Today Cedar Hill (Duncanville, Tex.), Vol. 40, No. 52, Ed. 1 Thursday, April 6, 2006 Page: 1 of 20
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Perry touts tax reform
Governor, Sharp propose
a revised business levy
By BRIAN ALLEN
Today Staff
There was one topic on Gov.
Rick Perry’s mind at the March
29 Best Southwest Luncheon:
school finance.
The Texas Supreme Court
has rendered the state’s current
property tax structure unconsti-
tutional and given the Legis-
lature a June 1 deadline to fix
it.
Duncanville was one of the
stops on a statewide trip pro-
moting a mueh-debated plan to
give property tax relief. Perry
arrived late coming from a
speech in Austin, prompting
some improvisational humor
from Best Southwest Chair-
person Amanda Hinton.
“This is the part where 1
introduce the speaker,” she
said. “But I don’t have a little
man to my left telling me he’s
here.”
A few moments later, she
received an update that she
passed on to the packed house
at the Hilton Garden Inn.
“He’s at a stoplight,” she
said, drawing an offhand com-
ment for which Hinton was pre-
pared. *
“No, not in Austin, in
Duncanville,” she explained.
The audience heard Perry
tout a plan that would cut
school property taxes through a
broad-based business tax and
$l-a-pack cigarette tax. The
current cigarette tax is at 41
cents.
It would cut school operat-
See PERRY, Page 3
Today photo by CHRIS HUDSON
Texas Gov. Rick Perry (right) and former State
Comptroller John Sharp (left) paid a visit to the Best
Southwest Luncheon on March 29.
Playoff
loss for
Horns
By LOYD BRUMFIELD
News Editor
BEDFORD — Cedar Hill
found itself down 1-0 four
minutes into its Class 5A bidis-
trict boys soccer playoff game
against Plano, but the
Longhorns settled down and
played well after that, even
though they ultimately ended
up on the losing end of the
scoreboard.
Cedar Hill’s season ended
with a 3-0 loss to the playoff-
tested Wildcats, who scored
two goals in the first half and
tacked on a late score on a
penalty kick March 28 at
Pennington Field.
Plano moved on to face
Keller Fossil Ridge in the area
round, while Cedar Hill — a
newcomer to the playoffs -
ended its season at 12-8-5 after
finishing third in District 7-
5A.
“This is the first time we’ve
been in that situation, and wi?
gave up an early goal when we
were out of place, but on that
second goal, the kid just made
an amazing shot,” Cedar Hill
Coach Jim Davis said. “In the
second half we played really
well and showed we could play
with a team like that.”
Unofficially, Plano outshot
Cedar Hill 9-3 and used its
speed to control the tempo, but
Cedar Hill was rarely out of
place defensively on numerous
Wildcat charges.
Both teams played a very
physical game, and numerous
fouls and a couple of yellow
cards were dispensed.
Plano went up 1-0 with
36:11 left in the first half on a
point-blank shot from Clayton
Meeker, who was set up with a
pass from Andrew Kuforiji.
Soon after that, Cedar Hill
sweeper Kelvin Brown injured
his ankle and was out for the
rest of the game.
Cedar Hill’s first scoring
chance came at the 26:50 mark
Longhorns goalkeeper
Camron Quitugua had thwart-
ed a couple of other Plano
chances before that — when
Tung Nguyen got free along
the sideline with the goal in
sight, but a pass to him went
wide.
Just after that, Ben Marshall
and Marcus Gordon cornered
Plano’s Tex McCullough and
forced him out of bounds. On
an ensuing corner kick,
Quitugua barely got a hand on
Meekeri scoring attempt and
tipped it over the net.
