Hello Cadets!
I would like to thank all of you for your patience as we navigated another winter weather advisory in the central Texas area. When an event such as this occurs, it means some late nights and very early mornings for some of our staff members as we monitor the conditions in our area and drive the roads to ensure the safety of our students and staff. The National Weather Station for our area has been beneficial in the past few weeks. As they shared in our call last night, the central Texas area generally experiences winter weather through February, so don’t pack up your winter attire just yet!
Although we are experiencing freezing temperatures, our Cadets at all levels are heating things up on the court, the field, the auditorium, and the classroom this week! Our Connally Junior High UIL academic teams have been competing in a virtual academic competition. The students compete in their events on campus under the supervision of a Connally administrator. The results are scored and submitted to the virtual platform to see how they measure up against the other districts participating in the same events. The invitational meet is an excellent opportunity for our students to practice their events before the district UIL competition scheduled for February 7th at Connally High School.
In addition to the academic competition, the junior high One Act Play will compete in district-level competition this Saturday, January 25th, at Connally High School. The competition begins at 11:00am. The schools will compete in the following order:
Gatesville
Connally
Robinson
Hillsboro
Lorena
China Spring
Each performance will run between 30 to 50 minutes with a short reset period in between, so come early if you want to see a performance, and don’t be late! Once a school begins their performance, guests will not be permitted to enter the auditorium until the performance is over.
I encourage you to come see our young thespians in action as they compete in their district competition.
Our athletic teams are also very busy this week. The girls’ and boys’ basketball teams will play China Spring tonight beginning at 5:00pm. Both the girls’ and boys’ JV blue teams start at 5:00 in the admin and high school gymnasiums. At 6:15 the boys’ JV white team will play in the admin gym and the varsity girls will play in the main gym. The boys’ varsity basketball team will wrap up the evening in the main gym with their game starting at 8:00. These teams will play in Robinson on Friday. The junior high basketball teams will play the La Vega Pirates at home on Thursday.
While our basketball teams are hard at work indoors, our soccer teams will be braving the cold tonight in China Spring. The girls game starts at 4:00 and is followed by the boys at 6:00. Both of these teams will play Lorena at home on Friday, January 24th. It is a night like tonight that they need the support from their fans to keep them going.
The baseball team will host the preseason parent meeting tomorrow night in the multi-purpose lecture hall beginning at 6:00pm. Saturday will be a very busy day to end the busy week for many of our Cadets. The powerlifting team will compete in Gatesville, the softball team will be hosting a Hit-A-Thon, and our JROTC is participating in the Waco Drill Competition.
Tonight the high school campus is hosting a FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) Night for all senior parents. All college bound students, regardless of income, who want to be considered for federal, state, or other college/university financial aid programs must complete a FAFSA. This includes all grants, scholarships, loans, and work study programs. High school students generally are classified as dependent students. Therefore parent information is needed to complete the application for student aid, so parents are highly encouraged to attend the meeting. For more information on the FAFSA process, please visit this link: https://studentaid.gov/h/apply-for-aid/fafsa
This month is Texas School Board Appreciation month. The Connally ISD Board of Trustees is composed of seven elected individuals who reside within the district. The members of the board dedicate a great deal of time and energy to making decisions in the best interest of our students. These are unpaid elected positions in our community. Annually two to three seats on the board appear on the May election ballot. If you are interested in appearing on the May 2025 Connally ISD School Board of Trustees ballot, you can pick up an application from Ms. Rebekah Els in the Connally ISD administration building. For more information, you can call her at (254) 296-6460 or email her at rels@connally.org. Applications for a place on the ballot are due before 5:00pm on Friday, February 14, 2025. The next regular school board meeting is scheduled for Monday, February 17, 2025 at 6:30pm.
Stay warm!
Jill Bottelberghe
Superintendent
