VOL 5 No. 51
Phone: 281-980-6745
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FORT BEND FAIR. BALANCED. INFORMATIVE. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2012
P. O.BOX 623, SUGAR LAND, TX 77487-0623
Official newspaper of Fort Bend County, Missouri City & Sugar Land
Spectacular Snowfest in Missouri City
Texas Children’s hosts Girls Scouts for badge On Dec. 1, Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus hosted 160 girls from West Houston Girls Scout troops for the inaugural Teddy Bear Clinic. From Daisies to brownies to juniors, each girl earned their very own Teddy Bear Clinic badge by visiting nine different medical stations and learning about various pediatric subspecialties. The stations included: radiology, surgery, pharmacy, child life, cancer, nutrition, physical and occupational therapy, sleep and emergency medicine.
FBISD reacts to Connecticut school massacre
A crowd of more than 5,000 people enjoyed an evening of fun at Missouri City’s 29th annual Snowfest Festival that featured a special tree lighting ceremony with fantastic colorful fireworks, the world’s tallest snowman bounce house and a giant Snowhill on Friday, Dec. 7 at the City Hall Complex on Texas Parkway. Residents who attended the Festival were encouraged to bring an unwrapped toy to donate to the Santa’s Exchange Project. The toy drive will provide gifts for thousands of deserving children in Fort Bend County. The following day, Dec. 8, hundreds lined the streets for the annual Snowfest Parade which featured 53 entries. The two-mile long parade included bands, colorful floats and cars, boy and girl scout groups, churches and businesses and organizations from throughout the City that kicked off at the corner of Murphy Road and Cartwright Road.
COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS. Himesh Gandhi, a Sugar Land city councilman and partner at the law firm Hrbacek & Gandhi P.C., delivers the keynote address during the University of Houston-Victoria Fall 2012 Commencement Saturday, Dec. 15, at the Leonard E. Merrell Center in Katy.
FBISD buys 20 new school buses at $1.8 million By SESHADRI KUMAR The Fort Bend ISD board of trustees on Dec. 12 approved the purchase of 16 buses with 71 seats and four other, 53-passenger school buses at a cost of about $1.85 million. There is $4.46 million of remaining transportation funds in the 2007 Bond, of which, $1.34 is available to spend. The District has identified additional critical needs and has allocated an additional $502,151 from budgeted operating funds to purchase the needed busses.
Before approving the purchase, Trustee Dave Rosenthal urged that the administration look at school buses running on Compressed Natural Gas as the gas price is very low and it causes less pollution. Conversion to CNG may require installation of special gas fueling stations. Administration officials said they would conduct a feasibility study and present it to the board for consideration before purchasing the next fleet of school buses.
The FBISD Transportation Department has approximately 41,000 eligible riders, of which, an average of 24,000 are transported each day. Last year, the department logged a total of 5,632,560 miles in 10 different transportation scenarios including regular routes, special education routes, academy routes, field trip routes, bilingual routes, homeless student routes, adequate yearly progress (AYP) routes, alternative school routes, technical education
shuttle routes, and Progressive High School shuttle routes. The department has a total of 466 buses including 351 regular route buses, 101 special education route buses, and 14 activity buses. The District has developed a desired replacement schedule for its aging fleet, as well as, identified additional needs due to growth. Over the next three years, the district will buy hundreds of replacement buses.
Faith in Holiday Lighting Hope, Joy and Faith expressed in Quail Valley Garden Club Holiday Lighting Winners . . . and if you’re puzzled how Faith is expressed with the Candy Cane theme of Faith Winners Fred & Leslie Gegen, drive by 3110 Robinson Road to get “the rest of the story” as well as view the Winners of Hope, Robert and Joyce Sisti of 3615 Elms Court; Joy Winners Peter and Tracie Rothe of 3514 Golden Tee Lane. Honorable Mentions in Faith category are James and Judy
In response to the school massacre at Newtown in Connecticut, Fort Bend ISD posted the following message on its website with the caption “Our thoughts and prayers are with the Newtown, Connecticut community.” Our hearts and prayers go out to those touched by the tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut. Our schools are safe places, but we are learning from the investigation of this event to determine what additional safety measures can be put in place, especially in our elementary schools. Here is what your school district is doing: We have asked our counselors, teachers, administrators and staff to give each other an extra measure of support to reassure our students they are safe and validate their feelings. Our students will have concerns and questions resulting from this tragedy, and they will look to adults for information and support. The following are some suggested tips that can be used to help ensure children feel safe. Maintain a calm demeanor. Reassure children that they are safe. Make time to talk and actively listen to children’s questions or fears. Keep explanations developmentally appropriate. Observe children’s emotional state and respond accordingly. Maintain a normal routine. Establishing a sense of normalcy and security will help students, as well as adults, cope with such troubling news. Below are helpful websites with more detailed information and resources that parents and school personnel can use. National Association of School Psychologists: www. nasponline.org American School Counselor Association: www.schoolcounselor.org American Psychological Association: www.apa.org National PTA: www.pta. org/programs
Listen Protect Connect Model and Teach presentation We encourage you to read these tips and other information posted on the District’s website, fortbendisd.com under “Emergency and Severe Weather Information.” All safety procedures are being reviewed with a goal to do everything possible to keep children and staff safe. The Fort Bend ISD Police continue to work with all of our schools to support them and to constantly review emergency procedures with school officials. As part of the District’s crisis plan, these procedures are reviewed and evaluated on an ongoing basis and training is provided to staff members. We also practice drills with students to let them know what to do in the event of an emergency. We are renewing our efforts to collaborate with local community and law enforcement agencies to maintain a united effort aimed at school safety. Unfortunately in light of school violence, active shooter exercises are part of the ongoing training for our school district and other local agencies. We are directly asking our entire school community to renew its efforts to help us keep our children and schools safe. Unfortunately, this tragedy is a reminder to our staff and parents to be aware of all surroundings and report any unusual situation and/or suspicious person to the proper authorities. Many of you have concerns and those should be shared with your campus principal and they will be provided to an integrated team that is looking for ways to put additional safety measures in place in our schools. The safety and protection of our students is of the utmost importance to our school principals, teachers, staff and administrators and is a responsibility the District takes seriously. We will soon break for the holidays, but will continue to inform you about improvements to school safety procedures.
10701 Corporate Drive, #282, Stafford, TX 77477 Mailing Address: P.O. Box 623, Sugar Land, TX 77487 Seshadri Kumar Publisher & Editor
Shoemake of 3202 Robinson Road; Hope, Oscar and Maria Romero of 2714 Oakmont; Joy, Valerie Langdon of 3130 Mill-
brook. Holidays lights are observed by various faith-based groups during the winter solstice. Take some family time to
drive around and enjoy. http:// traction.typepad.com/QVGC and select Holiday Lights! Happy Holidays!
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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.