Riojas Elementary Principal Patricia Reyna Henry is a one-woman staff right now, but it won’t be that way for long. One of the challenges for the principal of a new campus is to find the right teachers, front office personnel and other staff members needed to operate a successful school.

“I am excited that we are ready to start hiring staff members in the near future, so we can begin building our team and developing the professional learning community that will open Riojas Elementary,” Reyna Henry said. “We will be communicating with our parents in the coming weeks with information about our school, and I can’t wait to meet our kids and their families!”

Although she is anxious to start meeting students, Reyna Henry has a strong message for her future pupils.

“The students who will be attending Riojas Elementary next year still have a job to finish at their current schools,” she said. “I expect them to continue to work hard for the rest of this year and learn as much as they can from the wonderful teachers at our other PISD schools.”

Reyna Henry knows the transition to a new school can create some anxiety for students and parents, so she plans to hold a meet the principal night once TAKS testing is over in late April to help ease students into their new surroundings.

“We will provide positive opportunities for students and their parents to visit the campus, interact with me and other staff members and get a feel for what it means to be a Riojas Patriot,” Reyna Henry said.

The Riojas Elementary School mascot is the Patriot, in honor of the school’s namesake, Staff Sgt. Jose Riojas, a World War II veteran from Pflugerville who died on July 28, 1944, while in combat in France.

Riojas was born in Pflugerville, and as part of the Civilian Conservation Corps in Pflugerville was involved in projects such as soil erosion prevention, fence-building and building and repairing bridges.

“It is important to me that our students know Mr. Riojas’s story and understand that he bravely served our country in the Army,” Reyna Henry said. “It is certainly fitting that our mascot is a patriot, because Mr. Riojas is a tremendous example of that word – a person who vigorously supports their country, and is prepared to defend it against its enemies or detractors. Mr. Riojas made the ultimate sacrifice for his country, and I have promised the Riojas family that we will honor his life and his memory through our success at Riojas Elementary School.”

Information about registration dates, meet the principal events and other RES news will be posted on the PISD Web site and the Riojas Elementary Web site.

Principal Patricia Reyna Henry can be contacted via e-mail at patricia.henry@pflugervilleisd.net.

– provided by Pflugerville ISD

posted 02/19/10

Pflag Reporter

Pflugerville police are investigating a string of burglaries that has hit businesses along West Pecan Street during the past month.

The alarm at Imaginations, 301 W. Pecan St., was tripped at 4:40 a.m. Feb. 21. A surveillance camera in the store shows the intruder move quickly through the store, knocking over some paintings and stopping only at the register to pocket $150 in bills and quarters before leaving the way he or she came in.

“He used a crowbar and broke in the side door that’s in-between me and the car wash and went straight to the cash drawer to pick out what cash was in there and walked straight out,” Imaginations owner Britta Herzog said. “He didn’t break anything. He just damaged the door and damaged some paintings I had in the back. I say it’s a he – he walked like a man.”

The surveillance video shows the burglar wearing white tennis shoes, blue jeans and a black jacket and Herzog said he was probably wearing latex gloves. She said the police reviewed the tape and checked the store for fingerprints.

Police are not releasing any details of the case due to the pending investigation.

A quarter-mile down the road motion sensors activated the alarm at Shamrock Cycles 20 minutes after the break-in at Imaginations.

“[PPD] said they think the guy was on foot and basically robbed [Herzog], took some cash and then walked over here and robbed me. He demolished the front door to get in,” Shamrock owner Nick Ashcraft said. “First time I’ve ever left cash overnight – I’ve been in Austin five years and moved here January 1, first time I’ve ever left cash. The cash was wrapped inside of a check a customer had written me. He [the burglar] was kind enough to leave the check. Sitting on top of the cash and the check was a pistol, and he was kind enough to leave the pistol for me also and just took the $302 cash and apparently went out the front door.”

A week prior to the Feb. 21 break-ins, a similar incident occurred at Jim’s Food Mart on West Pecan, one block from Ashcraft’s shop.

“They just broke the backdoor and came in and got the cigarettes and that’s it. They took out like two cartons of cigarettes,” said storeowner Tido Dang. “I don’t keep money in the store.”

