Bradley-Bourbonnais Community High School is proud to announce the 2024 class of Advanced Placement (AP) Scholars. This year, a total of 73 students were recognized for their exceptional performance on AP exams. Since 2021, BBCHS has grown in students receiving this recognition from 31 in 2021 to 73 in 2024.

Of the 73 students, 50 were named AP Scholars, 12 were named AP Scholars with Honor, and 11 were named AP Scholars with Distinction. AP Scholars are students who receive scores of 3 or higher on three or more AP exams. AP Scholars with Honor are students who receive an average score of at least 3.25 on all AP exams taken, and AP Scholars with Distinction are students who receive an average score of at least 3.5 on all AP exams taken.

BBCHS congratulates all of the 2024 AP Scholars and recognizes their impressive accomplishments. We also congratulate the teachers who worked hard to provide them learning experiences that helped them achieve these accomplishments.

We want to give a huge congratulations to Hayden Berens, who is an AP Scholar with Distinction. She took 8 AP Exams, and scored a 5 on all of them. This means that Hayden got PERFECT scores on every one of her AP Exams. We are so proud of you, Hayden! Excellent job!

We had the honor and pleasure of hosting Trevor Ragan to come and talk to our staff and students for two days. He is a keynote speaker who has experience working with the USA Olympic Volleyball team, Microsoft, Target, and other prominent organizations worldwide. He is also the founder of the Learner Lab, which is an educational website designed to unpack and share the science of learning and development.

Trevor held sessions with administrators, teachers, students, and even some parents at the Fall Academic Awards. We were able to learn more about growth mindset and how to overcome stress, fear, and discomfort.

Students and parents gathered for a night in the auditorium to celebrate their accomplishments in the classroom last year! These students all had a 3.0 GPA or higher - congratulations!

BBCHS had a great month celebrating Hispanic Heritage and honoring all of the staff and students who have Hispanic backgrounds. The Latino Student Union hosted lots of fun events to celebrate, including a door decorating contest, lunch sales (stickers, jibbits, shirts, bracelets, etc.), a Latino student picture on the football field, Hispanic trivia, Hispanic Heritage Month Spirit Day, and a Latino film showing!

In Mrs. Katzmann's Astronomy class, students built two types of telescopes. The astronomical telescope was used for seeing far distances in the sky, such as the moon and the stars. The terrestrial telescope allowed them to see near objects, such as birds, treetops, and other distant objects on earth. What a fun way to learn more about astronomy and the capabilities of telescopes!

A brand new group of student journalists at BBCHS made their debut on October 25th in their digital school newspaper, the BBCHS Boiling Point! They wrote three different news stories about various topics: "New Year, New You", "Minecraft Movie on Rough Terrain with Fans", and "Social Advancements Seen in BBCHS Sports". If you would like to read these stories and the new ones to come, please use the link below to visit their digital newspaper!

We held our parent-teacher conferences this past Wednesday night. It was a great experience for our faculty and staff to meet their students' parents and talk about each individual's progress in their classes. We are confident that this will help our students achieve at a higher level. Thank you to all the teachers, faculty, and staff for taking a night to connect with our parents, and thank you to all of the parents and guardians that came to talk to your child's teacher(s) for the betterment of their education.

Mrs. Keller and her Boiler Block students have been taking part in an enrichment program called "Friends with Pens". At the beginning of this program, a high school student was paired with a student from Mrs. Peak's 2nd grade class at Alan B. Shepard Elementary School. They've engaged in various activities, including reading stories, creating goodie bags, and meeting virtually!

Last Friday was their first time meeting their friends through a video call! They introduced themselves and played a fun game of "Would You Rather?" The second-graders were thrilled to open the goodie bags prepared by their high school friends!

Alan B. Shepard hosted "Literacy Night" this past Tuesday. We had 5 volunteers that helped students and parents all night, while also having lots of fun with them!

Mrs. Keller and Mrs. Peak have many more exciting activities planned for this group. They are currently preparing to do a virtual phonics lesson with the second-graders and getting ready for a virtual show-and-tell!

There were 30 new applicants who desired to be a part of Bettering Boilers this year! Students who were a part of Bettering Boilers last year completed the Explore Act Tell program and applied for Nourishing Neighbors grants sponsored by Jewel Osco. These students worked in 3 groups and completed 3 projects to serve our students at BBCHS. While we were told it was possible for a school to have more than one grant recipient at the same school, it had not happened - until NOW! All 3 of our Bettering Boiler groups were awarded grant funds to a total of $4,500 to improve the Bettering Boilers food pantry at BBCHS! Congratulations!

On October 3rd, the Swim and Dive team invited their teacher of choice to honor at their meet. They chose this specific teacher because of the positive impact he or she has made on them. We appreciate all that the teachers do for our students!

Football and Volleyball also participated in a Teacher Appreciation night before their home games came to a close.

BBCHS was named a 2024 Special Olympics Unified Champion School! This honor reflects our commitment to inclusion and our success in meeting 10 national standards of excellence. The primary activities within these standards include Special Olympics Unified Sports, Inclusive Youth Leadership, and Whole-School Engagement. We are extremely grateful and excited to have been named a National Banner School!

The BBCHS Football program took a week to specifically talk about and address the reality of mental health. They invited Kathi and Brandon Myers to come and share their story about losing their son, Sam, to suicide. They also joined the captains and coaches for the coin toss at the football game. The football players added a suicide awareness decal to their helmet.

It is okay to not be okay! Suicide Awareness Matters (SAM).

