Inside Today: Oak Forest home sells for more than a million • 1B ������������� ����� ������������ ����������������� ��������������� ������������ ������������ ������������
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Covering the Heights, Garden Oaks, Oak Forest & the neighborhoods of North Houston
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10570 NW Frwy 713-680-2350
Saturday, May 24, 2014 • Vol. 60 • No. 29 2013
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Community Paper In Texas Texas Community Newspaper Association
By Michael Sudhalter michael@theleadernews.com
ABOUT US 3500 East T.C. Jester Blvd Suite A (713) 686-8494 news@theleadernews.com www.theleadernews.com Facebook/THE LEADER.
www.allenSOLDit.com
Changes at Black, Waltrip surprise community
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832.419.9969
Those who have defended our Freedoms this
Oak Forest residents were startled to discover that two well-respected school administrators won’t return to their respective campuses this fall. Frank Black Middle School principal Meilin Jao announced her resignation to faculty and staff on Monday. Efforts to reach Jao were unsuccessful, but a voicemail to parents said she was leaving to pursue another career opportunity. Waltrip High School assistant principal Frank Salinas wrote a letter to the Houston
Meilin Jao
ISD board of trustees earlier this month, requesting that it stop an “unwarranted HISD employee termination.” Waltrip principal Andria Schur is re-organizing the administration from assistant
Frank Salinas
principals to deans, and administrators had to re-apply for those positions. Salinas wasn’t selected, so he was asked to resign. When he refused, he pleaded with the district to keep his job at
Waltrip, but HISD terminated him the next day. “If the principal decides they want you gone, then you’re gone,” Salinas said. “The difference between dean and assistant principal is very slight. I didn’t feel like I’d done anything to have the rug pulled from under me.” Salinas has been an AP at Waltrip for the past 7.5 years and with 39 years of service in the district – almost all of it in Oak Forest schools – is eligible to retire. “I’ll be extremely disappointed if I’m not working with the kids,” Salinas said.”I
Life, Liberty and Love...
See SCHOOL CHANGES, P. 11A
Garden Oaks says no to sidewalks By Michael Sudhalter
Memorial Day May 26
michael@theleadernews.com
Pacific Theatre during World War II The army came calling for Haston in 1941, but a heart murmur initially precluded him from serving. He married Doris on Christmas Day 1941. Summers, he worked for the railroad as a porter to make extra money and in
The Garden Oaks Civic Club (GOCC) has formally opposed the addition of sidewalks and increased widths of neighborhood streets as part of an $18 million municipal Capital Improvement Project (CIP). Civic club representatives will have a closed meeting with the city’s Public Works & Engineering Department representatives and council member Ellen Cohen on Monday, June 2. Mark Klein of the GOCC said he and president Sheila Briones will update area residents on any new developments at the civic club’s regular monthly meeting the following evening, on Tuesday, June 3. Garden Oaks residents Bryan Blades and Julie Maddox have organized petitions that say “Stop Alba Expansion” against wider streets and the implementation of sidewalks. Blades said they’d collected 101 signatures by Tuesday night. The current plan is for Alba to be widened from 18 to 27 feet, with sidewalks projected to add another seven feet. “The widening of Alba and Golf may be just the first step in the city’s plan for Garden Oaks,” Blades wrote in the petition. “City engineers have left it an open question as to whether other Garden Oaks streets will receive the same treatment. Garden Oaks is a desirable neighborhood that has recently enjoyed appreciating property values. This can be attributed in part to its unique narrow streets and the lack of curbs and sidewalks, which gives it a rural feel.” The petition addresses concerns of faster traffic through the neighborhood, and the substitution of green space
See HASTON P. 11A
See GARDEN OAKS, P. 11A
This weekend share the ride Heading to Galveston this Memorial Day weekend? Pack the vehicle and head down METRO’s 45 South HOV lane for a quick ride to get beach side. METRO is opening up I-45 South on Saturdays and Sundays, starting this weekend, May 24 through Memorial Day, Monday, May 26. You must ride in numbers to access the fast lane - only vehicles with two or more passengers will be allowed on the HOV lane. Solo drivers will not be allowed to use the HOV lane. METRO will open up the 45 South HOV for a total of 15 weekends, starting May 24 through Sept. 1, and will include three holidays, Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Labor Day.
