🎓 Two Conroe ISD Campuses Earned Their First A, Seven Landed D or F

🏆 Tomball ISD Scored a 92 and Made It Seven A Ratings in a Row

🏛️ Montgomery County's Budget Week Opened With a $109 Billion Tax Base

📷 The Conroe Camera Question Missed the November Ballot by One Vote

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Humidity to 95%. Wind to 7 mph.

Triple digits again, so get the outside errands done before noon and keep water in the car.

Source: Vaisala Xweather

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The Texas Education Agency released its 2026 A-F accountability ratings on Friday, and Conroe ISD came out of it with an overall B and a score of 85, the third year running at that mark. The district earned a B in each of the three domains the state measures: Student Achievement, School Progress, and Closing the Gaps.

The district letter hides a lot of movement underneath it. Of 66 rated campuses, 22 earned an A and 26 earned a B. That is 48 campuses, or nearly 73 percent, at a B or better, and nearly 90 percent landed at a C or higher. Eleven came in at a C, five at a D, and two at an F.

Lamar Elementary and Stockton Junior High each earned a first overall A. Lamar moved from an 87 in 2024 to an 89 last year and a 90 this year. Stockton climbed further, from a 79 to an 85 to a 90. The largest single gain in the district belonged to Moorhead Junior High, which went from a 69 to an 81, a 12-point jump that moved it from a D to a B.

Others moved with them. Giesinger Elementary gained 10 points and went from a C to a B. Runyan Elementary gained eight and finished one point shy of an A. Hope Elementary and Conroe High School each gained seven and moved into B territory, and Peet Junior High went from a C to a B. Campbell Elementary and Eissler Elementary both opened with a B in their first rated year.

The district did not skip past the seven campuses that came in at a D or F, saying those results did not meet what Conroe ISD, its families or the community expect, and that each will get support built around its own student data. Superintendent Dr. David Vinson called the B "a strong foundation, but it is not our destination." Every campus at 90 or higher by 2027-2028 is the stated target. Statewide, TEA rated 1,202 districts and 9,105 campuses, and 85 percent of rated campuses landed at a C or above.

Why it matters: The B on the district is an average, and the numbers underneath it are the ones that tell a family what happened at their own campus.

Source/Credits: Woodlands Online · Texas Education Agency

Tomball ISD came out of the same Friday release with an A and a score of 92, the seventh consecutive year the district has earned the state's highest rating since the A-F system began.

Eighteen of the district's 23 campuses earned an individual A, which the district describes as a 20 percent increase in A-rated campuses since 2019. Tomball High School and Tomball Memorial High School each held a straight A across all three domain components for the third year in a row, and Tomball Star Academy has now done the same for five years running.

Tomball Intermediate School earned an A this year, and Decker Prairie Elementary gained five percentage points to reach an 89. Superintendent Dr. Martha Salazar-Zamora credited teachers, students and campus leaders along with the district's families, and pointed to the board pairing academic expectations with financial stewardship.

Why it matters: Seven straight years means the rating is not a good year, it is the baseline Tomball families have come to expect.

Source/Credits: Woodlands Online · Texas Education Agency

Montgomery County commissioners opened budget workshops for fiscal year 2026-27 on August 11 at the Alan B. Sadler Commissioners Court Building in Conroe. The conversation started with tax rate options and a certified taxable value of about $109.27 billion, a 3.23 percent increase over last year's adjusted value.

Tax Assessor Tammy McRae said that is a smaller annual increase than the county has seen in recent years, describing a more stabilized market in which very few areas saw market value growth. Her office recorded roughly a 4 percent loss in value between the preliminary numbers in April and certification in July, and documents dated July 25 show 21,181 parcels still under protest with an estimated taxable value of about $4.224 billion. House Bill 9, which took effect January 1 and exempts up to $125,000 of business personal property, cost the county $3.35 million in revenue.

The no-new-revenue rate for the coming year comes to $0.3706 per $100 of valuation, against last year's adopted rate of $0.3770. The county lists last year's median home taxable value at $270,070 with a tax of $1,018.16, and this year's median at $270,349, which would run $1,001.91 at the no-new-revenue rate. The proposed rate itself has not been set. The voter-approval rate, the ceiling before an election is required, is estimated at $0.4136.

