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City Councilman Meadows dies

Gladewater City Councilman Charles F. Meadows, 58, died Friday morning of an apparent heart attack.

Meadows, a lifelong Gladewater resident, was voted onto the council in May 2009 and has served the community in several positions including as a deacon of First Baptist Church, a member of the Gladewater Chamber of Commerce, a Gusher Days Director and a director of the Gladewater Museum.

Charles Meadows

“I believe that our fair city with its ‘small town’ atmosphere has the potential to be one of the best small towns in Texas,” Meadows said before the 2009 City Council election, “and I will do everything that I can to make that happen.”

According to Gladewater Police Chief Farrell Alexander, an employee at Gladewater National Bank on Highway 80 and Shell Camp Road saw Meadows unconscious in his car near the bank’s drive-through and called for help. Emergency personnel responded, performed CPR and transported the city councilman to Good Shepherd Medical Center in Longview, where he was pronounced dead.

A Gladewater High School graduate, Meadows attended Kilgore College and graduated from Tyler Real Estate College. He was Marketing Manager for Stanley Industrial Tires in Gladewater.

Meadows led the invocation at Thursday night’s council meeting. Heading into the 2009 election, he underscored his desire to “listen to the citizens of Gladewater and get their input on critical issues and make decisions that will benefit the city as a whole. I will weigh all sides of an issue before making a decision and vote for what is right.”

City Councilman Scott Owens said he and Meadows have been close for years – attending the same church, singing in the choir, working on the council this past year – and was overcome to think of the loss to the community and to Meadows’ wife, Lynda, his family and friends.

He was a guy with great morals and great integrity,” Owens said Friday. “It’s a loss for the city, but for those who know him personally, it’s a bigger loss.”

Superintendents discuss career courses at annual meeting

Superintendents, principals, counselors and other representatives of 17 East Texas school districts gathered in the Union Grove High School library Tuesday for the annual meeting of the Piney East Perkins Consortium. The group discussed ways they can improve on, and expand, career and technical courses for the students in their respective districts.

“We come together each year to figure out the best way to serve the students of out districts in career and tech,” said UGISD Superintendent Brian Gray.

UGISD serves as the fiscal agent for the consortium, which pools state funds from the 17, represented districts to provide a wider range of career courses for the students.

State Senator Kevin Eltife and State Representative Bryan Hughes listen to UGISD Superintendent Brian Gray explain the benefits of the Career and Technical Education courses the district teaches and how the other 17 PEPC school districts can implement these and other programs into their high school curriculum.

“We want to educate all of our kids and send them to college. We want them to get four-year degrees and be successful, professional people. In an ideal world, that’s the thing that we want. But in the real world, less than 20 percent of our graduating kids are going to get a four-year degree,” Gray continued. “Tests are important. Math and science are important. Don’t get me wrong. But also, if we don’t serve those kids that will go into the workforce when they get out of high school, we are doing them a disservice and we are doing the state a disservice.”

The participants listened to presentations from different school districts on how they are implementing new career programs in their school and how the other district can get involved as well.

Gray highlighted several programs currently offered by UGISD, which focus in metal fabrication and welding, media design, screen printing and embroidery, nursing and others. He said in the future the high school hopes to include more courses such as robotics.

Adrian Knight, assistant principal for New Diana High School, said the biggest benefit of the new CTE courses is students graduate with industry certifications in a specific skill set, which enables them to go to work directly from high school.

Knight said NDISD plans to join a rocketry program started by a high school in Fredericksburg. He explained how other school districts can join as well.

The presenters all echoed a common point, students should still go for a secondary degree, but these skill certifications can provide the students with a good paying job directly after high school that can help them pay for a four-year degree program.

State Senator Kevin Eltife and State Representative Bryan Hughes attended Tuesdays meeting in hopes to gain more insight into the CTE program and how the consortium is managing its resources.

“It’s amazing what they are doing with limited resources,” Eltife said. “I think it’s what so many of our students need. It’s really incredible.”

Hughes said, “It’s really exciting to see all the opportunities that they’re putting for our students.”

Both Eltife and Hughes said they will do what they can to try and get additional funding for this type of program.

