SAN MARCOS CISD
“Bonham has always been a leader in innovative ways of teaching, especially in early childhood,” Bonham Pre-K Principal Eulogia Martinez said.
That innovative leadership at Bonham is now being recognized for a second time, as part of H-E-B’s Excellence in Education Awards program. The San Marcos CISD school is one of five early childhood facility finalists in the state. This program awards cash prizes to educators who go the extra mile to serve their students and their communities.
The 18 finalists are awarded $5,000 each and are in the running to win $25,000 for the school. To determine the winners, a panel of judges will tour each facility campus to engage with administration, staff, parents and community members.
Martinez began her SMCISD career in 1996 as an instructional aide at Bonham when it was located in Centro Cultural Hispano de San Marcos. Going on 29 years in the district, she’s taught grades kindergarten through fourth grade. She became a bilingual instructional coach in 2017, where she was a part of the dual language initiative that now thrives in SMCISD. Her first experience with the H-E-B Excellence Awards was in 2019, when at the time she was the assistant principal at Bonham.
“That was a really exciting time and it was my first feel for the H-E-B Excellence in Education awards and how that works,” Martinez said.
Seven years later, she once again gets to highlight the amazing work by her dedicated staff and students.
“[Bonham is] very play based and we’ve continued to evolve,” Martinez said. “We’re always evolving to meet the developmental needs of our students. We’re always evolving to meet the linguistic needs of our students. We have a very diverse set of students here.”
A big commitment after COVID was to focus on the social and emotional needs of young learners on campus, with safe spaces in classrooms and a focus on teaching students regulation strategies.
“I feel like what truly sets our program apart is our commitment to innovation, inclusion and the whole child, developing the whole child,” Martinez said.
One of the greatest evolutions has been the bilingual program, which started as an early exit program, focusing on students moving towards being fluent in English. Now the program has shifted towards a dual language model.
“We’re providing students with opportunity to develop their biliteracy, bilingualism and bicultural competence,” Martinez said.
The model allows classes to be taught starting with a 90-10 model where 90% of the day is taught in Spanish while 10% is in English, allowing English-as-a-first-language students to be fully immersed in Spanish speaking curriculum.
Bonham partners with the Texas State University early childhood education team, collaborating with professors and students to study and engage with students.
“One of their main things they teach is about play and exploration, open-ended materials, where students have an opportunity to create and explore what they want to,” Martinez said. “The whole program just fosters exploration, curiosity, problem-solving and it’s all through just that meaningful play.”
Martinez highlighted the work of her staff who make the success of Bonham possible. Pre-K is many children’s first introduction to school routines. The mission of staff at Bonham is to spark a love for learning and school in young scholars.
“Anybody can become a teacher, but not everybody can be a Pre-K teacher,” Martinez said. “Pre-K teaching just takes extra patience and lots of love.”
Martinez also emphasized the teams goal to partner with parents.
“This is the time where you can get parents really engaged in school, to be part of their kids education. Because if you really set that foundation and set those good relationships with families, they’re going to want to be involved with their students moving forward,” Martinez said.
On top of it all Martinez is also proud of their early childhood special needs program.
“We have three-yearolds and four-year-olds with students with special needs and it is a phenomenal program. We have some amazing special education teachers here on our campus,” Martinez said.
H-E-B Excellence Award winners will be announced at the awards ceremony on Sunday, May 3. Follow their Facebook page at facebook. com/p/Bonham-Pre-K-San-Marcos-CISD100054392625588 to keep up with what makes Bonham excellent.
The 2025-2026 nominated staff at Bonham Pre-K.
Bonham offers a full gym for kids to participate in physical education. Daily Record photos by Rebekah Porter
Students build together to practice creativity, problem solving and teamwork.
Center rotations allow students to engage with multiple forms of play and learning.
No school day is complete without outdoor recess on Bonham’s playground.
A students engages in open-ended play, transforming cardboard into a vessel of exploration.
