Central Office celebrated Kay Eskue. She ensures bills are paid on time, student trips and needs are taken care of when payment is required and goes the extra mile when it comes to customer service. Kay is a valuable member of our TEAM and we don't plan on ever letting her retire!

Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S., yet suicide can be prevented. Students and staff from Bonham ISD joined the quarter of a million people who are walking in towns across the nation to draw attention to the fight for suicide prevention.

Thank you to all who participated with and/or raised money for the Bonham High School Hope Squad Team!!

Senior Warrior Crew

Chief Warham

Alma Mater after the game.

Career Exploration at BHS - Guest speaker is a member of the Coast Guard

Mrs. Luper caught being 'extra' - playing ball with her students!!

There are several considerations and questions that must be answered when deciding if closing a campus is what is needed - and there is no 'magic number' that triggers a shut down.

1) Do we have enough staff to teach students?

To date, the answer has been yes - while there have been staff members absent from school due to COVID, we have been able to cover all classrooms and continue to educate students. One reason we closed a campus last year wasn't because we reached a 'certain number' of staff being out- but it was who the staff were. Since most were classroom teachers, and we were unable to provide instruction and appropriate supervision, the decision was made to close the campus for several days.

2) Is there a significant number of students out causing loss of instruction for a majority of students?

Currently, we have just over 1% of students out due to being COVID positive. At this point in time, the majority of students are in school and able to receive instruction. If school were to be closed, 0% of students would be receiving instruction.

3) Is there a pattern emerging that would benefit from a closure?

We look for campus patterns of spread - we ask ourselves if the majority of our positive cases are being contracted at school. If the answer is yes, I would consider a classroom or campus closure.

4) Is our ADA (Average Daily Attendance) 10 percentage points lower than our last year (overall) average daily attendance percentage - this would usually mean our ADA would have to be around 85% to consider closing for ADA purposes?

As a point of reference, our ADA fell to 84% when we closed for the flu several years ago. To date this year, no campus has not dropped below 92% total (and not all those absences were COVID related); therefore, we have not needed to close for ADA purposes this year.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

We are seeing more positive cases that start like allergies and therefore, we have been more vigilant in monitoring staff and students with those symptoms. We encourage testing for those with symptoms and we require staff who have determined they have been in close contact with a COVID positive individual to test for COVID every other day before beginning work. We offer free testing as often as you would like it (as long as we continue to receive testing supplies). Each week our testing has yielded about a 10% positivity rate - so in our school experience, the majority tested have been negative for COVID.

Campus/District Administrators enter data regarding positive COVID cases onto a spreadsheet daily; therefore, I have a real-time look at the cases around the District. I look at the COVID reporting spreadsheet daily and talk to campus administrators when needed to determine if we believe a pattern exists that would cause us to send students home. Since COVID is not going to be eradicated, schools are being guided to find a balance between working around positive cases of COVID among our staff and students and continuing to educate, feed and serve our student's needs.

Registration is open for Bonham’s 11th annual Great Days of Service. On Oct 16, volunteers will check-in at the First Baptist Church’s fellowship hall starting at 8:00 am and be treated to a pancake breakfast by the First United Methodist Church. By 9:00 am volunteers will be sent out to begin work on several different service projects.

Volunteers are encouraged to sign up soon at www.gdsbonham.org. Some projects have limits to the numbers of volunteers. Children and youth under age 18 are welcome to volunteer, as long as they have a responsible adult that will stay with them.

Service projects still in need of volunteers include:

· Community Clean-up – volunteers will pick up trash, pull weeds, put out mulch, weed-eat, rake leaves, pick up branches and clean up at downtown Bonham and 3 local cemeteries: Gates-Hill, Bailey Inglish and Willow Wild. Volunteers are encouraged to bring work gloves, trash bags, other clean up tools.

· Food Drive – volunteers will sort, move and re-stock the shelves of local organizations who give food to hungry people.

· Fannin County Children’s Center – volunteers are needed to do yard work (trim bushes, weedeating, etc) and deep cleaning inside the center. Volunteers are encouraged to bring work gloves and tools if they can.

· Fannin Pregnancy Center – outdoor projects for this local nonprofit that serves women who are pregnant to include tree trimming, mowing, edging, etc. Please bring work gloves, tree trimmers, chain saws, mowers, weedeaters, rakes, etc. if you can.

· Parks Clean-up – pick up trash and clean up at the city parks, including Powder Creek Playground, Catron and Simpson Parks. Volunteers will spend time at all three parks. Please bring work gloves, trash bags, etc. if you can.

· Recycling Project - Fannin County Literacy Council provides free literacy classes and GED prep classes for adults. In order to raise funds to support these classes, they will once again be hosting the Recycling Project. Everyone is encouraged to clean out their homes of unwanted items and bring them to the Fannin County Precinct 4 Barn at 1369 E. Sam Rayburn Drive, Bonham on Saturday, October 16 from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm. A few more volunteers are needed to help unload cars and trucks bringing items for recycling. For a complete list of items that will be accepted, go to www.gds-bonham.org.

Register Now - Those interested in volunteering for any of the service projects should register at www.gdsbonham.org. This will allow the leaders to plan accordingly and especially how much food is needed for the pancake breakfast. Some projects have limits on the number of volunteers who can sign up. Late and on-site registrations will still be accepted, but there will be less choices in what service projects to work on. Sign up at www.gdsbonham.org.

• Sat. Oct. 9 – BHS Marching Band Contest @ Celina - 9:00 AM

• Mon. Oct. 11 - Student and Staff Holiday

• Tues. Oct. 12 - BHS VB @ Gunter; JV = 5:00; VAR = 6:00

• Wed. Oct. 13 - BHS Marching Band UIL Competition @ Celina

• Wed. Oct. 13 - LHR Cross Country District Meet @ Bells - 4:30

• Thur. Oct. 14 - BHS Cross Country District Meet @ Bells - 9:00

• Thur. Oct. 14 - LHR FB @ Mt. Vernon - 4:30

• Thur. Oct. 14 - LHR VB @ Leonard - 5:00

• Thur. Oct. 14 - BHS JV FB @ Home - 5:30

• Fri. Oct. 15 - BHS VB @ Bells; VAR = 4:30; JV = 5:30

• Fri. Oct. 15 - BHS FB @ Mt. Vernon - 7:30

• Sat. Oct. 16 - Great Days of Service; BISD hosts the canned food drive/sorting event at Bailey Inglish beginning at 9:00