School

HOT SPOT? That’s right. I live in a remote Texas county that last week was added to The New York Times list of CO- VID-19 “hot spots.” Tom Green County, Texas is one of those big (1,541 square miles) remote counties in Texas that the state of Rhode Island fits in quite comfortably. Tom Green has one city, San Angelo, which has between 90,000 and 100,000 residents. The rest of the population lives in eight unincorporated settlements, and on farms and ranches. You have to drive over 100 miles to get to Abilene. Odessa and Midland are 150 miles away. It is 183 miles to Lubbock.

AUSTIN—The presidents of two teachers’ unions, the Texas American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the Texas State Teachers Association, called on Gov. Greg Abbott and the Texas Education Agency today to require every school district in the state to submit a detailed reopening plan outlining how they will safeguard students and staff from the spread of COVID-19. The call comes on the heels of the governor’s announcement last week that Texas public schools will reopen in the fall, with no information on proposed health and safety measures, amid a surge in COVID-19 cases in a number of communities across the state.

More than $200,000 in scholarships were presented to Panhandle-area 4-Hers recently at the Texas 4-H virtual celebration night.

CHAPTER SEVEN: Slim Serves Her Green Bean Juice

Student activists this week forced Texas A & M University system and University of Texas System to respond to demands. A&M announced radical changes that address the lack of diversity in the school. UT listened to similar student grievances and promised a plan for change in the next few weeks. Here are the details:

The summer slide is going to be worse this year. Students lose academic skills and knowledge when they are out of school in June, July, and the first two weeks of August. Educators are now worried about the COVID slide. Most schools in Texas lost eight-10 weeks of school in 2020, extending the summer slide from eight weeks to 16-18 weeks. Schools did the best they could to engage students with distance learning and study packets. Parents did the best they could to help students with homework. The pandemic has provided a trial run for American schools. The distancelearning experiment was not a complete success, but it did show educators how to make improvements for the fall.

CHAPTER SIX:

Hemphill County Library is proud to once again present their summer reading programs for all ages. This important program encourages people of all ages to read and enjoy the many benefits the library offers over the course of the summer. Reading throughout the summer benefits students of all ages, helping them to retain skills learned during the school year.

On June 5, Atreyou Farrar graduated from high school. He has been home-schooled since the fifth grade. Creating video games and composing game music are areas in which Farrar excels. He plans to further his education by taking online courses specializing in music. Farrar has applied for a copyright on some of his digitally-composed music, and hopes to do contract work and sell his music online. He is the son of Caleb and Bonnie Farrar of Canadian.