CHS Newsletter
Love Kids; Drive Rigor
Principal's Note - Sunday, November 9th
Bobcat Nation,
It has been an incredible week at Celina High School for our students! On Thursday, we proudly hosted our 10th Annual Veterans Day Breakfast and Program, honoring the brave men and women who have served our country. Our students demonstrated tremendous respect and gratitude throughout the event, and we couldn’t be prouder of the way they represented Celina High School. To celebrate our students’ outstanding behavior and respect during the Veterans Day program, Monday will be a Pajama Day.
Our marching band continued their legacy of excellence by bringing home the State Championship for the fourth year in a row—an amazing accomplishment that speaks to their hard work and dedication. Our volleyball team also celebrated major wins in the Area and Regional Semifinal rounds of playoffs, and our football team finished the regular season undefeated. In addition, we hosted a successful Floral and Ag Mechanics competition, showcasing the incredible talents of our students in FFA.
As we head into the colder weather, please stay safe with the freeze approaching. Let’s finish strong and make the most of these next two weeks before Thanksgiving Break.
For Kids,
John
CHS/CISD Events
Our volleyball team is Area and Regional Semi-Final Champions! They will play in the Regional Finals versus Lindale on Tuesday, 11/11 at 6:30 PM at Rockwall Heath High School. Let's cheer these girls on through the next round!!
Bobcat Band - 4X STATE CHAMPIONS!!!
Our Celina High School Bobcat Band earned the title of UIL 4A State Marching Band Champion for the FOURTH CONSECUTIVE YEAR! 🥇🥇🥇🥇 We are so incredibly proud of each of these students and directors. Congratulations on a beautiful show and an amazing marching season.
Our Varsity football team took down Lake Dallas on Thursday to finish the regular season undefeated!! The Bi-District Playoff game against Dallas Pinkston will be 11/13 at 7PM @ Loos Sports Complex in Addison, TX.
Photo by BLR Media (10 and 12)
The past two weeks, our Floral and Ag Mechanics teams have been hard at work competing! Two weeks ago Aubry Pulver, Ainsley Caughron, Ethan Weston, and Bella Salvo competed at the Sulphur Springs Spooktacular Floral Cup. Ainsley received Reserve Champion in the advanced division while Aubry placed 7th and Bella placed 3rd also in the Advanced division.
This week, at our own competition, Cassidy Sullivant placed 4th and Victoria Cramer received Reserve Division in floral. Our advanced designers were Ainsley Caughron, Ethan Weston, Aubry Pulver, and Bella Salvo
Competing in the build off, Garrett Goodson, Alex Walker, Danny Zapuche, and Creed Smith made a beautiful picnic table.
We are proud of you all!!
Yearbook Deadline!!
November 14th is the last chance to buy your yearbook at a discounted price!!!!! Buy before 11/4 and save money.
Picture Retakes
Veteran's Day Breakfast and Program
🌟Student Spotlight🌟
Our cheerleaders joined the Out of the Darkness Walk in Prosper and together raised nearly $1,600 for suicide-prevention efforts.
This walk—hosted by American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP)—is part of a national movement in 400+ communities working to raise awareness that suicide can be prevented and no one has to face this alone.
What are the Bobcats doing in class?🐾
Biology
Our Biology classes completed a gummy bear Osmosis lab this week!
Medical Terminology
Our Med Term students learned to suture skin as they were going over the integumentary system and got to practice on demo models of skin.
Commercial Photography I
Commercial Photography students continued with their food photography unit. This time, they used play dough to create their own photos and manipulate lighting to help it look more appetizing!!!
Culinary Arts
Our culinary arts students worked on a fun Halloween project last week. They created Halloween themed snack boards focusing on creativity, design and food preparation.
Club Focus
Student Council
We are collecting NEW warm socks and new or gently used puzzles for our local nursing home, Settlers Ridge Care Center. We will be taking these donations and some students to visit and spend time with the residents there.
Emergent Bilingual Parent and Families Newsletter
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.
Counseling Corner
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
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