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VOL 4 No 10
FORT BEND FAIR. BALANCED. INFORMATIVE. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 2011
P. O.BOX 623, SUGAR LAND, TX 77487-0623
Official newspaper of Fort Bend County, Missouri City & Sugar Land
Empty Bowls benefit dinner
Pictured holding “empty bowls” in front of the giant portrait of Elvis eating a fish taco are Brooks family members - (back row) Leah, Drake, Jeff & Wendy Brooks, Berryhill owners; (front row) Jessica Brooks, Vickie Coates, Executive Director, EFBHNM, and Cole Brooks. East Fort Bend Human Needs Ministry, Inc. will be hosting the second Annual Empty Bowls Benefit Dinner on Sunday, April 3, from 6-8 p.m. at Sugar Land Baptist Church (formerly Williams Trace Baptist Church). Empty Bowls 2011 is a way for the community to come together to help Fort Bend County families who are struggling to provide basic necessities of life – food and shelter. Guests will be served a simple meal of soup and bread as a reminder of families in Fort Bend County who are living with hunger and poverty. Although the meal may be “simple” the soup will be delicious! Local restaurants will be providing the tasty soups - Berryhill Baja Grill, Fish City Grill, Black-eyed Pea, Sweet Tomatoes and Carino’s Italian are just a few of the participating restaurants. All proceeds from Empty Bowls 2011 will benefit East Fort Bend Human Needs Ministry, Inc. Tickets for the event are $25 per person and may be purchased at EFBHNM, 435 Stafford Run Rd. in Stafford. Sponsorship opportunities are available. Auction items are appreciated. For more information contact Connie Esposito at 281-261-4902 or Connie@HumanNeeds.org.
10701 Corporate Drive, #282, Stafford, TX 77477 Mailing Address: P.O. Box 623, Sugar Land, TX 77487 Seshadri Kumar Publisher & Editor
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Fort Bend Independent, (USPS 025-572) is published every Wednesday (for a subscription rate of $20 per year) by Fort Bend Independent, LLC., 10701 Corporate Dr., #282, Stafford, Texas 77477. Periodicals Postage Paid at Stafford, Texas. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Fort Bend Independent, P.O. Box 623, Sugar Land, Tx 77487.
FBISD approves zoning plans after heated debate By SESHADRI KUMAR Fort Bend ISD board of trustees Monday night approved the partial re-zoning of elementary, middle and high school attendance zones as presented by the administration at various public hearings, with one minor change. The efforts of Riverstone, Lake Colony and Heritage Colony residents to remain in the Clements High School zone instead of moving to Elkins failed. The votes were not unanimous and board members offered several amendments to each zoning proposal, which compounded the confusion. Trustee Daniel Menendez offered an amendment to adopt the high school rezoning as presented, with the only change affecting 33 students in Quail Green South. His amendment was carried which, effectively killed Trustee Laurie Caldwell’s new proposal to retain Lake Colony and Heritage Colony in Clements’ zone and shift some
students North of Cartwright Road in Quail Valley area from Elkins to Marshall and Willowridge High Schools. Menendez then sought to grandfather the rising 9th, 10th and 11th graders in their existing campuses which would have delayed the re-zoning by a year or more, thus defeating the whole purpose of re-zoning. Consequently, his amendment did not win a majority support. Similarly, his amendment and Trustee Jim Rice’s amendment to grandfather rasing third and fourth graders at their elementary campuses also failed. In the middle school re-zoning, the proposal allows current seventh graders the option of staying in their current campus or moving to the new campus. The board approved a motion to allow the same option to the current sixth graders as well. During the discussion, Trustee Marilyn Glover took exception to some e-mails she received with racial overtones
suggesting that those parents would not want their children to go to Elkins with black kids. Glover described it as bullying and offensive. She did not name the subdivision, but was apparently alluding to some in a section of Riverstone. Trustee Jim Babb also said he received similar e-mails, and did not approve of it, but he believed the whole district needs to be re-zoned. He also said the zoning process was flawed and it did not allow for proper public input. He questioned the current practice where people at a town meeting are required to give their comments in writing. “People can’t put their passion in paper,” Babb said. He said the meetings could have been video taped or the trustees should have been present at the public hearings. At this point, as trustees cross talked over each other, Babb went into an outburst against defending the current zoning process and said that
an election is coming and there will be change. Superintendent Tim Jenney asked if he was threatening the administration and before the verbal exchange went further, the school board counsel intervened and advised members to speak only when they are recognized by the president. Earlier, during public comments, speaker after speaker, urged the board not to carry out the re-zoning in a piecemeal fashion. Speakers also pointed out how the proposed plan violated every criterion established by the board. A couple of speakers, however, supported the district’s proposal to rezone a section of Riverstone from Clements to Elkins High School. Board President Sonal Bhuchar agreed that there is a need to review the zoning process and the consensus is to establish a new system that would allow for active community input.
