Port Aransas South Jetty (Port Aransas, Tex.), Vol. 37, No. 32, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 9, 2007 Page: 1 of 24
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Thursday, August 9, 2007
If
003
40 S
750
PCCT /iCANSAS
700 WEST AVE. a
ORT ARANSAS. TEXAS 78373
946-020
Port Aransas, Texas on Mustang Island
Vol, 37 No. 32
THIS EDITION
district may appeal TEA rating
Island Focus
Night fishing
Some anglers prefer the
peace and quiet -- and
solitude -- of fishing after
dark.
Page 1B
Island Outdoors
Fish feast
Anglers are catching fish —
and lots of 'em — offshore, in
the bays and surf.
Page 8-1 oa
Effort to mainstream
special-ed students
drops rating a notch
By Dan Parker
South Jetty reporter
Port Aransas Independent School
District Superintendent Billy Wiggins
said he is exploring the possibility of
filing an appeal of the state's recent
rating of PAISD as an academically
"acceptable" district.
On Aug. 1, the Texas Education
Agency (TEA) released new ratings
of school districts throughout the state
based on 2006-07 TAKS testing. TAKS
is the Texas Assessment of Knowledge
and Skills - state-mandated testing
that is done to comply with the federal
No Child Left Behind Act.
Depending on how students perform
on TAKS tests, the TEA assigns public
schools all over the state varying sta-
tuses, from academically unacceptable
on up to acceptable, recognized and, at
the top of the scale, exemplary. When
schools are rated unacceptable two
years in a row, it can lead to a maxi-
mum consequence of the state taking
over a campus and firing administra-
tors and teachers.
PAISD officials said they were
surprised to learn that the TEA rated
the district acceptable for the 2006-07
school year - a drop from the district's
2005-06 rating of recognized. The
drop came despite the fact that the
TEA rated each of PAISD's three cam-
puses as recognized or higher based on
the 2006-07 testing.
The TEA rated H.G. Olsen Elemen-
tary School as recognized - a one-step
drop from the exemplary status the
school achieved the previous year.
While Brundrett Middle School had
a recognized status during the 2005-
06 year, the school earned exemplary
status for this most recent round of
testing. BMS is the only middle school
in Nueces County to achieve the top-
ranked status of exemplary this year,
according to the TEA.
Port Aransas High School is rated
as recognized - the same ranking the
school held for the 2005-06 school
year.
Wiggins said the state hit PAISD a test known as the SDAA II -- the to learning disabilities.
as a whole with the rating of merely State-Developed Alternative Assess- Ironically, the low performances
acceptable because of a lower-than- ment. The SDAA II is designed for came as a result of efforts by PAISD
expected performance by the district's special-education students who don't to bring the performances of special-
special-education students who took take the more difficult TAKS test due See 'APPEAL,' PAGE 7A
Island Life
Archive addition
Former Corpus Christi Mayor
Betty Turner, now of Port
Aransas, has donated papers
from her term to Texas A&M
- Corpus Christi.
Page 2B
1mB1¥
Church
Pastor's pen 4A
Obituaries 4A
•Maisie Stimson
•Wally Ray Marcrum
Island Life i
Columnists
•Tony Amos 10B
•Bill Slingerland 5B
•Rachel Pearson 12A
Law enforcement 4B
Island agenda 2A
Youth
School supply list 6A
New student registration ... 6A
Opinion
Dave McNeely 3A
Steve Martaindale 3A
Mary Henkel Judson 3A
Cactus Pryor 3a
Outdoors-111111
Fishing report ....
Tides & Weather
CLASSIFIED
8A
8 A
Having a ball
Classified ads 6-12B
south jetty newspaper plu#
00000
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s*
.-j,,-, ■ p.-fwua Staff photo by Dan Parker
Matthew Gonzalus, left, and cousin Jerry Saldana, both of San lower 90s, along with mostly sunny skies, are expected to continue
Antonio, pursue a football thrown by a relative on the beach in Port through the weekend. The conditions should make for an ideal
Aransas on Sunday, Aug. 5. Temperatures in the upper 80s and Port Aransas beach get-away.
