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November 14 Sec ATRANSCRIPT
Covering the Heights, Garden Oaks, Oak Forest & the neighborhoods of North HoustonSaturday, November 14, 2015 • Vol. 60 • No. 54
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Zoned In
Photo by betsy Denson(Above) While Stevens Elementary school principal Jennifer Bar-rientez looks forward to having an influx of parent support along with an increased enrollment, she is going to have to get creative with her existing space to accommodate more students (Left) The proposed rezoning would remove a sizeable portion of Katherine Smith’s cur-rent school zone, in turn alleviating an ongoing overcrowding issue there.
Area schools, parents face challenges with rezoningBy Betsy Denson
When the HISD Board of Education voted 5-4 last spring against adjusting neighborhood attendance boundaries at certain elementary schools, including Katherine Smith, Ste-vens, Sinclair, Love, Memorial, Crockett, Travis and Har-vard, HISD Board President Rhonda Skillern-Jones resolved to revisit the matter again.
“There are communities that did want their lines adjusted to level out enrollment for the greater good,” said Skillern-Jones, who told The Leader last May that Katherine Smith Elementary was overenrolled by 100 children, with even more from the school zone who have been turned away. “The [current] effort was driven by the community and prin-cipals were included in the process.”
The new plan on the table will go to a vote on Nov. 12. The proposal shifts the boundaries for Katherine Smith, Wainwright, Stevens and Highland Heights. Part of Kath-erine Smith’s zone would shift to Stevens, Wainwright and
Highland Heights. Stevens also picks up a little of Wain-wright’s existing school zone and Katherine Smith takes a small portion back from Wainwright.
Residents of one neighborhood – Candlelight Estates – have been vocal about wanting a zone shift. The portion of the neighborhood west of Rosslyn Road is currently split between Stevens and Katherine Smith. Jennie Sciba, who lives in Section 1 of Candlelight Estates, has been talking to Skillern-Jones about having her neighborhood rezoned for Stevens Elementary for the past year.
“I wanted [Skillern-Jones] to know that she had our sup-port,” said Sciba in May.
While the rezoning, if approved, would alleviate the prob-lems at Katherine Smith, it is not without its issues.
Stevens Elementary’s Jennifer Barrientez said that while the district will fund any extra teachers who are needed, she’s responsible for coming up with classroom space for the estimated 65 kids who will eventually be added to her
By Jonathan [email protected]
Jeanette Salinas says the inside of Res-urrection Church in the Heights is perfect for her students. Here, there is very little noise throughout the week, and for those at-tending the relatively new Journey School of Houston, that’s a good thing for children who may have social and emotional devel-opemental issues.
“We have absolutely loved our space here,” Salinas said. “The church has been great for us and we really feel like we can grow here.”
Salinas formerly served as the education director at New School of the Heights. After the school closed several months ago, how-ever, Journey started up after Labor Day to serve the same type of student – from 5 years old up until eighth grade – those who
are performing well academically but who might need help or more time to develop when it comes to dealing with social situa-tions or handling their emotions.
“What typically happens in their school life is they get to a point where their social and emotional development doesn’t keep up,” Salinas said. “Traditionally, that will start to overpower what teachers see in the classroom and they are usually yanked out of any sort of advanced achievement class they might be in or have a chance to be in.”
Salnias, along with two other teachers, work with students and parents to identify ways to help students identify their own feelings and rise above them while meeting their needs academically. Salinas stresses the students here are bright, but anxiety issues or even trauma can create issues in
Heights school carries on tradition of helping challenged youth
Photo by Jonathan GarrisOfficials with the Journey School of Houston hope to continue with a mission not unlike that of the former New School of the Heights by work-ing with students who may have high academic achievements, but might struggle with complex emotions or social situations.
Little thicket annexation approved by city officials
By Betsy [email protected]
The news that city council ap-proved the annexation by the Memo-rial Heights Redevelopment Author-ity and Tax Increment Reinvestment of 18th through 21st streets from TC Jester to Shepherd, as well as Dur-ham and Shepherd Drive from I-10 to I-610, along with nearby areas in-cluding Little Thicket Park, was most welcome to former Shady Acres Civic Club President Nancy Wilcox.
“We will be able to do a massive plan,” she said. “With all the active young families who bike and run, there is a need for green space.”
Wilcox notes that with all the verti-cal development in the area, the green spaces that exist are “everybody’s backyard.”
With the upcoming groundbreaking of Wright-Bembry Park on W. 23rd St., people in the area will have a new and improved place to get outdoors. Wilcox said that there is a need for dif-ferent kinds of park space in the area and that Little Thicket Park could be a less manicured option for residents.
“There could be an upgrade to the [Little Thicket] play park but we don’t need anything major because Wright-Bembry is getting ready to open so we’ve got a formal play area,” Wilcox said. “With Little Thicket Park, we could enhance it but leave it natural. It would be more of a conservation effort.”
She notes that many people have expressed a desire for trails from the park that lead to White Oak Bayou. Others want a dog park at Little Thicket, but with no parking and not a lot of space to work with, that may be
INSIDe.
heights Central
Find it on 1B
A new health facility will be calling the Heights area home in the coming year and will offer 15,000 square feet of space for medical offices and physi-cians. Read about the new plans for Heights Central in this month’s edition of Our Health.
See School, P. 9A
INSIDe.
Walking for MS
Find it on 2B
Last weekend marked the annual Walk MS: Houston event, attracting people from across the region to help raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to help raise awareness for multiple sclerosis. Turn to Our Health to find out about how one woman participated in honor of her uncle.
See Annexation, P. 2A
Voting by the Numbers
See how people voted in your community with our
in-depth breakdown of the 2015 elections.
Find it on 5A
everyday Challenges
With National Diabetes Awareness Month underway, we sat down with a few residents who deal with the chal-lenges of diabetes every day.