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FIND IT. GARAGE SALE: 3920 Brookwoods Dr. May 22, 23, 24. 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Collectables, records, old things and much more. HOUSECLEANING: Honest, dependable. Will customize clean. Years of experience. Love pets. Call Rhonda, 281-948-8590. 2005 VOLKSWAGEN GOLF: Good condition. One owner. $6,500 or best offer. 713-2900411. SAL’S APPLIANCE SERVICE: All major brands, written warranty, no service charge with repair. 832-894-8824.
THE INDEX. Church
don’t want to be in a cubicle. It would be rough not working with the students and the teachers.” HISD has eliminated the title “associate principal”, but Salinas said he was essentially the No. 2 administrator at WHS. Schur said it was a “very difficult decision” to go in a different direction. “I have to make the best decision for the campus,” she said. About 25 teachers are leaving Waltrip, but Schur
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Shepherd Park Terrace resident Charles (A.C.) Haston is a decorated World War II Veteran. Haston celebrated his 100th birthday last month. Top right: Charles (A.C.) Haston, right, and his wife, Doris Haston, have enjoyed their lives together. (Photos by Betsy Denson)
Local veteran celebrates 100 years with honor By Betsy Denson betsy@theleadernews.com
It is fitting that on Memorial Day we remember those who served – and died – in military service to America. But for one local World War II veteran and centenarian, the celebration of a long life well lived is also in order. When Shepherd Park Terrace’s Amos Charles (A.C.) Haston was born in Denison, Texas in 1914, the life expectancy for a male was 52 years. His early years among a family of farmers weren’t easy. Haston’s son William recounts that Haston bought his first pair of long pants with the proceeds of the sale of some cotton he grew on a small plot of the family farm.
In 1919, Haston saw his father Tilmon murdered and after, moved with his mother Mary to Wewoka, Okla. where she found work as a domestic. Haston said that education was a priority, and he proved that time and time again. He was his high school’s salutatorian in 1934, and an allstate halfback for the football team. At Langston University he played football, joined the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity and sang in a cappella choir, all the while working to pay for college. He graduated in 1937 with a Bachelors of Science degree, in science and mathematics. Later, he did post graduate work at the Uni-
versity of Colorado and also received a Masters of Education in Secondary Administration from Texas Southern University. His first teaching job was in a one-room school house, teaching first through eighth grade. A short time later he moved to a larger school in Hugo, Okla. where he taught math and coached football and basketball. It was a fortuitous move in more ways than one. Doris Sampson arrived a few years later to teach Latin and music. She said the school’s principal met her at the railroad station and then drove her around: “It was summertime and hot. The windows were down. At the
red light there was another car. I looked to my left and said ‘Who is that?’ The principal told me he was the coach and I would see him at the welcome party that night.” See him again she did. “Every time I looked up, he was looking at me. Two weeks later we were dating.”
Heights clergyman brings energy to St. Andrew’s Episcopal The Rev. James “Jimmy” Lykes Grace, the new rector at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church at 1819 Heights Blvd., has a name that’s only slightly misleading. “I love Grace,” said Grace, who was hired to be the church’s leader last month. The 38-year-old Houston native said Lykes is a family name, but it can also be a con-
versation starter for folks. Grace, who lives just a few blocks away from the church, is energized about the opportunity to build a strong community at St. Andrew’s. “I love people, I love God,” Grace said. “I believe it’s possible to have a church that does creative and interesting things rather than falling into a rut of doing the same thing
week after week.” Grace is married with three young children and understands the importance of making sure children are not only the future of the church, but the present as well. “One of my favorite things to do is the children’s sermon,” Grace said. “Children have a lot to teach us about God. Their spirituality is so
honest and aware. As adults, it’s easy for us to lose that. In order to be relevant, we have to be able to welcome young families in Houston.” One of Grace’s biggest influences is Father Bill Miller, the Episcopal priest who wrote “The Beer Drinkers’ Guide to God” and was profiled in The Leader last week. See GRACE, P. 11A
Rev. James Lykes Grace