🐓SAISD Board of Education to hold regular meeting
San Angelo ISD Board Meeting, Angelo State track star breaks record, and Irion County Lady Hornets' trip to State after beating Veribest
📰The Lead
The San Angelo ISD Board of Education is holding a school board meeting tonight at 5:45 PM at the Administration Building on University Avenue. This is the regular monthly board meeting and follows the school board's pre-agenda workshop earlier this month. Below are some items on the agenda.
Recognitions
The board will recognize Central's Julia Moran and Lake View's Aaron Martinez Hernandez for being awarded the Three Rivers Counseling Association tribute. Central's Savannah Martinez will also be recognized for winning the Three Rivers Counseling Association High School Scholarship
SAISD will also recognize the George Pliler Counselors of the Year. This year's recipients were Glenmore's Ashley McDonough, Lincoln's Erica De La La Garza, and Lake View's Rachel Gandar.
Additionally, Lone Star, Lincoln, and Lake View counselors will be recognized after they were awarded the CREST (Counselors Reinforcing Excellence for Students in Texas) Award for Counseling Excellence.
Lastly, the district will recognize the Career and Technical Education programs in the district.
Reports
The Trustees will also hear reports on student enrollment, the school district's partnership with Goodfellow Air Force Base, and Parkhill's Facilities Assessment Report.
Of the three, the report from Parkhill is the most intriguing as the district weighs whether to lower the number of elementary schools from its current number of 17. Parkhill has recommended that Austin merges with McGill, Alta Loma merges with Fannin, and San Jacinto merges with Reagan Elementary. In this scenario, the Austin and Alta Loma campuses will be repurposed or closed while the San Jacinto campus will be home to special education and pre-k programs.
Central Band Uniforms
The Board will also decide whether to award Fred J. Miller Inc. a contract to buy new uniforms for Central's band at $232,183. Jason Henry, SAISD's Director of Purchasing mentioned at the pre-agenda workshop that it has been around ten years since the band received new uniforms.
🔢Number of the Day: 1:47.11
🏀Irion County Lady Hornets Heading to State
The Irion County Lady Hornets basketball team proved to be the very best team in the Concho Valley by beating district foe Veribest on Saturday to advance to the State tournament in San Antonio. Veribest and Irion County split both games during district play. The Lady Hornets (29-8) led by Coach Jacob Conner will play Huckabay (39-2) at 8:30 AM on Thursday at the Alamodome. It continues a magical season for the Irion County Athletic Department as both football and men's basketball advanced deep in their respective playoffs.
🎙️Quotable
"We're blessed to have a rural commissioner in Alvin New. We need to take advantage of his service and advance his many projects forward for rural Texas as we can. He's a terrific advocate, and we need to use his advocacy to advance a rural project forward." - Drew Darby
In my interview with Rep. Darby, he mentioned the importance of having a West Texan in former San Angelo Mayor Alvin New on the Texas Transportation Commission. In addition to public education, Darby said that transportation and funding roads are a top priority for him in this session. He also mentioned the need to fund both I-14 and I-27 which will help San Angelo and the surrounding Concho Valley exponentially. Even though the last two sessions funded roads at an adequate level, Darby believes that improvements must be made continually as Texas grows in population.
Remembering Rikke Black
🗞️News You Should Know
- The US Energy Department has concluded with low confidence that an accidental lab leak in China most likely caused the coronavirus pandemic. The FBI also concluded with moderate confidence that the virus accidentally emerged from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
In response to the news, San Angelo's Congressman, August Pfluger, said, "The U.S. Department of Energy finally admitted that COVID-19 leaked from a lab… confirming what many Americans were censored and condemned for hypothesizing. Government bureaucrats worked with Big Tech to silence anyone who speculated about the lab-leak theory. Americans deserve answers and accountability, and we will deliver." - An elderly man was killed and a woman critically injured by a small pack of dogs that attacked them and first responders who came to their aid Friday afternoon in San Antonio according to local officials. The owner of the dogs was arrested, and the dogs were euthanized.
- Several newspapers around the country have canceled the cartoon "Dilbert" after creator Scott Adams called Black Americans a "hate group" and suggested that white Americans "get the hell away from black people." Adams responded to a Rasmussen Poll showing that 26% of black respondents disagreed with the statement, "It's okay to be white." Rasmussen clarified that 72% of respondents agreed it was okay to be white.