“These 17 school districts are doing an incredible thing for these students with very limited resources and they are to be commended,” Eltife said. “And the tax payers should appreciate what they’re doing, working together to save money. So everybody’s winning. The tax payers are winning, the students are winning and the state’s winning. We should do more of it and the state should help them as much as we can.”

Likewise, Hughes said, “We want to put our educational dollars where they’re going to be most beneficial to our students. Obviously, this has got to be one of those areas. This is really making a difference. This is really preparing our students to go out and be more productive Texans. This is somewhere we ought to be putting our money.”

The school districts participating in the PEPC include: Alba-Golden, Quitman, Winnsboro, Tatum, Waskom, Harmony, Hawkins, Troup, Beckville, White Oak, Union Hill, New Diana, Ore City, Union Grove, Gary, Big Sandy and Harleton.

GISD rejects 1st stadium bid

The Gladewater ISD school board voted not to accept the first bid received for the Old Bear Stadium property during Monday night’s regular meeting.

Superintendent Dr. J.P. Richardson said the district had four people pick up bids packets for the property, which has been on the market since mid-December. So far, only one bid was returned, offering the school district $15,424 for the land. Richardson said the land was appraised at $42,000 and he did not recommend the board accept the bid.

In other business, the school board approved an “interlocal agreement” with Upshur County regarding the care of roads within the boundaries of GISD. Richardson said many school districts partner with the counties to provide equipment and funding to maintain roads within district boundaries.

The board also approved a revision of a policy referring to the admittance of transfer students. The previous policy required the superintendent to consider availability of space and instructional staff and the student’s disciplinary history and attendance records before a student can be admitted as a transfer from another district.

The revised policy will also require the superintendent to review a student’s academic records before they can be admitted.

ichardson said the new policy will bring higher quality transfer students to the district by requiring them to meet certain standards before being admitted. Richardson also proposed waiving the $300 fee for new transfer students in an effort to encourage more parents to bring their children into the district. He said the school district receives funding based on how many students are enrolled and removing the fee would encourage more student transfers.

Finally, the school board also approved changes to the 2010-11 student hand book. The new hand book says students only need one physical education unit to graduate.

Upshur "emergency" ballots stir dispute

GILMER – Upshur County Clerk Peggy LaGrone, alleging that the county's Republican Party chairwoman "dropped the ball" on providing ballots to members of the military, said the clerk's office printed and mailed "emergency ballots" to them Feb. 9 for the March 2 major party primaries.

Republican Party of Upshur County Chairwoman Brenda Patterson denied the accusation, saying her fellow Republican Ms. LaGrone never contacted the party about the situation. If she had, Ms. Patterson said, "I could have printed her emergency ballots."

Ms. LaGrone told The Mirror that complaints had been made to Washington officials that "the (Upshur) Republicans were holding up the process" of mailing ballots to military members. The clerk said she believed their families brought the complaints.

She also said her office received consent from the Texas Secretary of State's office to mail the ballots, which were printed after discussions with that agency.
Ms. LaGrone said she got 30-35 of the ballots to the Gilmer post office before 3 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 9, but was unsure how many were Republican as opposed to Democratic.

"Had the County Clerk's office done this election...these ballots would have been mailed out by January 20," Ms. LaGrone contended. (County commissioners recently approved having a computer firm, Hart Intercivic, print ballots and program election machinery).

Answering Mrs. LaGrone's accusation on Feb. 9, Mrs. Patterson said, "The Republican Party did not drop the ball." Saying she was unaware the clerk's office had printed the ballots until contacted by a representative of this newspaper, Mrs. Patterson added, "We can't print the (emergency) ballots if the County Clerk does not tell us she needs them."

Mrs. Patterson also said that if the county's Democratic Party had sent its information for its ballot printing before Feb. 1, the delay in mailing wouldn't have happened.

In turn, Upshur County Democratic Party Chairman Joe W. Newsom Jr. told The Mirror on Monday, "I don't think I did anything wrong."

He said that when he approved proofing his primary's ballots, Mrs. Patterson had not approved hers...

...Continued in this week's edition of The Gladewater Mirror.