(McKinney, TX Feb. 3, 2021)   —   A first-year teacher at Scott Morgan Johnson Middle School who left his job in the private sector to give back to the community is the latest recipient of the Trinity Falls’ MISD Staff Spotlight award.

Coyle Edmondson received $500 as the winner of the quarterly promotion that honors deserving teachers or staff members at the three schools serving the Trinity Falls-area community: Press Elementary, Scott Morgan Johnson Middle School and McKinney North High. Winners are chosen based on nominations by Trinity Falls residents.  

The seventh-grade English teacher left a successful career as a health insurance and employee benefits consultant to become an educator. 

“After working in consulting for a number of years, I felt like I wanted to give something back to the community,” Edmondson said. “I have always had a passion for mentoring and working with kids; this was a great way for me to fulfill my goals.”

He draws on his nine years of experience as a professional in the corporate world to stress the importance of being an excellent reader and writer. 

The biggest challenge, he said, is keeping the content engaging and interesting so that students can stay focused and continue to grow academically. 

“For writing exercises, we like to have students use things that they've read, observed, studied or experienced,” he said. “This absolutely includes comics, graphic novels or manga. I've found that the students are really excited about the source material and can use the recurring themes, plot, conflict and character analysis in comparative literature for their writing.”

Edmondson loves the energy and passion his students have for life.

“They are genuinely excited to be back in school (most days) and interacting with other kids,” he said. “It's also fun to hear about their hobbies and interests such as sports, video games and anime. They also teach me all the new and cool stuff. And it's really important to stay cool since I have a daughter.”

He plans to use his award money to expand his class library and add to the marvel/anime theme he has in his classroom. 

It is this approach to engaging students that led to his nomination by Trinity Falls residents Kevin and Abby Collins who said Edmondson had completely changed their son’s perspective on school.

“He does a great job connecting with his students and getting them to be engaged in English class,” they said in their nomination. “This award would allow him to grow his classroom and find additional opportunities to engage with this tough age group. We highly recommend him as he has made our son excited about going to school each day and we couldn’t be more thankful.”

Edmondson was surprised and excited to receive the award. 

“I felt completely humbled and honored to be considered for this award,” he said. “It absolutely made my year and is the single most fulfilling distinction I've received in my life.”

Trinity Falls students are zoned to Scott Johnson Middle School. Homes are priced from the mid $200,000s to the $700,000s.

For more information about Trinity Falls, visit www.trinityfalls.com. 

(McKinney, TX, Nov. 24, 2020)   —          Model homes in Trinity Falls will shimmer with holiday finery during the Tour of Trees event happening throughout December.

Ten of the 17 professionally decorated model homes in the community will be further decorated with Christmas trees and other seasonal accents. In addition, visitors on Dec. 5, 12 and 19 can stop by The Club at Trinity Falls, 7801 Trinity Falls Parkway, for free cups of gourmet hot chocolate and the chance to take photos at the decorated tree stationed there.

“Decorating our models for the holidays will hopefully inspire people in their own holiday décor,” said Natalie Rosser, Marketing Director for Trinity Falls. “Plus, it’s a way to remind people of the joy of the holiday season — something we can all use right now.”

Chesmar Homes, Coventry Homes, Del Webb, Drees Custom Homes, Highland Homes and Perry Homes offer designs from the mid $200,000s in Trinity Falls, located just northwest of McKinney. Models are open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday. All model homes are open, but Highland Homes requests visitors to make an appointment first.

The Club at Trinity Falls is part of a generous amenity package found in the community. The Club offers a pool, splash pad and indoor and outdoor gathering space. Basecamp has a playground and splash pad, while Monarch Park offers an additional playground and a Trike Track. Four-legged residents run leash-free at Old Joe Dog Park. The 350-acre B.B. Owen Park offers lakes, nature trails along the East Fork of the Trinity River and an 18-hole disc golf course. 

Under construction now is The Lodge, a recreation complex with a fitness center, lagoon-style pool, outdoor event lawn, food truck alley and more.

Participating model homes and more information about Trinity Falls can be found at www.trinityfalls.com.

(HOUSTON, TX – Nov. 16, 2020) —   Nearly 2 million. That’s not how many acres Johnson Development has developed or how many people live in Johnson communities — that’s how many trees have been planted or preserved in Johnson’s 18 active communities.

Tree preservation is one of the first considerations of development, said Larry Johnson, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer for Houston-based Johnson Development. 