Find it on 1B
See Zoning P. 7A
Photo by betsy DensonFormer SACC President Nancy Wilcox said that the approval of the TIRZ an-nexation opens the door to creating a master plan in the area.
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more problematic.TIRZ #5 Board Chair Ann
Lents is also excited about the approval and ready to move forward. Lents said that Coun-cilmembers Ellen Cohen and Ed Gonzalez both spoke in favor of the annexation and that Nancy Wilcox was “very effective” when she spoke to Council earlier in the process.
Lents said that the planning starts now for projects in the area but that the “intense plan-ning” will happen next spring in advance of city, and TIRZ, budget meetings.
“We’ll begin to identify what projects should be on the Cap-ital Improvement Plan,” she said, noting that first the final costs for existing TIRZ proj-ects need to be nailed down.
With regard to Little Thicket Park, Lents said she needs to go look at the physical space and also visit a civic club meeting to gather input. Lents said the idea of more trails is one that has great appeal.
“Connectivity is a great in-terest of ours,” she said. “We’ll try and come up with a plan everybody would like. It’s best done with solid input.”
She said that people from the annexed area came to this week’s TIRZ meeting and in-vites others to join the public meetings too. The email con-tact to be put on the TIRZ 5 email list is [email protected].
“We are looking forward to working with Council Member Cohen and the annexed neigh-
borhoods to develop proj-ects during the next several months,” Lents said.
Garden Oaks
• On Wednesday, Nov. 4, a car stolen in an Oct. 16 rob-bery in the 700 block of West 43rd Street was recovered and the robbery victim iden-tified the robber from photos. Deputies are working to ar-rest the robber on a warrant.
In the robbery, the suspect held a Garden Oaks resident at gunpoint and stole the ve-hicle after a brief struggle. A witness followed the suspect and took a photo of him.
On Oct. 18, deputies as-signed to the Garden Oaks
patrol contract recognized the suspect in the photo and used that information to locate the vehicle and file charges.
Heights
• Around 11 p.m. Friday, Nov. 6, 2015, deputies were dispatched to a meet with a man who said the tailgate of his truck had been stolen two to four hours earlier in the 400 block of Cortlandt Street. The thief or thieves had tried unsuccessfully to enter the truck cab. No suspect infor-
mation was available and a report was referred to HPD for investigation.
• Deputies responded on Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2015, when a juvenile was seen tak-ing packages from the front porches of homes around the 600 block of E 8th ½ Street. They found the juvenile, who was identified as the culprit by several witnesses. He ad-mitted using a stolen bicycle and provided information that allowed the deputies to recover the stolen packages, which were returned to their
destinations. The juvenile was cited for several viola-tions and released to the cus-tody of his parents pending action by juvenile court.
Please report any suspi-cious activity to local law en-forcement.
Precinct One: Deputies seek robbery suspect
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Photo by Jonathan GarrisOne person was taken to ben Taub General hospital following the attempted robbery of an armored vehicle at the bank of America in the 5200 block of North Shepherd Nov. 6. According to Fbi officials and leader news partner KhOu, a guard with a loomis armored truck left the bank of America at around 3 p.m. A robber, armed with a rifle, walked out from the side of the bank and began firing at the guard. The guard was shot but managed to get into his vehicle and return fire. The robber fled the scene without any money in a blue honda vehicle with others inside of it. The guard was rushed to ben Taub hospital.
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Tucked away just off of In-terstate 45 on Barren Springs Drive is a gateway into the history and rituals associated with funeral services – while it may sound a bit morbid, this decades old museum focuses on the funeral services indus-try but also the cultural rituals surrounding the celebration and mourning of all things end-of-lifetime.
The National Museum of Funeral History, located at 415 Barren Springs Dr., has been part of Houston since 1992 and current president Genev-ive Keeney has served with the museum since 2007. Origi-nally designed to capture the history of the funeral industry and how it evolved, Keeney said the museum is more than a collection of hearses or a look back at how coffins have changed and said it highlights the importance of caring for the dead.
“We have to be able to care for our dead, not only for clo-sure, but also to keep disease in check and keep the world clean,” Keeney said. “It’s a necessity but a lot of people I don’t think realize how much work goes into that and how it’s changed over the years.”
Among some of the per-manent exhibits includes a chronicle of the history of em-balming, Presidential funerals throughout US history, 19th century mourning customs and international exhibits like extravagant “fantasy coffins” from Ghana and an exhibit showcasing Japanese funer-als and Dios De Los Muertos customs.
As part of its seasonal ex-hibits, the museum recently highlighted myths surrounding graveyards, showcasing the iconography and techniques behind caring for graves, Kee-ney said. Of course, the exhib-it came with a rather spooky element to it, as the exhibit was anchored by Halloween season.
As part of its Veteran’s Ap-preciation Week, the museum will offer all veterans and ac-tive military servicemen and women with free admission from Nov. 7 to 15, in honor of Veterans Day.
“We also have a big hearse collection with the oldest be-
ing from 1832,” Keeney said.Another exhibit captures
the memories and lifetimes of pop culture icons and other major figures. Keeney stresses they aren’t focusing on their death but rather celebrating their life.
“For some people, even though they are dead, they are still very much alive through their music or through some of their movies that endure,” Keeney said. “It just goes to show everyone that they are just as human as the rest of us and I feel we capture that in our exhibits.”
The museum even offers
rental opportunities, and can accommodate gatherings big and small, Keeney said. Ac-cording to their website, the museum has frequently hosted memorial services, Halloween parties, Scared Straight pro-grams, birthday parties, cor-porate events and even non-traditional weddings.
A canned food drive will also be held through Dec. 31, and donors will receive discounted admission into the museum as well, Keeney said.
Tickets can be purchased online at www.nmfh.org or in person. Adult tickets cost $10, seniors over 55 years old and
veterans cost $9, children ages 6 to 11 cost $7 and children 5 and under are free. SCI em-ployees can enter for $8 and group rates at $8 per person at a minimum of 25 guests is also available. The museum is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mon-day to Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. For more information, call 281-876-3063.
