Originally published on Mon April 22, 2013 4:15 pm
Only a railroad separated West’s intermediate school from the fertilizer plant that exploded last week. The blast destroyed that school -- and left three out of four West ISD campuses unusable. But many West students are going to finish the school year, just not in West.
Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, said SB 645 will add a redeemable 5 cents on every beverage bottle sold in Texas - glass, aluminum or plastic. If the bill passes, Texas would join 10 other states who have such a program.
The Toyota USA Foundation announced it will contribute $100,000 to the annual CORE4 STEM Expo for students studying science, technology, engineering, and math.
toyota USA National Vice-President Pat Pineda said by 2018, 1.2 million STEM jobs will go unfilled.
"That’s because we don’t have enough people that have the requisite skills, and I think unfortunately we all know that this is a particularly acute problem in the Latino community," Pineda said.
State environmental group are calling for a thorough investigation of the fertilizer plant in the town of West following the fire and explosion that killed 14 people and injured about 200.
Luke Metzger, the executive director for Environment Texas, said there were too many glaring defects at the West fertilizer plant for someone not to notice.
As the Northside Independent School District ends its coordinated kindergarten registration, the district is expected to hit record enrollment for five year olds and finally top more than 100,000 students beginning next year.
When schools starts this fall the district will have 101,600 students.
For the past week the district has been encouraging parents to enroll their five year olds for the 2013-14 school year. Northside expects to enroll a record 7,700 kindergartners, which spokesman Pascual Gonzalez said it is a barometer for future years.