Saturday, January 28, 2017
Volume 118, Number 61 8 Pages $1.00 www.HerefordBRAND.com
Martin signs with Wayland;
Herd cagers swept by ranked Amarillo, Sports, page 7
Make Newspapers Great Again
Trustees denounce ratings
100 years...
By John Carson BRAND Managing Editor
Contributed photo
Father J.A. Campbell purchased the former Deaf Smith County Courthouse for $4,000 in 1916, and a year later, St. Anthony Catholic School had its first permanent home in Hereford.
St. Anthony School celebrates centennial
By Chris Albracht Special to the BRAND
It’s a celebration a full century in the making as St. Anthony School will celebrate its 100th anniversary this weekend with a variety of events. Activities begin Saturday with a Centennial Tea at 10 a.m., in the Antonian Room and school gymnasium on the St. Anthony campus. Those wishing to play dominoes will have that opportunity during the tea. Also at 10 a.m., Deaf Smith County Museum – the original St. Anthony School building, aka, the Red Brick School building – will be open for tours featuring displays of St. Anthony School historical information and exhibits. The day concludes with a Family Dance from 8-10 p.m. in the school gym. Sunday is Parish Day. A centennial mass to honor 100 years of providing a quality, Catholic education for families of Hereford and Deaf Smith County will be conducted by Bishop Patrick J. Zurek at 11:30 a.m. The mass will include the announcement of the 2017 Distinguished Graduate. An open house and pot-luck dinner will follow mass. Past Distin-
guished Graduates, students, faculty and staff in attendance will be recognized.
In the beginning…
Who can know God’s way, except those who are open to the promptings of the Holy Spirit? This must be the very openness that led to significant occurrences that took place from 1897-1917 in two distant areas of the United States – New York and Hereford. An Anglican priest and Anglican novice, who would profess final vows and become an Anglican nun, had dreams of unity between their assembly and the Catholic Church. Father Lewis T. Watson and Novice Laura White met to discuss their dreams and ideas of an order that took the Vows of Poverty and followed in the ways of St. Francis of Assisi. Unfortunately, this idea fell on deaf ears with the leaders of the Anglican Church, but it did little to dampen the zeal to start a new order. In the early 1900s, Catholic families began to migrate from the east into the Hereford area and by 1915, 12 families were reported at St. Anthony’s Church. PLEASE SEE CENTENNIAL | 2
Joining almost 350 of its counterparts from throughout the state, the Hereford Independent School District (HISD) Board of Trustees unanimously approved a resolution calling for a proposed state accountability system to be repealed. The Texas Legislature’s passage of House Bill 2804 in 2015 set in motion preparations for a new accountability system for school districts – and their individual campuses – where A-F letter grades will be assigned. With that system set to become law for the 2017-18 school year, HISD and school officials across the state have been in an uproar over inequities in the criteria for determining the letter grades. “The proposed rating system…for schools and districts includes five domains and nu- BLANKENSHIP merous unrelated indicators to determine a single letter grade, leaving the public with an invalid, disconnected reflection of school quality,” the resolution reads. “…the system creates a false impression about students, ignores the unique strengths of each school and unfairly reduces each student’s worth to the school’s assigned grade.” Initial results of the proposed system compiled in the fall and released for lawmakers’ use in the current state legislative session cast unfavorable lights on most districts and their schools. For HISD, the district received two Cs and two Ds in the four domains graded. Of the remaining 36 grades given to its nine campuses, only eight were B or higher, while 12 were D or lower – including Fs in student achievement at Hereford High School and Hereford Preparatory Academy. HISD Superintendent Sheri Blankenship has called the A-F system “incomplete” and “non-inclusive” of a total education because such things as the arts, athletics and off-campus educational PLEASE SEE REPEAL | 3
Contributed photo
The Texas Historical Commission dedicated a plaque commemorating St. Anthony School in 1993. The plaque adorns the entryway to the original Red Brick School, which now houses Deaf Smith County Museum.
Love’s quietly opens doors
By John Carson BRAND Managing Editor
...and counting Since 1955, St. Anthony School has been in its current facility, next to the church on West Park Avenue in Hereford.
Contributed photo
After more than a year in the making – and with little fanfare – Love’s Travel Stop officially opened for business Thursday in Hereford. “We always look forward to opening new locations in Texas,” Love’s founder and executive chairman Tom Love said. “Hereford is a great community that will provide us with an excellent base of employees. “With its location along two U.S. highways, we’re in a good position to serve the community, as well as professional drivers traveling through Texas and New Mexico.” The opening of the company’s 60th outlet in Texas came after more than a year of preparations and construction. Originally slated to be completed in spring 2016, the project ran into delays concerning ingress, egress and drainage issues with the Texas Department of Transportation. Ground was finally broken in late spring 2016, and despite some minor weather delays opened only three weeks behind the updated scheduled completion, according to PLEASE SEE LOVE'S | 2
Staff Writer
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