Spotlight: National Museum of Funeral History offers different views of burial culture, heritage
The National Museum of Funeral History features a big hearse collection, with the oldest dating back from 1832.
Photos by Jonathan GarrisThe museum also features an extensive look into the funerals of the Pope throughout history, complete with recreations of burial ceremonies, statues, photos and educational videos.
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The Topics.Saturday, November 14, 2015 • page 4A
Cutting off your nose to spite your face is never a good strategy.
With the dust (somewhat) settling from the whirlwind that was the 2015 Houston election, I think it’s fair to say that there are plenty of people feeling a bit of disappointment right now. Whether it’s a specific candidate not mak-ing it on the runoff ballot or a proposition not passing, there’s always going to be disappointed constituents in any democratic process.
I’m sure there are also plenty of people, like myself, feeling quite disappointed that the equal rights ordinance failed miserably, making Hous-ton stand out like a sore thumb among cities that have laws safeguarding sexual orientation and gender identity in everything from employ-ment to housing.
It’s hard to believe that a slogan like “No men in women’s bathrooms,” something that I found silly at best and insulting at worst, could ever rouse anything other than a giant question mark, but in the end it appears fear of the un-known succeeded. While I’m sure equal rights activists will continue their fight (as they should) I’m always a bit concerned when people auto-matically start wishing for misfortune to befall this city and its plans for the future.
It’s understandably frustrating to have laws that are in place across so many other cities shot down in an election – and even more frus-trating that any civil rights issue should ever be dictated by popular vote – but is championing the loss of jobs, business opportunities and some of the infrastructure improvements that come with them the right approach? It seems these days the best way to get anyone’s atten-tion is by making a point where it counts most in this country – the wallet.
It sounds cliché, but it seems like everyone loses in this situation. The LGBT community gains no protection, Houston’s image suffers on the national stage and some rather extreme members of the religious community continue perpetuating a culture of fear and misinforma-tion that will sadly keep them locked in a bubble, tucked away from even beginning to attempt to understand what transmen and transwomen go
through in their daily lives.Hitting a state in its coffers is certainly one
way to affect change. The Religious Freedom Restoration Act saw swift condemnation from the business community in Indiana and beyond, much like what has happened here in Hous-ton. However, unlike Houston, Indiana saw many major businesses not only outright speak against the laws and their precedent but in the case of Angie’s List actually canceled a $40 mil-lion expansion. Numerous conferences have either threatened or outright removed their events from Indianapolis and some cities and states even (temporarily) banned state-funded and city-funded travel to Indiana.
Given the wide support HERO had from the business community on a national level, it re-mains to be seen what could potentially happen should groups decide to pull the plug on any plans in particular here. The NFL has already indicated it won’t be moving the Super Bowl, which will undoubtedly bring at least some measure of an economic boost for the city.
With the oil market still going through its crunch and thousands without jobs, losing that economic boon might be bad for everyone. As much as I know hitting people in their wallets will make them think a bit harder about the decisions they make, particularly in regards to equality, I have to wonder how many jobs and how much money could be lost if companies react with the same revulsion they did to Indi-ana.
If it comes down to the extremes in any situ-ation, I’d still wager boycotting one’s own city might not be the best choice.
Editor
Jonathan
Garris
Stuck between a rock and HERO
THE FRONT YARD – Time to run it up the flagpole and see if anyone salutes it, to quote from “Twelve Angry Men.” My flagpole is actually an aluminum pipe sticking out of a tree, and, like most of you, I change flags according to the seasons and anniversa-ries. National holidays like the Fourth of July, Armistice Day and Black Friday get the U.S. flag. Texas state holidays such as Texas Independence Day, San Jacinto Day and LBJ’s birthday (no kidding -- look it up) are celebrated by my run-ning up the Lone Star Flag. I put out a scarlet and gold (not red and yellow) Marine Corps flag every November 10, the Marines’ birthday. To cel-ebrate the Longhorns’ victori-ous football season I run up my orange and white UT ban-ner – lately at half staff. And I can tear, burn, stomp on or toss in the street any of them to express my feelings.
Yes, once again our courts have decreed we have the right to make fools of ourselves. The latest incident came re-cently when the Texas State Court of Criminal Appeals, in a 35-page decision, ruled that a state law prohibiting anyone from messing with the U.S. or Texas flag is invalid. Why? Because it is “overbroad” and thus is in violation of the First Amendment to the U.S. Con-stitution. So Terence John-son, a resident of the East Texas community of Bedias, can breathe easier.
Johnson, who is black, said he became quite angry when a store clerk made some ra-cial comments to his mother. The 20-year-old (at the time in 2012) saw a U.S. flag hanging outside a hardware store and threw the flag onto a highway. There the flag was run over and damaged. Johnson was arrested for destruction of a flag and spent four and a half weeks in the Houston County Jail (that’s in East Texas, not the Houston city jail) until released on bond. His case was dismissed, the state of Texas appealed, dismissed, appealed.
You know how our legal system works, and I say “our” because you and I were pay-ing for all of this. It will only
be a matter of time before we see all of this again: Texas trying to prosecute someone under a state law that prohib-its anyone from damaging, defacing, mutilating or burn-ing the U.S. or Texas flag. And court after court – literally from small-county DAs to the U.S. Supreme Court -- saying the law is too broad. In 1989 the Texas Legislature even re-wrote the law to make it more specific and thus pass scru-tiny from the courts. Didn’t work.
No matter what the courts say, Texans have always been very protective of our flags, especially that of the Lone Star persuasion, and display them everywhere. It used to be that the Texas flag could only be shown in respect and honor. But somehow the law is no longer in force. Now we see the Lone Star flag used in beer ads, car dealerships and made into jogging shorts covering somebody’s sweaty behind.
