Trish Hanks, the superintendent of Friendswood Independent School District, is the new president on the Texas Academic Decathlon Executive Board of Directors.
         Hanks will work with the officers to approve competition sites and budgets and hire personnel for Texas Academic Decathlon, one of the largest academic programs in the United States.
         Hanks represents Galveston County. Serving with her are the following officers: Vice President Rick Reedy from Frisco ISD, Secretary Thomas Randle from Lamar Consolidated ISD, Treasurer John Sawyer from Harris County Department of Education, and Immediate Past President John Folks from Northside ISD.
         The decathlon, a scholastic competition for high school teams, allows students to excel academically through challenging competitions against other schools. Teams progress through local, regional and state competitions to national finals.
         Each year, Texas Academic Decathlon competitors win $150,000 in scholarships.
         The board meets at the Texas Association of School Administrators/School Boards’ midwinter and summer conferences and fall convention.
         The Academic Decathlon program was initiated in California in 1968 by Orange County Academic Decathlon Association in cooperation with the Orange County Superintendent of Schools. Region contests were held until 1979 when California held the first statewide competition. In 1982, the competition became a national event and the USAD was formed. Texas became a USAD member in 1984 and won the national championship in Los Angeles with a team from J.J.Pearce High School, Richardson Independent School District. Pearce repeated as champions for the next two years. In the 16 years, Texas has participated in the competition, its teams have won 10 national championships, placed second four times and third twice.
         Region and state contests are held for schools categorized as large, medium and small. Based on a point system, the highest scoring team represents the state at the national USAD competition. All members of the winning team receive scholarships.
         The Academic Decathlon is designed to include students of three academic levels. Each nine-member team consists of three "A" students, three "B" students and three "C" students, perhaps never before motivated, perform the best. The Academic Decathlon is the only competition to award "C" students scholarships.
         Texas Academic Decathlon claims 11 national championship titles, five second-place honors and four third-place awards and one fifth-place in 21 years of competition at the United States Academic Decathlon meets. The year 2004 was a history-making year. A medium school, Friendswood High School, represented Texas at the USAD national competition.
         In other history making information, FHS won the Medium School State Championship in 1988 and then for 14 consecutive years from 1993-2006. Since 2007, the FHS teams have always placed in the top three for Medium Schools.