Budget Officer Amanda Carter said the county met its pay parity goals after last year's law enforcement raises and is seeing lower attrition, but recommended stretching the four-year plan to five. Full pay parity for 2026-27 with benefits is estimated at about $9.88 million. Precinct 2 Commissioner Charlie Riley said law enforcement got the raise last year while nobody else did, and that everyone gets taken care of this time. Precinct 1 Commissioner Robert Walker said he agreed, and that he had given his own employees a dollar raise out of his budget.

Why it matters: The proposed rate is not set yet, which makes this the stretch where a call to a commissioner still lands before the decision does.

Source/Credits: Community Impact

Conroe City Council voted late Thursday night on whether to put a binding proposition about the city's Flock Safety license plate reader cameras in front of voters in November. The motion needed three yes votes to advance and did not get them.

Council Members David Hairel and Shana Arthur were the only two who supported placing it on the ballot. Part of the discussion turned on whether the question should go to voters without a signature petition meeting the city's requirements. Council Member John Sellars warned that doing so could set a "slippery slope," which led to a back-and-forth with Hairel over what should be required.

Conroe has more than 50 automated license plate reader cameras in place. Supporters point to their use in police investigations, and critics raise privacy concerns. The city's deadline to place items on the November ballot is August 17.

Why it matters: With the deadline here, the cameras stay a council matter rather than a ballot question, and that is where a resident would have to take it.

Source/Credits: KPRC

🏛️ Township fall program registration is open: Registration for The Woodlands Township's fall Parks and Recreation lineup opened August 10, covering concerts, Family Bingo Night, the Creekside Campout, holiday break camps and Texas TreeVentures, with limited space going first come, first served. Read more in Woodlands Online

🎵 The Labor Day lineup at Waterway Square is set: Shake Down Band HTX opens at 5 p.m. on Sunday, September 6, the youth and adult pie-eating contests run at 6 and 7, and fireworks go up around 8:55, with the whole evening free. Read more in Hello Woodlands

🤝 Extra deputies are out through Labor Day: The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office is running increased patrols focused on impaired driving from August 14 through September 7, as part of a statewide TxDOT enforcement period. Read more in Hello Woodlands

🗓️ Gardening with Bob | Kevin Brady Library, 2250 Buckthorne Place | 1 to 2 p.m. | Free | More info

🗓️ Light Trix Series: Spotlight Effects | Precision Camera & Video, 17937 I-45 North, Shenandoah | 5 p.m. | More info

🗓️ Family Storytime | George and Cynthia Mitchell Library, 8125 Ashlane Way | 9:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. | Free | More info

🗓️ Teen Bullet Journaling | Kevin Brady Library, 2250 Buckthorne Place | 4 to 5 p.m. | Free | More info

🗓️ Breakfast Connections Networking Breakfast | The Woodlands Area Chamber of Commerce, 18450 Interstate 45 South, Shenandoah | More info

🗓️ Mahjong Night Out | The Woodlands Mahjong Society, 24 Waterway Ave Ste 160 | $15 | More info

🗓️ The Learning Zoo Animal Encounters | 11 a.m. | More info

🗓️ The Woodlands Township Board of Directors Meeting | More info

🗓️ Nonfiction Book Club for Adults | George and Cynthia Mitchell Library, 8125 Ashlane Way | 1 to 3:30 p.m. | Free | More info

🗓️ Chicago and Styx, The Windy Cities Tour | The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, 2005 Lake Robbins Drive | 7 p.m. | More info

🗓️ Golden Hour Gardening: Landscape Rescue 101 | The Woodlands Township Recreation Center, 2801 Technology Forest Blvd | More info

🗓️ Santana and The Doobie Brothers, Oneness Tour | The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, 2005 Lake Robbins Drive | 7 p.m. | More info

🗓️ Fall STEM Festival | iCode The Woodlands, 4526 Research Forest Dr Ste 12 | 9 a.m. | Free | More info

🗓️ Nach-Yo Ordinary Tequila Tasting | Wine and Food Week, 1601 Lake Robbins Drive | 6 p.m. | More info

🗓️ The Walk 2026, A Black and White Ball | Interfaith of The Woodlands, 1601 Lake Robbins Dr | 6 p.m. | More info

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The Conroe oilfield became the third largest in the United States at the time, and geologists had insisted there was nothing under it. By the end of 1932, sixty wells were pulling tens of thousands of barrels a day out of Montgomery County.

"He's so busy you'd think he was twins." Translation: he is turning up in two places at once, and it is starting to look suspicious.

Someday you will wave at someone who was waving at the person behind you.

I have a fear of speed bumps, but I am slowly getting over it.