Seeing our flag against a background of trees, green grass, and graffiti on the rail-road overpass, it really is a beautiful sight. Actually, we have a very beautiful flag and was so declared by a vexillol-ogists society in 2001 as the second prettiest state flag in the nation or Canada. (A vex-illologist is one who studies flags.) New Mexico was first, but the judges had spent the previous night getting loaded at an Albuquerque casino, or at least that’s the story I’m putting out.
As I found out years ago, and wrote about, Texas has some unique laws dealing with its flag. For example, there is a much-ignored law that says all trains traveling in or through Texas have to dis-play the Texas flag. We also have a law stating that, when displayed in Texas, the Lone
Star flag will take precedence over all others. The only ex-ception is when the U.S. flag is also on display. Contrary to popular myth, there is no law requiring that the Texas flag be displayed on a sepa-rate but equal pole alongside the Stars and Stripes. That’s often the way it is done, but put that story alongside the Easter Bunny, Sasquatch and you can keep your doctor.
We feel very protective of our state flag. There is a story that in 1908 Texans hanged a man for desecrating the Lone Star flag. Historians can find no record of such an instance although there is an old story that the Texas Legislature once passed a resolution con-gratulating someone for beat-ing up a man who desecrated the Texas flag. Finally, a few items to know: The Texas flag is known as the “Lone Star Flag” which, in turn, gave Texas its nickname, “The Lone Star State,” not the other way around. Our pledge of allegiance is to the state flag first and then to the state. “Honor the Texas flag; I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible.”
The Texas flag flies perma-nently above both doors of the Texas State Capitol, under the U.S. flag at the south door, but only the Texas flag flies at the north door. The law also requires that the state flag be flown at or near any Interna-tional Port of Entry. Does that include the Sabine and Red Rivers? And because of our usual legislative efficiency -- it’s a long story -- Texas had no legal flag from 1879 to 1933. Not until 1993 did the Legislature specify that the red and blue colors are de-fined by the “Standard Color Reference of America.” That law also specifies that the fin-ial, or top of the pole, should be a lone star or a spearhead. Is yours? Sometimes we see the Texas flag flown upside down. The red is on the bot-tom and the star’s top spike is upward. Remember that the next time you throw a flag on the highway.
Ashby gets flagged down at [email protected]
Lynn
Ashby
Columnist
The reader. Email us your letters: [email protected]
Dear editor:I just wanted to say that you
nailed it perfectly with the article; “Election Analysis: Easy predictions; so long Parker.”
Thanks for putting in-print the thoughts and feelings of so many area residents. That cou-pled with the broadcast of the mayor’s epic meltdown after the results of Houston’s Prop-1 were announced, it appears that there is a resurgence of life in the conservative majority of this great city, and hopefully across the entire United States. Thanks to the voters of Houston for sending a strong message to the nation by defeating the HERO ordinance, and thanks to you Mr. McElvy, for your tireless work publishing The Leader!
R. Bement
Dear editor:Regarding the nondiscrimina-
tion HERO ordinance that was defeated, you stated that Mayor Annise Parker,” basically begged businesses and major sporting events to punish her city for not supporting an ordinance that could have easily passed.” This is a very skewed and biased interpretation of what Mayor Parker said and is an affront to your readers’ intelligence. You even quoted her exact words, “I absolutely fear there will be a direct, economic backlash as a result to this ordinance going into defeat.” This is a real fear as this ordinance gained worldwide attention and major businesses including Apple and others supported it. She has promoted business and economic growth in Houston during her entire tenure in office and she simply does not want the city to suffer as a result of this ordinance not passing. Federal law does not protect all classes of citizens from non-discrimination, and I’m very interested to know which laws you are referring to other than the American With Disabilities Act. Your bashing of Mayor Parker in numerous editorials is offensive. I have been very pleased with Mayor Parker’s leadership and evi-dently so have the majority of Houstonians who have elected her thrice.
Kim BowmanP.S. Let’s see if you dare print
this rebuttal.
Dear editor:HOORAY! You hit it square on
the head..... If I could I would give you a BIG hug. I opened my mouth and out came your words. I only wish I had your talent. Too bad you couldn’t write for the “Chronicle,” but then you would be censored, just as they, (all of the staff ) are. Even the Sports, Business section wrote articles FOR Hero before the election day. Boy you talk of the “Liberals.” Even the Thumbs up/down articles in today’s paper is telling us what “bad people” we are to have rejected the horrible ordinance that was forcibly shoved down our throats. I used to write letters to them all the time and got published, until, I started
to go “political.” No more! I probably have written five or six letters. None of them pub-lished. Too conservative. Now I understand Ms. Mayor is bound and determined to “shove” another ordinance down our throats before going out of of-fice. What don’t they (her and her minions) and the Houston Chronicle understand about the majority of the people (in this case 61% and in the previous two elections) saying NO to these proposals! I think it’s time for us to vote out all of the liberals on city council. It’s too bad our elected officials lose sight of the fact, we, are the ones that elected them. They serve at our pleasure. They are there to serve us or represent us. They are not there to serve themselves or to line their pockets! Why does she (Ms. Mayor) think she can do anything she wants? and not give us a say so? “Too Obama ?” Anyway I just wanted to say that was a GREAT article you wrote and to keep up the good work.
John McMichens
Dear editor: I am disappointed and of-
fended by editorials in your newspaper concerning HERO. To me, they’re one-sided, hate-ful, non-objective propaganda.
