Elgin Courier (Elgin, Tex.), Vol. 126, No. 17, Ed. 1 Wednesday, April 6, 2016 Page: 15 of 20
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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6, 2016
ELGIN COURIER - ELGIN, TEXAS
PAGE 15
p.
Answers vanish from ST A AR
%*
tests, EIS D students affected
5,
LIVESTOCK
City manager to retire this month
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Road construction update
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Rich rose-growing resources available in Bastrop County
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23. Department of Defense *Answers on page 6A
By Deb Wahrmund
news@elgincourier.com
■ S. Avenue C to
Austin and W. Bren-
ham. A grant-funded
project is slated to
begin in late May
or early June.
Home-Style
Cooking In
Downtown
Elgin
Kerry Lacy will retire from his
post as Elgin’s City Manager at
the end of this month, marking
the end of a 46 year career in
public service. Since 1969 Lacy
has served the cities of Jasper,
Liberty, Lufkin, San Augustine,
Temple, Watauga, and Elgin.
Lacy has been instrumental
in the success of many improve-
ment projects in the community,
By Rachel Lucio
Rachel.lucio@elgincourier.com
■ City of Elgin 2016
street project is cur-
rently in the prepara-
tory phase. Estimate
single course chip
seal/asphalt overlay is
currently being engi-
neered. Start date is
as well as improvements in the
workplace for city employees.
He has had a hand in reducing
this year’s city tax rate, im-
proving the city budget, and
employee staffing and pay.
Community projects he has im-
pacted are street and drainage
improvement projects, improve-
ments in parks and recreation,
and the upcoming community
center to be built at Avenue C.
Lacy is a graduate of Stephen
F. Austin State University. He
By Rachel Lucio
Rachel.lucio@elgincourier.com
Months of study
went into preparing
students for the State
of Texas Assessment
of Academic Readi-
ness (STAAR) tests
last week; but all the
preparation in the
world wouldn’t have
prepared students for
what happened while
taking the exam.
Students in many
districts across the
state, including Elgin
Independent School
District (EISD) expe-
rienced technical dif-
ficulties when taking
the STAAR exam.
Some students were
unable to submit their
test answers upon com-
pletion of the exam.
Others experienced
issues when they re-
turned to their exam
after taking a break,
and found that their
answers to the multi-
ple choice questions
were gone; and there
was one student who
had their essay disap-
■ 11th Street down-
town Main Street to Aus-
tin. An ADA sidewalk
project is scheduled to
start this month.
■ FM 3000. Repairs
to the road and as-
phalt overlay are near
completion.
■ A $500,000 paving
project is currently
being engineered.
Start date is still to be
determined.
■ Highway 95 N. As-
phalt milling, repairs
and overlay are being
conducted from US
290 to Taylor.
taking steps to mini-
mize the fallout from
the glitch. Debbie
Ratcliffe, Director of
Media Relations for
TEA said that ETS
confirmed student
answers were saved in
their servers, and ETS
was working to recover
them.
But even with the
answers recovered, the
glitch cost some stu-
dents the completion
of the exam. TEA sent
out notices to school
districts Thursday stat-
ing that those students
affected by the admin-
istrative malfunction,
and unable to com-
plete the exam could,
at the discretion of the
school district, be ex-
empt from completing
the test.
Superintendent
Duron said that the
middle school students
affected by the issue
were not required
to complete the test,
but one high school
student was able to
have their test scores
recovered and opted to
complete the exam.
Monday - Saturday: 6 a.m. - 9 p.m.
Sunday: 7 a.m. - 4 p.m.
was an executive member of the
board of directors for the Elgin
Chamber of Commerce.
Career honors include being a
named a lifetime honorary fire
chief with the Jasper fire de-
partment and the 2010 manager
of the year with the National
Management Association Chap-
ter 565.
A reception honoring Lacy
is scheduled from 3 pm to 5
pm April 25, at the Flemming
Community Center.
48. Patti Hearst’s captors
49. Breaks apart
52. Russian country house
55. Female grunts
56. Type of sword
60. Ottoman Empire title
61. Emaciation
63. He was Batman
64. Nonmoving
65. Group in China
66. A thought
67. Withered
68. Worldly mosquitoes
69. Tide
of advice. Find out
more on Facebook or
attend one of the quar-
terly meetings held
the second Friday of
each month. The next
meeting will be April 8
at 6:30 p.m. in the First
National Bank Commu-
nity Room on Hwy 290.
Some of the best tips
can be found by visit-
ing Bloomers Garden
Center & Plantscaping
on Highway 95. Talk
with owners Marcus
and Jody Young before
buying a rose. Marcus
is a frequent guest
on the PBS television
series Central Texas
Gardener, and speaks
at local garden clubs in
the surrounding area
including Smithville
and Taylor. Jody is
part of a multi-gen-
erational love for
rose-growing.
Jody said her par-
ents both loved plants
but her father, Lowell
Powell, was especially
fond of the Mr. Lincoln
tea rose with its big,
red blooms.
Jody likes the
Knock-Out rose series,
like her father. The
red ones are her favor-
ite but “The coral drift
Lucy’s Kitchen
110 Depot Street • Elgin, Texas
512-285-9975
WWW.
ELGINCOURIER.
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94.
FJmC
d „
pear.
