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The Livingston school board entered into a contract with a staffing company for substitute teachers, heard an update on a junior high afterschool program and approved a plan for funds in the monthly gathering for October.

Fred Bentsen with management and staffing company Education Support Services ESS presented a plan to take over substitute teacher operations for the district. The company provides solutions to education staffing and currently offers the service to Denton, East Central, and Lufkin ISDs among their 23 in Texas. They currently serve over 800 districts in 30 states, which support over 4 million students daily.  

As part of the service, they pay their employees weekly and give more support to substitutes by offering affordable health insurance and handle the recruiting process, background checks, training, liability, and payroll services for districts.  The Livingston board approved a contract with ESS, scheduled through June 2022.F. Sunnie Frazier, junior high campus coordinator of the Boys and Girls Club afterschool program, gave a progress report to the board. The afterschool program serves primarily 35 sixth-grade students at Livingston Junior High from 3-6 p.m., Monday through Friday. 

The program has a capacity of 150 students, and they are beginning to reach out to parents of seventh graders about joining. The program targets “bubble” students who are one standard deviation above or below the STAAR test passing rate. They began with sixth graders, so that they may benefit from attending the program all three years while enrolled at the junior high. 

The afterschool program helps students focus on fine-tuning academic skills. Recently, they have worked on dictionary skills and journaling to improve creative writing. Sixth grade world history teachers are collaborating with the afterschool program and a “traveling around the world” activity, where students have their own “passports” and receive stamps when successfully completing tasks. The goal is to visit Asian countries in the fall term and European countries in the spring, coinciding with the sixth-grade world history curriculum. 

Students also participated in a cooking activity Friday as they completed their segment on Germany by making German Pfeffernüsse cookies. Sixth grade math teachers have applauded the recent achievements by students engaging in afterschool activities.  The afterschool staff incorporated math facts in all daily activities and found that students were making improvements in their classroom          performance.  Students engage in enrichment activities every day, which include soccer and basketball. The afterschool program is funded through a five-year grant from Texas Education Agency, but Frazier emphasized, “The program doesn’t have to end in five years.  If additional funding can be found, the program can continue. The Texas Education Agency measures factors of student improvement by evaluating ELA test scores and attendance.”  

The goal for the spring semester is to double the enrollment to 60 students taking advantage of the program. During the summer, the Boys and Girls Club will allow attendance of 150 students that continues for six weeks, from late June through July, 8 a.m.-3 p.m., Monday through Friday. In addition to academic support, the summer program also includes field trips and sports clinics.

LISD Chief Academic Officer Janan Moore presented information on Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER II) funds during the public hearing. The board approved the ESSER II budget, which includes a 4% retention stipend along with other salary costs. Money will be allocated to technology devices and software programs to increase student learning. ESSER II funds also include indirect costs associated with district operations. 

Also approved was the consent agenda, comprised of the financial statement, payment of bills, overnight trips, and the 2021-2022 district improvement plan. 

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Enterprise Staff

The United State Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear arguments in a case that could make clear that two federally recognized tribes in Texas—Ysleta del Sur Pueblo and the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas—are allowed to operate electronic bingo facilities on their reservations.

The Court agreed to hear Ysleta del Sur Pueblo’s request to overturn a 1994 Fifth Circuit decision finding that the Pueblo and the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe are ineligible to offer gaming under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA). Instead, the Fifth Circuit found that the ability of the two tribes to offer gaming is controlled by the 1987 act of Congress that restored federal recognition for both nations. Since that decision, the state of Texas has actively sought to block all attempts by either the Pueblo or the Alabama-Coushattas to offer gaming under IGRA, a 1988 federal statute enacted by Congress to regulate the conduct of gaming on federal Indian lands.

The Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas currently operates Naskila Gaming, an electronic bingo facility, on its reservation in Deep East Texas.

“The Supreme Court said today that it wants to hear from our nations,” Nita Battise, Chairperson of the Tribal Council of the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas, said. “This is a positive and significant development because it means the highest court in the land is willing to weigh in on what we feel has been decades of disparate treatment that has unfairly impacted our tribe and the Pueblo. A positive ruling from the Supreme Court could provide the economic security we have long sought for our tribe, employees of Naskila Gaming and the East Texas community.”

In 2016, the Pueblo opened a bingo facility in El Paso, offering the same type of electronic bingo games that the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas located near Eagle Pass has offered on its lands since 1996. Thereafter, the state Texas filed suit against the Pueblo, arguing that under the 1994 Fifth Circuit decision the Pueblo, unlike the Kickapoo Tribe, were prohibited from offering bingo under IGRA. In an April 2020 ruling, a panel of the Fifth Circuit panel sided with the state; it is this same ruling that the Supreme Court agreed to review Monday.

In a separate case, this past August a federal judge in Beaumont agreed with the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe that it could legally offer electronic bingo at its Naskila Gaming facility under the Tribe’s 1987 Restoration Act.

Despite the state’s longtime effort to close the facility, Naskila Gaming enjoys broad, bipartisan support among Texans. More than 80 civic, community and business groups have formally approved resolutions supporting Naskila Gaming. Earlier this year, the U.S. House of Representatives approved bipartisan legislation saying that the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas and Pueblo should be governed under IGRA—legislation that would effectively stop the state’s efforts to close the facilities. That legislation, H.R. 2208, has not yet been acted upon by the U.S. Senate.