I do not want to continue to receive your newspaper on my property.
charles W. pizzitola
Dear editor:Jonathan, you hit the nail on
the head with your article about the HERO ordinance being de-feated. I applaud you for having the courage to print the true facts about the proposed ordi-nance whereas Mayor Parker and 11 council members tried to ram this ordinance down the decent citizens of Houston without a vote of the people. It was a blessing that the Texas Supreme Court recognized what they were trying to do illegally and forced them to put it on the ballot so ALL citizens of our great City of Houston had a chance to vote on it. Even Sylvester Turner, Adrian Garcia and all the mayoral candidates were for it except Bill King and Ben Hall who understood how bad this ordinance was for our city. I also applaud the council members who tried and voted against it in the beginning, the six members being Stardig, Boykins, Martin, Pennington, Kubosh and Christie. At least they were voting in line with the majority of the will of the people. It is so sad that Mayor Parker, in her defeat, is call-ing the opponents of HERO, (majority voters), “small” and “deliberate liars.” I believe the real liars are those proponents who tried to deceive the voters by expanding the true mean-ing in the dictionary of the wording, sexual orientation, gender identity and sex listed in the definition section of the ordinance as written.
In their list of definitions they listed the term sex, as meaning
biological differences between men and women, and gender. The word, gender, is not found in the dictionary under the meaning of, sex. Hopefully, a new administration will be able unite our citizens and get the City of Houston out of debt and the pension plan out of its unfunded liability of 3.2 billion dollars.
Jim Descant
Dear editor:Your article in today’s Leader
was just great. In fact I look forward to reading all of your publisher comments.
Bill Fronek
election Analysis: easy predictions; so long parker - readers comment
Texas has unique laws when it comes to its flag
SUDOKU
WORD SCRAMBLE
the leader Puzzlers.
aCrOss 1. Cleopatra’s viper 4. Cuneiform writing 10. Dekaliter 11. Groaned 12. For instance 14. Wave in spanish 15. Arabian gulf 16. Written in red 18. Denouncements 22. Eat one’s heart out 23. Survive longer
than 24. Take priority over 26. Foreign service 27. Russian king (alt.
sp.) 28. Stinkheads 30. Old name for
Tokyo 31. Box (abbr.) 34. Red rock in Aus-
tralia 36. Not old 37. Enlarge hole 39. Difficulty walking 40. The high point of
something 41. 101 42. Hunting expedi-
tions 48. Unusual appearing
ghostly figure 50. Without civilizing
influences 51. Heartbeat 52. Morning juice 53. Wicket 54. Head louse egg 55. 40th state 56. Pleasing to the
eye (Scot.) 58. Nickname for an
anorexic 59. Engaged in a
game 60. Household god
(Roman)
dOwn 1. Admirer 2. Mouth secretion 3. Afterbirth 4. Initials of “Bullitt”
star 5. Family crest 6. Forearm bone 7. Unable to move 8. Loss due to a rule
infraction 9. Touchdown 12. Accordingly 13. Spiritual teacher 17. A bridal mouth-
piece
19. Dress up garishly 20. Cleverly avoid 21. S.E. Asia goat
antelope 25. Fla. state dessert 29. Popular legume 31. Two-die gambling
game 32. Easily annoyed
(alt. sp.) 33. Khoikhoin peoples 35. Cyclic 38. Flavor of Newport
cigarettes 41. Jamestown was
the 1st English 43. Fine meal made
from cereal grain 44. Incarnation 45. Norse goddess of
the sea 46. Ignores or snubs
(slang) 47. Tiny glass bubble 49. Chinese mahoga-
ny genus 56. Deepwater Hori-
zon Co. 57. -__, denotes past
Answers found in this week’s Classified section
Saturday, November 14, 2015 • Page 5A
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Ad # 37463
Eternity Christian School admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, priviliges, pro-grams and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin in the administration of its educational policies, admis-sion policy, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school-administered pro-grams.
Eternity Christian School an-nounces the sponsorship of the Child Care Food Program. All children enrolled, who meet the eligibility criteria, will be offered the same free meal with no physical segregation of, or oth-er discrimination against, any child because of race, color, handicap, sex, age or national origin.
Eternity Christian School today announced its policy for free and reduced-price meals served under the Child and Adult Care Food Program. Each facility and Eternity Christian School has a copy of the policy, which anyone may review.
“The following household size and income criteria will be used to determine eligibility:
(Please refer to household size and income guidelines as prescribed by USDA for free and reduced-price meals).
“Children from household whose income is at or below the levels shown are eligible for free or reduced-price meals.
“Application forms and a let-ter to parents or guardians are being sent to all homes. To ap-ply for free or reduced-price meals, households should ll out the application and return it to the contractor. Additional copies are available at the con-tractor’s of ce. The information provided on the application will be used to determine eligibil-ity; it may be veri ed any time during the contract year by the contractor or other program of- cials.
“Households must provide the following information on
the application: all household member’s names; the Social Se-curity number of the head of the household (or other responsible adult); and all household mem-bers’ incomes by source; OR the household’s food stamp or AFDC case number, if appropriate; and the signature of an adult house-hold member certifying that the information is correct.
“Applications may be submit-ted any time during the year.
“According to the free and reduced-price policy, the Direc-tor will review applications and determine eligibility. Parents and Guardians dissatis ed with the ruling of the of cial may discuss the decision with Ms. Bashinski. Parents may request a formal appeal either orally or in writing by contacting Eternity Christian School, 1122 West Road, 281-999-5107.
“Households must report in-crease of over $50.00 per month or $600.00 per year in house-hold income, and decreases in household size.
If a household member be-comes unemployed or if the household size increases, the household should contact the contractor. These changes may qualify children for reduced-price meals or for free meals if the household’s income falls to or below the levels shown above. AFDC/Food Stamp household must report termination of ben-e ts.
“Some foster children are also eligible for free or reduced-price meals. A household with foster children should contact the con-tractor for more information.
“The information that house-holds provide is con dential and will be used only to determine eligibility and verifying data.
“In the child nutrition program administered by the U.S. De-partment of Agriculture, no child will be discriminated against be-cause of race, color, sex, nation-al origin, age, religion, political belief, or disability. If you believe you have been discriminated against, write immediately to the Secretary of Agriculture, Wash-ington, DC 20250.