Texas Education
Agency (TEA) Com-
missioner Mike Morath
called the computer
glitch that resulted in
the student’s inabil-
ity to complete the
exam “simply unac-
ceptable,” and made
no excuse for Educa-
tional Testing Services
(ETS), one of the larg-
est testing services in
the country, who took
over administration
of the STAAR test for
the state of Texas this
year.
“Kids in the class-
room should never
suffer from mistakes
made by adults. Educa-
tional Testing Service
is not new to adminis-
tering assessments on
a large scale basis, so I
cannot accept the tran-
sition to a new testing
vendor as an excuse
for what occurred.
TEA also shares in the
responsibility in the
proper administration
of these assessments.
As an agency, we did
not live up to that com-
mitment,” said Morath
Raising roses can
be a challenging en-
deavor. Time, work,
sweat, and blood are
often sacrificed to nur-
ture perfect, fragrant
blooms. But more than
the toil and trouble in-
volved in the rearing,
knowledge of the grow-
ing and maintenance
of the thorn-spiked
stems and velvety pet-
als is necessary for suc-
cessful roses. Bastrop
county is fortunate
to have local experts
willing to share their
experiences.
The Bastrop County
Rose Society is a rich
resource for new and
seasoned rosarians
alike. Sandy Jones,
Kathy Musgrave, and
others’ names dance
across my lips with
memories of when
they opened their
hearts and homes to
those of us with unre-
quited rose love in the
1990s. The Society still
thrives with enthusi-
asm, with fun-filled
field trips, and it prints
the “Rose Petal Press,”
a newsletter chock-full
We Appreciate
Your Business, Large
or Small!"
in a statement.
EISD Superinten-
dent Jodi Duron said
that only a handful of
students in the district
were impacted by the
glitch, but with so
much riding on STAAR
tests, such as grade
level progression,
graduation, and even
school funding, watch-
ing test answers disap-
pear from a computer
screen had a negative
impact on students and
school districts alike.
“The pattern is in
state after state, the
technology has been
rushed into the class-
room before it was
ready for prime time,
and politicians and
state capitols have cre-
ated timelines which
are unrealistic,” said
Robert Schaeffer, a
representative of the
standardized testing
watchdog group FairT-
est.
“It’s educationally
disruptive at best,
and psychologically
harmful at worst,” said
Schaeffer.
And the TEA is
rose is nice. The color
is intense and the sun
does not fade it out,”
she said. “Caldwell
Pink is a great because
it has a carnation
shape, the iceberg
whites are great, and
of course, Belinda’s
Dream is a good, fra-
grant rose,” she said of
the antique rose vari-
eties.
“Along with weed-
ing and pruning, it is
best to have a feed-
ing schedule for your
roses,” said Jody, so
they are less suscepti-
ble to black spot and
diseases.
Bloomers has long
supported the Bastrop
County Rose Society as
a venue for demonstra-
tions.
The Elgin Garden
Club also offers up
rose-growing advice
in addition to general
gardening topics. They
meet the first Tuesday
of each month at the
First National Bank
Community Room at
9:30 a.m. More infor-
mation on the Elgin
Garden Club can be
obtained by contacting
Bonnie Groves at 512-
281-9551.
CLUES ACROSS
1. Brave act
5. Ejects saliva
10. A vale
14. Expression of surprise
15. Feels concern
16. Saddle horse
17. Emerald Isle
18. Silly
19. Female child
20. Cyprinids
22. Comedienne Gasteyer
23. National capital
24. Court game
27. Tooth caregiver
30. Supervises flying
31. Small amount
32. Degree of loudness
34. Wore down
36. Upper-class young
woman (abbr.)
37. Actor Pitt
39. Red mineral
40. Have already done
41. Asian antelope
42. Forms over a cut
43. Performer__Lo Green
44. Pressed against
45. An alternative
46. 5th note of a major
scale
47. Tell on
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CLUES DOWN
1. Unreal
2. River in Norway
3. Long poem
4. Cygnus star
5. fi (slang)
6. Known for its canal
7. A citizen of Iran
8. Inhabited
9. Midway between south
and southeast
10. Semitic fertility god
11._Clapton, musician
12. Lawman
13. City 3000 B.C.
21. They hold valuables
_sse=G4, Bring us some of those Good,
{c m Fresh, Country Cattle this
4 Sale Day % Saturday and take home
€ SATURDAY a check that you will be
% m Hhappy with! We will accept
2. - P Oon your cattle on Fridays!
So Bring them in Early!
25. Begetter
26. Check
27. Early union leader
28. Lawmaker
29. About Sun
32. Negligible amounts
33. Roll
35. Just a little bit
36. Small, spotted cubes
37. Founder of Babism
38. Father
40. Blue Hen State
41. Satisfies
43. Police officer
44. Digital audiotape
46. Covers most of Earth
47. Inflorescence
49. Find this on hot days
50. Fanatical
51. Absorption unit
52. Sitcom “My Two__”
53. Phil__, former CIA
54. Partially burn
57._farewell
58. Ancient Greek City
59. A way to derive
61. Women’s social
organization
62. Female sibling
5
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Lucio, Rachel. Elgin Courier (Elgin, Tex.), Vol. 126, No. 17, Ed. 1 Wednesday, April 6, 2016, newspaper, April 6, 2016; Elgin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1555330/m1/15/?rotate=270: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Elgin Public Library.