Dance director Brooke Lowden was awarded the superintendent Coin of Excellence by Eric Wright, the superintendent on Monday, April 26 in a surprise arrival to the dance class. A person can be nominated for the Coin of Excellence by students, parents, co-workers, and by supervisors for singular accomplishments or for successfully making a difference for students over time and for adding value to the district and community, Mr. Wright said in an email.
“I think I was nominated by Patty Moreno because of the girls’ success at a nationals dance competition in Florida, it’s called Dance Team Union,” Lowden said. “It’s a highly competitive national competition, and they’ve been in the top ten the past two years against some pretty amazing teams.”
Lowden, who has been the dance director since the school’s opening, has known Moreno since 2020 and has recently been working with her to get the new addition to the fine arts wing built.
“I think I’m going to keep it here in my office, for sure,” said Lowden. “I’m pretty proud of it.”
Presley Ferguson has been the manager for three years and has gotten to know Lowden.
“I feel like she’s taught us a lot of morals and just encouraged us and that has brought up everyone’s motivation and love for what they do,” Ferguson said. “Not only is she a good teacher and good at what she does, but she’s also an amazing person. I really like what she stands for and the hard work she puts into everything. She’s more than just a teacher, she’s a mother figure.”
Ferguson manages the team by working on costumes, playing the music they dance to, recording their performances, getting batons for football games, and providing them with snacks, food and first aid.
“I admire her ability to be caring about everybody and care about the program. She makes sure that everyone is seen and it’s not just one person doing everything, it’s the whole team doing everything together,” Ferguson said.
Lowden hasn’t just made a difference in her long time students, she’s also made a difference in her new students, like Krislyn Sanchez, a freshman dance student.
“Her accomplishments that I think she made to receive this award was not only dance related, but just making challenges for us, getting more notice by the [school] board because I feel like they just push dance away at most schools and they just focus on football,” Sanchez said. “They don’t realize we do, so I think that the spring show showed us and showed everybody that went to the spring show that we don’t just do football game;, we do more stuff than that.”
Sanchez has been in dance for one year already and she already performed at every event.
“I am glad to have Ms. Lowden as a teacher because she teaches us more than just dance, more human skills and skills that will be beneficial in the real world and I’m just grateful to have her,” Sanchez said.
Lowden said it was a complete surprise when Wright showed up to award her with the coin.
“[So, Ms. Lowden is the Hays CISD showcase employee of the week because] of the wonderful program that you guys have created over here,” Mr. Wright said in the YouTube video presenting Ms. Lowden with the coin. “Y’all are a shining star for Johnson High School and for Hays CISD.”
Her nominator, Moreno also had a few words when it came time to present the award to Ms. Lowden.
“This past spring, we’re so proud of the ladies, the Rosettes did, especially at DTU [Dance Team Union] in Florida. They placed second in their lyrical routine, fourth in jazz, ninth in hip-hop, and top ten in the whole program,” Moreno said. “And we are just so proud of all the things that you do, as far as contest wise.”
Although she was the recipient of the award, she believes another group in the school may be unrecognized for the award.
“I feel like a lot of times, most of the recognition does need to go to the core teachers because of how hard they work with the students, trying to get them to learn and be educated and pass all their classes,” Lowden said.
Overall, Lowden is glad that the fine arts program was recognized for the award and plans to leave the coin on her computer surface.
“I feel like it’s not very often that fine arts is really recognized, so I’m pretty proud of it,” Lowden said. “So I think I’m going to keep it here in my office.”
