Cub Nation News

Back Row: Sharon McCollister, Angela Moore, Cheryl Preston

Middle: Clayton Grimm, Malachi Kesee, Riley Janes, Kaden Quinn,

Connor Schlottmann, Kody Noah Elder

Bottom: Aiden Schultz

Saturday, February 12th Brenham ISD hosted the First Annual UIL Unified Basketball Area 6 Tournament at Brenham Middle School. Our Brenham ISD Special Olympics Unified Basketball Team took 3rd place with New Caney 2nd and Huntsville advancing to Regionals as the Area 6 Champions.

Unified Sports joins students of similar age with and without intellectual disabilities on that same team. According to the Special Olympics Organization, “It was inspired by a simple principle: training together and playing together is a quick path to friendship and understanding.” Sponsor Angela Moore states, “This team has grown as athletes and in friendships through our Unified Sports Program.” Brenham High School is moving towards becoming a Unified Champion School by creating a student-driven Unified Club. Students and sponsors are now preparing for the Unified Track & Field Special Olympics.

Congratulations to Brenham High School theatre teacher Kara Freeman and her amazing students in their successful production of Disney's Beauty & The Beast! The show was outstanding! Special thank you to all the Brenham ISD students, staff, and Brenham community members who came out to support and see the show!

Back Row: Brent Jones, VFW Ben Seeker, Landry Mendoza, Antyiahna Lang, Jesus Lopez, Dr. Tylor Chaplin, Dylan Klovenski

Front Row: Madisyn Maynard, Briar Kalkhake, Ryley Tappe, Raelynn Traill

Not Pictured: Gillian Childs

Commander of the James F Dillon VFW Post 7104, Ben Seeker, presented awards to Brenham Junior High School students: Landry Mendoza, Antyiahna Lang, Jesus Lopez, Brent Jones, Madisyn Maynard, Briar Kalkhake, Ryley Tappe, and Raelynn Traill for their Patriot Pen Essays on Wednesday, February 16th. Patriot Pen is a 6th-8th grade Veteran of Foreign Wars essay competition, where students write a narrative essay based on a patriotic theme chosen by the VFW Commander-in-Chief. The theme this year was: “How can I be a good American?” Student Madisyn Maynard said, “I enjoyed this assignment because it gave me a chance to connect with a veteran in my family, and learn their story.” Students were given the opportunity to compose an essay in their history class taught by Mr. Dylan Klovenski. Klovenski stated, “I’m so proud of these students and the awards they received from the VFW through the Patriots Pen Essay Contest!”

Each year more than 165,400 students in grades 6-8 enter the VFW’s Patriot’s Pen youth essay contest for a chance to win their share of more than $1.4 million in state and national awards. The essay contest encourages young minds to examine America’s history, along with their own experiences, in modern American society by expressing their views in a 300 to 400-word essay. These BJHS students were chosen to advance by the Brenham VFW to the district level.

KBTX News came out to visit Mr. Lewis and his 6th-grade gateway classes at Brenham Middle School to discuss their newly published book “The American Experience” Volume II. The 37 students interviewed people who are an immigrant to the United States, a Veteran of the US military, or an American over 60 years of age. They discovered there is much more to the unique histories of their friends and loved ones than they ever imagined. All of the proceeds from the sale of this book will be donated to the Wounded Warrior Project. You can purchase the book from Mr. Lewis’s class that is signed by the students or you can purchase the book on Amazon.

On 12 February the Brenham MCJROTC participated in its 5th Drill Meet of the year at Pasadena High School against 16 schools. For the 5th Meet in a row, the cadets took home overall honors. The cadets had a clean sweep of all marching events with 1st place in Armed Regulation, armed exhibition, unarmed regulation, unarmed exhibition, primary Color guard, and secondary Color guard. They also had two commanders Jessica Ross (Color guard) and Ximena Cervantes (unarmed) achieve the best commander for their events. Next Saturday Brenham will host its annual drill meet with over 25 schools coming into the area. The event is open to the public and although our cadets will not compete they will perform throughout the day. Brenham’s next meet will be on 26 March at Allen HS against the top teams in our seven-state Region with a chance to make a 6th State National Competition invitation.

BHS Golf hosted their first tournament of the year! Our girls took 1st place again! Addie Bogan won 1st individual and Addison Schramme got 2nd individual! Great job ladies!

Brenham CSI (Challenging Scientific Investigations) is a Brenham ISD Gifted & Talented Program that provides an opportunity for all 2nd - 6th Grade Gifted and Talented students to explore science and technology as they read, write, solve problems, conduct experiments and apply science to their daily lives. The program is housed at Alton Elementary and Brenham Middle School.

Each year the 6th grade students compete in an international robotics competition, FIRST LEGO League. This year’s theme was, Cargo Connect. Teams are judged in 4 different areas in the competition: Core Values, Innovation Project, Robot Design, and Robot Game. These teams are led by their CSI teacher, Kristi Felder and 6th grade Science/Social Studies teacher, Ben Lewis. The 2021-2022 East Texas FIRST LEGO League Qualifier event was held virtually the week of February 7. Of the 22 competing teams, the top 7 advance to the East Texas FIRST Lego League Championship. Five of the Six teams advanced and will be competing in Houston on Saturday, March 12. These teams include: Energizers, Solar Subways, Electric Jellyfish, Hive Mind, and Team MPD.

Several of the teams were awarded high honors and received trophies in multiple areas. The Solar Subways received 1st place in the Innovation Project and the Wind Riders received 2nd place in the Innovation Project. Team MPD was awarded 2nd place in Core Values and the Energizers received 1st place Robot Performance. Teams that were consistent in all 3 judged areas and did well in the robot game were awarded the Champions Award. The Energizers received 1st place Champion, Electric Jellyfish received 2nd place Champion, and Hive Mind received the 3rd place Champion Award.

