CHS Newsletter

Bobcat Nation,

We hope you are enjoying an extended weekend together! The spring time is always incredibly busy, and this week was full of things going on that we would like to recognize and be proud of. Make sure you make it through to the bottom of the Newsletter to see our students busy being great and for information about upcoming events and fundraisers.

We officially have four more weeks until the end of the 3rd quarter and Spring Break. As always, we appreciate your help with keeping our students on track with getting work turned in and excelling in the classroom. Have an amazing Monday off, and we will see everyone on Tuesday morning!!

For Kids,

John

Make sure you buy your tickets while you still can for our Sadie Hawkins Dance! You do not have to have a date to buy a ticket. Come dressed in your best and have fun at our only spring dance available to all 9th-12th graders.

Our CHS cheer team has given us many reasons to be proud this year! After winning their 4th state championship (3rd consecutive), our girls flew to Disney and earned a top 10 finish at Nationals!! Our team moved to a larger division this year and still showed competitive dominance, finishing as a top team in the nation.

We are also proud of our cheerleaders that earned All-State Cheerleader and Academic All-State! If you have a student that would like to join this incredible program, please find information for tryouts below.

Tryouts for Las Gatitas are just around the corner! Don't miss your chance to be part of a legacy. There is a mandatory parent interest meeting on February 17, 6:00 pm in the CHS Cafeteria. A parent or guardian must attend this meeting for the candidate to be eligible for tryouts. We’ll cover important details regarding costs, schedules, and expectations.

The Celina High School Swim and Dive Team competed in the 4A State meet on Thursday and Friday, and we brought home some hardware. We are SO proud of these athletes and coaches for their hard work and for the way they have represented CHS for the Swim and Dive season!!

Grace Waldschmidt won gold in the Girls 1 meter diving. She also set a new 4A meet record, and she was named the female diver of the meet.

Reagan Hix won gold in the 200 Free, and she brought home the silver in the 500.

Akshat Pandey finished 4th in the 100 Fly and 6th in the 200 Individual Medley - top 10 in the State!

Celina Boys Golf won 1st place in the McKinney North “Frosty Open” at Heritage Ranch Golf Club! Way to start your season, gentlemen! Keep it up!

The spring Tennis season is underway!! We are so proud of our tennis team and the success they've had to start off the season.

Photos by Anna Huynh (11)

Our floral design students made mini Rose Parade floats. The Rose Parade is a parade in Pasadena, California where florists use millions of real flowers to cover large parade floats for this New Years Day tradition. Students watched parts of the Rose Parade and came up with their own floats that fit this year's theme "The Magic of Teamwork". They worked for several days in class taking their concept drawings and turning them into real mini parade floats.

Our Intro to Culinary students did a Valentine's lab and baked up some DELICIOUS white chocolate raspberry scones. Thank you to our sweet students that let teachers taste their work!!

Our FCCLA students represented our school incredibly at their competition last week. We are so proud of their hard work and class as they competed!

Make sure you check out our online School newspaper run by our Journalism students for incredible stories about various things at CHS!

As we gear up for the graduation, we are working diligently to celebrate each senior to the fullest.

Each year, prior to the start of the commencement ceremony, we prepare a slideshow showcasing our seniors' baby pictures. To be included in the slideshow, we are in need of a baby picture of your graduating senior.

Requirements to be included in the slideshow:
Submit pictures in the Google form: https://forms.gle/KC2KRDLBSsuA14B49
Pictures MUST be submitted by April 17, 2026 (HARD DEADLINE)
Baby MUST be fully clothed in the picture
If you have any questions, please reach out to tammywindon@celinaisd.com or kristycarr@celinaisd.com.

Sincerely,

Kristy Carr
Associate Principal

Are you interested in winning $40,000-500k scholarships? Well that could be you! All it takes is just one sign up and maybe an essay. BigFuture has many opportunities for students like you whether you have a 4.0 gpa, do sports, or just have something special going on. This is your sign to get that scholarship and save yourself plenty of money for college! Don't miss out on such a wonderful opportunity..

Where to start? Click the link below!

http://share.bigfuture.org/7fHzdg

• Scholarships
• Stand out on college applications
• Discover opportunities
• Navigate to your future career

Follow the Instagram to keep up with updates: @chs.bigfutureambassador

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.

McKinney Prom Closet 2026 Shopping Days. A FREE prom shopping experience for high school girls in our community. Last year, thanks to your support, 180 girls found their dream dresses at no cost!

Students can now preview dresses and updates on our new social pages:
Instagram & Facebook – McKinney Prom Closet

2026 Shopping Days
March 26 & 27 | 3:00 PM – 8:00 PM
March 28 | 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM
March 29 | 12:00 PM – 3:00 PM

Stonebridge United Methodist Church
Free dresses, shoes & accessories
Open to all high school girls (student must be present)

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