Friday, September 11, 2015
www.ptrgv.com | 50 Cents
LA JOYA ISD CELEBRATES BOARD OF THE YEAR
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By Julie Silva
a Joya ISD’s Board of Trustees has been selected as an Honor School Board for the 2015 Texas Association of School Administrators School Board Awards. The board, representing Region One, was one of five named for the honor, which came on the heels of the announcement that the district’s Alda T. Benavides had been named Region One’s Superintendent of the Year. The other Honor School Boards are Cypress-Fairbanks ISD, Gunter ISD, North East ISD and Socorro ISD. La Joya ISD’s board was honored at a meeting last month, and Benavides pointed out trustees “selflessly
give up their time” to support the community. “Their hard work and dedication is evident in the progress the school district has made in recent years and their unwavering support in doing what is right for children,” Benavides said. “That makes all the difference in our schools.” They’re all finalists for the ultimate honor of 2015 Outstanding School Board. The winner will be named, along with the state’s Superintendent of the Year, during the TASA/Texas Association of School Board convention in October. Honor School Boards were selected by a committee of Texas superintendents, according to a news release from the association, based
on criteria like finances, academics and community outreach. La Joya ISD submitted a more than 50page booklet covering the 10 criteria for its nomination. Among the board’s ac-
complishments listed, the nomination emphasized the district’s summer camp for migrants, salary increases for its employees and a $3.2 million investment in technology.
The school district includes 29,667 students, 4,500 employees and covers 226 square miles. In its nomination packet, La Joya ISD highlighted its move to academies in high
schools and work on the natatorium. The academies were instituted this school year in connection with Ford Next Generation Learning project.
See LA JOYA ISD 3
MOMENT OF SILENCE Mission High to get fine arts facility M By Lea Victoria Juarez
Mission Police observe Texas ‘Back the Blue’ event
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By Sean Downey ISSION – The Mission Police Department dispatcher’s voice crackled over the radio inside Officer Gonzalez’s unit, “All units clear all radio traffic in honor of fallen officer,” on Friday, Sept. 4, 11 a.m. Gonzalez sits with head bowed and cap off while he and other officers throughout Mission, Hidalgo County, the Rio Grande Valley and Texas shared a moment of silence for Deputy Darren Goforth, who was shot while in uniform refueling his patrol car. For one minute, all units stopped, flashed their red and blue lights on their police units and contemplated. “It’s one of the things you think about in the academy, and you hope it doesn’t happen – if I die out there. But after you spend some time
out here, you hope to die in an honorable way.” Gonzalez said. “It’s hard to explain when you do something like this. It’s a rude awakening. I guess maybe I’m different from everyone else or everyone thinks the same as me, but I hope that I get that same honor when I pass, no matter how I go.” Most recently, and close to home, some have attributed the slaying of a sheriff’s deputy in Houston to the #BlackLivesMatter movement. Not all the people in the movement are violent, but within it, violent factions of the black community, such as the New Black Panthers and others have called “open season” on killing police officers and white people in general. Gonzalez said the recent
See POLICE 12
TOP: Officer Gonzalez bows his head in a moment of silence. BOTTOM: Two Mission police units flash their lights as part of the Back to Blue event September 4. Progress Times Photo by Sean Downey
INSIDE
Business leaders talk real-life experience
La Joya ISD Board member Joel Garcia and son Cruz, owners of Collision Masters Auto Repair Shop spoke to students interested in business and industry. See story page 3
INDEX
Entertainment | pg. 2
Lifestyle | pg. 9
ission High School will be getting a fine arts facility costing anywhere from $3.8 million to $4 million, although it is slightly over budget. The school board approved the project at its Wednesday meeting. In March, the board added the agricultural shop and fine arts facilities to the third phase of the Mission High School renovation project. The board had already agreed to move $4 million of the contingency funds for the two additional facilities. Fine Arts Director Manuel Gamez presented two options for the fine arts facility. The chosen option gives Mission CISD more bang for their buck, according to Gamez. This option uses the existing building and requires a second level that would allow more rehearsal space for the dance room, band hall, choir and mariachi hall. The other option, although in budget, did not provide an ideal amount of space for the various programs. The approximate cost was $2.4 million. “The ideal situation for any fine arts program is space; we’re talking about bodies,” Gamez said. “What we have in place for the fine arts department in any of our high schools is not adequate to what we need for a true fine arts, steam-driven district.” Both options neglected the art department because the funds are not available, but it does need a new facility, according to Gamez. An initial option that included the art department was presented to the board during spring 2015, but was not feasible with a budget of about
Last call for Mission citizen award nominations
Pioneer, Palmview teams hope to go 3-0
The awards will be presented at the Mission Chamber of Commerce banquet on Thursday, Oct. 15, at Mario’s Banquet & Conference Center. See story page 3
Sports | pg. 6
$8 million. “With using the existing facility, it’s very hard to do a performing art center and add without going extremely over budget,” Gamez said. “It was brought to our attention to scope (the project) down a bit and see if we could find options. So we used the existing facility to make those options happen.” Board Member Minnie Rodgers expressed concern about making sure the fine arts facilities are up to date at both MHS and Veterans Memorial High School. Both high schools lack a proper dance facility and have made due with makeshift ones up until this point, Gamez said. At Veterans Memorial the district bought a portable dance floor and made a weight room into a functional dance studio. Gamez said the district has neglected the fine arts in previous years. “We really don’t have the facilities that the Valley, yet alone the state of Texas should have. I feel like we have dropped the ball in that area,” he said. “We’re trying to keep up with the Joneses, and if we’re going to want to stay as a state competitor, it’s going to require facilities.” Superintendent Ricardo Lopez stressed that district has to move forward on the matter and cannot wait for the “ideal situation” because they run the risk of postponing the process for several years. “What we hope happens is that people see the value in a building like this,” Superintendent Ricardo Lopez said. “And they say as a community, ‘We want this for both comprehensive high schools,’ and we find the means to do it.”
Heading into Week 3 of the football season, Sharyland Pioneer Diamondbacks and Palmview’s Lobos remain undefeated in district play. See story page 6
Obituaries | pg. 11
Classifieds | pg. 13