Enhancing Special Education at Argyle High School

For the past 20 years, Jeanna Sutton has taught students at Argyle High School about special education, English, student leadership and peer and leadership service and has enjoyed every minute of it.

“I love being with the kids. They are great,” she said. “We always tell people we have the best kids in the whole wide world. They are involved in so many things.

“We’ve won the Lone Star Cup 10 years in a row which is all about the kids. Of course, we’ve got the greatest teachers who inspire excellence but have amazing kids who work hard at everything. I love to watch a kid come in and mature. It’s a cool thing to watch kids grow.”

For the past 16 years, Sutton also has been the teacher sponsor/school mother of what started as the Challenge Day Club and since 2019 partnered with the Cross Timbers Rotary. It focuses on ways to help the school and community and has grown to about 100 students. The Cross Timbers Rotary even sends 1-2 to the annual Rotary Youth Leadership Academy.

“They approached us about starting a rotary club in Argyle and that’s what we were already doing,” Sutton said. “We were doing things for the community like Operation Christmas Child and Love Thy Neighbor where we collect coats and socks for our homeless veterans. Now it’s called Argyle High School Rotary CDC – with an official national number, etc.

“It’s been great. We meet once a week and our kids run the whole thing. They own it. I want them to see that serving our community is something they need to do and continue to do. An important part of being in a community is helping people.”

Current Rotary CDC President Brooke Botti sets the meeting agendas and challenges. These have included Duck Derby, Adopt a Highway, Special Olympics, middle school field days and taking special needs children to the Texas State Fair. The club also hosts an annual fundraising booth at Homecoming.

“It’s lots of fun. They’re always doing something,” Sutton said.

Sutton started her teaching career in the Denton ISD before taking 12 years off to raise her children and joining the Argyle ISD. She’s lived in Argyle since 1993 and has seen a lot of changes to the town and its education system.

“I always tell people we were Argyle before Argyle was cool,” she said. “We were here before the prices went skyrocketing. When my son started in Argyle ISD there were only four kindergarten classes with 12 kids in each. Now there are three different schools each with about 7-8 kindergarten classes.”