Dang’s store has an alarm, though during the break in it was deactivated. Since the incident, Dang has reactivated the alarm and installed a new camera to monitor his store’s blind spots.

“The way I set up the cameras was only in the front, and he came around the back,” Dang said. “Every night I turn the camera direct to the door. Before I only turned the camera to the front door, not the back door. Now I turn the cameras to both.”

Herzog and Ashcraft have also augmented their security measures.

“I’m going to bolt that back door shut for sure with something stronger than a deadbolt. And I thought about boarding it completely up because I don’t use it,” Herzog said. “Secondly I’m going to get another camera, and thirdly – and this is something I wanted to get out to people – if you have an alarm system, have it call the police department first, don’t call you first. They waster probably five minutes talking to me in dead sleep when they could have been here.”

Ashcraft has ordered four security cameras that will record to computer and to a satellite database. He also echoed Herzog’s advice about in-store security systems.

“My alarm had gone off and we were asleep, so we kind of screwed up because the cops would have had the guy – the cops were right down the road.” Ashcraft said. “It never dawned on me on the ride over here, which is a 15 minute drive, to call PD and have them get over here. And the alarm company didn’t, so when I got over here I grabbed the handle of the front door and opened the front door and realized – wait a minute. I grabbed the flashlight and made sure nobody was still in here through the windows of the shop door. And then I called PD and I tell you literally in 45 seconds there were at least 9 cop cars, because they were just right down at HER place. Since then I called the alarm company and said don’t ever call me first, you call the cops first. If they would have called the cops first, or if we had been coherent enough to say get the cops there, they most likely would have got the guy.”

Pflag Reporter

Filing closed Monday for candidates seeking a seat on the Pflugerville ISD Board of Trustees. Incumbent board members Carol Fletcher and Vernagene Mott filed for re-election to seats 5 and 4, respectively. Neither Mott nor board president Fletch drew opposition in their races and will thus begin new three-year terms with the district.

Former board secretary Paul King is not seeking re-election for seat 3, which he’s held since 2001.

Four candidates have filed for the vacant seat on the board: Mario M. Acosta, Ginny German, Chester Warren Hoster and Rob Reyes. This issue marks the beginning of the Pflag’s coverage of those four candidates with profiles on the first two candidates to file, Mario Acosta and Chester Hoster.

Mario Acosta

Acosta is a familiar face in PISD. At the end of December 2009 he resigned as principal at Parmer Lane Elementary School after more than a decade with PISD to assume a position as a program specialist with the Texas Education Agency.

“During my professional life I have always been focused on my current responsibilities to my job, and that kept me pretty busy, so I never had any time for public serving. So that was one of my goals as I retired, to look at public service, and this is just the natural avenue for me, since my background is education,” Acosta said. “I feel like I can provide some good service to PISD because I really appreciate what they’re doing. The time that I worked for them I really enjoyed it and I hope that consistency continues.”

Acosta grew up in Marfa and later attended Sul Ross State University in Alpine. He said he knew from a young age that he wanted to work in education.

“I wanted to coach and teach and I needed 130 hours to get that classification and when I graduated I had exactly 130 hours, so I was really focused on what I wanted to do,” Acosta said.

Acosta coached and taught in Marfa for 12 years, during which time he said he experienced schools of all sizes and levels of education.

He then continued his education with a master’s degree in administration from what was then Southwest Texas State in University in San Marcus, followed by a superintendent certification from Sul Ross State.

“I wanted to again experience all the levels of educations. By that I mean I wanted to see how the elementary school operated, the middle schools, high school. Of course I already had high school experience. And I did that. I also experienced being an assistant principal, and a principal and a superintendent,” Acosta said.

If elected to the board of trustees, Acosta said he wants to continue to push the installment of systemic programs in the district.

“An example of that is the common curriculum… The students are going to get the same education and that also goes to the vertical alignment of the curriculum and the levels that you attend, you will be getting that same curriculum. I think the more systems we have in place, the more apt the district is to learn them and just plug personnel in as teachers…allowing transition and consistency throughout the district,” he said. “I think that once that’s in place there is less of a chance for gaps in the curriculum and gaps in the supervision of the students that lets them fall through the cracks.”

