Smart Phones Pg. 10
Girls Soccer Pg. 22
Harlem Ambassador Game Pg. 19
January/February 2010- Volume 84, Issue 5 Clear Creek High School
2305 E. Main, League City, TX 77573
Creek alumni family gets a home makeover Shannon O’Neil A local family was fortunate to receive a full home makeover from ABC’s Extreme Makeover Home Edition. The Beach family has been in need of the home makeover after Hurricane Ike destroyed their Kemah home. A flooded home caused the family of fifteen to move out to the backyard into tents. The Beach family is home to both biological and adopted children. Some of the adopted children have special needs. Some of the older children graduated from Creek. After almost a year after living in anything but their house, from tents to FEMA trailers, the Beach family received the gift of a lifetime. In Extreme Makeover Home Edition style, the Beach family vacationed in Disney World w h i l e volunteers tore down the remains of the destroyed house. The stars of the show, the designers and host Ty Pennington, were another main attraction that
brought bystanders to view the home building process and the reveal. Many Creek students decided to volunteer in the extreme makeover prosses. Kyle Leonard (12 grade) volunteered to work on the Beach home. Leonard said he enjoyed watching the whole process unfold. “It was interesting to leave one night and come back the next day to see the house half built,” Leonard said. Even though Leonard did not personally know the Beach family, it did not stop him from putting his all into the home. His favorite part of the experience was knowing that he indeed make a difference and had a part in creating something for a family who needed it. Another senior, Shannon Baty, volunteered at the Extreme Makeover home. Baty used to live on the same street as the Beach family. She helped pass out food and water for the workers. Baty also worked on the kids’ play-
house. Baty said she had some doubts at first and wondered if the house would even be finished in time, but in the end she enjoyed doing something for the family. “I felt like they really deserve this so it was good to know I was a part of that,” Baty said. The new home is over 6400 square feet and has eight bedrooms. Acording to Mikala Beach, daughter of the Beach family, she is enjoying her family’s new dining room and kitchen along with her bedroom. The details the family can share about the experience are very limited until ABC airs their episode of Extreme Makeover Home Edition. According to Mikala, the exper i ence
was so large that people still are passing by to get a glimpse of the gigantic house. “People drive by from dawn until dusk. They take pictures and bring friends back to see it. We had to have the Kemah police put up signs that say ‘No Trespassing’ and ‘Do not stop on the road by order of the Kemah police,’” Mikala said. “My favorite part of the experience was getting to meet all of the producers and working with our group in Florida. Our trip to Disney was one of the best trips our family has ever had, not to mention w e had the most amazing tour guides anyone could ask for,” Mikala said. Though some of the many secrets of the new home have been revealed, most of the community will have to wait for the show to see the whole process in its entirety.
Photos by Shannon O’Neil, Tabitha Dirrim, and Allie Hinga.
SBAC makes final recommendations to Board Allie Hinga
For the past four months, the SBAC has been working to develop its proposal for a new set of boundary lines to be implemented when Clear Falls and Bayside Intermediate open this fall. The CCISD Board of Trustees approved the SBAC’s recommendations at its regular meeting on January 25 with some modifications in the implementation of the proposed changes. The SBAC was established in October 2009 and was tasked with populating CCISD’s newest campuses, Bayside Intermediate and Clear Falls High School, and balancing the student population at the other existing high schools. Currently, Clear Lake’s enrollment is over 3,000, and the school’s main campus building will take on more students in 2012 when the Ninth Grade Center is converted into an intermediate school. “The main thing was to alleviate Lake,” CCISD Associate Superintendent of Operations Ron McPherson said. The SBAC utilized a program provided by Templeton Demographics, which col-
lected students’ PEIMS data and allowed members of the committee to look at the number of students in each grade level in a particular subdivision. These numbers were used in conjunction with other studies to help project future growth throughout the district. The SBAC used these numbers to develop its boundary recommendations, which it released in early December. These new boundaries were slated to affect this fall’s incoming freshmen and sophomores. Following the SBAC’s initial proposal, the district hosted four public hearing meetings at each high school to allow for community input. Meetings included a brief presentation by members of the SBAC, then time for comments from members of the community. Parents, students, and school employees all took turns speaking at these meetings addressing issues ranging from the difficulty of moving sophomores
to new schools, to busing concerns, to involvement in varsity sports. “Our SBAC listened intently and discussed at length the community input immediately after each hearing,” SBAC member Tracey Farmer said. One matter discussed at multiple meetings pertained to the students in the Parr Elementary zone, who would be moved from Springs to Creek this fall. A number of community members raised concerns because these students had been asked to move from Creek three years ago. “We put a lot of work into getting this school [Springs] up and running,” Bonnie Pritchett, a community member who spoke at several meetings, said. Pritchett has two sons who attend Springs this year. One is a senior and the other is a freshman. She said that when considering school boundary changes, each campus should be looked at as a unique entity. “You can’t just use a
broad brush solution,” she said. The SBAC held one additional public meeting on January 6 to address any final concerns. It announced that it had not made any modifications to its original recommendations, but that it would allow the Board to determine a course of action for the Parr Elementary zone students. “While we were sure that moving the Springs kids back to Creek was the solution to alleviate future overcrowding at Springs and under population at Creek, we had a hard time with the fact that we were reversing a recent SBAC decision,” Farmer said about the rezoning process. Following the final public hearing, the SBAC put forward its recommendations at a Board workshop in early January, and then made its final presentation to the Board of Trustees at its regular meeting on January 25. The Board
Photos by Kaitlyn Boryk, Image courtesy of ccisd.net