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| Saturday,
March 11, 2017 | Printed on recycled paper
Hereford BRAND Volume 116 | Number 73
Proudly Serving The High Plains Since 1901
10 pages | $1.00
‘By the grace of God’
County able to avoid much of recent fires
WHAT'S INSIDE
By John Carson BRAND Managing Editor
Pesticide training coming March 23 Page 5
Lions help out Crisis Center Page 6
Whitefaces exceed 2016 win total Page 9
FORECAST
a sigh of guarded relief could be heard from local officials as Deaf Smith Wildfires earlier this County has not had to week devastated several confront such a situation. How the county has areas in the northern and eastern parts of the Pan- been able to avoid such an incident comes handle – claiming down to one simlives, destroying ple reason for Herproperty, causeford Fire Marshal ing injuries and and Emergency burning more than Management Coor320,000 acres dinator Dean Turthrough the region ney. and into Oklahoma “By the grace of and Kansas. God, that’s it,” he While the results said. “We could are tragic, red flag TURNEY easily be in the warnings are an almost weekly occurrence same ship as all those thanks to the area’s tra- others.” While this week’s Panditional weather patterns – rising temperatures, low handle fires were safely humidity, high winds and removed and traveled away from the county, a no precipitation. As hearts and prayers recent grassfire in Oldwent out to those affected by the recent blazes, PLEASE SEE FIRE | 5
Contributed photo
Already fueled by the region’s high winds, wildfires also create their own winds, which can exacerbate the situation by increasing wind speeds and creating whirlwinds of flame.
TAPR results show HISD faring well
Homer the hard way
By John Carson BRAND Managing Editor
Today
Partly Cloudy/Wind High: 69º Low: 31º Sunrise: 6:08 a.m. Sunset: 5:57 p.m. Wind: NNW 28 MPH Precipitation: 20%
Sunday
Partly Cloudy/Wind High: 68º Low: 39º Sunrise: 7:07 a.m. Sunset: 6:58 p.m. Wind: SW 21 MPH Precipitation: 10%
Monday
Sunny High: 71º Low: 42º Sunrise: 7:05 a.m. Sunset: 6:59 p.m. Wind: SE 12 MPH Precipitation: 0%
Tuesday
Sunny High: 75º Low: 39º Sunrise: 7:04 a.m. Sunset: 7:00 p.m. Wind: NE 15 MPH Precipitation: 0%
INDEX Page 2.....................Obits Page 3......................News Page 4.........Kids Corner Page 5......Weekly Bonus Page 6...........Community Page 7..........Classifieds Page 8..........Real Estate Page 9..................Sports Page 10.............................
BRAND/John Carson
Hereford’s Andrew Lopez motors across the plate Tuesday after his scorcher down the third-base line rattled around in the left-field corner allowing him to circle the bases for an inside-the-park home run during the Herd’s 14-2 win over Dalhart. For more on the game, see Sports on page 9.
results showed was that Although the numbers HISD is faring well with were nothing new, what other schools in Region they showed were what 16 and throughout TexHereford Independent as. School District (HISD) “We knew we would officials were hoping to be strong in math and see. reading,” Stokes said. The HISD Board of “Those results were OK, Trustees got a look at but there is still room what those numbers for improvement. meant when Chief “Overall, we Academic Officompare well with cer Mark Stokes the state and represented the gion.” 2015-16 Texas Reading results Academic Pershowed HISD placformance Report ing higher than (TAPR) during the both the state and board’s February region for third regular meeting. and fifth grades, STOKES While the most but dropping berecent TAPR used low both in fourth, 2015-16 academic re- sixth, seventh and eighth sults HISD officials were grades. intimately familiar with, Math results matched the specifics the report the region and exceedshowed were not. ed the state for third The basis of TAPR is grade. They were better a comparison of a local than the state, but below district’s results with Region 16 in fourth and those in its region and fifth grades before fallwith the state. The re- ing significantly below sults are also broken the two in sixth grade. down into academic, raSeventh-grade math cial and economic com- results were back above parisons for the district the state and region, and its individual cam- yet dropped well below puses. What the latest TAPR PLEASE SEE TAPR | 4
Official bond call puts parameters on super’s pitch By John Carson BRAND Managing Editor
As officials with Hereford Independent School District (HISD) focus on an upcoming $45 million bond issue, how they can go
about spreading awareness of the measure has hit the fence of state mandates. The HISD Board of Trustees officially called for the bond to be placed on the May 6 election ballot during a called meeting Feb. 13.
The ultimate result is district officials have far more restrictions on what they can say about the issue. “Now that the bond has been called, we are limited in stating only the facts about the bond,”
HISD Superintendent Sheri Blankenship said. “Prior to the bond being called, we were allowed to interject underlying causes of why we need the bond and why the up-
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PLEASE SEE BOND | 4