Marshall marches on on playoffs: Page 8
As seen on KPRC Channel 2 Houston Life See Full story on WWW.BIOEWORKS.COM
The Perfect Christmas Gift (FSA and HSA Accounts Accepted)
WEDNESDAY • NOVEMBER 28, 2018
Jack’s
NOW A NEIGHBORHOOD PUB! Under new ownership 281-498-3410 11720 Wilcrest Houston, Tx. 77099
$25
(1) LARGE & (1) MEDIUM PIZZA Pick-up or Deliver Open 7 days a week
15215 Southwest Freeway Sugar Land, TX 77478 281-201-8525 Exp. 12/31/2018
Judge wants more input on plan for re-burying remains of laborers By Theresa D. McClellan THERESA@FORTBENDSTAR.COM
The James Reese Career and Technical Center is still under construction by the Fort Bend ISD, but it is already being haunted by the skeletal remains of 95 black "convict" laborers whose graves were discovered at the construction site last February. The school district, the City of Sugar Land, and other interested organizations and individuals have been discussing the fate of the remains and on Nov. 19 434th District Court Judge James Shoemake put the brakes on plans that would have re-interred the remains at a neighboring prison cemetery and allowed construction of the building to move forward. Swatara Olushola, a Houston mother of five, was pleased when Shoemake put the school on hold earlier this month and told the district he wanted more community input. The disOlushola trict petitioned the courts to remove the legal description of an abandoned historical cemetery from the property. They also wanted permission to re-bury the remains, which are still stored on the property in trailers. “I’m grateful we had a judge hearing the case that was pretty objective about the situation. FBISD has been pretty profit-minded the whole time and the judge didn’t share that,” said Olushola, a task force member who describes herself as a wife, mother, entrepreneur, activist, and musician. “I don’t have a lot of time but I needed to make the time because those remains don’t have a voice, they don’t have a say or anyone to speak on their behalf and they are my communal ancestors. Until we find bloodlines, I have the authority to speak for my communal lineage.” The bodies were found last February during construction of the James Reese Career and Technical Center, located at University Boulevard and Chatham Avenue in Sugar Land. “Forensics have since revealed that these bodies are those of African American men (and one woman), of an age consistent with victims of Sugar Land’s convict leasing system, circa 1878-1910. Chains and other artifacts
SEE CEMETERY, PAGE 9
Visit www.FortBendStar.com
Fort Bend / Southwest • Volume 43 • No. 15
County leaders map legislative priorities
School finance reform not always on top of the list By Joe Southern JSOUTHERN@FORTBENDSTAR.COM
Huddled inside a conference room at the Hyatt Regency Lost Pines Resort and Spa near Bastrop Nov, 15, Fort Bend County elected officials and community leaders held a powwow with Legislators representing the county to help prepare for next year’s biennial legislative session. County Judge Robert Hebert and the Greater Fort Bend Economic Development Council hosted the event. It was an opportunity for mayors, commissioners, school superintendents, chamber of commerce representatives, and others to address and hear from local state representatives and senators. Although they were in agreement as to the top priorities for the Legislature, they often disagreed on the order of those priorities. “My top three priorities for this session are Harvey, Harvey, and Harvey,” state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, said. With Senate District 18 taking the brunt of the damage from Hurricane Harvey last year, Kolkhorst made is clear that helping communities recover will be her priority in the 86th Legislature. That will be followed by Medicaid funding and then public school financing. Sharing a panel discussion with her was District 13 Sen. Borris Miles, D-Houston. Not in attendance was District 17 Sen. Joan Huffman, RHouston. “I think in this 86th Legislative session the number one priority is going to be to fix school finance and to do it properly and to include pre-K and to make sure our third graders are reading at the right level,” Miles said. “I’m going to continue to fight for it as I have for the last 12 years.” In a panel following the senators, state Reps. John Zerwas, Rick Miller, and Phil Stephenson – all Republicans who represent parts of Fort Bend County – also discussed their priorities. Absent was the lone Democrat, Roy Reynolds, who is serving time in jail on a charge of barratry (ambulance chasing). Zerwas said his priorities are Harvey, school safety, and school finance. Miller said his issues included public education, healthcare, and taxes, in addition to child protective services and veterans issues. Stephenson didn’t give a list of priorities but instead spoke of fixing property taxes, which essentially meant restructuring the way schools are funded. “We can fix this easy,” Stephenson said. “We have sales tax. Everybody forgets the little things; we keep saying 58 percent of our state budget is sales tax, that’s only 41 percent of the total available. Fifty-nine percent is nothing, zero, nobody’s paying it. That’s $43 billion at the existing 6.25 rate. We could take about $30 billion and put it in the schools to fix the schools.” He said property taxes have become too high and need to come
State Reps. John Zerwas, left, and Rick Miller discuss legislative issues Nov. 15 during the Fort Bend County Legislative Conference. School finance, Harvey recovery, and Medicaid funding are among their biggest challenges going into the next Legislative session. (Photos by Joe Southern)
State Rep. Phil Stephenson
State Sen. Lois Kolkhorst
