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Fort Bend / Southwest • Volume 47 • No. 36 • $1.00
Big issues face FBISD voters on May 7 By Matt deGrood MDEGROOD@FORTBENDSTAR.COM
Stability or change? How do we solve the exodus of teachers from the profession? What should be done with federal money for education? Voters will face a host of existential questions about the future of Fort Bend ISD when they vote May 7 on two trustee positions. Whereas for many EARLY VOTING STARTS MAY 7TH
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Regional run: Marshall is among the local schools preparing for regional track meets.
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SEE PREVIEW PAGE 7
Candidates for two Fort Bend ISD board of trustees positions participated in a debate last week. (Contributed photo)
Family of Lisa Torry Smith works to establish memorial at site of death By Matt deGrood MDEGROOD@FORTBENDSTAR.COM
Elaine Brooks relives her daughter’s final moments each day. It’s why the intersection of the quiet Nueces Creek and the slightly busier Sienna Ranch Road means so much to Brooks. For it’s there that Lisa Torry Smith was struck, along with her 6-year-old son, while she was walking him to school in October 2017. The crash killed Smith and left her son severely injured. “I relive that every single morning,” she said. “I am Lisa in the dream, and I feel that hit.” For as much as Smith’s death has affected both her family and countless others across the state and country, there’s no marker at the site itself, recognizing the tragedy that occurred at the Sienna intersection in 2017. Former U.S. Rep. Pete Olson tried to change
that this month. One day, he purchased a fake sign designating the road, Lisa Smith Honorway, and affixed the sign atop the existing intersection. “I tried to go through official channels, but nothing was moving despite verbal support in Fort Bend County and Missouri City for my efforts,” Olson wrote. To sate concerns about confusion, Olson said he purchased a green sign – as opposed to Missouri City’s blueand-red signs – and make sure the existing street signs were visible. But the sign only lasted six days before someone took it down, Olson said. The former Fort Bend County elected official posted about the matter on social media and, in a rare spirit of bipartisanship, Fort Bend County District Attorney Brian Middleton said he would track
SEE SMITH PAGE 7
Former U.S. Rep. Pete Olson and Elaine Brooks, mother of Lisa Torry Smith, stand at the intersection in Sienna where Smith died in 2017 while crossing a crosswalk. Both Olson and Brooks would like to see some memorial to Smith at the site. (Photo by Matt deGrood)
Clerk: Court record access should be restored by mid-summer MDEGROOD@FORTBENDSTAR.COM
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Lewis, an attorney; and Shell McClure, a truck driver, squaring off to replace board President Dave Rosenthal, who opted not to seek reelection. And the Position 3 race features longtime incumbent Jim Rice against challenger Rick Garcia, an IT project manager. Of the two races, the Position 7 one has been somewhat more heated,
Never forgetting
By Matt deGrood
Staycation: Want to feel like you're on vacation? Visit Cabo Dogs.
years, school district races might have flown under the radar, FBISD’s board has become somewhat acquainted with controversy in recent months, exacerbated by the pandemic and national talking points about racism and LGBTQ issues. And these trustee races have proven no different. The open Position 7 race features David Hamilton, a commercial insurance agent; Orjanel
Fort Bend County administrators have set a timeline that should see access to online court records returned to all residents by mid-summer, County Clerk Laura Richard told the Fort Bend Star last week. “We understand the desire for it to all be back out there,” she said. “We know there’s a pent-up demand. And we want to accommodate that as quickly as
possible.” County records staff met with the vendor for the court records website, a Plano-based firm called Tyler Technologies, recently and came up with the timeline that should see access restored by mid-summer if all goes according to plan, Richard said. Officials with the company, meanwhile, declined to comment about the matter, saying they only discussed technical items with clients. “A local administrator is
the best source of information for updates on their specific records availability,” said Karen Shields, a spokesperson for the company. County officials have been dealing with a glitch to the court records website for several months now, at least since 2021, Richard said. Staff first noticed the glitch while conducting a quality check after a software upgrade and discovering that, under the new system, viewers could
potentially see certain private information that is supposed to be redacted, she said. That included social security numbers, home addresses and the names of juveniles, she said. The issue became more publicly-discussed in recent weeks as Richard and District Clerk Beverly McGrew Walker released a statement saying that, for the time being, the only people with access to online court records would be attorneys or other agents of
the court. In follow-up conversations with the Star, however, both public officials vowed that the end goal was to restore access for everyone. As it stands now, residents can view court cases online, but specific records haven’t been available as they were previously, Richard said. Residents interested in documents can, however, contact county staff to receive documents, she said.
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