Plano misfired on another
kick with 21:37 left in the first
See SOCCER, Page 10
Action Fair makes its debut
Speaking out
not reason for
suspensions
CHISD: Students violated dress
code during immigration debate
Today photo by CHRIS HUDSON
Three-year-old Lauren Smith and her father Brent watch as Nita Peters McKeethen,
otherwise known as Loonie the Clown, constructs a balloon animal at Cedar Hill’s
first Neighborhood Action Fair on April 1 at the Ninth Grade Center. Civic organiza-
tions and city representatives gathered to show residents some of the activities and
job opportunities open to them.
By LOYD BRUMFIELD
News Editor
Some Hispanic students at
the Cedar Hill Ninth Grade
Center who gathered together
to discuss immigration issues
March 31 wound up getting
suspended for the rest of the
day not for speaking out on
the issue, but for violating the
standardized dress code, school
district officials said.
“There were a group of
Hispanic students who met in a
lower gathering area (at the
Ninth Grade Center) who were
loudly talking about the issue,”
said Juanita Browder, director
of curriculum for the district.
“Some administrators heard the
noise and wondered what was
happening. When there was an
understanding of what they
were doing, the administrators
sat them down and discussed it
but the students were out of
dress code.”
About 15 student's were
involved in speaking out. Cedar
Hill High School Principal
Harry Miller said. Of those,
about five refused to change
clothes and were sent home for
the rest of the day.
Students are sent home on a
regular basis when they are out
of dress code so they can
change into clothing that meets
Cedar Hill’s regulations. Most
of the students involved in the
discussions did go home and
change, Browder said
Thousands of students from
schools all over the North Texas
area spent the past week walk-
ing out of their classes and
marching m protest of pro-
posed laws cracking down on
illegal immigration includ-
ing a U.S. House proposal to
make illegal entry into this
country a felony
The Dallas School District
was m lockdown mode March
31 to guard against further
walkouts, but there were no
reports of similar walkouts in
Cedar Hill.
Browder said the school dis-
trict in no way discourages dis-
cussions of important issues
and in fact hopes students will
pursue serious issues during
school time.
“No one was suspended for
speaking out,” Browder said.
“We want our students to
address the issue. We want
them talking about it We espe-
cially want them to have time in
class to talk about it.”
Cedar Hill takes time for
about 25 minutes each day to
discuss civics and citizenship
issues with students. Miller
See SPEAKING, Page 2
Fire does severe damage Opening day at the old ballpark
to home in High Pointe
By LOYD BRUMFIELD
News Editor
A fire that gutted the top
floor of a home in the 600
block of Copeland Drive in
High Pointe is still under inves-
tigation, the Cedar Hill Fire
Department reported.
Someone in the area called
the fire department to report
the blaze at 1:54 p.m. March
28, Fire Marshal Randy Jordan
said.
When firefighters arrived,
there was heavy fire on the sec-
ond floor and coming through
the roof, Jordan said."
According to fire reports,
four people who occupied the
rental property weren’t at home
at the time of the fire. They
were later referred to the
American Red Cross.
According to the Dallas
County Appraisal District, the
home’s owner is Kevin Young
of Dallas. Attempts to contact
him for this report were not
successful.
Firefighters from Cedar
Hill, Duncanville and Ovilla
responded and contained the
blaze to the upper floor. The
first floor had some smoke and
water damage but otherwise
was spared, fire reports indicat-
ed.
The fire came under control
in about 45 minutes to an hour,~
and firefighters were on the
property until about 8 p.m. per-
forming cleanup duties, Jordan
said.
Today photb by CHRIS HUDSON
Members of the Longhorns youth baseball team give appreciation to Cedar Hill
Baseball Association board members during opening-day ceremonies held April 1
at the baseball fields near Permenter Middle School.
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Vol. 40 No. 52
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Thursday, April 6. 2006
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Gooch, Robin. Today Cedar Hill (Duncanville, Tex.), Vol. 40, No. 52, Ed. 1 Thursday, April 6, 2006, newspaper, April 6, 2006; Duncanville, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth623978/m1/1/?q=Lamar+University: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Zula B. Wylie Memorial Library.