High School Belles received the following awards at Regional Competition at Rudder High School

- Officer Sweepstakes Award

- Team Platinum Sweepstakes Award

- Best in Class Novelty

- Judges Choice Award Lyrical

- 3rd Place Senior Division Soloist Brynn Planto

- 3rd Place 9/10th grade Division Soloist Julissa Guerrero

- 4 Platinum Soloist

- 4 Division I Soloist

- 3rd Place Toe Touch Technique Challenge Katrina Allen

Junior High Brenadiers Received the following awards at the Brazos Regional Competition at Rudder High School

- Team Sweepstakes Award

- Best in Class Junior High Lyrical

- Junior High Grand Champion Award

- 3rd Place Soloist Olivia Pattison

- 2 Division 1 Soloist

The Texas Farm Bureau has released a program called "Farm From School" to increase agriculture literacy among students across the state of Texas. Each month Krause Elementary School students will have the opportunity to visit different farms and ranches across the state of Texas through a live Zoom meeting. On Tuesday, Texas Farm Bureau gave Krause 4th grade students a virtual tour of a hydroponic farm called True Harvest Farm in Belton, Texas which produces lettuce for stores and schools across our state. Krause STEAM teacher Mary Kroll said, ”It was an amazing opportunity for us because our 4th grade STEAM students are using the Farm to Table curriculum in which they are learning how to grow different crops, this went right along with that in showing there are other options to use to farm than just traditional farming.” The students were very receptive and had many questions for our hydroponic farmer including:

* What is the profit margin/cost compared to traditional farming?

* How much does it cost to get started in hydroponic farming?

* Is there a greater crop success/failure rate compared to traditional farming?

* Are there hydroponic farms across the country?

These questions were the start of great conversations and future research. Exploring these new job opportunities at an elementary level "plants seeds" for what students may want to do with their future.

Congratulations to our Brenham ISD students who participated in the Washington County Spelling Bee last night! Macy Holster from Alton Elementary took 1st place and will now advance to Houston Public Media Spelling Bee in March. Will Hefferly from Alton Elementary took 2nd place and will serve as Macy's Alternate. In 3rd place was Corbin Brooks from Brenham Middle School.

1st Place: Macy Holster (L), 4th Grade, Alton Elementary School

2nd Place: Will Hefferly (M), 4th Grade, Alton Elementary School

3rd Place: Corbin Brooks (R), 5th Grade, Brenham Middle School

Full article from KWHI 1280

Congratulations to Brenham ISD's Pride Academy Principal Allan Colvin who was awarded the “Alternative Education Administrator of the Year” from the Texas Association for Alternative Education! Congratulations to Mr. Colvin and his staff for the job they do with our students. Colvin has worked for Brenham ISD for 19 years and he has held teaching and administrative positions at Brenham High School and continues his service as PRIDE Academy principal.

Spring athletics are in full swing! Find the athletic calendar's here on our website:

https://www.brenhamisd.net/page/athletics-Athletic%20Schedules

Brenham High School Cheer & Mascot Tryout Meeting will take place on Wednesday 2/23 at 5:30P in the Brenham High School Cafeteria. One parent/guardian must accompany the candidate to be eligible for tryouts. Contact Ms. Morris or Mrs. Prihoda with any questions or concerns.

Brenham ISD’s best artists are putting their works on display for the 17th Annual Arts and Appetizers. The in-person showcase of student artwork will be held Thursday, February 24th at the Ant Street Inn Ballroom from 5:30 to 7 p.m. A virtual silent auction is now open and can be found here: https://event.auctria.com/ff245df8-e4cd-40a5-9ab4-821d5075480a/

Public Schools Week honors the over 51 million students, 3.2 million teachers, and hundreds of thousands of specialists, administrators, and support staff working in public schools today. Campuses hosting special events will send out their details through their campus social media pages, newsletters, and/or Class Dojo/Remind.

Are you interested in becoming a teacher? iTeachTexas will be in the district on March 1st sharing details about their alternative certification program. Join us for the 4:30 or 5:30 pm session!

• 5:30- 6:30 Arrive to visit with former Interns, Parents of Interns to hear their experience and ask questions about Project SEARCH.

• 6:30-7:30 - Hear more about our program from Instructor, Sharon Machac, Texas Workforce Counselor Feliss Goree, Employment Specialist Suzanne Dewhitt - The Whole Solution, and Transition Specialist Karen Holle.

Visit www.projectsearch.us to learn more about Project SEARCH

Click on the picture to view the full calendar.

Region 6 Education Service Center has a program available to students (ages 14-18), called the Driver Education Foundation for Teens (DEFT Program). This program will provide Phase 1 of Driver Education free of charge, thanks to Region 6's partnership with the Texas Department of Transportation. The only requirement for this program is that the student must be identified, by the district or parent, as economically disadvantaged (ED), as defined by TEA. The parent (or school) can sign up by filling out the following form. From there Region 6 will confirm with the contact listed on the school form, that the child meets the requirements. Once confirmation is complete, Region 6 will enroll in the course month they selected and the student will be able to begin on their selected date.

District Covid Info: https://www.brenhamisd.net/page/BTS.brenhamisdcovid19dashboard

Covid Testing Now Appointment Only: https://www.brenhamisd.net/page/bts.covid19rapidtesting

Please visit your campus website to find their Covid Dashboard for specific campus details.

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Find us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/BrenhamISD

Brenham ISD Website: https://www.brenhamisd.net/