Acosta said he is impressed with the board and the direction it has given PISD in recent years.

“I like the consistency of the current board. The board has been in place for a few years and they’re working very well together, so I think my role would be to keep that going and keep the consistency,” he said.

Chester Hoster

Hoster is a computer scientist for KLA-Tencor who has worked on the technology portions of Texas School Performance Reviews for North Forest ISD, Donna ISD and Kerrville ISD with the state comptroller’s office.

Hoster said public service is an important part of his life and now that his 4-year-old son is in a PISD program, serving on the board of trustees is a way for him to invest in his community and his family.

“I have one son that’s in … a program that we got him involved in [Preschool Program for Children with Disabilities because he had some speech problems early on, and that’s largely related to the hearing issues that he had during early childhood. I’ve got another son who’s about 20 months now and he’ll be in the program in a couple of years as well,” Hoster said. “Obviously with two young kids in the program and with a background from a family perspective in education in Texas, I felt like my services at the school board level would be an appropriate choice.

Hoster received a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Texas State University and finished his master’s at the Univeristy of Texas last December.

“My wife and I have been discussing our ability to give back to the community over the last couple of years. Obviously with two young children and during grad school the opportunities that I had were very limited,” Hoster said. “But now that I’ve graduated from college the second time around, I feel like I have substantially more time that I can dedicate to community service.

Hoster describes himself as fiscally conservative and says he applauds the board for their budget management over the last decade.

“We’ve been through some pretty tough economic times, especially since the change in the way school districts are funded and where Pflugerville ISD ended up in that equation. So I feel like that direction is already being served by the existing school board, and I feel like I would like to continue in their existing financial conservancy,” he said, referencing the 2006 changes to the state funding formula that shifted the district’s funding from state revenues to local property tax revenue.

Another issue that Hoster said is of personal interest to him is raising awareness for the district’s special education programs.

“Our son has already been wonderfully served in the year that he’s been in Pflugerville ISD’s program, and I feel like the way we got to that program was kid of haphazard. We were connected by a doctor that we had with Easter Seals for early childhood intervention between 18 months and 3 (years),” he said. “We got him in with his teacher over at Rowe Lane and he’s made so much progress in the last year. But one thing that I’m concerned about is that there is a lot of parents out there that may not have gotten directed to Easter Seals and may not have even had any awareness of this type of program or that such things were available.

“I just hate to think what would have happened if we had waited until our child got to kindergarten age and sent him off to school. He would have been so far behind and that opportunity would have been missed to get him caught up.”

Hoster said his background in computer science has built strong problem-solving skills that would benefit him on the board. He also has a background in project management and budgetary resource allocation.

“Through my work in the technology industry I have a strong background in information technology from a hardware management perspective, network management, that sort of thing. I’ve also got a background in software development. So I think I would bring a very strong technological role when it comes to the board addressing issues for the district moving forward with new technologies and how to address existing technology policy. So certainly from my work history that’s the strongest asset I would bring.” Hoster said.

As the region recovers from economic downturn, Hoster said allocation of funding will be one of the more important responsibilities facing the board, and one of the most difficult.

“That’s really where we’ve got a lot of problems these days, both because money is tight all over and because the state funding formulas are not necessarily working out in our favor at present,” he said. “We have to do the best we can with the resources that we’ve got. It doesn’t do us any good to whine about it. We just have to be really, really carefully about what we do with our dollars.

jrincon@pflugervillepflag.com

The only time anyone ever described me as having “hustle” was when I played junior varsity basketball. Completely lacking actual athletic talent, I devoted myself to playing hard, scrappy defense.

HBO’s new half-hour series “How To Make It In America” is all about hustle. It’s about the desire to make an impact, to do something, anything, significant with yourself and, ideally, make a financial killing at the same time. Young New Yorkers Ben and Cam don’t have a specific dream they’re trying to achieve. Achievement itself is the dream.

While his father laments that his son doesn’t have a job with health insurance, Ben can’t be bothered with pedestrian details such as potential medical expenses. Ben’s big ideas range from peddling artfully decorated skateboard decks from a grocery cart to starting a denim line after purchasing reams of high quality denim at bargain basement prices.

