Opinion

“The more things change, the more they stay the same.” — Well-used term, credited to French critic Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr (1808 - 1890) Taking stock of what has silently disappeared over time, I thought about neighborhood grocery stores last week. How they’ve all but disappeared from the American way of life.

“Only memories remain, For a time, there by the sea. There was only you and me.” — Song lyrics by ‘My Morning Jacket’ Stumbling onto tidbits of history about an old friend last week was heartwarming.

A couple of weeks ago, Sul Ross State University announced that we are the recipient of a $200,000 grant from the Permian Basin Area Foundation that will help fund our new Presidential Plus Scholarship program.

HEAD OVER MEALS The season of Lent is upon us, the religious observation of Jesus’ 40 days he spent fasting in the desert. It began on what is known as Ash Wednesday (it just happened to fall on Valentine’s Day this year) and concludes just before Easter.

2023 was a great year in Alpine. This is in no small part due to the team of city council members that we elect to represent us. We entrust the city council to provide good governance to the citizens of Alpine,

“Long as I remember The rain been comin’ down.” — ‘Who’ll Stop the Rain’ song lyrics by John Fogerty. The idea early Sunday was to thread some thoughts together for this week’s column.

“Anything worth saying is worth repeating. It’s rare that we come across something worthwhile in life, and a single encounter is enough for it to stay with us.” ― Humble the Poet (Kanwer Singh), a Canadian-born YouTube personality, poet, bestselling author, and former elementary school teacher.

Each October, the University Interscholastic League uses what they call a UIL Enrollment Snapshot. This is the day when high schools that are UIL members send their enrollment numbers to the UIL. The UIL then takes all of these enrollment numbers and determines the cutoff numbers for each district classification.

Many people assume that students in FFA only raise and show livestock. While showing livestock is one-way students can get involved, FFA offers leadership, career, and scholarship opportunities, as well as life skills. My job as an agricultural science teacher is to help students find the facet of FFA that will introduce them to a skill or trade they can use after high school and in the real world of jobs and careers.

At a recent school board meeting, a portion of the conversation revolved around the STAAR test, or State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, and how students were struggling with the writing portion of this statemandated “standardized”