“When we go to lay out a neighborhood or lay out design for arterial roadways, a surveyor first identifies trees in the path of development,” Johnson said. “We often adjust the location of a road or lots to avoid impacting valuable trees.”

In Sienna, efforts have been made to save several large trees estimated to be over 100 years old, including changing plans for roadways. The Missouri City community even won the Residential Development Project Award in the 2002 Community Forestry Awards sponsored by the Texas Forest Service. At that time, Sienna had already spent $250,000 toward tree preservation. An estimated 182,500 trees have been preserved in Sienna.

Johnson Development also went to great lengths in nearby Riverstone, including designing one neighborhood around a grove of pecan trees and devoting nearly six acres in the area to park space in efforts to preserve the trees. The neighborhood is fittingly called “The Orchard.” Approximately 27,000 trees have been preserved in Riverstone.

In both Sienna and Riverstone — and other Johnson Development communities — the land planners say where a home can be placed on a homesite and can move utilities to save trees.

Other efforts include marking trees to be saved with red tags so construction crews know what not to remove and bringing in arborists to address the health of prominent trees.

“With larger trees, we’ll bring in arborists to guide us in trimming the trees to improve their health, as well as focusing on the growth in the main body of the tree and addressing any health issues,” Johnson said.

In Veranda, Johnson Development’s newest community, efforts were made to save a tree estimated to be over 100 years old, even though arborists said survival chances were slim.

“We tried our best to save what we could, but there are a lot of items that factor into the survival of trees and some of them just do not make it,” said Trey Reichert, General Manager for Veranda.

This tree didn’t make it. But instead of chopping it down, the community hired a wood carver to turn it into a piece of art, preserving it in a different way.

Sienna isn’t the only Johnson community to see tree preservation counts climb into the six figures. Woodforest in Montgomery County has saved an estimated 150,000 trees.

“Woodforest, as the community name implies, is 3,000 acres of natural, native rich East Texas forest land,” said Virgil Yoakum Vice President and General Manager of Woodforest. “Nine hundred acres of the natural forest remains in a native forest preservation condition.  The master plan for Woodforest also includes, thus far, 400 acres of linear forest buffers along all major and minor collectors and neighborhood and town-wide park lands. We approximate that out of the 400 acres, 90 percent has been preserved in its natural forest condition, and 5 percent has been reforested, with the remaining 5 percent dedicated to park and playfields, aquatics and other amenities.”

Lake Arrowhead near Atlanta boasts about 400,000 trees in undeveloped areas of the 8,100-acre community. Grand Central Park in Conroe has the largest number of preserved trees — approximately 540,000 on 1,200 acres that will remain undeveloped. In all, more than 1.5 million trees have been preserved in Johnson communities.

A Plan for Planting

Efforts regarding trees don’t end with preservation, however. Johnson Development and community builders have diligently planted hundreds of thousands of trees in their communities, as well.

In the 3,200-acre Cross Creek Ranch, 70,000 trees have been planted, many along the restored Flewellen Creek. 

“Cross Creek Ranch was a pioneer in reforestation and sustainability and now other communities are following suit,” said Matt Baumgarten, Associate Principal with SWA Group, a landscape architecture, planning and urban design firm that has worked on several Johnson Development projects. 

Many of the trees planted in the community come from the 40-acre on-site tree farm that is typically home to about 2,500 trees of varying sizes at any one time, with the dominant varieties being live oak, bald cypress, loblolly pine, nuttall oak and red maple. The Fulshear community won the 2016 Arbor Award from Trees for Houston in recognition of the development’s commitment to a greener Houston. 

Deborah January-Bevers, President and Chief Executive Officer of Houston Wilderness says developers like Johnson Development are doing it right when it comes to planting trees.

“The trees they are planting are what we consider ‘super trees,’ and are the best choices when it comes to filtering out air pollution, water absorption and carbon absorption,” she said.

Both she and Baumgarten are part of the Tree Strategy Implementation Group working with the City of Houston’s Resilient Houston’s plan to plant 4.6 million trees by 2030.

“As the greater Houston region continues to recognize the critical importance of a variety of native tree species that exist in the region and the role they play in resiliency, the development community has been very supportive of those efforts and are engaged in working toward protecting native trees as much as possible or adding large amounts of trees in their communities,” January-Bevers said.

“Trees are our biggest assets here in Houston,” she said.

Johnson Development has planted more than 321,000 trees in its 14 Houston-area communities. Including communities in Austin, Atlanta and Dallas-Fort Worth, the developer has planted nearly 342,000 trees.

