SEPTEMBER 22, 2021 VAX FOR KIDS
STUDIO TOUR
Pfizer vaccine soon ready for kids age 5 to 11.
Wimberley Studio Tour and Sale this weekend.
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Hays CISD, DSISD kids challenged to destroy property as part of TikTok BY SAHAR CHMAIS What property has been taken down or destroyed in school bathrooms? Air dryers, perhaps paper towel dispensers – and even bathroom signs. These are some examples of how school kids are following a TikTok challenge, which asks kids to destroy items in school bathrooms. In schools across the nation, kids are taking down bathroom doors, destroying mirrors, taking down paper towel dispensers and more. Hays CISD students were not immune from participating in this challenge.
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Hays gets $400K for veterans services BY SAHAR CHMAIS Two veterans service systems received a combined $400,000 to aid Hays County veterans. Hays County Veterans Office was funded with $100,000, and the Hays County Veterans Treatment Court received $300,000 through the Texas Veterans Commission (TVC). The TVC awarded $6.8 million grants to veteran services across Central Texas, with a big-check ceremony held Wednesday, Sept. 15, at the Hays County Government Center.
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Vol. 127 • No. 26
Serving Hays County, TX
The Public Safety Center will house an Emergency Operations Center (EOC). An EOC will establish a central command station and allow for collaboration with surrounding counties and authorities during critical times, according to city officials.
Public safety center breaks ground in Kyle BY BRITTANY ANDERSON
The Kyle Police Department (KPD) will soon have a brand new Public Safety Center to better serve the city’s explosive growth. The city held a groundbreaking on Friday on the corner of Kohlers Crossing and Marketplace Avenue, the site of the future center. The upcoming two-story, 64,000-square-foot center was part of a $37 million bond package passed during the November 2020 election, and is slated to open in fall 2022. The center will allow KPD to grow over the next 20 years and beyond by expanding its services with space to improve emergency center response times, creating an investigations suite and canine unit, increase officer training, expand community-based programs and mental health services, and more. “We seem to be doing a lot of [groundbreakings] lately,” Mayor Pro
PHOTO BY BRITTANY ANDERSON
growth, Kyle can either lead, follow or get run over by the future. In this moment, Kyle is choosing to lead. Kyle is leading by feverishly learning how to build the best
“The center will provide better accessibility for the general public, increased response times by being centrally located — no more trains, I promise — and having a modern design with upgraded amenities. It will also help improve the mental and physical health of our police officers.”
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–Robert Rizo, Kyle council member
Kyle officials at the groundbreaking included (l-r): Travis Mitchell, Ashlee Bradshaw, Rick Koch, Michael Tobias, Pedro Hernandez, Jeff Barnett, Tim Griffith, Dex Ellison and Yvonne Flores Cale.
Tem Rick Koch said during the groundbreaking. “Hays County is predicted to be the fastest growing county in Texas for the next 30 years — faster than we want to admit sometimes. In the face of unprecedented
STATE NEWS
Black principal swept into a ‘critical race theory’ maelstrom in a mostly white Texas suburb BY BRIAN LOPEZ TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG
didn’t have and he wouldn’t It was June 3, 2020, let that and James Whitfield couldn’t sleep. He hadn’t go to waste. been able to sleep for At 4:30 the last several days. a.m., he As a Black man, the wrote a deaths of three Black WHITFIELD letter to Americans, George the school community Floyd, Breonna Taylor declaring that systemand Ahmaud Arbery, ic racism is “alive and weighed heavily on his well” and that they mind. Their slayings by needed to work together white people had been to achieve “conciliation dominating the news for our nation.” — sparking once again “Education is the key national conversations to stomping out ignoabout race and racism rance, hate, and sysin the United States. Last summer, protest temic racism,” Whitfield wrote. “It’s a necessary after protest made waves across the nation. conduit to get ‘liberty and justice for all.’” It was no different in Then, the feedback to Texas, and Whitfield, that letter was nothing who had weeks earlier short of spectacular, been named the first Whitfield said. He didn’t Black principal at Colhear a single negative leyville Heritage High comment. He felt there School, couldn’t just sit back. He said he felt like was a consensus in the community. But, a little he had a platform that over a year later, his other Black Americans
HISPANIC HERITAGE September 15 through October 15 is National Hispanic Heritage Month.
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words would backfire. At a July 26 Grapevine-Colleyville ISD school board meeting, Stetson Clark, a former school board candidate at Grapevine-Colleyville ISD, would use the letter to accuse Whitfield of teaching and promoting “critical race theory.” At the podium, Clark named Whitfield four times, even though the board asked him not to criticize particular employees. The first time, someone in the audience yelled out, “How about you fire him?” Clark continued to name Whitfield, completely ignoring the rules, and called for the board to fire him. “He is encouraging the disruption and destruction of our district,” Clark said. When his time wrapped up, Clark walked away from the podium to cheers from the audience.
And in the ensuing days, Whitfield found himself at the center of the debate over how race is taught in Texas schools. He received a disciplinary letter from the district a few weeks later and was placed on administrative leave soon after that. On Monday, the school board met and recommended a proposal to not renew Whitfield’s contract for the 2022-2023 school year. Gema Padgett, executive director of human resources for GCISD, said this was recommended because of Whitfield’s evaluations, deficiencies in communications and insubordination. Padgett said Whitfield lied to the media and created division in the community. District officials made clear that the vote was
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Expect delays on US 290 West Travelers along US 290 West in Dripping Springs should expect some traffic delays as a realignment project begins on Friday, Sept. 24. Construction of a minor realignment at the intersection of Martin Road and a dedicated right turn lane addition on US 290 West, is a project by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT). Work will begin on or about Sept. 24 with a targeted completion in the spring of 2022. The right turn lane will include paving, drainage, signing and pavement markings. This addition will allow for more traffic volume to travel through the intersection, reducing travel times and improving safety at the intersec-
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