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2021
Volume 34, Issue 52
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November 18, 2021 | 50 Cents
LHISD employees to receive stipend
Assessment illustrates how Liberty Hill can improve downtown
By RACHEL MADISON Staff Writer An assessment by the Texas Downtown Association earlier this year will become a blueprint to follow for the future of Liberty Hill’s downtown district. The assessment, discussed at the most recent meeting of the Downtown Beautification Committee on Nov. 9, began in late 2020 and was completed in July. The assessment began with a “windshield tour” of downtown and surrounding neighborhoods. In April, a Zoom meeting was held between the team and approximately a dozen downtown business owners, where TDA was able to learn more about the specific challenges, initiatives and opportunities occurring, said City Administrator Lacie Hale. The team also met with staff to learn more about city events and economic development, then conducted an onsite visit and put together an assessment of short-term, mid-range and long-term recommendations for the revitalization of downtown. Now that the City has the report, Hale said, she wants the Downtown Beautification Committee to spearhead the recommended projects. The assessment, which cost the City $1,500, was Hale’s idea, she said. “I advocated for the assessment,” Hale told The Independent this week. “When I came on in March 2020, I was excited about the beautification committee and getting it up and running again. I was looking for opportunities to create a starting point for [revitalizing] downtown. We know what we want to do, but for making downtown Liberty Hill an attractive tourist destination, we had an opportunity to bring in specialists who could identify exactly what we needed to make it more successful.” Hale said some of the short-term recommendations include pedestrian safety, building local community support for downtown, small business development, more downtown signage, the revitalization of downtown buildings, create a larger focus on the arts, and better online presence. Pedestrian safety was a top
See DOWNTOWN, Page 6 ©2021 The Liberty Hill Independent
Santa Rita Elementary families enjoy Thanksgiving lunch
KRISTEN MERIWETHER PHOTO
Ashley and George Vasquez enjoy Thanksgiving lunch at Santa Rita Elementary School Wednesday with their daughter Aryah (second from left), 4, and her best friend Alicia (left), age 5. The newly-opened elementary school enjoyed its first Thanksgiving lunch celebration with parents allowed on campus after missing out last year due to the pandemic. Parents lined up with their children to enjoy turkey, cornbread stuffing and cranberry sauce, garlic mashed potatoes, buttered green beans, a wheat roll and peach crisp. The celebrations continue on every campus Thursday and Friday before students and staff take a week-long holiday break.
By KRISTEN MERIWETHER Staff Writer Liberty Hill ISD employees will receive an early Christmas present as the first set of employee retention stipends begin to roll out next week. Teachers, nurses and librarians will each receive a $900 stipend next week. Cafeteria, custodian, transportation and maintenance workers, paraprofessionals and non-contract employees will all receive a $600 stipend next month. Administrators, excluding Superintendent Steven Snell, will all receive a $500 stipend next month. “It’s been a tough two years and they deserve it,” Snell said at the board meeting on Monday. “I wish we could give them more.” The stipends were included
See LHISD, Page 3
Teachers to the community: ‘We just need help’
By KRISTEN MERIWETHER Staff Writer When a teacher needs to take a day off, it’s not as simple as turning on an out-of-office reply and shuffling a few tasks to a co-worker. When teachers are gone, the students’ education must continue. In theory, school districts hire substitute teachers to fill in when teachers need to take a sick or personal day. The subs ensure the lesson plans for the day are followed and make sure the students continue to learn. But that theory is being tested this year at Liberty Hill ISD. The district, like many across the country, is experiencing a substitute teacher shortage. It’s putting a strain on teachers and administrators who are having to be creative to come up with
solutions. “It’s kind of putting some teachers at the end of their rope, and we just need help,” Blake Boren, LHHS algebra teacher and boys basketball coach, said Friday. “We have a great community, and we have really good people in this area. And I would like to believe there’s some people that could come help out if they just knew about it.” LHISD currently has 163 subs approved to cover the 456 teaching positions. On paper it seems like more than enough, but on an average day only 2530 of those approved subs are picking up assignments. It is not enough to cover the need, which can be upwards of 80 subs on some Fridays. Teachers at the high school are being sent emails nearly every morning asking if they
Foundation sells land for Noble playground
By RACHEL MADISON Staff Writer The Liberty Hill Development Foundation has sold 4.4 acres in Lions Foundation Park to the Liberty Hill Independent School District in what Craig Hanley, president of the Foundation, is calling a “win-win situation.” “We sold 4.4 acres to the school district toward the back of the park so they can build a new playground for the elementary students,” he said. “It’s basically a triangle shape behind and adjacent to Noble. Part of our agreement is they are going to move the walking trail and our playground, and then put a fence up for security for the school, so it’s really a
can cover a classroom during their conference period. It’s not mandatory and teachers oblige to help their co-workers. But doing it means re-
turning emails, making calls to parents and grading papers gets pushed to home time, taking them away from their own families.
“If you know that work is going to be put on another teacher and they don’t get to have
See SUBSTITUTE, Page 9
win-win situation for everyone.” LHISD Superintendent Steve Snell said Tuesday the school district approached the Foundation to see if they could buy the 4.4 acres of land adjacent to Noble Elementary School for the expansion of the school’s playground and outdoor play area. “We approached them to see if we could square our side off and they agreed, so we paid them for that,” Snell said. “Now our property line shifts, and it just goes straight back RACHEL MADISON PHOTO and we can install a play area behind the school instead of Craig Hanley, president of the Liberty Hill Development Foundation Board, stands in the conhaving kids walking across struction zone where five sculptures from the International Sculpture Park will be moved in the coming weeks. The sculptures are being moved because the Foundation sold 4.4 acres of Lions See PARK, Page 4 Foundation Park to the school district to build a playground for Noble Elementary School.