🎓 A Magnolia School Is About to Hand Out Its First Six Diplomas

🌧️ Conroe Pumps the Brakes on a $4 Monthly Drainage Fee

🗳️ Seven Names Filed for Three Conroe ISD Seats in November

💧 The River Authority Held the Woodlands Water Rate Flat

🌤️ Partly cloudy · 99°F / 77°F

Humidity up to 93%, wind up to 7 mph.

Ninety-nine and humid, so get the yard work done before ten or leave it for Monday.

Source: Vaisala Xweather

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See it in action

Texas Autism Academy started its tenth year of operation this month, and six of its students will graduate this school year. They are the first in the school's history to finish with a high school diploma.

The idea came together in 2015, when three public school educators went looking for a better quality of education for non-neurotypical children. The school opened on Pruitt Road in Spring and moved in 2023 into a new building at 32605 Tamina Road in Magnolia, where it operates now. This academic year it serves grades 4 through 12.

"The whole reason we wanted to do this was get these students out of the special education classes, life skills classes, resource classes ... because we knew that they were capable," said Cary Mollinedo, president, chief operating officer and director of the school.

The program grew as its students did. Texas Autism Academy started out serving children up to age 10 and now runs a full day for ages 5 through 21, ending in an accredited high school diploma. Faculty and staff are trained in Applied Behavior Analysis, the curriculum is research-based, a board-certified behavior analyst designs each student's educational and behavioral plan, and the student-to-teacher ratio is capped at nine to two. The school is part of the nonprofit ASD Hope Inc.

Mollinedo said the diplomas are only part of what the ten years built. "The unique part about our school, besides the academic growth that they all make, is also the friendships they make," she said. "Some of them are going to go to college. Some of them are going to go into workforce programs with their full high school diploma."

Why it matters: A first graduating class is a school finally proving the thing it set out to prove, and this one took ten years to get there.

Source/Credits: Community Impact

Conroe City Council did not vote on a proposed stormwater fee at its August 27 meeting. Council members instead asked staff to come back with more on the condition of the city's drainage system, its known problem areas, and which projects the city may need to fund.

Consultants from Freese and Nichols presented the latest version, a recurring charge on utility bills. Residences would pay a flat $4 a month. Nonresidential properties would pay $4 per equivalent residential unit, one unit being 3,200 square feet of impervious surface like rooftops and pavement, so a property with 144,707 square feet of impervious area could pay $184 a month, according to the presentation. At that rate the fee could bring in about $4.4 million a year if billing began October 1, though the council set no start date. By law the money could only go to drainage work.

Mayor Pro Tem John Sellars asked whether properties with detention ponds or large grassy areas could earn a credit. Consultant Trey Shanks said credits are possible for properties that put less strain on the system, but they are not in the current proposal and would add administrative work. Sellars said he opposes the fee outright. "I am not at all in favor of this," he said. "I ran and got up here to try to reduce the burden on our citizens, not increase it, and that's really what I see this as doing."

Mayor Duke Coon asked staff for a short presentation on the drainage system's current condition and biggest liabilities. "I think what I'm hearing is let's not kill this idea," Coon said. "Let's maybe bring it back with some more study, maybe adjustment of fees." No return date, fee amount, or timeline was set.

Why it matters: A recurring line on a utility bill is easy to miss once it is there, and this one is still open.

Source/Credits: Community Impact

Conroe ISD voters will pick among seven candidates for three seats on the board of trustees in the November 3 election. Filing for Positions 1, 2 and 3 closed August 17.

Position 1 has incumbent Aggie Gambino and Ryan Tsamouris. Position 2 has Destinee Milton, Rodney Hammer and Robin Deferrari. Position 3 has incumbent Misty Odenweller and Phillip Martin.

Early voting dates and times are posted on the Montgomery County elections website.

Why it matters: All three Conroe ISD seats up in November drew more than one candidate.

Source/Credits: Community Impact

The San Jacinto River Authority approved its operating budget for fiscal year 2026-27 at an August 27 meeting. The year begins September 1.

The rates behind the authority's Groundwater Reduction Plan are not moving. The groundwater pumping fee stays at $2.51 per 1,000 gallons and the surface water fee stays at $3.10. The plan sells wholesale water to municipal utility districts, investor-owned utilities and municipalities, which sell it on to their own retail customers, and the fees collected go to running and maintaining the surface water treatment plants.

One rate does rise. Raw water goes from $0.66 to $0.72 per 1,000 gallons, which the authority put at a 9.09 percent increase. It holds at $0.66 from September through December and changes in January. Controller Jamye Lewis said the increase funds projects in the Highlands division, which ran on a flat raw water rate with very little investment from 1990 to 2008, according to Lewis.

The authority runs nine divisions and keeps their budgets separate, so customers pay only for the division they sit in. The Woodlands division is budgeted at $46.6 million in operating revenues for the year. The Groundwater Reduction Plan division is budgeted at $70.4 million.

Why it matters: Water rates get set once a year by a board almost nobody watches, and this year the ones covering here did not move.

Source/Credits: Community Impact

🤝 Montgomery County and Henry's Home draw veterans grants: Governor Greg Abbott's $6.3 million round of Texas Veterans Commission grants to 27 Southeast Texas organizations includes $261,000 for a Montgomery County veterans treatment court, $100,000 to the county for financial assistance, and $150,000 to Henry's Home Horse and Human Sanctuary for nonclinical mental health services. Read more in Community Impact

🎓 Two Woodlands school projects hit their finish date this month: Conroe ISD's bond project roundup lists gym and classroom renovations at McCullough Junior High on South Panther Creek Drive and a renovated agriculture facility on Pruitt Road, both scheduled for completion in August. Read more in Community Impact

💼 A Shenandoah salon is heading for Grand Central Park: Aspen and Oak Salon is relocating from 8851 Metropark Drive to 350 Grand Link Drive in Conroe in late 2026, co-owner Christine White said. Read more in Community Impact

🗓️ The El Bueno La Mala y El Feo Fest | The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, 2005 Lake Robbins Dr | 3:00 PM | More info

🗓️ SUP Yoga Class | 9:00 AM | More info

🗓️ Brews and Braids, a Daddy and Daughter Hair Class | Ale & Ivy, 305 Sawdust Road, Spring | Sold out online, limited tickets in house | More info

🗓️ Taste This, Try That | Magnolia Event Center, 11659 FM 1488, Magnolia | 5:30 to 7:30 PM | More info

🗓️ Running Club | 5:30 PM | More info

🗓️ Love Island Reunion Season 8 Watch Party | Ale & Ivy, 305 Sawdust Road, Spring | 8:00 PM | More info

🗓️ Boogie Bash-In September | 11:00 AM | More info

🗓️ Canon Beginner Class | Precision Camera & Video, 17937 I-45 North, Shenandoah | More info

🗓️ Josh Groban: Stage, Screen and Symphony | 7:30 PM | More info

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The Spring State Bank, founded in 1912, really was robbed several times in the 1930s. The part everybody repeats, that one of those robberies was Bonnie and Clyde, is a false rumor with no evidence behind it.

"Well, I reckon I'll holler calf rope." Translation: I give up, you win. It comes straight off the branding pen, where a roped calf has run out of options and everybody watching knows it.

You have said you will deal with that box in the garage later for so long that it has quietly become part of the architecture.

I am terrified of elevators, so I am taking steps to avoid them.