Everything that isn’t aluminum, steel, type 1 and 2 plastics, and OCC typically all ends up either in the landfill or in waste-to-energy. There’s no value in plastics 3-7 and mixed paper so it’s either landfill or incinerator for that stuff.
They need to do a follow up article about who owns these farms. Or who financed/invested in them. I seem to recall several current and former Texas politicians being keenly interested in these things a few years ago. It appears they invented a backdoor way to collect money from a system (ERCOT) that their countryclub buddies have complete control over.
Don’t have an account on a Russian backed white supremacist website and you don’t have to worry about that.
They have a Salena statue. And the Lexington is pretty cool, used to go with my grandfather, when he was alive, to their reunions
I think that you are legally required to include the phrase “slain Tejano superstar” when discussing Selena.
i grew up in corpus not that far from the cemetary where selena is burried. every couple of months while i was mowing the lawn someone would stop and ask me directions to the cemetary to see her grave.
one of my high school classmates had her deb party on the lexington. robert earl keen played. i had fun
I grew up in CC but have only been back once in the last 20yrs. Crush some breakfast tacos, hit up the seawall, have some gulf seafood by the causeway. Idk if Water Street still exists but could be kind of the vibe you’re looking for in a mid tier beach town.
What hotel? The coastal bend area is pretty spread out and "Corpus Christi" can mean a lot of different things depending on who you're talking to.
yeah which hotel are you staying at because there is a pretty big range of total dogshit to kind of decent. if you have two days open def go to the lexington it's cool. water street is still there and has good seafood. the executive surf club is a good lunch spot for burgers that's next to water street. 1000000% get breakfast tacos. go to either cancun or el sol.
Fun fact, I was a shallow water diver on the construction crew that rebuilt the seawall, t-heads, and l-heads 20+ years ago. As such, my opinion on CC is not as fond as the other guys in this thread.
we used a hookah air system. I can not count how many times I came up and my tender was nowhere to be found. Not fun when dealing with rebar, concrete, and work barges all around. Surprised no one died on that crew.
no, but it was not necessarily safe either. Everywhere we worked was deeper than that. The only place it was shallow was in the corner where the beach met the l-head at Cooper’s Alley.
Take a boat to San Jose island. Lotta presidential history there. Used to be owned by the richest man in America and he’d take FDR there to tell him how to run the country.
I've gone down rabbit holes on the guys who do underwater welding and such and have to stay pressurized. I wasn't assuming you were talking that level of danger but underwater shit seems to exponentiate risk
My great grand parents owned mustang island and they donated it to the state for use as a state park. I wish they had not done that
Go stupid at happy hour at Water Street Oyster Bar It's gonna sound weird but the top floor of the Best Western on the seawall has a crazy 360-ish view of the water front, great place to have a drink As mentioned, Surf Club is a great spot for casual dining, and usually has live music. Harrison's is another casual option on the water. You're just down the street from Nueces Brewing
BUS Bar, Rockits, Brewster St, House of Rock are all decent places to chill downtown. Also a bunch of newer hipster type places I haven't been to have popped up downtown
Not to brag but the nuns at a catholic diocese in Wichita let my grandfather farm 40 acres of their land and only expected an unreasonable amount of revenue from his crops
I went to Corpus Christie one time when my brother was stationed there for flight school. Had a lovely thanksgiving watching #Auburn Tigers and Cam Newton beat #Alabama Crimson Tide Thank you for your time. Hope everyone enjoys these team tags in early January
https://www.texastribune.org/2024/09/04/texas-uncertified-teachers-staff-shortages/ Didn’t approve raises despite a 32 billion dollar surplus. Republicans are purposely crippling the public school system to try to prove some type of point. Spoiler When Texas lawmakers passed legislation in 2015 that created a pathway for public schools to hire more teachers without formal classroom training, one goal was to make the profession more attractive to individuals from different paths who could offer hands-on learning to students. Some school administrators made it clear they intended to place these so-called uncertified teachers in positions where they could leverage their fields of expertise and keep them away from core areas like math, reading and special education, which would remain under the care of their most seasoned educators. That was before the COVID-19 pandemic, which left many longtime educators worried about their health and feeling underappreciated, underresourced and burnt out. They walked out of the classroom in droves, accelerating teacher shortages at a time when students were returning to in-person learning and schools needed them the most. Now some school districts are hiring uncertified teachers — some to provide instruction in core subjects — at an extraordinary pace. The Texas Tribune thanks its sponsors. Become one. In almost a decade since the law was passed, the number of uncertified teachers in the state’s public schools ballooned by 29%, according to a Texas Tribune analysis of state data. Uncertified teachers, many of whom are located in rural school districts, accounted for roughly 38% of newly hired instructors last year. Some academic experts are dubbing the state’s growing reliance on uncertified teachers a crisis. A recent Texas Tech University study highlighted that kids lose three to four months of learning when they have a new teacher who is both uncertified and lacks experience working in a public school. But with fewer people entering the profession through traditional pipelines, school districts are trying to give uncertified instructors the training and support they need to succeed