Greetings Cadets!
We are entering the final month of the 2024-2025 school year! It is hard to believe that the Class of 2025 will walk that stage at graduation in only three weeks. However, this is still too much to accomplish and celebrate between now and the May 16th graduation. We should be wrapping up STAAR testing this week. In May, all students and staff will not attend school on Friday. This is the only month when all students and staff do not attend school on Friday.
Over the weekend, CHS students participated in the Regional Academic UIL competition at Stephen F. Austin University. They had impressive performances, with some advancing to the state Academic UIL competition. Here are the results from the academic competition:
News Writing:
Glynn McDaniel- 1st place
Sarah Hunsucker- 5th place
Prose/Poetry Interpretation:
Israel "Friend" Pena - 3rd place
Alejandro Lujan - 4th place
Headline Writing:
Jocelyn Castillo- 2nd place
Informative Speaking:
Trenton Nemec- Unbreakable 3-way tie for first place! In the draw, he received 3rd, but is advancing to the state competition.
CHS placed 3rd as a journalism team and 4th place as a speech team.
These students and their academic coaches have worked hard and will continue to do so through the State Academic UIL Competition. Please congratulate them when you see them!
I shared that our FFA students were attending their first convention and competition last Monday. For their first time to compete at this level, they did remarkably well! Please join me in congratulating them on a solid showing for Connally. Individual award recipients were as follows:
Floriculture CDE- placing 8th in the district and 25th in our area: Kiviana Ridge, Alecia Sharp, Brieona Henderson and Kembre Clark
Nursery Landscape CDE- placing 2nd in the district and 16th in the Area: Jackson Gipson, Maddie Whitley, John Coker
Milk Quality CDE- placing 2nd in the district and 12th in the area: Roy Hitt, Brayden Driskell, Atticus Thomas
Meat CDE: Noel Alvarado, Bryan Hooper, Clyde Brewington, Alfredo Aguado
Prepared Public Speaking- Maddie Whitley in the Ag Tech and Communications placing 4th at district
Extemporaneous Speaking- Malakai Sterling placing 2nd at district and advancing to AREA!!
Talent: Alecia Sharp represented Connally FFA and sang two songs
The CHS Barbeque teams will travel to Burnet High School next weekend to compete in the State BBQ Competition. Many students have honed their BBQ skills and offer fierce competition to many others. Last year, they advanced to the National BBQ competition, and I am sure their success will be demonstrated once again this weekend. Good luck to our Cadet Q!
I shared last week the list of track athletes advancing the to the state track meet beginning on May 1st. There is also a very special recognition for our very own Coach Lisa Baucom at the state competition on May 1st. Coach Baucom is being recognized with a UIL Sponsor Excellence Award. She is one of the very few who could be recognized in athletics or academics, as she has coached many of our students in the classroom and on the track. UIL will recognize her on Thursday evening for her coaching excellence. Coach Baucom is also one of our Master Teachers recognized under the Teacher Incentive Allotment. Her hard work and dedication to the students of Connally ISD are unmatched, and we appreciate all she does for our students and school community!
On Tuesday, April 28th, the Cadets Athletic Booster Club will meet at 6:00 in the multipurpose room of the field house. We encourage everyone to become involved in supporting our student athletes, no matter how young or old. If you have or will have student athletes, now is the time to become involved with the booster organization to assist with making plans to support the efforts of our student athletes and programs. Becoming a member early this year may have some perks! Come find out how you can be involved and possibly get a pass to all home athletic events for the 2025-2026 school year.
The May election is this Saturday, May 3rd. You can still early vote through Tuesday, April 28th. This is your opportunity to make your voice heard regarding who represents you as a member of the Connally ISD school community.
Have a great week, Cadets!
Jill Bottelberghe
Superintendent
