CHS Newsletter

Bobcat Nation,

We are so proud of our students. Our Fall programs are showing incredible dedication and success across the board. Our volleyball team wrapped up an outstanding regular season, finishing 2nd in district, and our football team brought home a big win this past week. We’re also proud to celebrate our cross country team, who is headed to state, and our tennis team, who recently advanced to the Regional Quarterfinals in playoffs. Best of luck to our band as they take the field at Area competition this week—your hard work makes us all proud.

This week also brings several important events on campus. Our students will be taking the PSAT, and we’re excited to celebrate our seniors on Friday at the senior pep rally. Please see the following dress up days to help bring awareness during National Red Ribbon Week. It’s a great reminder to stay focused, make good choices, and enjoy every moment of this busy season.

Thank you for continuing to support and care for our students and staff.

For kids,

John

Each week, you will find the Athletics Calendar here and you can click on it to see what is going on for the week. We will advertise for other events in Academics, CTE, and Fine Arts.

Our Varsity Volleyball team beat Gainesville on Tuesday night and celebrated our amazing seniors and the hard work they have put in for their high school careers! They begin playoffs at 6pm on Thursday against Ranchview at McKinney HS.

Our Varsity Football team took the road on Thursday night and beat Paris 56-7.

Our cross country team competed on Tuesday at the Regional Meet. Our Varsity Girls took 1st and advanced to state! Men's Ryder Phillips took 7th overall and advanced to state! They will run in the State Meet Saturday at McNeil. Let's support our Bobcats!

Our Student Council and National Honor Society students brought and packaged snacks for 270 students that participated in our Adapted Sports Bocce Ball Tournament this week. We are so grateful for all of the amazing things our student organizations do behind the scenes!!!!

We will be having our first blood drive of the year on October 28. If you are 16 years of age or older, we would love to have you donate blood! If you are 16 years old, please go to the front office or room 160 to get a parent consent form. Consent forms are due by October 27 at 4:10 if you are wanting to donate. Please help us reach our goal of 101 people signed up and over 300 lives saved! Please contact Mrs. Palmisano or visit her classroom (160) with any questions.

Each year, our Student Council exchanges goodies with Paris High School Student Council to help support and celebrate one another in our efforts of bettering our schools. We enjoy being a part of these exchanges and sharing positive moments with other schools.

A special thanks to our Student Council Secretary, Reagan Hix, for the amazing cookies!!!!

Our 2025-2026 yearbooks are on sale now! https://jostensyearbooks.com/?REF=A08128000

The LAST day to purchase a senior or business ad in the yearbook at our most discounted price is November 1st. Please email kelsiereeves@celinaisd.com if you have any questions!!!

For entry into CISD events, we are using the HomeTown app to make it easy to purchase tickets. You can scan the QR code below to download the app.

Ms. Hunter's classes have designed posters to highlight October's Bullying Prevention Month.

Thank you for taking time to read some of the ways in which we connect and grow in order to Love Kids and Drive Rigor.

For Kids,

John

Join us for the 2025-2026 Lunch n Learn Series! Brittany Cortez is a College and Career Counselor from Collin College and will cover a variety of college related topics throughout the year. The sessions will start at 12pm via Zoom. No sign up is required, just grab your lunch and click on the Zoom link in the flyer. Each of these topics will also be offered to all students to attend throughout the school year.

Helping Hands of Celina

Community Action Team (CATS)

Our CATS is our parent organization that helps to support all 1500 students and 135 staff throughout the year with bake sales, selling the official Homecoming t-shirt, and providing goodies/luncheons for our staff. Please join to add a layer of support for our kids and our staff. You can join through your School Cafe account and look for CATS (HS PTO) Membership '25-'26.

If you do not have a School Cafe account, you can click here to set up one and this will allow you to join CATS, purchase the official Homecoming t-shirt designed and sold by our CATS, set up a lunch account, and order other items like paying for parking spots and dues for various classes.