“Better developers practice this preservation and replanting strategy,” Johnson said. “It’s the sign of the quality of a community and it’s something home buyers appreciate.”

Established in 1975, Johnson Development has had more communities ranked among the top-selling than any other developer in the nation since 2014. It has also partnered with the Arbor Day Foundation in support of its Time for Trees initiative, an ambitious effort to plant more than 100 million trees by 2022.

For more information, visit www.johnsondevelopment.com.

The band director for McKinney North High School received a surprise recently when he was awarded a $500 donation from Trinity Falls.

Gary Barnard received $500 as the winner of Trinity Falls’ MISD Staff Spotlight award. The quarterly promotion takes nominations from residents of Trinity Falls for deserving teachers or staff members at the three schools serving the McKinney-area community: Press Elementary, Scott Morgan Johnson Middle School and McKinney North High.

Barnard was caught completely off guard when Principal Jae Gaskill and Trinity Falls Marketing Director Natalie Rosser showed up to band rehearsal and presented him with the gift. 

“I’m not 100 percent sure yet what to do with the funds,” Bernard said. “I’ve asked for student input. We all seem to think investing in items to help with logistics and efficiency would be a great way to spend the money.”

Shannon Pierce, who nominated Barnard, said he creates a positive atmosphere for band members. 

“He came to us after school let out for the year and fully immersed himself in getting our students ready for competition season,” she said in her nomination.

Barnard has been a teacher for 14 years, but this is the first year he has taught at McKinney North. Prior to joining the district, he spent time in Carroll ISD, Denton ISD and Birdville ISD.

“This community is very special,” he said.  “I’ve only been here a short time, but the warmth and supportive nature of the staff, parents and students is tangible.  It is an awesome place to experience high school.”

He says he is blessed to be able to share his passion with his students. 

“Band has a special place in my heart,” he said. “I’m not sure what I’d be doing for a living if it wasn’t for music and band. Music has brought so many special people into my life and allowed me to see so much of the world. Being a band director has been a life-changing experience.”

Barnard played tuba and guitar in high school and at the University of Texas at Arlington where he graduated Magna Cum Laude with a degree in music, He went on the get a master’s in Educational Administration from the University of North Texas.

He believes the arts provide a safe place for students to flourish and grow.

“The arts teach and foster creativity, teamwork, discipline, self-discovery and patience,” he said. “Work done in art classes absolutely transfers to core classes. The work we do in the band hall prepares students to be highly functioning members of the community.”

In the end, it his students that make it all worthwhile. 

“I love how kind, dedicated, curious and humble they are,” he said. “How they truly care for each other and truly enjoy making music.”

Trinity Falls is located just northwest of McKinney a few minutes from McKinney North High School. Ten builders offer homes priced from the $230,000s to the $600,000s. 

Learn more about Trinity Falls.

Hundreds of area residents gathered in Trinity Falls last Saturday to launch lanterns onto Lake Serenity and raise $2,500 for The Warriors Keep during Hometown Lights.

During the outdoor event, partygoers could write names of loved ones and words of contemplation on the lanterns before lighting them and floating them on the lake. Hundreds of lanterns were launched.

“It was a very elegant and beautiful evening,” said Natalie Rosser, Marketing Director for Trinity Falls. “And what made it even more special was helping our veterans, especially on the heels of commemorating 9/11 just a few days earlier.”

Proceeds from the event benefit The Warrior’s Keep, a non-profit organization providing outdoor therapy to veterans who have difficulty reconnecting socially.

“We’re honored to be partnered with such an amazing company and community that believes in our mission,” said John Hardin, Executive Director of The Warrior’s Keep. “Proceeds raised from the Hometown Lights event will go toward supporting our Outdoor Adventure Therapy for Heroes (O.A.T.H.) program.”

Local restaurant rye craft food & drink served up a variety of lite bites, including Vietnamese Barbacoa Tacos, Southwest Smoked Chicken Sliders, Burnt Orange & Bourbon Pork Belly Skewers, Japanese Elotes and French Toast Styx. The evening’s drink menu served up an Old Fashioned, Moscow Mule, beer and wine. Local jazz musician Corey Breedlove performed. 

Lake Serenity is one of several lakes located within Trinity Falls, which is found just northwest of McKinney along the banks of the East Fork of the Trinity River. Residents enjoy a growing slate of amenities, including access to the 350-acre B.B. Owen Park. Nine builders offer homes priced from the mid $200,000s. Learn more at www.trinityfalls.com.