The Albany News (Albany, Tex.), Vol. 124, No. 12, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 19, 1999 Page: 2 of 20
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Page 2
The Albany News
Thursday, August 19,1999
' A
am
■■
■H
Making an impact
Several girls On the sidelines of the IMPACT
Rally activities last week (top photo) cool off
. in the spray of a firehose provided to keep the
participants from getting too hot. AHS junior
Melissa Bartee accepts the candy bar "tro-
phy" for her tieam orj the opening day of the
activities last Wednesday. Several other stu-
dents (bottom photo) get in on the just-for-
fun competition. Although attendance at the
afternoon events was lower than expected
because of school activities starting, good
crowds came to the evening praise and
worship services. [Staff photo]
1
$
Something He Really
Needs for School!!
Don't trust your children's
future to chance. Come by
the bank today and together
we can build a plan for their
future education.
FIRST
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BANK
Aibany/Breckenridge
MtMBfK FDIC '
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is**«
Exes buy headstone for classmate
A group of about 30 Albany
High School ex-students and
their families gathered in the
local cemetery on Sunday morn-
ing, July 25 to unveil and dedi-
cate a monument purchased by
members of the Class of 1974 in
memory of a classmate who
drowned in the 1978 flood.
There were nine fatalities in
the devastating flood, one of
whom was Brenda Wright of the
Class of 1974. Wright's sister
and a niece were also caught in
the flood waters, and the family
was not financially able to pur-
chase headstones for all three
victims.
Five years ago, when class
members met for their 20th re-
union, they made their now tra-
ditional trek to the cemetery to
remember several deceased
classmates, including Wright,
Jay Wood, Ben Riley, Dal Brush
and Allen Hebel. Wright's grave
Was marked only with the metal
foot marker provided by the fu-
neral home. ,
Glen Bartee recalls that they
discussed collecting money to
buy a marker at that time, but
as with many good intentions,
the subject did not come up again
until February 1999 when a
group of Albany exes met to plan
the multi-year reunion that took
place last month.
"Mike Parsons decided that
21 years was long enough for the
grave to go without a marker
and he started making plans to
take care of it," said Bartee.
Parsons enlisted the help of
Bartee's wife, Shelly, who inci-
dentally is not an AHS gradu-
ate. She worked with Alma
Neese of Godfrey-Neese Funeral
•>ll WWW!
Glen Bartee and David Bales, both of the Class of 1974, look
over the monument purchased for Brenda Wright's grave.
' j
to the Albany Cemetery for a
brief Sunday morning service '
every time they meet. This year,
according to tradition, they
walked to their five classmates'
graves, stopping at each site for
a prayer and informal eulogies.
At Wright's grave; the last:
stop, they unveiled the new head-
stone. A poem was read and sev-:
eral of those present told differ-
ent things they remembered
about Brenda Wright.
The new marker on a 21-year- •
old grave Will remain as a per- :
manent tribute to an Albany
native who lost her life in
Albany's most costly natural di- •
saster. ' j
The marker reads, "Brendia j
Faye Wright - Jan. 3, 1955 toj
Aug. 3,1978. Your smile blessed
us all then and your love of life
inspires each of us now. AHS
Class of 1974." ;
Home to obtain the stone at the
best possible cost.
While the committee was re-
searching birth and death dates,
they discovered that Wright, who
had gone by "Brenda" all the
way through school, was actu-
ally named "Brendia" on her
birth certificate.
Parsons was quick not to take
any credit for the success of the
project, stating that several class
members helped Bartee in bring-
ing the initial plans to reality.
"We planned a couple of little
fundraisers to help pay for the
headstone, and we really ex-
pected it to take more than one
reunion," said Parsons. "Every
class member contributed. We've,
paid for the marker and we have
enough left to plant a tree or
maybe put in curbing."
Since their 10th reunion in
. 1984, class members have gone
Exemplary status
(Cont. from pg'. 1J
ethic classification of students
and economically disadvantaged
students, passing the reading,
writing and math portions of the
test.
To receive recognized status,
the requirements drop to 80 per-
cent passing.