New postmaster leaves behind
Colorado cold for Texas sun
By Dan Parker
South Jetty reporter
Connie Hatton has traded the Colo-
rado cold for the Port Aransas sun.
Hatton is the new postmaster at the
Port Aransas Post Office. Her first
day was Monday, Aug. 6. Before she
was hired, Port Aransas was without
a permanent postmaster for more
than a year. Acting postmasters filled
the spot.
Previously, Hatton was postmaster
in Johnstown, a town of about 7,800
about 50 miles north of Denver.
Hatton has been a postal service
employee for more than 28 years,
beginning in Magnolia, Texas.
Born and raised in Jasper, she said
she applied for the Port Aransas job
because she heard the Lone Star State
calling to her after many years work-
ing in Colorado.
"I wanted to come back home before
I retired," Hatton said. "I wanted to
Staff photo by Dan Parker
Home to Texas
New Port Aransas postmaster Connie Hatton has returned to her
home state of Texas after a stint in Colorado. Hatton fills a position
vacant for more than a year as interm postmasters filled the spot
awaiting a permanent replacement.
come back to Texas. ... It's good to
be back in a place where you can see
green all year around."
Hatton said she doesn't have any
changes in mind for the Port Aransas
office yet.
"Right now, it's just maintaining
until I can get my feet wet and then
figure out what we can do to improve,"
she said.
About her philosophy of operating
a post office, she said, "Customer ser-
vice is always Number 1. That's what
we're here for. Without our customers,
the post office wouldn't be here."
Hatton is married to Carl Hatton,
a retired computer technician. They
have two children and nine grand-
children.
Hatton replaces Doug Flannagan,
the last permanent postmaster in Port
Aransas in a series since longtime
postmaster Rebecca Castell retired
in 2000.
ICW bridge
called 'safe'
The State Hwy. 361 bridge
over the Intracoastal Waterway
in Aransas Pass is safe, accord-
ing to the Texas Deparrtment of
Transportation (TxDOT).
After some Port Aransas resi-
dents questioned the safety of the
bridge, known as the Dale Miller
Bridge, City Manager Michael
Kovacs e-mailed the TxDOT
district office in Corpus Christi,
inquiring about its structural
integrity.
TxDOT spokesperson Frances
Garza responded that while the
bridge has what's called a low
"sufficiency rating," that doesn't
mean it's not safe to drive on.
A sufficiency rating takes
into account such factors as the
bridge's width and steepness,
the shoulders of the roadway
and the volume of traffic, Garza
said. "These do not contribute
to a bridge being structurally
deficient," she said.
See 'BRIDGE,' PAGE 4A
'fl: ■ ■'•.""•■V :
TO
ERVg
7 ACRE BOUND
City to take another
look at 67-acre tract
along ship channel
By Phil Reynolds
South Jetty reporter
With five years or less until dead-
line, city council members have told
City Manager Michael Kovacs to start
working on plans for 67 acres of city-
owned land at the end of Port Street.
The matter came up at the close of
a city council harbor workshop on
Thursday, Aug. 2. At that workshop,
the council heard of plans to improve
and upgrade Roberts Point Park (see
separate story).
But the council also urged Kovacs
to begin gathering data on what could
happen to the property, which now
holds an Army Corps of Engineers
(CoE) permit for a marina.
That process has already started!,
Kovacs said.
"Now it's time to go into the public
process and find out what people waijt
in the new harbor," he told the council
"Do they want more docks? Do they
want sailboats?"
Kovacs said he also needs to knoty
whether the city wants any develop-
ment in that area to be a totally public
project.
"With public project comes public
SEE '67 ACRES,'PAGE 4A
09809°
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Judson, Mary Henkel. Port Aransas South Jetty (Port Aransas, Tex.), Vol. 37, No. 32, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 9, 2007, newspaper, August 9, 2007; Port Aransas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth409959/m1/1/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Ellis Memorial Library.