School board prepares for layoffs, offers incentive for voluntary retirement
By SESHADRI KUMAR Fort Bend ISD board of trustees on Monday adopted resolution declaring financial exigency and the need for program change and reduction in force, affecting employment. Trustees Daniel Menendez and Jim Babb opposed the move to declare a financial exigency. Board President Sonal Bhuchar gave the background for the proposed resolution declaring financial exigency. The board is adopting this step early so that the reduction in force can take place at the appropriate time and the affected people will have adequate notice. The State Comptroller has released a state revenue estimate for the upcoming bien-
nium which shows that the state could face a shortfall of $22 to $27 billion during the upcoming biennium. The initial budget recommendations from the Texas House of Representatives and Texas Senate include reductions in state funding for public education up to $9.9 billion during the biennium. The district has been working with school finance experts and is developing budget scenarios for shortfalls of $29.6 to $73.9 million in the upcoming budget year. The district is attempting to address the potential shortfall by reducing expenditures in all areas and reducing personnel through attrition. However, the failure of the state to act and to provide the
district with a firm budgetary number has resulted in the need for a Board resolution declaring financial exigency and the need for program change and reorganization, which is required by Board Policy prior to a reduction in force. This will allow the district to meet upcoming notice deadlines for the non renewal and termination of contracts and to restructure its programs to allow the district to remain fiscally sound. Declaration of financial exigency paves the way for the administration to prepare its layoff list. According to one estimate, 1,000 employees may be laid off by FBISD. But, a final number will emerge after the
administration conducts an evaluation by mid-April. In another related action, the board approved a plan for resignation incentive for librarians and classroom teachers not teaching in the acute shortage areas of high school science, high school mathematics, foreign language, and deaf education. It is believed that offering a resignation incentive will prompt employees planning to resign effective the end of the school year to submit their resignations earlier. This will assist the District with staffing plans for 2011-12. The resignation incentive is 10 percent base pay for announcing resignation during the period of March 8 through April 25, 2011.
WCJC’s Stripling unearths Roman bath house in Jordan Wharton County Junior College’s winter break proved to be a treasure trove for Dr. Scott Stripling, WCJC professor of English and humanities. In addition to serving as a visiting professor of archaeology at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University, he helped prove the existence of a Roman bath house at Jordan’s Tall el-Hammam Excavation Project. Always fascinated by ancient near East and Biblical history, the Sugar Land resident began participating in excavation projects in 1994 after copious reading was unable to fulfill his appetite for understanding. “When we read a text, whether it’s from the Bible or ancient Egypt, it’s important
to know the real life context behind it,” said Stripling, who holds a doctorate degree with an emphasis in ancient near eastern archaeology. He is currently writing his Ph.D. dissertation for another doctorate degree, this time from Trinity Southwest University. For the past seven years, Stripling has participated in winter and summer archeological digs and now serves as senior field staff at Tall elHammam. Last summer he met Shimon Gibson, a Senior Associate Fellow at the W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeo- WCJC instructor Scott Stripling helped prove the existence of logical Research, who invited a Roman bath house at the Tall el-Hammam Excavation Projhim to lecture at Hebrew Uni- ect in Jordan during the college’s winter break. versity. honored to be a guest lecturer internationally-known arche“I was very humbled and because the other lecturers are ology scholars,” said Strip-
ling. His lecture at Hebrew University, entitled “Daily Life at Tall el-Hammam,” was based on his forthcoming article on the same topic in Levant, a major archeological journal. Joining Stripling in his journeys were volunteer excavators and fellow WCJC employees Katherine Shoppa and Tracy Stripling. While Stripling never tires of seeing the transformation of his helpers, his recent discovery of the Roman bathhouse certainly is the pinnacle of his six seasons at Tall el-Hammam. “We’ve always suspected it was a bath house, but we were able to prove it this last time,” said a joyous Stripling. “We have a beautiful Roman bath house that’s probably 40
by 35 meters. It will probably take another 10 years to finish unearthing it.” During the WCJC holiday break, Stripling also supervised the excavation of a Byzantine church and monastery at Khirbet el-Maqatir in Israel. Tall el-Hammam is located in the southern Jordan River Valley, about 14 kilometers northeast of the Dead Sea. Surveys and excavations thus far have revealed a long occupational history at Tall el-Hammam, including the Neolithic and Chalcolithic Periods, the Early, Intermediate, and Middle Bronze Ages, and Iron Age 2 and 3. Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine and Islamic occupations are also in evidence.