Tuesday morning was a fresh start for the Bishop Badgers as they headed back to school after coming together as a district and community last year with the passing of two beloved coaches.
As KRIS 6 previously reported, Coach Cody Perez and Athletic Director Coach George Luna both passed away last school year.”
“This will be the first school year we start without those gentleman. It’s going to be really hard. We honor them constantly and we are always thinking about them,” Bishop CISD Superintendent Christina Gutierrez said.
And although the badgers continue to remember their role models who are not starting the school year off with them, there was a bit of a different mood in the air.
“The hustle and bustle… we miss it over the summer. So to hear the sounds of kids laughing and talking, and the sights of just hanging with their friends and taking pictures, it’s heartwarming to have them back,” Bishop High School Principal Dr. Claudia Esquivel said.
Senior Kylee Zimmerman is one of those students that Dr.Esquivel is referring to.
“I’m feeling bittersweet about it knowing that it is going to be over, but I’m feeling excited and blessed to have such great people in this community and spending senior year with all my best friends,” Zimmerman said.
Zimmerman is a student-athlete and is the NCJLS Queen. She said she is looking forward to the last football games and earning her certification to become a certified nursing assistant, and hopes to major in cell and molecular biology at Texas Tech University.
But as Zimmerman looks to leave the district soon, many new faces are coming in.
“We’re looking at probably at least a hundred new students for the district. We’ve been a 2A, a 3A and a 4A district and now we’re back to 3A. I’m super excited because that’s really our home. The 3A schools that we play, that’s our family,” Gutierrez said.
But faculty and staff said the change doesn’t come with fear.
“I will say this, the standards are high at Bishop. We expect to win. So we are going to prepare our kids and give them all the resources possible to make sure they win and they are successful,” Athletic Director at Bishop CISD Michael Davila said.
Speaking of success, the Texas Education Agency gave out unofficial school ratings for the past year. This is the first B plus rating the school district has received, but it comes with changes to the TEA rating system.
Gutierrez said she is proud of the B plus rating but is ready to work towards earning another A.
“We took the data and we’ve already dissected it. Each teacher knows what they have to work on so we don’t have any doubt that we’ll be back to an A real soon. We are up for the challenge and we are going to do fantastic,” Gutierrez said.
The Bishop Badgers have a few upcoming events this school year, including their football season opener against London ISD at London on Thursday, Aug. 29 at 7 p.m.
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