🐔Inside sanangelo.news
Ami Mizell-Flint will begin writing a column for us. Mizell-Flint is a Trustee on the SAISD Board of Education and serves as the Executive Director of the Clubhouse. She is no stranger to local journalism as she used to write for the San Angelo Standard-Times. Her column will focus on Mental Health and Education.
🏃🏽♀️🏃♂️💨West Texas Track and Field
Speaking of former Standard-Times journalists, Amy McDaniel has launched a Facebook page where she highlights track news from around West Texas. She has written excellent profiles on her Watch List and keeps an unofficial list of best performances. You can like the page here.
📖Read this
A couple of weeks ago, I shared an editorial from the Odessa American about the firing of the Odessa City Manager and City Attorney. Since then, an exodus of city employees has begun. Texas Monthly has a great recap on what's happening now and why partisanship is hurting the city.
Why it Matters: Odessa is not San Angelo. However, its story can serve as a reminder of what could happen when nonpartisan positions get filled by partisans. It also shows the perils of partisan "news" sites, in this case, Odessa Headlines, and their effect on communities.
Michael Hardy
Obituaries
Floyd Conley Petitt, age 64 of San Angelo passed away on February 25, 2023. Floyd was born in Rankin, Texas on February 18, 1959 to Floyd and Margaret Petitt. His family then moved to Fort Stockton where he attended school until graduating in 1977. He then attended Howard Payne in Brownwood with a major in business and a minor in English graduating in 1982. Read more.
Writer, researcher, and retired lawyer Hall Triplett passed away at the age of 82 on Sunday, January 1st, 2023, at a nursing home in San Angelo, Texas. He died of complications from a massive stroke that occurred a few months prior.
Hall was born on May 21, 1940, in Jacksboro, Texas, the oldest of four children, to Silas Mercer Triplett, a Church of Christ preacher, and Joyce Marie Hall Triplett, who became a teacher. He was always called by his middle name, Hall; his full name was George Hall Triplett in honor of his mother's father. Growing up, Hall lived in eight different towns in Texas-Jacksboro, Granbury, Madisonville, Mineral Wells, Corsicana, Marlin, Stamford, and San Angelo-as well as Madill, Oklahoma. He attended high school and played football in Stamford. When his family moved to San Angelo before his senior year, the football boosters in Stamford arranged for Hall to live with a local family and paid for him to eat all his meals in restaurants so that he could stay and play football. After graduating from Stamford High School in 1958, Hall attended Abilene Christian College (now University) for three years. At ACC, Hall sang in the choir and played Uncle Chris in a production of "I Remember Mama". Read more.
Larry Bruce Jolley, 66, of San Angelo passed away Thursday, February 23, 2023.
Public viewing will be from 10:00 AM - 8:00 PM Tuesday, February 28, 2023, at Robert Massie Funeral Home. Funeral services will be at 2:00 PM Wednesday, March 1, 2023, at 2:00 PM at Robert Massie Riverside Chapel with Pastor Greg Breedlove, pastor at First Baptist Church, officiating.
Larry B Jolley was born February 20, 1957, in Littlefield, to James and Betty Jolley. He attended school in Amarillo, Scottsdale, Arizona, and Tulia where he graduated from Tulia High School in 1975.
Larry was a cabinet builder and home builder before moving to San Angelo to become a Texas-licensed realtor. He later became the owner and broker of Larry Jolley Real Estate. Larry was also president of the International Waterlily Collection and a member of the SABS (San Angelo Blues Society). He enjoyed playing guitar, singing, and being with friends. Read more.
Clive "Jack" Harris was born on July 25, 1937, to Veda Marie (Fell) and Claude Estell Harris in Texon Texas. He attended Reagan County High School, Sul Ross University and graduated with a Teaching Certificate. He had two children with his first wife, Robert (Shari) Harris and Jackie Harris, raising them as a Single Parent, he worked 3 or more jobs to ensure that they did not want for anything.
In 1984, Jack married the love of his life, Joleta W Long and between them, they now have 6 children. Randall Long, Candace (Gene) Titlow, Jerry Long (Sherri Jones) and Lyndon Long, Robert (Shari) Harris, and Jackie Harris (M. Krosch.)
Jack grew up in Texon, moved around for a few years before coming home. He lived in Big Lake for over 40 years before moving to San Angelo. Read more.
🎤One Last Thing
28 Years ago on February 26th, 1995, Selena performed at the Astrodome in Houson. Here is her opening performance.
