why she thought the high school should be named after Patricia Paetow.

“She was one of the most loved and respected administrators that Katy ISD has ever seen,” Bethke said

Paetow, who died of breast cancer in 2015, spent 28 years in KISD starting as an educational diagnostician. She was an assistant principal at Hutsell Elementary School, served as principal at Wolfe Elementary and Creek Elementary schools. She also worked as director of campus administration and support, area superintendent and assistant superintendent of administrative support.

Members of the Stockdick family spoke to the board wearing “Stockdick 1895” T-shirts. The speakers explained their history and the family’s role in education beginning with Adam Henry Stockdick.

Robert and Felice Bryant Elementary School was named after two retired KISD educators. Felice Bryant spent 25 years working at KISD. She was a kindergarten and first-grade teacher at Winborn and Katy elementary schools. Bob Bryant was the district’s executive director of fine arts and the band director at Katy High School.