Official site of Tribune News serving Tomball, Magnolia and Waller

Tomball ISD recently put together a steering committee last October to look at ways the growing district could prepare for current and future needs. That committee presented its findings to the public during a recent public forum.

"The growth we are experiencing now requires us to look towards future needs, as well as maintaining what assets we have now," said steering committee chair Rick Pritchett.
Charged by the school board with that goal, the committee identified several areas which they studied. They included new schools, a way to take care of current facilities and capital improvements, new technologies and transportation.

When it comes to future growth, the committee will recommend four new campuses be built, at a cost of around $110 million. New schools recommended are a new elementary school and junior high in The Woodlands, as well as a new fifth and sixth grade campus and a new elementary on the districts south side.

The need for these schools is based on projections in growth through the 2018-19 school year.

"The growth we have experienced in the district has primarily been in the northeast and south side of the district," Pritchett said.

The committee also looked at ways to improve and maintain current schools, as well as improvements in technology and transportation. The improvements the committee will recommend in those areas are estimated to cost around $58 million.

"We have to provide for and take care of the assets we have, as well as provide new technology for the students and keep up with our transportation needs," Pritchett said.
Security was also a big factor for the committee. Pritchett explained that several campuses have their administrative offices located away from the front entrance, causing security concerns. The committee recommended that those campuses add a security vestibule at the front entrances.

The committee will present their findings and recommendations to the school board at a meeting Feb. 11. The board will then look at options to fund the recommendations that it approves of, which could include a future bond election.

Pritchett did say that all totals are only estimates at this point, but the district would avoid going over a tax rate of five cents per $100 valuation.

"We are fortunate here that we have a board that is not only passionate about education, but also financially savvy and skillful," he said.

The board will take some time after Monday's meeting to get community input on the proposal, before deciding on whether to hold a bond election. They will decide that during their March meeting.

Tomball High School (THS) senior Christi Gamble showed her lamb, Luna, at the 37th Annual Tomball ISD FFA Project Show. This was Gamble's second year to raise a lamb. She was one of 275 Tomball ISD students showing chickens, turkeys, lambs, rabbits, swine, and steers. The live auction brought in a total of $313,500. Grand champion results were Rabbits - freshman Bailey Wargo, Tomball Memorial, $3,500; Broiler - junior Casey Smith, Tomball, $2,800; Turkey -  senior Megan Vaculin, Tomball, $4,500; Lamb - senior Stephanie Ludwig, Tomball, $5,000; Swine - senior Landon Folkerts, Tomball, $14,000; Steer - sophomore Kathryn Lewandowski, Tomball, $27,000. Reserve champion results were Rabbits - freshman John Leibham, Tomball, $3,000; Broiler - junior Thomas Reeves, Tomball, $6,500; Turkey - senior Chase Johnson, Tomball, $5,000; Lamb - senior Austin Boggs, Tomball, $5,000; Swine - junior Sydney Breaux, Tomball, $22,000 and Steer - junior Shayla Arvizu, Tomball, $19,000.

Tomball Police arrested a man in the process of beating and choking a woman near the Tribune office last week.

Police said that Anthony Aaron Royal, 30, of Tomball, found his ex-girlfriend at a laundry facility on Magnolia Street.

"She fled from him at that time and he caught up to her in an alleyway just south of Main Street," said Tomball Police Cpt. Rick Grassi. "He tried to talk to her about their relationship and didn't like what he heard, because he struck her in the face."

At that point, Grassi said that Royal allegedly grabbed the woman around her neck with his arm and began dragging her down the alleyway. Someone from a nearby restaurant or motel saw the incident and called police.

Police arrived and arrested Royal at gunpoint, where they transported him to the Tomball city jail. He was later transferred to the Harris County Jail.

The victim was transported to the hospital with non life threatening injuries.

Royal is a man who Tomball Police and other law enforcement agencies have dealt with before.

"We arrested him a few months prior to this incident for family violence," Grassi said.