down. “Young people can’t get into a home. They cannot get into a home because of the property taxes. The escrow is bigger than the principal and interest and it’s growing at 6 to 7 percent a year, so they can’t afford the future payments,” he said. “We don’t talk about that; we just talk about the schools. It’s a problem; it’s a tremendous problem because education’s everything. None of this school finance is going to work unless we fix the revenue generator first.” School funding The lion’s share of the agenda for the legislative conference was taken up by discussion of school finance. Among the topics besides finding a way to lower property taxes, was doing away with recapture, also known as Robin Hood because it takes revenues from wealthier school districts and allegedly redistributes them to poorer ones. During a question and answer time with the senators, Fort Bend ISD Trustee Jim Rice asked what they would do to solve the financing issue. “The state of Texas has been living off of property tax growth for the past 22 years. … Recapture payments reached $2 billion last year. Com-
missioner of Education Mike Morath recently testified before the Legislative Budget Board that he needs $3.5 billion less going into this next biennium because property tax growth is going to be about 6.6 percent statewide. That implies an over-reliance on property tax growth and the Legislature is going to have to work very hard to solve that problem,” he said. “I have a chart here that shows recapture and, wow, that’s just living off of appraisals,” Kolkhorst said. “That’s really, really big. The number of school districts that are now in chapter 41 have grown exponentially over the last six years. So, we have a lot of work to do.” Zerwas was in agreement with Kolkhorst. “Finally, we’re going to push the property taxes down and put money back into your pocket by virtue of pushing that down. … We’re going to have to have the opportunity to talk about other ways that revenue can be provided to schools,” he said. In a later session, Rice moderated a discussion with Fort Bend ISD Superintendent Charles Dupre, Lamar Consolidated ISD Superintendent Thomas Randal, and Stafford MSD Superintendent Robert Bostic, in which school funding was discussed
State Sen. Borris Miles
in detail. “We’ve got to create some adequacy,” Dupre said. “When we talk about adequacy in education it means you have to put enough money into the system to meet the needs of all the students. The system we’re using today allocates money in ways that have been politically generated many, many years ago. There have been a lot of factors … including the cost of education index, and what that refers to is it costs more to education students in some communities than it does in others. “Anything that they put together needs to recognize the differential that a small town in East Texas is not an urban, suburban environment and you’ve got to have those factors to allow those students to have true equity. That’s a term we say in education to say that means every students gets what they need; not money that’s equally distributed but it’s allocated in a way that students get, and districts get, what they need. So putting enough into the system and doing it in a way that’s equitably distributed are factors that are important,” he said.
SEE LEGISLATURE, PAGE 2
Cowboy up! Black Cowboy Museum tells another side of the Old West By Joe Southern JSOUTHERN@FORTBENDSTAR.COM
Larry Callies paints the Old West with a different color than most historians do. Callies is the founder and operator of the Black Cowboy Museum in Rosenberg. His small, nonprofit museum at 1104 3rd St. highlights an often untold story of real cowboys and rodeo stars who didn’t look so much like John Wayne. The museum has a wide variety of artifacts, including guns, badges, saddles, posters, farm implements and more that help tell the story of black cowboys. Of particular interest is an enlarged photo of black cowboys working the Jones Ranch in Larry Callies, founder and operator of the Black Cowboy the 1880s. Today the ranch is Museum in Rosenberg, poses in front of a saddle once used known as the George Ranch by Frank James, brother of outlaw Jesse James. (Photo by Historical Park. Joe Southern) “White men didn’t want to
work with cows,” he said. Callies said whites initially detested the name “cowboy.” “You had house boys, yard boys, and cow boys,” he said. “People didn’t want to be called ‘boy.’” He said he started learning about black cowboys while he was working at George Ranch from 2011-2014 as the lead cowboy. Prior to that he was a mailman in Sugar Land from 1974 to 2011. His whole life, however, has been spent working cattle. His father provided stock to both black and white rodeos across Texas and he spent his boyhood summers traveling the rodeo circuit. The El Campo native got to watch and learn from the best in the business. His cousin, Tex Williams, became the first black to make it to the state rodeo finals in 1967 and again in ’68. Callies became the second in 1971. He rode barebacks
and bulls and roped calves. He still ropes today. As enamored as he was with the cowboy way, it wasn’t his first love. Callies was a country western singer. He had signed on with Erv Woolsey, the same manager as country music legend George Strait. Two weeks before he was set to move to Nashville, Callies lost his voice. That was 27 years ago and today he still speaks with a hoarse whisper. Over the years making his postal rounds and the rodeo circuit, Callies collected a lot of stories and artifacts pertaining to black cowboys. In 2016 he finally figured out what to do with it all. As a devout Christian, he said God placed it on his heart to share the stories and history of black cowboys.
SEE COWBOY, PAGE 4