Page 6A • Saturday, April 7, 2018 • The Leader
Frederickson provides opthamology care For The Leader Becky J. Fredrickson, M.D., Ph.D., is originally from Council Bluffs, Iowa, and received a B.S. degree in chemical engineering with highest distinction from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. Prior to entering medical school, Dr. Fredrickson conducted biomedical research as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of London in England. Dr. Fredrickson received her medical degree from Bay-
lor College of Medicine and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering (Institute of Biosciences and Bioengineering) from Rice University. She completed her ophthalmology residency training at the Baylor College of Medicine Cullen Eye Institute following an internship at Christus St. Joseph Hospital in Houston. During residency, she received the Everett L. Goar Award for ophthalmic research. She is also a member of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the Texas
Ophthalmologic Association, the Harris County Medical Society, and the Texas Medical Association. Dr. Fredrickson is a boardcertified ophthalmologist practicing comprehensive ophthalmology including cataract surgery, glaucoma, macular degeneration, diabetes, ocular infections and dry eye. She also performs cosmetic ophthalmology including Botox, Juvederm and blepharoplasty surgery (eyelid surgery).
Art Car from P. 1A and Roll…but I like it!” From start to finish, Bass is a just a helping hand, and she lets students’ imaginations take off; every member plays the part of a cog in the Heights art car machine. “I love the decorating portion, because it’s the one thing I’m good at – I’m not so good with the construction portion of everything, so [design] where I really get to have fun with it,” said senior Noelle Riall, by now an art car veteran in her fourth year, as she took a brief respite from jeweling up any empty space on the car. “Being with the kids, watching them grow and become adults and watching this go from ‘just a car’ and an idea into this beautiful sculpture, is invaluable to me,” said Bass, a 35-year educator. Riall and fellow senior Avery Meppelink, who could be found Tuesday afternoon bedazzling a guitar string, are both examples of Bass’s sentiments. Meppelink says the project has allowed him to embrace a passion for design that he will pursue upon leaving Heights’ walls. “I’ve always wanted to do something design-related for college, and I thought this would come in handy there,” he said. “We get to learn a lot about how to work on a team and putting something together – so I figured I’d give it a shot and see how it goes, and I’ve loved it.” Riall has long been a fan of the abstract arts – making the art car a perfect outlet for that passion. “Whatever patterns we want, whatever colors it doesn’t really matter. It doesn’t really have to be anything – not any one color or pattern, and it winds up looking amazing together,” she said. That’s right – the ever-socoveted break from homework and studying many crave? Not for these students. Bass and the crew order some pizza, dance to some music, and even have some Bass’s artist friends stop by the school to encourage students as they bedazzle the vehicle from top-to-bottom and bumper to bumper. The club is a completely afterschool, weekend and spring break club that dedicates all their spare time to creating the stunning sculptural entry for the parade from January
Photo by Landan Kuhlmann Students have bedazzled and spruced what was once “just a car” from bumper to bumper to make the creation come alive. Readers can see it at the Houston Art Car Parade on April 14.
up until the big moment each year. “It’s become more than just showing up for school every day, because it’s not really school back here, it’s a little different – it’s kind of how adults do things,” Bass said. “They’re getting prepped and primed to be out in the adult world where you’ve got to make your projects fun, but you still have to work. It’s a way to learn how to begin and end a project with people you might not be around otherwise, and so much fun.” “You don’t get to put together an art car every day,” Meppelink added. “I learned how to weld here, which I wouldn’t have done otherwise, and there’s so much knowledge here you wouldn’t learn anywhere else.” Senior Wesley Haigwood is back for his second verse of the art car chorus in 2018, and echoed Bass’s sentiment. “Last year, I learned what it really meant to [Noelle and Ms. Bass] to get this finished, so this year I decided to hop on and help them out however I can,” he said, lamenting how he failed to take full advantage of the opportunity presented to him. “You get to enjoy working on the car – it’s all about the little things. You’re laying jewelry or working on the side of the car, and all of a sudden, a piece hits you in the head – then you look over, and you’re laughing with your friends as you’re putting this together. It becomes a family experience.” Born in 1988 with 40 cars and viewed by about 2,000 spectators, the Houston Art Car Parade now draws 250+ entries from 23 states as well
as Canada and Mexico and tens of thousands of spectators – quite the platform for high school students’ creation “It’s so incredible just being able to say that we got it done, because there’s always that crunch time where we think we’re not going to finish,” Riall said with a laugh. “Seeing everything get finished and people in awe of what we’ve done is so rewarding.” Riall’s best friend, junior Isabl King, who could be found on top of the car meticulously placing jewels in just the right spot as she worked on her third art car project, shared the same feeling. “I just fell in love with it,” she said. “The whole process has been my favorite part, but I really love when the car is done, you can take a step back and just reflect on what it is you’ve done. I just look at this beautiful masterpiece and can’t believe it.”