Notice of Nondiscriminatory Policy As To Students
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City of Houston, Mayor
Election Day 2015: Breaking down votes by precinctCity Council, District C
City Council, District H
Proposition 1
HISD Trustee, District II
On this page, you will find a breakdown of the 2015 elec-tions by precinct throughout The Leader area.
In each graph, totals repre-sent the total number of votes combined with those outside of the precinct (where applica-ble). While many of the area’s
voting habits fell in line with much of the city, the majority of Leader area voters casted votes in favor of Proposition 1, in support of the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance.
According to voting data, 4,014 voted ‘yes’ on Proposi-tion 1 versus 2,132 ‘no.’ Pre-
cinct 0204, which includes neighborhoods like Timber-grove Manor, had the highest number of votes opposing the ordinance at 792. Pre-cinct 0057, in the heart of the Heights, had the highest votes in favor of the ordinance at 910.
In the mayoral election, the highest number of votes for Sylvester Turner came from Precinct 0576, north of the Oak Forest & Garden Oaks ar-eas, with 587 votes. The high-est votes for Bill King came from Precinct 0204.
Turner King Garcia
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Page 6A • Saturday, November 14, 2015
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Thanks to the Oak Forest community, the City of Hous-ton and the Houston Fire De-partment, Fire Station 13 has a brand new station along with shiny new appliances and fur-nishings, and the firefighters who live there in three sepa-rate shifts love their new home away from home.
The Oak Forest Homeown-ers Association 2014 Board played a substantial role in the renovation, but several area women were the driving force behind the new building and some of the interior and ex-terior amenities. Lucy Fisher Cain, Alicia Nuzzie, Mary Mar-garet Carroll, and Terry Webb did a great deal of legwork and fact finding early on and just did not give up.
It all began when Fisher Cain kept bringing up FS 13 during 2013 OFHA Board meetings. Nuzzie, Legislative Liaison of the OFHA Board at the time, started to listen and take notes, making visits to the station. Carroll, a neigh-bor very near to FS 13, was already taking brownies and treats over to the Fire Station because that’s just the kind of person she is; therefore, she was already acquainted with the firefighters who live and work there as well as the con-dition of the station.
Both ladies knew FS 13 was in bad shape. The firefight-ers were sleeping in cramped quarters, making do with work space as well as recreational space, and dealing with con-stant drainage and ventilation issues.
Nuzzie ended up being linked with Chief Mark Don-ovan and asked him if Oak Forest could form some type of partnership with the City, something that had never been done before. At the same time, FS 13 was reaching out to the City for some help with drain-age and a few other pressing issues.
“We have a candidate list for stations that need renovation,” Donovan said. “We have a de-partment within the City called General Services and their job is to take care of all the facili-ties. FS 13 was not at the top of the list. FS 13 called us and reached out to say, ‘Hey, we’ve got a few issues, can you take a look?’ We evaluated it and looked at the totality of the is-sues and FS 13 was bumped up on the list.”
Donovan said communities have adopted fire stations in the past, but not to the mag-nitude of what Oak Forest had done.
Nora Loera had been plan-ning a crawfish boil fundraiser at 50/50 Acorn Golf but did not yet have a specific use for funds raised in mind, and she realized it was the perfect fundraiser for the FS 13 proj-ect. The event raised a whop-ping $24,000 for the FS 13 project.
Houston Fire Department, funded by the General Fund, does not have a way of ac-cepting donations directly to the Department and some corporations can only donate to a 501(c)(3) organization. Assistant Fire Chief David Almaguerre of EMS and presi-dent of Medilife of Houston, a 501(c)(3) organization created for this purpose, received the funds directly from the OFHA and directed 100% of those
funds to the HFD’s General Services Dept. for the FS 13 renovation specifically.
“As long as Medilife has been helping people to donate, [the OFHA] has done more and well above and beyond anyone else,” Almaguerre said. “It’s heartwarming. Having a community come together like that was just wonderful. Medil-ife was happy to be a part of that.”
St. Stephen’s United Meth-odist Church offered space for parking the fire truck and am-bulance as well as bunk space during the renovation, and then the Sea Scouts offered additional living space inside their meeting area, part of which was already being used for the temporary fire station kitchen. Homeowners and neighbors donated a variety of household goods for the new firestation such as a coffee maker and heavy duty copper-bottomed pots and pans.
Architect Greg Ryden, coin-cidentally an Oak Forest resi-dent, was hired by the City to design the new FS 13. Ryden loves doing community proj-ects and he was already work-ing on FS 80 out on Chimney Rock. When he was asked to shift gears in a phone call and hop in the car and go out to take a look at FS 13 in Oak Forest, he chuckled because – he was actually only 5 min-utes away.
The old fire station did not have a hallway and the cap-tain’s room, the EMTs’ room
and the dormitory had doors leading directly into the ga-rage, creating a security risk as well as privacy issues.
Because Ryden’s grandfa-ther was a firefighter, he has been in many different firesta-tions. He already had a grasp of the floorplan challenges of an older firestation built in a different era. When FS 13’s original footprint was con-structed, the fire trucks were smaller, and there was no air conditioning, so hanging out in the fire truck bay where one could catch a breeze was the norm. Living space was mini-mal.
With 1,000 added square footage, the interior circulation is much improved and it has made a world of difference to the firefighters. The changes have also created a more se-cure environment which was important to everyone.
“This project would have never happened without Ali-cia Nuzzie,” Carroll said. “She started the wheels rolling with the COH. Lots of the neigh-borhood pulled together to make this happen and donated money.”
Nuzzie called it a group ef-fort.
I may have gotten the ball rolling, but these women took it to the end and then some! And really, what could truly have been achieved with-out our wonderful commu-nity? They responded in such a huge way.”
HFD celebrates newly renovated Fire Station 13, thanks Oak Forest residents for contributions
By Elizabeth [email protected]
Photo by Jonathan GarrisThe new fire station in Oak Forest was part of a community effort to revitalize the aging structure and provide better accomodations for firefighters and residents alike.