School Lunch

Free and reduced lunch applications can be found in the following link: https://www.schoolcafe.com/CELINAISD The grace period will end September 26, 2025, so please take time to complete your application.

For our new families, you can create school cafe account using the link above, you can send money with your child, or you can have your child bring their lunch. In School Cafe, you can monitor your child's account and place restrictions on their meal accounts if you would like to do so (e.g., your child can only buy one ice cream).

For those who were in Celina ISD last year, any balance that you have in School Cafe rolls over from the previous school year. Please add funds to your account before the first day of school.

GPA Update beginning for Class of 2026

Please click this link for the GPA update for the Class of 2026.

GPA Update beginning for Class of 2029

Please click this link for the GPA update for the Class of 2029.

2025-2026 Attendance Goal = 98%

We achieved 95.1% attendance last year so 98% is a very bold and ambitious goal! Furthermore, the more students are here, the more connections and positive relationships that they have, and the more that they learn!

Attendance-Truancy Tribunal

Chapter 25 of the Texas Education Code details the attendance requirements for students in Texas. Students must be in attendance for 90% of their class in order to receive credit for the class (remember that our goal is 98%). In addition, there is language in this code that directs schools/school districts to take action when a student accumulates a certain number of unexcused absences (including tardies - 3 tardies = an unexcused absence) and this includes filing truancy charges on the parent. Celina ISD wants to partner with our parents in order to prevent truancy charges from being filed. Therefore, when a student accumulates 7 unexcused absences/tardies, we will send a summons to the parent and student to attend a Truancy Tribunal Hearing in order to develop a plan to improve the attendance of the student. The Truancy Tribunal process has proven to decrease unexcused absences, decrease failed classes, and decrease discipline incidents of students. We are proud to implement the Truancy Tribunal Hearings and we know that this will benefit our kids and our families. If you have questions about the Truancy Tribunal process, please reach out to me via email or phone call at the information in my signature

Student Code of Conduct

At CHS, we start with the knowledge that we have the best students and parents on the planet! As such, we hold the highest standards for our kids because we know that they will live up to these standards. Likewise, we hold ourselves the to the highest standards to support our kids and our parents. We want to make sure that you have all of the information needed regarding our dress code and the passage of the new "cell phone ban" HB 1481. The dress code and standards of conduct are contained in the link above. The dress code is addressed on pp. 58-59 so please take a moment to familiarize yourself with CISD standards of dress and decorum.

HB1481 Device Ban

The major change for this year is the passage of HB 1481 that prohibits personal communication devices. Celina High School will strictly enforce this law/policy between 8:45-4:10. Prior to 8:45, students should turn off and put any prohibited devices in their backpack. This will prevent any prohibited devices from being seen or heard and will allow students to form relationships with other students and teachers and focus on learning. If you need to contact your child, you can send a message to their school email account and if there is an emergency, you can contact our front desk and we will assist in getting the message to your child(ren).

Although HB 1481 does not go into effect until September 1, 2025, CISD has chosen to implement this law beginning Wednesday, August 13, 2025. Our staff will continue to only use their personal devices for professional use only during the work day and because we receive emergency notifications and we send emergency notifications through our personal devices.

Prohibited personal communication devices include, but are not limited to:

• Smartphones
  

• Laptops and tablets
  

• Smartwatches
  

• Earbuds and earphones
  

• Smart eyeglasses

• Portable gaming devices

Contact Information for Administrators and Counselors

Administrators

• Dr. John M. Burdett (Principal) - johnburdett@celinaisd.com
• Kristy Carr (Student last names A-Gan) - kristycarr@celinaisd.com
• Greg Sherwood-(Student last names Gar-N) - gregsherwood@celinaisd.com
• Dr. Adam Washburn (Student last names O-Z) - adamwashburn@celinaisd.com

Counselors

• Carrie Crane (Student last names A-Gan) carriecrane@celinaisd.com
• Denise Moore (Student last names Gar-N) denisemoore@celinaisd.com
• Karen Pelkey (Student last names O-Z) karenpelkey@celinaisd.com