Skeeters to test new rules, equipment: Page 5
Simeon Woods Richardson, center, who graduated from Kempner High School last year, reported to the Mets spring training camp. See page 5.
WEDNESDAY • MARCH 13, 2019
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Fort Bend / Southwest • Volume 43 • No. 30
Legal limbo for Sugar Land 95 County hits snag in effort to take Sugar Land 95 cemetery from FBISD By Joe Southern
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Fort Bend County’s plan to take over the historic cemetery of the Sugar Land 95 at the construction site of the James Reese Career and Technical Center has hit a snag. It turns out that the state doesn’t allow counties as large as Fort Bend to own, operate, and maintain a cemetery. To get around that problem the commissioners court unanimously passed a resolution to ask the state Legislature to change the Texas Health and Safety Code to allow the county to own and maintain the burial site of 95 victims of the state’s convict leasing program. The 95 bodies were found a year ago at the construction site of the Fort Bend ISD’s new facility. They were exhumed and examined last summer, but their reinternment was held up by legal action as the school district wanted to remove them to a nearby prison cemetery so construction could be completed on the career and technical center, but community activists wanted them to remain in the cemetery. An agreement was reached in February that would allow Fort Bend County to negotiate with the school district to take over and maintain the cemetery site, but those negotiations were interrupted last week when it was discovered that the Texas Health and Safety Code limits the authority to own, operate, and maintain a cemetery to a county with a population of
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Archeologists work to exhume one of the Sugar Land 95 bodies last summer at the construction site of the Fort Bend ISD’s James Reese Career and Technical Center. Fort Bend County has agreed to take over the site from the school district but first needs a change in state law allowing it to own and operate a cemetery. (Photo by Joe Southern)
8,200 or less. Fort Bend’s population is about 765,000. “Throughout the negotiations between the county and school district, it became clear that a statutory fix was needed to ensure all options are on the table for a fair discussion between all parties,” said Xavier Herrera, communications director for County Judge KP George. The county’s resolution has been sent to Rep. Ron Reynolds for legislative action. “Because this was a unanimously passed resolution by the county, we expect the Fort Bend delegation to help pass this with Rep. Reynolds leading the way,” Herrera said. The resolution passed by the commissioners states, “the Commis-
sioners Court of Fort Bend County supports legislation to modify Chapter 713 of the Texas Health and Safety Code to allow Fort Bend County to own, operate, and maintain a cemetery; and use public funds and county resources to perform such.” “We continue to work cooperatively with Fort Bend County to find a lawful solution for reinterring the remains of the 95 individuals discovered during our construction of the James Reese Technical Center,” FBISD Board of Trustees President Jason Burdine said in a statement on the district’s website. “We appreciate the recent actions by Fort Bend County to step up and present itself as a new partner in these efforts. Like the district, the county has deter-
mined that it also does not have the authority to own a cemetery. “After analyzing all of the options with the county, it has been determined that the county will need to partner with the City of Sugar Land or urge the Legislature to modify the law to allow them to own the cemetery as well. It is a complicated issue, and we appreciate and applaud the county’s and the city’s efforts to partner with us to find a legal way to reinter the remains on site and memorialize the 95 people lost to history. “We will also continue to seek assistance from the State of Texas with reinterment and memorialization since the convict-leasing program was a state-sanctioned program that existed prior to the founding of the City of Sugar Land and Fort Bend ISD. “I am optimistic that together we will be able to find a solution that will allow the community to learn from this historic discovery, and to teach our students and others the truth about the state-sanctioned convictleasing system. Fort Bend ISD has always been committed to preserving the dignity of those buried at the site, and educating our community and students about the role these individuals had in shaping our local economy,” Burdine said. The district is expected to complete the building without one wing and have it ready to open on time. “The school is nearing completion without Wing E and will be open and ready for students in August,” said Veronica Sopher, the district’s spokesperson.