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Saturday, November 14, 2015 • Page 7A
Dear Thanksgiving Trekking,November is an exciting
month. Not only is it “Adopt-A-Senior-Pet” month across the country, (most shelters have promotions with reduced adoption fees for pets over a certain age--check it out!) but it’s also the beginning of a busy travel season. I’m sure you have already made your travel plans but have you made plans for your pet? The clock is ticking, but there’s still time to make sure that everyone is happy, healthy and well-cared for this holiday season.
If your pet is more of a homebody (like, yours truly) I’d recommend finding a pet sitter to come to your home to care for your pet. A good pet sitter will be bonded and insured and come over be-fore your trip to meet the pets that he or she will be caring for during your absence. You can have the pet sitter come as many times a day as you’d
like--however many pet sit-ters have a strict rule to come at least once a day, in order to make sure that everyone is healthy and happy at all times--so keep that in mind when planning your pet sitter budget. Many pet sitters will bring in your mail, open and close your blinds and alternate lights, in order to give the ap-pearance of someone being at home while you’re away. Visit www.petsit.com to locate a pet sitter in your area.
If your pet would prefer to go somewhere else and hang out while you’re away, look into pet boarding facilities. Here in Houston, the options range from serene, cat-only boarding all the way to ranch-style fun for critters of all shapes and sizes. Plan to book early and have your pet’s vac-cination records on hand if you plan to board. Your vet might be able to recommend a boarding facility that will suit your pet’s needs.
Perhaps your pet would enjoy traveling with you this holiday season. If you prefer not to burden your hosts with the addition of your precious pet, look into hotels that are pet friendly. Many of the large hotel chains are pet friendly. Go to www.tripswithpets.com to see a comprehensive listing of all pet friendly hotels.
No matter which route you take, by ensuring that your pet is cared for while you’re traveling, you’ll both rest easy knowing that he is in the best of care. Many boarding facilities and pet sitters will
send photos, email updates and sometimes even facilitate a Skype session between you and your pet. The best news is that you’ll be able to enjoy your time away from home this holiday, knowing that your favorite animal companion is happy and content as well.
CAP GalaCAP (Citizens for Animal
Protection) is holding its 29th annual charity gala. This year, West Houston Subaru has donated a BRAND NEW
2016 Subaru Forester for the GALA raffle. The tickets are only $50 each and since only 1,500 tickets will be sold, your chances of winning are very, very good! The CAP Gala will be held at the Royal Sonesta Hotel on Nov. 21 at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are available online at www.cap4pets.org.
Do you have a burning query for Tabby? If so, email her at dear [email protected].
Dear Tabby,We are planning to travel
for the holidays. What are your thoughts on how to make sure your pet is taken care of when you’re away?
Thanksgiving trekking in Timbergrove
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Meet Mitzy. Poor Mitzy drew the short Milkbone and was the chosen girl to be surrendered to the shelter when her previ-ous owner got in over her head with pets to care for. Mitzy’s misfor-tune might be your good fortune though because this little lady is the perfect dog. A 7 year old Pug/Boston Terrier mix, Mitzy is a breeze to care for, is very quiet, friendly and minds her manners. Find out more about Mitzy by visiting www.cap4pets.org.
Last weekend, a group of pets and people from the An-imal Justice League spent the day introducing themselves to the patrons of Krieser’s Natural Pet on 20th St. in the Heights. The joy was palpa-ble. All the pets in attendance had, at one time, been home-less, but on this glorious day they were being adopted and going to loving homes.
Many pets in the US are not so lucky.
An amazing group of lo-cal citizens have stepped up to help. Formed by a hand-ful of women a year ago, the Animal Justice League was founded by Garden Oaks and Oak Forest residents Jennifer Graves, Jennifer Hayes, Diana McAllister, Melinda Gleghorn and Amanda Van Adrichem. In a short time, the women have secured a nonprofit tax status, and grown into a net-work of 40-plus volunteers.
“At first, we were all rescu-ing animals independently,” said Melinda Gleghorn, one of founders. “Then we met on Facebook and started helping each other. We soon realized how much more we could do together. When it comes to our community’s homeless pets, it really does take a village.”
According the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, (ASPCA) 7.6 million unwanted pets enter animal shelters nation-wide annually. Of these, ap-proximately 2.7 million are euthanized.
Houston’s Bureau of Ani-mal Regulations and Care, (BARC) takes in about 2,000 unwanted pets each month and estimates that there are 300,000 stray dogs and 950,000 stray cats in the city. While BARC is Houston’s official shelter, there are at least four additional private shelters and one county shel-ter assisting. Still, the home-less pet tidal wave continues.
“Now, we have volun-teers and fosters all over the Heights and as far as Sugar Land and Kingwood,” said Diana McAllister, another of the AJL founders. “It was really difficult when it was just the five of us. Now, with more people, we can help
more animals.”A good example of the
AJL’s work is beautiful, gen-tle Rose. A medium-to-large dog now, she was staving and whelping puppies when res-cued running down Pinemont Dr. “She was on death’s door when we caught her,” said McAlister.
Today, Rose is healthy, spayed, easy going, house-trained and great with chil-dren. It will be a lucky family that adopts her.
“She is a wonderful dog,” Rose’s foster mom, Jan Ward, said. “We were in the back-yard yesterday, and I closed the door on the shed, then Rose stated barking at it. When I opened the door, a cat sprang out. I had locked the cat in and Rose was tell-ing me. It was so funny - sort of ‘come quickly, Timmy fell down the well.’”
Another example of the AJL’s work is the help they’re providing the residents of a trailer park in Independence Heights. Here, the women
found cats and dogs roam-ing freely. As it turned out, the residents owned some of them, but others were hun-gry strays.
All the animals have now been spayed or neutered, and treated for health issues by the group. The pets that were not claimed by residents are in the AJL’s foster pipeline for adoption, including five kittens and three puppies.