When someone who actually works in the fashion industry questions if the guys even have so much as a business plan, Ben and Cam have to face that they’re woefully unprepared for this undertaking. Even in the face of their undeniable coming failure, the guys press on. Stupidity? Greed? Insanity? Or the kind of risk-taking act of courage from which great success springs forth? Maybe a little of each. Three episodes in and the guys haven’t quite made it yet, but it’s interesting to watch them try.

Initially, I was put off by the lack of a specific dream or vision other than a desire to make money any way they can. But I have to give them credit for trying to make it work. They disregard the naysayers who tell them to give up on the jeans and track down leads to a local pattern maker to produce a prototype. When they don’t have the money to pay for the prototype, Cam works a scheme to unload the aforementioned skateboard decks to rich Park Avenue kids instead of having to use Ben’s rent money (which was a serious consideration).

While viewers may not have a rooting interest in the main characters themselves, you’ve got to respect their hustle.

At the other end of the success spectrum, HBO gives us “The Ricky Gervais Show.” Having already starred in HBO’s “Extras” and his own stand up specials (not to mention a little program called “The Office”), Gervais has made a career and fortune by exploiting the humor in all things awkward. With “The Ricky Gervais Show” he dispenses with the story lines and gives us “pointless conversations” with writing partner Stephen Merchant and fellow funny man and radio producer Karl Pilkington. The men discuss all manner of topics ranging from news headlines to e-mails from fans.

The episodes were originally podcasts that have now been set to animation for the purposes of television.

Their conversations are what I imagine would take place should Ricky come over to my house for dinner, though I’m not as funny as either of his costars. When you hear a news story about a team of midget wrestlers wiped out by a lion during a match, immediately you wonder how on Earth did that happen? What were the promoters thinking? What were the midgets thinking? These are the things the trio riff on. It’s amusing: the kind of stuff you can listen to and chuckle at, if not particularly ground breaking.

Considering HBO’s 10-part World War II miniseries “The Pacific” is set to start this month, it’s good to enjoy some lighter fare before bullets and the bomb.

“How To Make It In America” airs each Sunday at 9 p.m. and “The Ricky Gervais Show” airs each Friday at 8 p.m.

1. Westlake 10-2-1

2. Pflugerville 7-3-4

3. Anderson 6-3-3

4. Bowie 5-3-5

5. Akins 6-7-0

6. Connally 3-5-4

7. Bastrop 2-9-2

8. Austin 2-9-2

Girls

1. Westlake 9-0-3

2. Bowie 8-1-2

3. Austin 6-2-4

4. Bastrop 7-3-3

5. Anderson 3-6-3

6. Pflugerville 4-6-1

7. Connally 1-10-0

8. Akins 1-11-0

The Lady Bears also got an outstanding pitching performance from Jordan Mundine, who struck out nine Lady Cougar batters on the night and managed to keep them in check for most of the night.

In the second inning both teams managed to get runners on second base with one out. However, both pitchers were able to strike out the next two batters to retire the side without giving up any runs.

In the bottom of the fourth, Connally’s Kris Parr reached first base after the first baseman dropped the throw from shortstop. Kara Babola then reached base on a walk. Pierce then dropped a perfect bunt to load the bases. Following a strikeout, Jackie Reyes singled to right field scoring Parr and Babola to give the Lady Cougars their only two runs of the night.

In the top of the sixth inning, the Lady Bears loaded the bases with no outs following a couple of Lady Cougars fielding miscues. However the Lady Bears’ Taylor Calliham flew out to Babola at shortstop who then touched third base for a double play, effectively killing the Lady Bears’ best scoring opportunity of the night.

The Lady Cougars will participate in the Bowie tournament starting Thursday.

Coming into the game the Hawks needed a win over the Cavaliers to have a shot at the district title. Lake Travis, on the other hand, only needed a tie with Hendrickson to clinch. In the end the Cavaliers’ defense proved no match for the Hawks electric offense which scored three times in the second half to run away with the win.

Lake Travis jumped out to an early lead when Stephen Pyle scored a goal just three minutes into the game.

Hendrickson responded when Henry Castellanos launched a long-range bomb over the leaping Cavalier keeper in the 20th minute.

