February 1, 2019
Our Fine Arts Department gave another tremendous performance during this year's musical, "The Addams Family." So much hard work goes into these productions, and this year's show was excellent!
 

Next week is National School Counseling Week and Texas School Counseling Week, a time to acknowledge the incredible impact school counselors have on improving the lives of students academically, socially and psychologically. We are fortunate to have incredibly skilled and dedicated counselors serving our elementary, middle and high school campuses. I feel a tremendous amount of gratitude toward our school counselors because I know the work that they do, while often behind the scenes and out of the spotlight, is so very important. Our counselors are critical to our efforts to achieve our district priority of meeting each student's academic, behavioral and social-emotional learning needs.
 
Last month, Miller Heights Elementary counselor Munirah Tarver, the 2018 Education Service Center Region 12 Elementary Counselor of the Year, was instrumental in helping students cope with the tragic death of physical education teacher Shelly Splittgerber. On the first day back from the Christmas holidays, Munirah and several other Belton ISD elementary counselors guided students in a discussion about their feelings regarding the loss of their teacher. Students were reassured that grieving might feel differently to each of them, and that it was perfectly normal. Students were able to write down their favorite memories of Shelly and participate in carefully planned breathing and movement exercises. As our counselors worked with our children, I stood in awe of them. Their love and care of our children was clearly evident, and definitely touched my heart. We are blessed to have professional counselors who are dedicated to the children we serve. 
 
Belton ISD remains deeply saddened by the passing of Shelly, affectionately known by the children as "Coach S." While new to the district, in her short few months with us, she had already demonstrated skill, integrity and a strong love for children - qualities that are highly desired and admired in a teacher. Our continued thoughts and prayers are with Shelley's son Corden and her family.
 
The Miller Heights school community has been deeply impacted by the loss of their teacher, friend and colleague. Part of the healing process on that first day back came courtesy of six beautiful and friendly therapy dogs from Golden Rule Retrievers. All of the children crowded around, anxious for an opportunity to pet the dogs. A mix of golden retrievers and golden doodles shared love and hugs with students and staff as they celebrated the life of Coach S. I'd like to thank  Amanda and Tommy Davis, whose Golden Rule Retrievers offered our kids a safe and healthy opportunity to express their thoughts and feelings.
 
Those memories, written down by students, Munirah said, will be bound up in a little book to mark how much Coach S was valued as a part of Miller Heights. The book will then be presented to Coach S's family. Providing the support for students to process the loss of Coach S is one example of the essential work our counselors do to implement social-emotional learning and create safe and supportive learning environments. I want to thank Munirah, and all of our remarkable counselors, who remain at the forefront of making unique contributions to their field and creating moments that matter for our students.
 
I'm proud of our kids, and I'm proud of how our staff's commitment and continual focus on each student's academic, behavioral and social-emotional learning needs support students' individual paths to success . I hope you will join me in thanking and celebrating our school counselors. 

Sincerely,

Susan Kincannon, Ed.D.
Superintendent


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What amazing moments as these therapy dogs from the Golden Rule Retrievers' DogSquad helped comfort our students at Miller Heights after the loss of Coach S. We are so appreciative of these special animals and our counseling team and school staff who provide such incredible support for our students.
It was an honor to celebrate our Board of Trustees at their January meeting for School Board Recognition Month with this year's theme of "Planting Seeds of Success."  Together Belton ISD's trustees provide an invaluable volunteer service to this community and our schools.
Construction on Charter Oak Elementary is on track for completion in March! Shown here is Jennifer Conner who has been named Principal of the new campus.
Message from the School Board President:
 
It's an exciting time in Belton ISD! Recently we celebrated the top moments of 2018 including the SkillsUSA TeamWorks crew winning a back-to-back national championship, Belton ISD ranking in the Top 100 districts in Texas, and seven seniors receiving National Merit and National Hispanic Scholars recognitions. In addition, it was great experiencing two groundbreaking events with our community last year. I am hopeful that 2019 will be filled with even more moments that matter because of the continued support and engagement of the Big Red Community.
 
Your commitment and support of our students makes a difference as we create even more moments in 2019. The very successful Addams Family production was supported by parents and community members alike, and the many sponsorships and business donations for tools and materials to support costumes and sets were so important to the entire program. Most importantly, the community showed up to support our students.
 
The Belton High Cheer team created their very own incredible moments when they won big at their first National Cheerleaders Association competition in Dallas last weekend. They were first place in the Large Co-Ed Intermediate High School division, and were named Grand Champion of all intermediate teams for earning the top raw score of 97 out of 100! They too were supported by many parents and community members who definitely played a significant role in the making of a lifetime memory.

The board is committed to creating our own significant moments and accomplishments to support the continued success of the school district. On January 14, after extensive input from parents and community members, we took action on new elementary, middle and high school attendance boundaries. The new boundaries were adopted in preparation of the opening of Charter Oak Elementary School in August 2019, followed by Lake Belton High School and Belton Middle School in the fall of 2020. We are thankful for the care our community, including the Attendance Boundaries Committee members, demonstrated in engaging in the open and inclusive process that influenced this important decision. More information on the new attendance boundaries can be found at www.bisd.net/enrollinbisd.  

Sincerely,

Sue M. Jordan
President, Board of Trustees
Congratulations to the 3rd through 5th-grade Leon Heights Learners who read enough Texas Bluebonnet Book Nominees to vote and join in on the Bluebonnet Breakfast!
Winter sports are winding down as spring sports get underway. For the seventh year in a row, the Belton girls swim team are District Champs! Several records were broken to include the record setting medley relay by Olivia Maddux, Kaci Moore, Jaynie Ferguson, and Thea Lancaster! 
Both the boys and girls basketball teams will play in Waco this evening with hopes of gaining a playoff spot and t he boys and girls powerlifting teams swept the Belton Invitational Powerlifting Meet! The undefeated boys soccer team will take on Killeen tonight at home and the Lady Tigers who are undefeated in district play, will head to Killeen.  We are so excited for our National Championship Cheerleaders who took first place in Large Intermediate Coed High School and Superior Showmanship at the NCA High School Nationals Competition last weekend!