Three BBCHS alumni were inducted to our Athletic Hall of Fame this October. We celebrated Jerrod Gray (2007), Adam Vogel (2001), and Sue Schierenbeck (1980) for their careers as Boilermakers. The Athletic Hall of Fame Dinner was held to honor them and all of their accomplishments. They were also announced at the home football game on October 11th.

Sue Schierenbeck was a standout three-sport athlete playing volleyball, basketball, and track and field. She earned 12 varsity letters in her four years at BBCHS competing on the varsity level in all three sports as a freshman. Sue is the only female to qualify for an IHSA state tournament series in both an individual and a team sport with a total of 5 state appearances.

Adam Vogel contributed to the athletic success of BBCHS as a football coach and head strength coach from 2011-2022. He was an all-state football player and a wrestling state qualifier with a record of 38-1 his senior year. Adam attended Indiana State University on a full scholarship to play football where he was a 4-year varsity letterman earning Academic All-Conference two of his four seasons. He went on to play 5 seasons professionally.

Jerrod Gray was a standout athlete in football and track. He was a state qualifier in the shot and disc for track, and he was a two-time team MVP in 2006 and 2007. In football, Jerrod was an all-state player who earned a full-ride football scholarship to Ball State University where he competed in the International Bowl in 2007 and the GMAC Bowl in 2008.

On October 15th, the marching band held their first concert of the school year in the auditorium at BBCHS. They have been practicing frequently, as they have been performing at our home football games as well. Great job, marching band!

Girls flag football started their program at BBCHS just this year, and they ended their season with a state trophy! In Regionals, the Boilers were able to defeat Belleville West and Danville for the Regional Championship. They then moved on to Sectionals, where they beat Kankakee and Hillcrest for the Sectional Championship to advance to the State Finals!

The State Finals were held in Willowbrook. The Boilers beat Chicago Perspectives with only seconds to go on the clock to advance to the Final 4!

Our semifinal matchup was against Fremd, which unfortunately ended in a loss for the Boilers. However, Fremd would soon be named the Illinois Flag Football State Champions. We then lost our third place game to Whitney Young, therefore, we finished 4th in our very first season as a program. We held a state trophy presentation for the community to see the hardware we were able to bring home! There is a lot to be proud of. Great job, girls flag football and coaching staff!

Our Bettering Boilers held a food drive on October 18th at our home football game. They are always trying to keep their food pantry full for the students at BBCHS who need it. We are very grateful for all of the donations that they did receive. If you or someone you know at BBCHS needs access to the food pantry, please visit this page https://www.bbchs.org/Page/523 and fill out the Food Pantry Sign-Up Sheet. You can also learn more about Bettering Boilers on this site!

The BBCHS Choir held their first concert of the school year on October 22nd! Thank you to everyone who came to support. Their next concert will be coming up in mid-December.

Our BBCHS Chess team traveled to Homewood-Flossmoor and Lincoln Way West during the month of October. They are continuing to improve and looking to get better as the year progresses! Their next match is at Bishop McNamara Catholic High School in December!

The Mathletes first traveled to Lincoln Way Central to compete and then had the opportunity to host a home meet. They have been having lots of fun while challenging their math brains. Keep it going, Mathletes!

Red Ribbon Week began on October 23rd. Members from SADD have been asking students and staff to pledge to be drug-free. Each person who agreed filled out a piece of paper, and their pledge was hung on the wall. SADD provided information to those who needed it and were very encouraging of people to pledge themselves to a drug-free lifestyle.

They also sponsored a spirit week where students had a theme each day that represented their commitment to living a drug-free life!

The BBCHS Orchestra invited the community to explore the fascinating world of musical instruments. They offered hands-on experiences for young audience members to explore a variety of instruments, all while the musicians shared their love for music and passed out festive treats. There was trick-or-treating, followed by a Halloween-themed performance by our Orchestra. This was such a great event!

This year's Trunk-or-Treat was a huge success! We enjoyed great weather, an awesome turnout of families and kids, creative trunks, delicious food from the Mi Casa food truck, music, face painting and our haunted school bus! It was wonderful to see the involvement of our community members. Our trunks educated kids and parents on the different groups and activities available at BBCHS, thanks to the creativity of our students and teachers! Families especially loved the haunted bus sponsored by Transportation and the face painting sponsored by NAHS. We thank everyone who helped make this event possible and to all who came and participated! We had an absolute blast!

On Tuesday, November 5th, residents of Bradley-Bourbonnais Community High School District 307 will vote on a proposed bond referendum. If approved by voters, the proposed referendum would address essential safety and security upgrades and other identified critical needs to provide an improve learning environment for students.

Our bond referendum will:

• Improve safety and security
• Eliminate portable classroom trailers
• Add new cafeteria spaces to condense six lunch periods
• Relocate and improve the library
• Add 15 classrooms
• Centralize physical education spaces and pool observation by adding a fieldhouse
• Renovate gyms to create STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) rooms and science labs
• Add nurse's spaces

Please visit our website for more information!

https://www.bbchs.org/domain/142

Get the latest updates on our bond referendum by following us on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/bbchs307

Early voting for the November 5th election opened in Bourbonnais on Monday, and it is open until Saturday! It is being held at the Bourbonnais Municipal Community Building from 12:00pm to 6:00pm today (Friday, 11/01), and it is open on Saturday (11/02) from 10:00am to 2:00pm.

Avoid the busy polls on Election Day and go vote early!

Please contact me with any questions or comments.

Kennedy Weigt - Director of Communications and Community Engagement

kweigt@bbchs.org