During its March School Board meeting, Big Sandy ISD voted to make masks optional as long as the caseload the week following spring break was minimal on each of its campuses. As of today, there are zero COVID-19 active cases and zero students or staff who are quarantining due to close contact. Therefore, starting on Monday, March 29th, face masks will become optional for students and staff in Big Sandy ISD.
The district will continue to follow other COVID-19 protocols, including social distancing when possible, cleaning and sanitizing of all our buildings and classrooms, and offering COVID-19 testing for students and staff. Buildings will still be closed to most visitors, but the district will examine changes to other COVID-19 protocols as the year wraps up.
The district will respect the rights of all students and staff to make decisions regarding wearing a mask. We are a family in Big Sandy and will respect the choices that everyone makes on the decision to wear a mask or not.
Our students represented us well yesterday, March 22nd at Bi-District One-Act Play Competition. We are super proud of these students .
Big Sandy advanced and will present the play "Wit" again at the Regional competition on April 14 and 15.
Congratulations to the Emerald Players - Go Wildcats!
Awards went to:
Emma Eckeberger who won the Best Actress Award
Addy Akin was awarded the All-Star Medal
Emily Thibodeaux won an Honorable Mention All-Star Medal
Morgan Harroff won the Technical Honorable Mention Medal
We hope you had a relaxing time off and we look forward to seeing everyone back at school tomorrow Monday, March 22nd. Please remember to wear a mask and bring a water bottle.
Baseball game on Tuesday, March 16 with Beckville start time has been moved up to begin at noon.
Prom tickets will continue to be on sale the week of March 22-26 for students that still need to purchase.
Hey Wildcats
Just wanted to remind everyone that Wednesday, March 10 will be an early release for everyone. Also, Thursday and Friday the 11th and 12th will be holidays as part of our calendar adjustment that was made recently. Next week, March 15-19th is Spring Break we hope you all enjoy extra time with your families.
Last night, the Big Sandy ISD School Board discussed Governor Abbott’s Latest Executive order allowing businesses to operate at 100% capacity and lifting the statewide mask order for the general public. The executive order goes into effect Wednesday, March 10th, 2021, and gives school districts the authority to develop their own guidelines regarding COVID-19 safety.
The Big Sandy Board of Trustees voted to make mask-wearing for students and staff optional starting on Monday, March 29th. This will allow the district time to monitor active caseloads for one week after returning from spring break and make a determination that it will be safe to make masks optional.
If, at any time, caseloads in the district begin to rise, the district will revisit and adjust its mask policy moving forward.
Big Sandy ISD is now accepting nominations for students to be tested for the Gifted and Talented program. If you know of a student who may qualify, nomination forms are available in the Elementary, Junior High, and High School offices, or online at https://bit.ly/38orolc. All nominations are due by Friday, March 26th.
Big Sandy High School is hosting a blood drive in the high school gym foyer on Monday, March 8th from 9am-1pm. The drive is put on by Carter Blood Care.
Baseball game update - Game today with Hawkins will be played in Union Grove at 1:30 due to wet field conditions.
Softball update - due to condition of our field the game for Saturday has been moved to Carlisle.
The softball game for today March 5th with Carlisle has been rescheduled for tomorrow Saturday, March 6th at noon.
The baseball games for today with Hawkins have been rescheduled for tomorrow Saturday, March 6th at noon in Hawkins due to rain. The scheduled game for tomorrow against Longview Heat has been canceled at this time.
The High School One Act Play Won Tuesday at the district competition. They will perform again at the Bi-District competition on March 22nd. Our district winning play called, “WIT” saw the following metal winners:
The entire cast and crew received a medal for advancing
Emma Eckeberger won an All Star Cast medal
Addy Akin won an All Star medal
Shelby Shears won an Honorable mention All Star medal
Ava Jenison won an Honorable mention Technical medal
Please Congratulate our cast and crew of :
Addy Akin
Gracie Jenison
Emma Eckeberger
Tristan Davis
Shelby Shears
Emily Thibodeaux
Richard Flores
Billy Flores
Hailey Lopez
Morgan Harroff
Rorey Caffey
Madelyn Warren
Ava Jenison
Kristin Mosley
GO CATS Fine ARTS
There will be a PTO Meeting today, March 4th at 4 pm in the Elementary Library.
Today, Governor Greg Abbott announced an ending to several COVID19 restrictions in Texas, including capacity and mask orders effective Wednesday, March 10. At this time, we are awaiting additional guidance from the Texas Education Agency regarding the order and its effect on the school district. Until we receive more information we will continue to operate under all current guidelines. We will share more details once they are available.
Our softball game today against Grace Community has been moved to Big Sandy at 5:30 pm. Also, our baseball game against Union Hill has been moved to tomorrow, Wednesday, March 3 at 6 pm.
Tuesday, March 2 the elementary campus will have Spring Picture Day.
Parents
We have noticed some issues going on with our online gradebook software due to a recent update. We are aware of some random alerts being sent out that do not match the grades in gradebook. We are working with the software vendor to get this issue addressed ASAP.
Check out these Junior High Wildcats! Way to go! JH GT Students competed virtually on January 25-26, 2021 in Region 7 Model United Nations. The country of Kenya was comprised of Head Delegate Kiley Dobbs, Ayden Akin, Jordyn Brown, Calev Meeks, Lauren Ellis, and Kaydence Wicks. They won 2nd place Map and 2nd Place Collage. Kiley Dobbs earned 3rd place speaker in FAO and Ayden Akin earned 1st place speaker in UNODC. The country of Indonesia was comprised of Head Delegate Logan Jewell, Koning Vicente, Eugene Whiteside, Lexie McCartney, and Alexa Hostetter. They won 1st place Map, 1st place Collage, 2nd place Digital Documentary, and 3rd place Resolution Writing. Alexa Hostetter earned 3rd place UNIDO and Logan Jewell earned 1st place Security Council.