Dogs are $150 and cats cost $75 to adopt. All the pets are spayed or neutered and micro-chipped, as well as health and temperament tested. In most cases, the adoption fee does not even cover the veterinary costs.
To better serve our com-munity, the Animal Justice League could use more help: fosters, adopters, volunteers, donations and the list goes on. To find out how you can help, please visit www.ani-maljusticeleague.org.
Finding Homeless Pets Fur-Ever Homes
By Kim HogstromFor The Leader
Photo by Kim HogstromFrom left to right: Melinda Gleghorn with Ginger, Jan Ward with her foster Rose, and Diana McAllister with puppy Scooter.
Zoning from P. 1Aenrollment according to the district’s demographer. The district says the school’s ca-pacity is 815 and Barrientez has asked them to verify that number.
“I’d need two additional classrooms,” said Barrientez, who noted that there was cur-rently no open space available and that her pie in the sky dream is a new building. Cur-rent options include making ancillary teachers – like the art or physical education teacher – mobile. It’s not ideal as the PE teacher is already in a tem-porary building and in rainy weather, there would be no place for kids to exercise. “Or take classrooms away from the Interventionist and Counselor, which are essential to our student’s academic and social-emotional success.”
An additional temporary building would be expensive and besides, Barrientez doesn’t know where she would put it.
A third option involves the school’s special education programs. There are four pro-grams which each have their own classroom. Barrientez said that they get a lot of stu-dents from Durham and Gar-den Oaks who don’t have the same programs, and although she doesn’t want to lose those existing students, a more even dispersement would open up classroom space.
Increased car traffic is a concern for Barrientez as well since none of the new students would come from more than 2 miles away and so wouldn’t qualify for free bus transpor-tation. Houston Metro used to travel down Rosslyn and pick up, but the routes have changed and they don’t any-more.
As for many schools in a booming area, it’s been a wild attendance ride at Stevens for the past few years. For the 2014-2015 school year, 625 students were projected, and they ended up with 765, prompting Barrientez to hire five teachers. In 2015-2016, the district projected 765 and attendance ended up at 728 due to capping at grades K-2 bilingual and fourth grade.
Because the district is striv-ing to meet the state mandat-ed 22 to 1 ratio of student to teacher, Stevens sends over-flow students to both Love El-ementary and Wainwright.
“The goal is to know which kids are coming,” said Barrien-tez. She said Stevens has one of the highest mobility rates in the district. In a given year they’ve had as many as 1,000 students who cycle through.
Barrientez adds that it has been an ongoing effort to get
parents involved, so the added parent volunteers from the re-zoning would be welcome.
Wainwright Principal Chris-tina Aguirre-Oliva doesn’t foresee a larger enrollment initially, since students can be grandfathered into their old school, but if there is, she says they can accommodate them.
“We have a 650 enrollment, and our capacity is 700,” said Aguirre-Oliva. “There’s plenty of classroom space.”
In the 2014-2015 school year, Wainwright was a HUB school, or overflow campus, for both Katherine Smith and Stevens. In the 2015-2016 year, the majority of their overflow was from Katherine Smith.
“We’re the only magnet school [of the four proposed for rezoning],” said Aguirre-
Oliva. “We don’t fill with just neighborhood students. We take kids anyway if they qual-ify.”
Aguirre-Oliva sees the con-sistency that rezoning will provide as a welcome thing so “families don’t get bounced around.”
Regardless of the result of this vote, a major changes are on the horizon for Houston’s school zones.
“If the demographers are correct, a large scale rezone is inevitable,” said Skillern-Jones. “In a perfect world HISD would invest equally in all schools so they are equally as desirable and well attended. It still baffles me that we build ‘relief ’ schools while there are half empty ones that could be filled with simply adjusting at-tendance boundaries.”Ad # 27049
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School from P. 1A
Photo by Jonathan GarrisStudents at the Journey School of Houston can receive one on one help for various roadblocks they might face in academia.
some classrooms.To accomplish this, the Jour-
ney School works with thera-pists and other professionals who in turn meet with families and talk to them about their child. This one-on-one help assists parents with coming to terms on how to best take care of their child in a positive way, Salinas said.
“Often times, students have been in multiple classrooms or even schools,” Salinas said. “It takes a toll on the parents, and they start to feel like they did something wrong or start to internalize that they’re not good enough.”
The program uses Texas Essential Knowledge & Skills as a guide for its curriculum, with one-on-one lessons for reading, math, science and a thereapeutic approach for social and emotional develop-ment, Salinas said. The school also has a language therapist to work with students with various reading difficulties like dyslexia.
Right now the school has four students enrolled, but Salinas hopes their new home at Resurrection Church will
help them as they grow. Mov-ing into an established facil-ity made it far easier for the school to settle and also offers a gymnasium and community work that works to students favor.
“This has really been a sup-portive community for us and the church here understands our mission and what we’re doing,” Salinas said. “It’s been a great experience so far to work with them.”
On restarting and moving on following the abrupt closure of New School of the Heights, Salinas said it has been tough in some ways and good in oth-ers.
“We’re starting small, but that really helps us identify what we are doing well and what we are doing that we need to work on,” Salinas said. “The most daunting task has been on the business side of things. I’m an educator, so it’s not my forte, but we have busi-ness advisors helping us.”
The support for the young school has been “overwhelm-ing,” however.
“People want us to continue what we’re doing, particularly because they realize the need for what we’re doing,” Salinas said.
For more information, visit www.journeyschoolofhouston.org or call 713-269-0757.
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Darlene’s Flower & Gift Shop and
D Boutique....A Dazzling Division of Darlene’s
would like to invite you to our annual
Holiday Open HouseMonday, Nov. 16th - Saturday, Nov. 21st
Enjoy refreshments and register for a $100.00 Gift Certificate
Shopping hours for this event will beMon. - Fri. 9am -7pm and Sat. 10am - 5pm
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