NOVEMBER 30, 2022 KYLE CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS
SIDNEY KINNISON COMMITS TO OKLAHOMA PAGE 9
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Hays Free Press
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HaysFreePress.com
Vol. 128 • No. 38
Serving Hays County, TX
CHARTER SCHOOLS
Doral Academy parents speak out over health and safety concerns
BY AMIRA VAN LEEUWEN
BUDA — On Nov. 7, nearly 40 Doral Academy parents gathered in a small classroom to bring attention to the health and safety concerns they have for their children. When Brandon Hall, a former Army recruiter, asked why the security guard for the school was not armed that day, Doral Academy Superintendent/ Principal Jennifer DeSousa said, “It just happened to be a bad day.” In a separate interview, Hall said he called Doral’s office after the Uvalde shooting in May. An assistant redirected him to DeSousa, who contacted
him about an hour or so later. “She [DeSousa] called me and told me that they will have an armed security guard there,” Hall said. Hall also said that DeSousa had told him there would be cameras and a monitor inside the foyer. “That monitor was on the day that we showed up [on Nov. 7] — that’s the first time I’ve seen that monitor on,” he said. He noted that the security guards have been changing, and so are the uniforms. “Sometimes it’d be a white shirt and probably light pants, and now we have light blue and dark pants,” Hall observed.
There is not a crosswalk or a school zone sign, causing several parents to be concerned for their children’s safety. “It’s pretty late in the year. They [Doral Academy] started in August, and here we are in November about to go on Thanksgiving break, and we still don’t have something essential as street safety,” Victoria Hall, Brandon’s wife, added. Teachers are not present outside monitoring the kids who walk to and from school. Teachers only monitor children who are getting picked up and dropped off by vehicles, parents said. And the Halls are not the only parents concerned
PHOTO BY AMIRA VAN LEEUWEN
about the health and safety of their kids. Rona Walton, another Doral Academy parent, was notified by a fellow parent
Public defender’s office gets green light BY MEGAN WEHRING HAYS COUNTY – The long-awaited public defender’s office (PDO) is moving forward in Hays County. On Nov. 22, the Hays County Commissioners Court unanimously approved an agreement between the county and Neighborhood Defender Service, Inc. (NDS), though the contract was originally supposed to be ready in August. The $11,282,910 (or about $2.256 mil. annually) contract is effective through Sept. 30, 2027, but can be renewed for another five-year term. In August 2021, the court allocated up to $5 million of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to create
Sunday evening, Nov. 6, that there was no longer a nurse at the charter as of Friday, Nov. 4 — but not by the school.
During the parent meeting, parents complained about not
See DORAL, page 6
County Pet Resource Center in the works Austin Pets Alive! chosen to run
BY MEGAN WEHRING
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Judge Ruben Becerra (left) stands with Cyrus Gray III (second from right) and his parents after the commissioners court approved the creation of a public defender’s office. a PDO. Now, the remainder of the funding will need to be budgeted. The contract states that if the court fails to appropriate funding for the agreement for the following fiscal year, the county may terminate the contract after giving NDS a 60-day notice of the terminated contract. NDS will be assigned up to the equivalent of 1,434 misdemeanor
cases annually over the term of the contract for years two through five, according to the contract, where a misdemeanor counts as one misdemeanor case and a felony counts as 1.87 misdemeanor cases. The caseload will be prorated for the partial, first year of the contract. Cyrus Gray III, a former inmate of the Hays County Jail, was incarcerated for nearly five years pretrial.
“The time inspired me to advocate for men and women who unfortunately, are and have been experiencing the same thing I had,” Gray said. “Court-appointed attorneys are overloaded with cases and have such a lack of resources that the expectation of adequate fair defense seems impossible.” Many offenders would
See PUBLIC, page 3
HAYS COUNTY – Austin Pets Alive! has been chosen to run the Pet Resource Center. The Hays County Commissioners Court awarded a request for proposals contract to Austin Pets Alive! and authorized staff and general counsel to negotiate a contract on Nov. 22. Earlier on Sept. 27, the court approved a request for proposals for an organization to assist with the creation, development and operation of a Pet Resource Center. “I have long envisioned this center, working with a variety of animal advocates and organizations to get one step closer to a holistic, centralized Pet Resource Center that also addresses human social services, which will be paramount to supporting our underserved community,” said Judge Ruben Becerra
in a Facebook post. “With Austin Pets Alive! and Hays County at the helm, our pets are one step closer to this new reality.” Austin Pets Alive! was founded in 1997 by attorney James Collins and his thenwife Judy Ford as an all-volunteer advocacy group to help increase homeless companion animal lifesaving. The organization not your average animal shelter; it pioneers innovating lifesaving programs designed to save animals most at risk of euthanasia. A contract will be brought back before the commissioners court to approve and finalize the contract award.
County court approves community feline policy BY MEGAN WEHRING
HAYS COUNTY – Hays County is working to address issues stemming from the presence of community cats. On Nov. 22, the Hays County Commissioners Court approved an interim community cat management policy
to move toward the recommendations of a feasibility study conducted by Team Shelter USA. Assistant General Counsel Jordan Powell presented the following revisions to the draft resolution, which is provided to the court and the public in the backup agenda documents,
HAYS COUNTY FOOD BANK TACKLES FOOD INSECURITY PAGE 3
recommended by animal advocacy advisor Sharri Boyett: • Add ‘and may or may not possess discernible identification’ to the fifth paragraph: “Community cats shall be defined as any free-roaming cat that may or may not be socialized” • Erase ‘ear-tipped
and’ from the seventh paragraph: “In line with the ideals of the City and the Animal Shelter the County desires to exempt Community Cats that are ear-tipped and sterilized from any licensing, stray, abandonment, or at-large provisions directed toward owned animals” • Remove ‘home’ from
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the final paragraph: “Hays County supports the practice of returning Community Cats to their original home locations and in furtherance of such practice, Community Cats shall be exempted from licensing, stray, abandonment, and at-
See COUNTY, page 6