Texans bring nutrition, exercise programs to Ridgemont Elementary By Joe Southern JSOUTHERN@FORTBENDSTAR.COM
If anyone knows how to tackle hunger it’s Houston Texans defensive lineman D.J. Reader. The 6-foot, 3-inch, 330-pound nose tackle and his buddy TORO, the Texans mascot, came to Ridgemont Elementary School last Wednesday to promote the National Football League’s Fuel Up to Play 60 program and Dairy MAX’s Breakfast Games. “One of the things I’ve learned with the Texans is how important good nutrition is at the beginning of every day to help you get started,” Reader said. Reader helped pass out cartons of milk and joined select students for a healthy breakfast before going to the gym and joining TORO and former Texans receiver J.J. Moses for fun and games with the rest of the school. “It’s amazing that I’m eating with an NFL player. This is my first time,” said fourth grader Santos Torres. “It’s pretty exciting,” added his friend, Andrew Sowell. “When I was a kid I wish I had something like this,” Reader said. “I wish I had somebody come in to tell me
Houston Texans defensive lineman D.J. Reader opens a carton of milk while having breakfast with students at Ridgemont Elementary School. Pictured with him are Santos Torres and Andrew Sowell. (Photo by Joe Southern)
these things.” He said it’s important for children to have nutritional fundamentals at an early age. “Even if they’re not the best at it, at least they have the nutritional basis of what
category the foods are in, of how things work, and how important those things are to you,” he said. In addition to eating right, he also knows the importance of getting exercise. “I think it’s super impor-
tant, you know, 60 minutes a day,” he said. “Tremendously important, as long as you’re up and active and moving around, you know, they’re kids they’ve got plenty of energy, they’re always moving around and you’ve got to
find a way to burn off some energy because if you don’t you’re going to lose their attention and lose a lot of things and start living an unhealthy lifestyle. It’s just super important they get up and get active, have fun and
hang out with their friends, it’s valuable.” Going into his fourth season with the Texans, Reader has seen the difference the Fuel Up to Play 60 program is making in children all over the Houston area. “It’s making a huge difference. Kids know it’s fun to go outside, it’s fun to play,” he said. “As I was talking about with the food things, I didn’t know what categories different foods were in. There’s no way I could come in and do the chart these kids are doing. So, I think it helps give them a base of how to live a healthy lifestyle the rest of their life.” Fort Bend ISD Superintendent Charles Dupre joined the pupils in the gym, waving colored pom poms and cheering the youngsters on as they did tasks and completed obstacles. “This is a thrilling event. We can’t do anything without our collaborative partners and Fuel Up to Play 60 and Dairy MAX and the Texans, I mean this is a great partnership to really make a difference in the lives of kids,” he said. “By bringing a football player here, a name they recognize, some-
SEE RIDGEMONT, PAGE 7
Senate approves teacher pay raise, Harvey-related bills By Richard Lee FOR THE FORT BEND STAR
Teachers would get a $5,000 boost to their annual salaries as the Senate passed its first bill of the 86th Legislature last week. SB 3, by Finance Committee Chair and Flower Mound Sen. Jane Nelson, would make that raise effective for the school year beginning this fall. Nelson said she’s set aside nearly $4 billion in the state budget to cover the pay hike for the state’s 350,000 public school teachers. “The one thing we should do, first and foremost, is to recognize the need to uplift our entire teaching profession,” she said. An amendment added to
the bill on the floor would include school librarians in the pay raise. Nelson was emphatic in her remarks on the floor that this bill wouldn’t prevent additional, merit-based pay scales expected in the Senate’s forthcoming school finance bill. The second bill to pass this year also belongs to Nelson, and it seeks to increase access to mental health care for children and adolescents. In presenting the bill Tuesday, she said she is deeply troubled by the impact that mental illness is having on the state’s young people. “The goal of this bill is to provide early intervention for these children and adolescents and get them into treatment before they
become a danger to themselves or others,” said Nelson. Her bill would create a consortium of mental health professionals at the state’s medical schools to develop plans to leverage remote medical technology to provide that intervention. One provision would create a system where pediatricians who detect signs of developing mental issues in their young patients could use telemedical services to consult with psychiatrists based at medical institutions. Another would ask this consortium to develop a system whereby at-risk students could be assessed via telehealth technology and referred to treatment as needed. Wednesday, Lt. Gov.
Dan Patrick joined Senate members to announce a package of bills dealing with disaster relief and recovery in the wake of 2017’s Hurricane Harvey. Those three measures would help the state plan for, pay for, and respond to future natural disasters. The first, SB 8 by Lubbock Sen. Charles Perry, would create a statewide flood mitigation plan, one that divides the state into regions based on river basins and then allows regional officials and stakeholders to figure out what projects they need to protect people and property from flooding. The state would ensure that those plans work with each other, and combine them
SEE SENATE, PAGE 6
FBISD concerned about bill to raise teacher pay From staff reports FOR THE FORT BEND STAR
In advance of the current 86th Legislative session, the Fort Bend ISD Board of Trustees adopted resolutions urging lawmakers to make school finance and school safety legislative priorities. Since then, district staff and trustees have been actively involved in many conversations with lawmakers to advocate on behalf of the district’s more than 76,000 students and more than 11,000 staff members, and remain hopeful that a
long-term solution to the state’s broken school finance system can be achieved. Senate Bill 3, adopted by the Senate this week, would increase teacher pay by $5,000. Prior to Senate approval, language was added to include librarians. However, FBISD Chief Financial Officer Steve Bassett is concerned about what the bill lacks: Funding to make the raises sustainable and available to other employees. “We recognize the need to increase teacher pay
SEE FBISD, PAGE 6