Richmond resident leads food drive - Page 7
First Watch in Sugar Land knows how to take away the blues of a slow morning with a fresh take on breakfast. Read our review in today's edition on Page 8. (Photo by Stefan Modrich)
WEDNESDAY • NOVEMBER 18, 2020
Fort Bend / Southwest • Volume 44 • No. 13
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Dupre’s resignation plan draws mixed reaction By Stefan Modrich SMODRICH@FORTBENDSTAR.COM
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Fort Bend ISD superintendent Charles Dupre announced Monday he plans to resign by December 2021, prompting an outpouring of reactions from parents, teachers and community members across the district. Many parents expressed concerns on Facebook about the timing of the announcement, which comes amid the
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“Like or hate Dupre — our board will have a
very difficult time finding a qualified candidate to fill his shoes during a pandemic while three new board members are still learning to be board members,” Tammy Marino wrote Monday in a Facebook post. “This is actually not good news. The timing is terrible and the results could be really catastrophic for this district as we navigate a pandemic and state budget woes and a very new board on top of massive teacher resignations.”
The board convened Monday night in a special session, where the new members were sworn in and the outgoing members delivered farewells. Dupre said he intended to provide the new board with the opportunity to determine its new vision for the district and to begin a search for a new superintendent. “During the past two
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ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and 17 days after the FBISD Board of Trustees voted 6-0 to extend Dupre’s contract through 2024. Some parents viewed the Nov. 3 election — which resulted in the replacement of board president Jason Burdine and incumbents Kristin Tassin and Allison Drew with Angie Hanan, Shirley Rose-Gilliam and Denetta Williams, respectively — as a repudiation of Dupre.
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Report: Astros enlist Skeeters to be affiliate By Landan Kuhlmann LKUHLMANN@FORTBENDSTAR.COM
Fort Bend County residents may soon be able to see the Houston Astros’ stars of tomorrow at Constellation Field. According to a Monday night tweet from Mark Berman of KRIV Fox 26 News, the Astros have entered into an agreement with the Sugar Land Skeeters to make the Skeeters the organization’s top minor league affiliate beginning next season. The Astros would also have an ownership stake in the Skeeters, according to Berman. When reached by phone Monday night, Skeeters team president Christopher Hill declined to comment. Sugar Land has played in the independent Atlantic League since the team’s inception in 2012, winning league titles in 2016 and 2018. The Skeeters also reached the championship series in 2014 and 2019. If the deal is completed as reported, the Skeeters would replace the Round Rock Express as the Astros’ Triple-A affiliate. The Astros’ other affiliates are the Corpus Christi Hooks (Double-A), Fayetteville Woodpeckers (Class-A Advanced), Quad Cities River Bandits (Class A), Tri-City ValleyCats and Gulf Coast League Astros. The reported move comes amidst a changing landscape in minor league baseball, with MLB-affiliated leagues cancelling their 2020 season because of the COVID-19 pandemic and many MLB teams expected to streamline their farm systems heading into the 2021 season. The Skeeters broke from the Atlantic League this year to host their own four-team league at Constellation Field.
The Sugar Land Skeeters will reportedly be the Houston Astros' new Triple-A affiliate. (Photo from Facebook)
Faith leaders participate in a service during a past Interfaith Thanksgiving Service, organized by the Fort Bend Interfaith Council. This year's service will be hosted virtually at 7 p.m. on Nov. 23 via Facebook Live and YouTube due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (Contributed photo)
Interfaith Thanksgiving Service to be held virtually By Stefan Modrich SMODRICH@FORTBENDSTAR.COM
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Fort Bend County residents had numerous ways to showcase their cultural and spiritual diversity through festivals and commemorations of holidays and other significant events. Now, the Fort Bend Interfaith Council (FBIC) is rallying to flex its muscles of religious heterogeneity virtually as it prepares for its sixth annual Interfaith Thanksgiving Service, to be held at 7 p.m. Nov. 23 via Facebook Live and YouTube. A unique feature of this
year’s event will be the opportunity for each of the 13 participating faith communities to showcase their own worship spaces as many of their musical elements or spoken readings were prerecorded due to the lack of an in-person audience for this years’ service. “There’s always something certainly very powerful about having so many voices and so many faces united in worship and in Thanksgiving,” said Will Starkweather, the chairman of the FBIC. “As folks tune into this event, they get to be in everyone’s place of worship. And I’m thinking that’s going to be quite a lovely thing this
year.” Starkweather is also the senior pastor at St. Martin’s Lutheran Church in Sugar Land. The Baha’i, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim and Sikh faiths and various denominations within them will be represented. There are more than 40 members of the interfaith community in Fort Bend County. On Nov. 13, County Judge KP George issued a proclamation to make Nov. 23 an official “Fort Bend County Day of Prayer.” “In Fort Bend County, because we have such a diverse area, we have the opportunity to have every single one of these differ-
ent religions represented,” said Valerie Tolman, a spokesperson for FBIC representing the First Unitarian Universalist Church. “We’re really lucky that way.” Irfan Ali is the honorary secretary for the Ismaili Council for the Southwestern U.S. and an FBIC board member representing Ismali Muslims. He is not alone on the council in seeing the socially-distanced broadcast this year as not merely a necessity, but an opportunity to grow and expand the organization’s mission of religious pluralism and tolerance. “A lot is going to be different, but the goal remains
the same,” Ali said of the virtual service. “Hopefully we can actually leverage the platforms of social media as well as the online platforms to bring a much wider audience to this than in the past. Because I think it is important.” Among the messages FBIC seeks to promote are the shared values and basic tenets that make up the principles of the various members of the diverse coalition of faiths, like caring for neighbors and looking out for the most vulnerable in society. “There are some common shared values that
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Sienna turns back clock with drive-in movie By Stefan Modrich SMODRICH@FORTBENDSTAR.COM
As the sun began to dip behind the woods along the Brazos River, cars lined up in droves at Heritage Park in the Sienna neighborhood of Missouri City for the Nov. 6 showing of “Smallfoot.” Dozens of cars, most of them filled with families, packed the park for the 2018 animated children’s movie about a the adventures of a friendly Yeti — a mythical Himalayan creature similar to the western folktale of
the Abominable Snowman — named Migo who discovers a British filmmaker who crash-landed a plane in the Himalayan mountains. Sienna resident Jerry Vallejo brought his wife and two young daughters to see the movie that featured a star-studded cast of Channing Tatum, Zendaya, Chicago recording artist Common and NBA superstar LeB- People arrive and wait in their cars during a drive-in movie showing of “Smallfoot” on Nov. 6 at Heritage ron James. Park in the Sienna neighborhood of Missouri City. (Photos by Stefan Modrich) “This is my first experience (going to a drive-in) this very much. It’s a ting back to normal.” pandemic for quite a with my kids, and also for good idea to hang around While there may not while, even as Pfizer anme and my wife,” Vallejo and do some different be a sense of normalsaid. “So we’re enjoying stuff with the family, get- cy known prior to the
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