“Recent legal decisions have been very encouraging, but we still need the U.S. Congress to complete its work on H.R. 2208 to provide fairness and certainty for our tribe,” Battise said. “We are grateful for all of the community supporters who have stood by us as we have battled against the state’s efforts to take away the jobs at Naskila Gaming.”

ÍNaskila Gaming is the second-largest employer in Polk County. Some 700 jobs are tied directly or indirectly to Naskila Gaming, as well as over $170 million in annual economic stimulus, making its long-term stability essential to the economic future of East Texas.

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By Emily Banks Wooten
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As of press time Tuesday, 87 ballots had been cast during early voting for the November 2 Constitutional Amendment Election. Of those 87, 55 were cast in Livingston, 26 were cast in Onalaska and six in Corrigan. Early voting by personal appearance began Monday and will continue through October 29.

Polling places for early voting are from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Polk County Judicial Center at 101 W. Mill Street in Livingston, the Onalaska Subcourthouse at 14115 U.S. Hwy. 190 West in Onalaska and the Sechrest Webster Community Center at 100 West Front Street in Corrigan.

Applications for ballot by mail and federal postcard applications must be received by the Polk County Clerk’s Office no later than the close of business on Friday. Applications for ballot by mail shall be mailed to Polk County Clerk Schelana Hock at P.O. Drawer 2119, Livingston, Texas 77351 or emailed to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or faxed to 936-327-6855.

However, if an application for ballot by mail is faxed or emailed or if a federal postcard application is faxed, the original application must be received within four business days.

The proposed additions to the Texas Constitution were passed as bills during this year’s legislative session and a majority of voters in the state must approve each amendment before it can be officially added to the Constitution. There are no state elected seats on the ballot this November.

The eight proposed constitutional amendments on the ballot are:

PROPOSITION 1: The constitutional amendment authorizing the professional sports team charitable foundations of organizations sanctioned by the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association or the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association to conduct charitable raffles at rodeo venues.

PROPOSITION 2: The constitutional amendment authorizing a county to finance the development or redevelopment of transportation or infrastructure in unproductive, underdeveloped, or blighted areas in the county.

PROPOSITION 3: The constitutional amendment to prohibit this state or a political subdivision of this state from prohibiting or limiting religious services of religious organizations.

PROPOSITION 4: The constitutional amendment changing the eligibility requirements for a justice of the supreme court, a judge of the court of criminal appeals, a justice of a court of appeals, and a district judge.

PROPOSITION 5: The constitutional amendment providing additional powers to the State Commission on Judicial Conduct with respect to candidates for judicial office.

PROPOSITION 6: The constitutional amendment establishing a right for residents of certain facilities to designate an essential caregiver for in-person visitation.

PROPOSITION 7: The constitutional amendment to allow the surviving spouse of a person who is disabled to receive a limitation on the school district ad valorem taxes on the spouse’s residence homestead if the spouse is 55 years of age or older at the time of the person’s death.

PROPOSITION 8: The constitutional amendment authorizing the legislature to provide for an exemption from ad valorem taxation of all or part of the market value of the residence homestead of the surviving spouse of a member of the armed services of the United States who is killed or fatally injured in the line of duty.

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The Goodrich City Council heard a presentation from the new truck stop, adjusted fees for the community center and planned holiday festivities in October’s regular meeting Thursday.

Representatives from the new On The Road truck stop on Highway 59 attended Thursday’s meeting, asking the council to consider a liquor store within the structure. The business, which opened last month, has considered other options like restaurants, but feel the space is not large enough or the right location. 

Positives shared with the council is that the store would bring additional business, revenue, and create more jobs. It was said that to purchase liquor currently, one must drive 6-20 miles and those consuming would wait until they are home with the proximity. 

Alderman Bobby Wright said he is not a drinker and doesn’t condone it, but that those wanting liquor would get it regardless. There are no laws in Goodrich against selling liquor. 

An application will be filed and sent to Austin and the City of Goodrich will receive a phone call if a problem with the application arises, according to Wright. 

The Goodrich Community Center’s rental fee has been increased. Council wanted to cover the costs for an upgrade in Internet access that is now included. The high-speed Internet runs $109 per month and what was $150 for the center per day will now increase to a $200 fee.

“They asked for Internet, so we have to go up. Not break even — the city still needs to make a profit,” Wright said. “That’s what we are doing with the water. We need to come back and look at water and sewer. We just went up on it a year or two years ago. This city has got to start making money.”

Two bids for the mowing contract were opened. Lonnie Lewis was present at the meeting and has been mowing for the city nearly 20 years. Lewis said he needed to submit a bid of $500 per month because of insurance costs. A decision bid will be awarded at November’s regular council meeting.

A Halloween drive-thru will be held Oct. 30 4-6 p.m. Over 200 children showed to collect candy last year and council is hoping for the same type of success in 2021.

Council decided they will hold a Christmas tree lighting ceremony in honor of former council member Marlene Arnold. 

“I know that Mrs. Arnold, ever since she started on the city council, wanted to have a lighted Christmas tree ceremony,” Goodrich Mayor Kelly Nelson said. “She has donated a lot of Christmas decorations and ornaments.”

The time and date decided upon is 7 p.m. on Nov. 21, which falls on a Sunday this year. That date was Arnold’s birthday.