Royal had recently pled no contest last November to those charges and served a little more than a month in the Harris County Jail. He also has a string of prior drug related arrests in Harris County.

The Harris County District Attorney's Office also filed an emergency order of protection against Royal, on behalf of the victim, which a judge approved.

Royal has been charged with a felony domestic violence charge, because he choked the woman. Grassi explained that anytime that an assault occurs where someone impedes the victim's ability to breathe; charges are automatically updated to a third degree felony.

As of press time Royal was still in the Harris County Jail, held with no bond. A court appearance was held Feb. 8, but results of that appearance were not yet available.

My father would have celebrated his 59th birthday Feb. 7. I have been trying to think of a way to honor him in these pages, to a group of readers that didn't know him at all. How do I explain a man that still means everything to his family, even though he has been gone for nearly a decade?

Then it occurred to me. I could have been Adam Lanza, had it not been for my father.

I don't write that for shock value, nor do I write that to draw attention. I write that because it is true.

You see, I was a lot like Adam growing up, kind of an outcast – the kid with the brains, but scrawny and awkward. The kid that had glasses as big as his head and big dumbo ears. The kid that got straight A's without even trying.

I was picked on, made fun of, pushed, punched, kicked and laughed at from the time I started kindergarten. I never pushed back, never lashed out – I just quietly performed in school and even got into the gifted kids class.

Yeah, the bullying bothered me, but I tried not to let it show. I still had friends, rode bikes, played baseball and basketball and had a typical early childhood. I had a family that loved each other and parents who saw something special in me.

Did I get upset? Of course. I even remember a time in elementary a kid brought a gun to school, because he was being picked on. I remember understanding why he did it, but the thought never crossed my mind to do it as well.

Then something changed. Something happened inside of me. I started talking back to nearly every adult, my grades started slipping and I became bitter. I lashed out at my parents. I closed off from other kids and kind of withdrew into my own world. I now know that part of it was because we all were changing. Hormones and liking girls replaced riding bikes and throwing rocks into the woods. I was that nerdy, awkward kid that none of the girls liked. I was alone.

I very easily could have spiraled out of control, but I didn't. My father was a big, strong guy that was the cool kid in school, yet he always told me I was better than him, smarter than him and could do whatever I wanted in life.

Both of my parents continued to push right and wrong in me. They encouraged me to get involved in debate and the school newspaper. With their help and encouragement I eventually regained some of that confidence and started to do better, started to become me.

I also grew up in a household that had a lot of guns. My father was a self-taught gunsmith. He taught me to respect what these weapons can do in the wrong hands and raised me to be a person that never had those kind of hands. I don't ever remember thinking about grabbing one of those guns and getting revenge on those that tormented me.
I very easily could have though, had it not been for my father teaching me that vengeance doesn't equate to justice - that my justice would come at the end of my life. The end of my father's earthly life reinforced that. He had hundreds of people show up to both his visitation/wake and his funeral. The county courthouse closed and flew its flags at half staff (he was the county's clerk of the circuit court).

My father was my hero. He loved guns. He loved his wife. He loved his daughter. He loved his son. He loved people.

The talk about gun violence following the Newtown shooting is justified, but my father would have been upset with the tone and direction. He would have said something that people have ridiculed as ignorant bumper sticker talk – that it wasn't the guns that killed, it was a sick, broken and troubled young man that did.

He would have said that the talk needs to be about parenting, bullying and mental health – all of which are lagging or downright broken in today's society.

He would have said to fix the real problems, without blaming the tools used.

He would have been right and I am living proof.

Col. Kurt Leslie, commander of the maintenance group for the Texas Air National Guard's 147th Reconnaissance Wing, was the speaker at the Tomball Rotary Club Feb. 6. Leslie talked about the unmanned aircraft that his group maintains and flies in missions around the world. The Tomball Rotary Club meets every Wednesday at noon, at the Tomball Community Center.