Two minutes later Castellanos faked the long-range shot, beat a Lake Travis defender and cut to the middle of the field, where he fired another rocket from the top of the box, which knuckled past the diving Cavalier keeper.

Both teams traded chances the rest of the half, until with 30 seconds left Hawk sophomore goal keeper Jesus Guzman tipped a dipping shot from Pyle off the crossbar and out for a corner kick to preserve the 2-1 halftime lead.

The second half started with two clinical finishes from Gabe Williams, within the first five minutes. With the score 4-1 Hendrickson established dominance of the midfield, and controlled the game. Williams finished the scoring five minutes before the end of the match, completing his hat trick.

Hendrickson can secure their third undisputed district championship in four years with a win over Hutto on Friday. The match starts at 7:45 p.m. on the pitch at Hutto High.

Defense was the name of the game during he first half as both teams were held scoreless. While neither team was able to find the back of the net, Bowie did manage more shots on goal and was able to keep most of the action in Pflugerville’s end of the field. Eventually Pflugerville responded with some attacking possessions of its own which provided the Panthers defense a much needed break and also shifted the pressure to the Bowie defense.

Fourteen minutes into the second half it looked as if the game may have to be decided by a shootout as the game remained scoreless.

Bowie made sure that would not be the case however when Justin Bailey scored the first goal of the night to put Bowie up 1-0 with 25:52 left to play in the game.

The Panthers responded with the game-tying goal just over a minute later when Kabutey Ebeheakey’s header got past the Bowie keeper to pull the Panthers even at 1-1 with 24:42 remaining in the game.

Gabe Dunham scored Pflugerville’s next goal just 10 seconds later when he ran past two Bowie defenders, including the goalie) to put the Panthers up 2-1. Bowie’s keeper, Thomas Copaly, made a bad decision when he decided to come out after the ball. Dunham had position on the one Bowie defender and once Copaly came out it was just a matter of slipping the shot past the keeper into an open net.

Pflugerville got an insurance goal late in the game when Taji Lewis also scored with a head shot that put the Panthers up 3-1 with 6:08 left in the contest. The goal put the game out of reach for Bowie and secured a victory for the Panthers.

Pflugerville improves to 7-3-3 in district with the win. Bowie falls to 5-3-5. The Panthers square off with Connally at Cougar Stadium on Friday at 7:45 p.m.

Bowie got on the board first, and wasted little time in doing so, when they scored just a minute into the contest. Bowie’s score came courtesy of a chip shot by Blake Luttrell that went over and just beyond the reach of the Connally goalie.

Connally’s offense meanwhile was non-existent during the first half. Aside from two shots that went wide right off the foot of Jeff Anumu, the Cougars played back and on their heels much of the half which meant most of the action took place on their half of the field. Bowie kept the pressure on during the first half and came close to extending their lead with a shot that ricocheted off the cross bar with just seven minutes remaining in the half.

Fortunate to only be down by one goal, the Cougars came out of halftime with a vengeance. Their offense and defense played much more aggressive as they kept constant pressure on Bowie and maintained fresh legs with frequent substitutions. The strategy paid off as Connally tied the game just 1:16 into the second half when team captain Bryan Gavarrete scored from 30 yards out on a free kick. Gavarrete’s shot whizzed by Bowie’s goalie, finding the back of the net to knot the score at 1-1.

The remainder of the game saw each team take shots on goal but neither could convert the few opportunities they had which led to a tie at the end of regulation.

In the shootout Bowie’s first two shooters, Luttrell and Travis Golden both came up empty on their shots. This opened the door for the Cougars and they took advantage of the opportunity as Kevin Del Aguila and Gavarrete both scored to give Connally a 2-0 lead in the shootout. Finding themselves down with only three attempts left, the pressure was on for Bowie’s next player, Josh Specht, to score. However once again that was not to be the case as Bowie again came away without a goal. The Cougars’ William Soto had the chance to end the game with Connally’s third shot, but he too missed which gave Bowie a chance to at least tie the shootout. Eduardo Alexander was the fourth player up for Bowie and all the pressure was on him as he had to make his shot in order to keep Bowie’s slim chances at victory alive. Alexander missed his shot which sealed the victory for the Cougars.