in the classroom. School officials and education advocates are encouraging them to participate in teacher certification programs — and they hope lawmakers will set aside funds next year to help cover the costs. The ask comes at a time when schools are already starved for a cash infusion. Many districts entered the school year having to spend more money than they are earning, largely because of the state’s rising cost of living and a half-decade of no increases to their base-level funding. Public school leaders remain upset that last year’s legislative sessions ended with no significant base funding increases despite the state having a record $32 billion surplus. The most important Texas news, sent weekday mornings. “When you have a state where their coffers are full and local school districts where their coffers are empty, or in the process of being empty, you're going to have to have some state help to make sure that we're funding these types of programs,” said Mark Henry, who served as Cy-Fair ISD’s superintendent for more than a decade until his retirement last year. A tool to deal with teacher shortages Prior to the passage of the 2015 law, known as District of Innovation, teachers would normally enter the profession through traditional college or university routes or via alternative certification programs, which are geared toward people who have a bachelor’s degree in a different field and need classroom training. Both pathways have seen enrollment declines in recent years. The District of Innovation law was meant to give traditional public schools some of the flexibility that charter schools had long enjoyed, granting them exemptions from mandates on class sizes, school start dates and certification requirements. Before, uncertified educators in Texas could teach core classes only after obtaining waivers andpermits approved by the state education agency on a case-by-case basis. With a District of Innovation plan, districts can now create a comprehensive educational program that identifies provisions under Texas law that make it difficult for them to reach their goals and offers ways to address those challenges. The plan must receive public input and gain local school board approval before districts can proceed with any exemptions. The Texas Tribune thanks its sponsors. Become one. Many districts have sought an exemption from the state’s teacher certification requirements to help combat their teacher shortages. Texas has no statewide definition for what constitutes a teacher shortage, but one major indicator that points to a significant need for more teachers is the state’s teacher attrition rate, which tracks the percentage of educators who leave the field in any given year. Since the start of the pandemic, the attrition rate has increased from roughly 9% to 12%, according to the Texas Education Agency. A historic 13.4% of teachers left the profession between fall 2021 and fall 2022. The state commissioned a task force two years ago to look into the teacher shortage and make policy recommendations for legislators to address the problem, though not much of the group’s advice has been adopted into state law. The panel of educators and school administrators recommended that the state commit to respecting teachers’ time, improving training and increasing salaries. Texas ranks 30th in the nation for average teacher pay, $8,828 less than the national average, according to the National Education Association. The Texas Tribune thanks its sponsors. Become one. The Texas House of Representatives’ Public Education Committee held a hearing in August to ask questions and gather information on the causes for the rising number of uncertified teachers and the effect on student outcomes. Lawmakers also discussed what many public education advocates see as a growing lack of respect for teachers, which the advocates say is fueling both the teacher shortage and the rise of uncertified teachers. In recent years, Texas Republican leaders like Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick have routinely criticized public schools and instructors, accusing them of teaching children “woke” lessons on America's history of systemic racism and keeping in their libraries reading materials that make inappropriate references to gender and sexuality. All the while, Abbott has been pushing for a program that would allow parents to use tax dollars to pay for their children's private education, which public education advocates fear will plummet enrollment in public schools and ultimately result in less funding. School districts receive funding based on their average daily attendance. “No one wants to go into something where they feel like they're just going to be beat down day to day,” said David Vroonland, former superintendent of Mesquite ISD who now works as executive director of the educational research organization LEARN. “And I think the political commentary out there right now is doing a lot of harm to bringing more people into the space. Obviously, the other is we need to pay better.” Getting new teachers ready for the classroom Educators who testified at last month’s legislative hearing also called on lawmakers to direct more financial resources to help teaching candidates go through high-quality preparation programs. The Texas Tribune thanks its sponsors. Become one. One such program in Brazosport ISD helped Amanda Garza McIntyre transition from being an administrative assistant at a construction company to becoming an eighth grade science teacher at Freeport Intermediate School. McIntyre, who has a bachelor’s degree in health care administration, knew what Brazosport ISD does for children: the district helped her first-grade daughter learn how to read at grade level over the course of a semester. But starting a new career while raising her five kids seemed overwhelming, and she needed help. An aspiring teacher who took an alternative route to a role at Freeport Intermediate School, near the Gulf of Mexico, about 60 miles south of Houston, had support from the district that included a mentor for a full school year. Credit: Douglas Sweet Jr. for The Texas Tribune The Brazosport ISD program allows aspiring teachers to earn a bachelor’s degree, teacher certification or both — at no cost. In return, program participants have to work in the district for at least three years. The program includes a paid residency that pairs candidates with a teacher mentor who works with them in a classroom for a full school year. Brazosport ISD pays for the program using funds from its own budget, grants and local partnerships. Thanks to the hands-on training and guidance she received over the last year, which included working with some of the same children in her classroom now, McIntyre started as a full-time teacher earlier this month. The Texas Tribune thanks its sponsors. Become one. “I don't know that I would have fully committed to going into teaching without knowing that I had that training and that preparedness to walk into a classroom and feel confident,” McIntyre said. The task force formed to study the root causes of Texas’ teacher shortage included in its recommendations that the state fund certification programs like the one Brazosport ISD is running. McIntyre stops her students from rushing out of her class as the bell rings. After recently completing her teacher apprenticeship program, she now teaches 8th grade science.Credit: Douglas Sweet Jr. for The Texas Tribune Sam Cofer, chief operating officer of Jubilee Academies, a San Antonio-based charter school district, said it makes sense for the Legislature to help fund programs like Brazosport ISD’s but argued that certification is not the only way to increase the number of capable teachers in Texas classrooms. Jubilee Academies filled many of its teacher vacancies in the last decade with substitute instructors. The district knew it would be difficult to compete for more experienced teachers with traditional districts that could offer more competitive salaries, Cofer said, so it expanded its pool of applicants to include people with a bachelor’s degree and work experience in other fields but without teaching certification. The Texas Tribune thanks its sponsors. Become one. Since 2015, Jubilee Academies’ percentage of uncertified teachers has risen from roughly 17% to 66%. During the 2023-24 school year, 60% of new hires at all Texas charter schools were people without formal classroom training. Cofer said the district relies on instructional coaches to provide their new hires with the support they need to adapt to their new profession. He also said the district encourages certification but doesn’t require it. Teacher certification does prepare new hires “better in a lot of ways to be a teacher in a public school,” Cofer said. “But I also can't be dismissive of the skill sets that may come along with people that don't go through those programs that could also end up being effective teachers with the right amount of coaching and mentoring and guidance.” Public education advocates are hoping the state and school districts invest in quality teacher preparation, regardless of what avenue they take to get there. The Texas Tribune thanks its sponsors. Become one. “It's not serving students to put people in those positions that don't have the experience they need to be successful,” said Priscilla Aquino-Garza, a former teacher who works as senior director of programs for Educate Texas, an organization focused on increasing academic achievement and educational equity for underserved children. Shalona McCray, Longview ISD’s assistant superintendent of Human Resources and Community Relations, is grateful for the flexibility the District of Innovation law has granted schools. She said it allowed them to recruit from a more diverse talent pool as veteran educators left the profession in droves at the height of the pandemic. Since the law was passed, the district’s percentage of uncertified hires has skyrocketed from roughly 3% to 67%. Longview ISD is committed to working with teachers to get them licensed through an alternative certification program or the district’s apprenticeship program, preferably within three years, McCray said. The District of Innovation law is a stepping stone, she said, to getting more people who care about education into the profession. “I'm gonna have to rely on District of Innovation to go out and find some teachers who are not certified but qualified,” McCray said. “They have a bachelor's degree, they have a passion, and then we'll do everything we can to help them.” The Texas Tribune thanks its sponsors. Become one. Disclosure: Educate Texas and Texas Tech University have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here. Time is running out to get your TribFest tickets! Be there Sept. 5–7 for 100-plus unforgettable conversations featuring more than 300 speakers, including Stacey Abrams, Colin Allred, Liz Cheney, Richard Linklater, Nancy Pelosi, Rick Perry, Gretchen Whitmer and Glenn Youngkin. Hurry - buy your tickets today! The Texas Tribune thanks its sponsors. Become one. Correction, Sept. 5, 2024 at 12:45 p.m.: The line chart in this story previously said "uncertified new teachers" when referring to the state's data. This has been corrected to say "uncertified new hires". Wait! We need your help. You are one of our most dedicated readers, and we need your support during our Fall Member Drive. Will you take your dedication to the next level? Make a donation to The Texas Tribune to support the in-depth, independent journalism you trust. I WANT TO HELP! Information about the authors Jaden Edison PUBLIC EDUCATION REPORTER [email protected] @edisonjaden Elijah Nicholson-Messmer DATA REPORTER Learn about The Texas Tribune’s policies, including our partnership with The Trust Project to increase transparency in news. Explore related story topics Public educationSchool finance READ MORE Loading recommendations for further reading Become one. Donate View your giving history Contact us Advertise Send us a confidential tip © 2024 The Texas Tribune COMPANY INFO About Us Our Staff Jobs Who Funds Us? Strategic Plan Republishing Guidelines Code of Ethics Terms of Service Privacy Policy Corrections Feeds Newsletters Audio Video SOCIAL MEDIA Facebook Twitter YouTube Instagram LinkedIn Reddit
We’re actually thinking of taking a little vacation to CC to check out the aquarium there. Our son is huge into sea creatures and loves aquariums and we heard the one there is really good.