O'Connor Community Newsletter
February 2025
Panther Family,
As we begin a new month we continue our ongoing focus on academic achievement and student success. Overall our students’ performance in the classroom continues to trend up, which is very exciting considering we were already at a high level and we had a lot of absences in January due to the flu and other illnesses. Please continue to encourage your students to come to school each day, to get a good night’s rest, and to eat a good balanced diet to ward off illness. The best ability is availability, so we need them here everyday to bring out the best in them. Finally, with February being Black History Month, I want to express my gratitude to the many Black Americans who have made significant contributions to our great society. Thank you and Go Panthers! Let’s have a great month.
Robert Martinez
O'Connor Principal
Academic Decathlon Advances to State
The O'Connor Academic Decathlon team competed in the Region 4 competition held at Warren HS. They did an outstanding job, earning second place and qualifying in 11th position for the Texas state meet. The team consists of seniors John Herron, Jason Chapman, Julia Kerr, Micah Thiem, Evie Charlton, Tor Bishop, and Alfred Sanchez, and juniors Kaylee Saucedo and Xavier Castillo. Each and every one of them was instrumental in the team's success.
In addition to winning the second place team, the following students took home individual awards:
Xavier Castillo - Varsity Science - Bronze, Varsity Essay - Silver, Varsity Overall - 4th place
Micah Thiem – Scholastic Social Science - Silver
Tor Bishop – Scholastic Essay - Silver, Scholastic Interview - Gold, Scholastic Overall - 5th place
Evie Charlton – Scholastic Economics - Bronze, Scholastic Science - Bronze, Scholastic Overall - 4th place
Julia Kerr – Honors Art - Bronze, Honors Lang and Lit - Bronze, Honors Math - Silver, Honors Music - Silver, Honors Science - Silver, Honors Overall - 5th place
Jason Chapman – Honors Art - Gold, Honors Economics - Gold, Honors Lang and Lit - Silver, Honors Math - Gold, Honors Music - Gold, Honors Science - Gold, Honors Social Science - Bronze, Honors Essay - Silver, Honors Overall - 1st place
Coaches Annie Smith and Aaron Westbrook are extremely proud of the work the team has done in preparing for competitions, and we look forward to the State Competition held at the end of February at the downtown UTSA campus.
AVID
AVID students visited Stevenson Middle School and Garcia Middle School to recruit incoming freshmen to our AVID program. Our students spoke with more than 160 eighth graders, encouraging them to consider AVID as an elective option for next year. I was impressed by our AVID students' public speaking skills and with their community engagement in sharing what AVID has done for them over the years. Thank you to all of our AVID students who contributed to these recruiting efforts!
Churchill Classic
Great job to all the debaters who competed at the 50th anniversary Churchill Classic. The following students placed in their respective events:
Cooper Purcell - 1st Place Domestic Extemporaneous Speaking
Ally Chadwell - 3rd Place Domestic Extemporaneous Speaking; 4th Place Congressional Debate
Hazel Yilmaz - 6th Place Novice Extemporaneous Speaking
Voice of Democracy
Congratulations to O'Connor Speech Team students who earned the top three places in the VFW Voice of Democracy scholarship contest. Each student entered a written and spoken portion as part of the contest.
Camila Redekop - 1st Place ($500)
Rebecka Puentes - 2nd Place ($300)
Dexter Gertiser - 3rd Place ($200)
Camila advances to the State competition. Good luck!
Intro to Culinary
Intro to Culinary's topic of study has been knife skills and fruits and vegetables. To finish off this unit, and include some dairy, we'll soon be making homemade whipped cream and crapes topped with fresh fruit. See the recipes below if you want to give them a try. Cool-Whip cannot compete with homemade whipped cream....Just be sure you don't overdo it and accidentally make butter!!!!
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/16383/basic-crepes/
SkillsUSA
Our Criminal Justice students recently took part in the school’s first-ever SkillsUSA Criminal Justice Competition showcasing their skills in Tactical Building Search, Crime Scene Investigating, Forensic Science, and Police Application. Competition results will be announced on January 8th.