The. only score that was not
above 90 percent passing was
the economically disadvantaged
Subgroup in the writing test,
which scored 87.5 percent pass-
ing. When averaged with the
results of both campuses, the
district passing percent for that
subgroup Was 89.4 percent —
only otie-tenth of a point away
from exemplary status.
As a whole, 95.3 percent of all
students taking the test at the
secondary level passed the writ-
ing portion of the test, it was
only in one stibgruup that the 90
percent threshold was missed.
"What is really important is
that we improved across the
board from two to 24 percentage
points including our special edu-
cation population. We wish that
the high school and district
would have been ranked exem-
plary again this year because
they deserved it, but the bottom
line is we are doing a great job of
preparing students and the num-
bers back it up."
The' secondary campus re-
ported an attendance rate of 95.8
percent, while the grade school
was 96.4 percent,
"Receiving these high marks
as a school district is a commu-
. nity-wide effort," said the su-
perintendent. "Without paren-:
tal support none of this woujdj
happen, and without great
teachers it could not have hap-i
pened, but when you get down to,
it this is a measure of the heart)
of our students and their cour-i
age. It is a hard test and I'm sure!
they are sick of even hearing;
about it, but they continue to;
improve each year." j
The district and high school
campus have been exemplary
three out of the five-years since
the accountability system be-
gan. The grade school has been
exemplary all five years. j
Individual schools can eaiir
ratings of exemplary, recog-
nized, academically accept-
able, academically unaccept-
able or unacceptable^
(Cont. from pg. f)
about the matter.
Tax Estimates
The directors reviewed figures
supplied by Bruce Bailey of the
Shackelford County Appraisal
District showing the total tax-
able value in the hospital dis-
trict as $144,921,095, a drop of
$10.5 million from last year's
values.
It would take a tax rate of
27.13 cents per $100 valuation
to generate the same amount of
income as did last year's rate of
25.06 cents.
Ayers explained that the tax
laws have changed recently, al-
lowing entities that levy less
than $500,000 to raise their rates
up to the rollback rate without
holding public hearings or pub-
lishing notices.
The finance committee, made
up of AyerS, Steve George and
Alma Neese, will meet next week
to work on the budget, then bring
their recommendations to the
board at a special meeting prior
to September 9.
1 St
Carriage &
h
jfor all pour llornl neebsf
' ' i
Fresh & Silk Designs
Also Gifts
508 Hwy. 6 North
Moran, TX 76464
915-945-3279 • 915-945-DASY
Monday-Friday 9:30 - 5:30
Saturday 9:30 - 2:00 — Sunday Closed
No delivery charge on funeral pieces to Albany, Moran & Cisco
EMS Discussion
Steven Hobbs, local EMS su-
pervisor, told board members
that the "second out" unit had
recently participated in a disas^
ter exercise in Abilene.
lie also gave the directors a
copy of an ordinance that the
TransMed ambulance service is
' asking that counties adopt, set-
ting minimum requirements
within the county that all ambu-
lance services have to meet.
The directors decided to have
their district's legal counsel look
over the ordinance and recom-
mend how it should be handled.
Power Team
(Cont. from pg. 1)
"Love offerings" will be taken
during the demonstrations to
help defray expenses.
The Power Team was founded
20 years ago by John Jacobs,
who was a champion weight
lifter as a teenager. The team
has made more than 10,000 ap-
pearances over the last two de-
cades.
In addition to worldwide per-
sonal appearance ministries con-
ducted by several teams made
up from the 19 team members,
the Power Team also has a
weekly television show that ^
seen in 10 countries.
The strongmen perform feats
of strength such as breaking out
of two pairs of steel handcuffs,
breaking through concrete
blocks and solid blocks of ice,
and breaking baseball bats over
their necks.
The exhibitions of power,
strength and speed are intended
to emphasis the strength that
everyone can find in a belief in
Jesus Christ.
For more information, call the
First Baptist Church office at
762-2019,
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Lucas, Donnie A. The Albany News (Albany, Tex.), Vol. 124, No. 12, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 19, 1999, newspaper, August 19, 1999; Albany, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth413238/m1/2/?q=%22%22~1: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting The Old Jail Art Center.