HISD from P. 1B of School Support for the district’s north area. During the 2015-2016 school year, she served as the chief school officer over elementary transformation schools. HISD touted her role in leading more than 20 schools of out an “improvement required” state rating to a “met standard” rating. “Dr. Lathan has a track record of turning schools around,” said Board of Education President Rhonda Skillern-Jones. “We are fortunate to have someone of her caliber on our leadership team, and we hope this will be a seamless transition as we continue to move the district forward.” PUA to stay, for now The biggest news from the budget review was the recommendation of the administration to keep the PUA, or Per Unit Allocation model of funding, for the coming school year. In the PUA, a school’s budget is derived from allocations of money attached to different student categorizations. Former Superintendent Richard Carranza was a proponent of a FTE, or full-time equivalent model, which is more centralized. Budget Manager Glenn Reed said more study was needed before a change in the funding model was made and recommended the formation of a resource allocation committee which he said has not existed since 2002. “I think this is long overdue,” Deigaard told the Houston Chronicle. “As someone watching this process every year, and every single year we get to this point where we ask what can we cut instead of being proactive and answering how should we be allocating our resources to benefit our students.” Some trustees also said that with the PUA, clearer policies and greater oversight were still needed to ensure principals are best serving their schools. In her online recap of the meeting, HISD Parent Advocates Sarah Becker applauded this intent but also said
that HISD was sending mixed messages to principals by making a school’s test scores a significant percentage of their evaluation. “Put it into policy but also look at what the current policy is incentivizing principals to do,” Becker said. A performance audit was not on the agenda review. More than 2,600 people have signed an online petition at www.change.org to ask for one. “There really needs to be an audit performed,” said a member of the Supporters of HISD Magnets and Budget Accountability group. “The issues are on-going and the solutions are just temporary.” The district’s anticipated budget deficit is at $115 million, down from the $208 million originally projected. Under the current draft of the 2018-2019 budget, the amount schools get per student through the PUA will fall by $90, resulting in a $45 million dent to the deficit. The basic per-student funds for an elementary school student drops from $3,522 to $3,432, middle school student drops from $3,558 to $3,468 and the amount for high school students goes from $3,522 to $3,432. Magnet allocations are still being discussed. The current proposal also trims $70 million from central administration. HISD proposed increasing the subsidies given to smaller schools by $11 million across the district. Under the PUA model, board members said that smaller schools would be more severely impacted because of the per-student funding. The proposed criteria was that high schools that serve fewer than 1,000 students, middle schools with less than 750 students and elementary schools under 500 students would get extra funds. Another charter closes In other news, Victory Prep South, a Houston indistrict charter, told HISD officials before the Spring Holiday that it did not have the funds to finish out the school year, leaving more than 230
students – including graduating seniors – in a bind. Two months ago, its counterpart Victory Prep North also closed after running out of money. The board had an emergency vote, 7 to 0, with two trustees absent, to spend $300,000 so the school could stay open through June. Trustees had questions about why district officials did not investigate the financial affairs of Victory Prep South sooner, after the closure of the north campus. Mark Smith, chief student support officer for HISD, said that HISD did not have a routine monitoring system in place for charters because they are expected to monitor themselves. In 2016, the Texas Education Agency was going to close all Victory Prep schools because of poor academic performance. However, the HISD board voted to make the school an in-district charter, and the campuses stayed open - until now. Teacher retention Other items of interest included teacher vacancies at ACHIEVE 180 schools, including three at Yates High School in the last month. ACHIEVE 180, according to HISD is “a research-based action plan to support, strengthen, and empower underserved and underperforming HISD feeder pattern communities to increase student achievement. Best practices from successful school turnaround initiatives, including effective teachers, strong principal leadership, and an environment of high expectations for both students and staff, are incorporated into the plan.” Trustee Elizabeth Santos talked about the 13 percent teacher turnover rate at HISD and of the ongoing expense of hiring and retaining new teachers. She asked for a list of personnel at the main office who make more than $74,000, which is what the highest paid HISD teacher makes, along with a list of their responsibilities.
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Randalls from P. 1A produce. The 34th spot would be the first Houston location for their chain. A March 2014 Reuters report detailed the changes Randalls has gone through in recent years. That year, Cerberus Capital Management purchased Randalls’ parent, Safeway, and merged it with its Albertsons chain. The 44 Randalls stores were re-aligned with the southern Louisiana and Florida Albertsons stores as the new ‘Houston’ division of the company. In January 2017 the Houston Chronicle reported that the South Katy store which served Cinco Ranch was closing. Deli Market News reported at the same time that Albertsons was closing its Randalls distribution center and office in Houston. “The supermarket business is very competitive, particularly in the Houston area,” Wulfe told the Chronicle,” and Randalls is consolidating their operations and their costs to be able to compete in this market.” The pharmacy at the 34th street location closed on March 9 and any prescription records were transferred to the Walgreens at 3403 Mangum Rd. A liquidation sale has been ongoing at the store with discounts as deep as 70 percent on some items. On a recent visit, some aisles were bare and store employees told The Leader that they have been very busy.
Leader readers said that they would miss the grocery store. “It was a great option when we needed a few things,” said Jennifer Rodriguez. “My kids will really miss their chicken noodle soup. That got us through a lot of busy weeknight dinners.” “I liked their floral department,” said Mindy Vance. “It was very reasonable, and I was always able to find something I liked.” “Just shopped there for the first, and apparently last, time right after Harvey,” said Kimberly Spaeth. “Great service.” Some in development think that the new H-E-B and the Whole Foods 365 may have played a part in the company’s decision and also that the new arrivals are going to put the squeeze on existing grocery stores in the area. “Grocery wars are getting more intense daily and we are becoming more and more grateful that we are not involved,” said Bryan Danna of Revive. “Rooftops are key in the grocery world and that location is not in the center of the rooftops of their target market. It’s on the perimeter. Their target market is not driving by that site. The Shepherd and Westheimer Randalls, for example, is in the dead center of the rooftops of their target market. In addition it is ‘on the route’ of the normal traffic pattern of their target market.”
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