Goslin

LOL, no. Back when BH really was “Country”? Sure, and that’s how a LOT of folks felt back then. Nowadays? Have you taken a look at BH/MB lately? Riceland? Baytown is a working-class Company Town, always has been and always will be regardless of how much time/money our elected officials waste trying to change that. I can’t think of anyone down here that would want to claim MB these days. I guess all the folks so ashamed of who they really are and where they really come from already packed up and moved out there and good riddance. BTW, since you mentioned North Shore, they consider themselves so big now that they claim Highlands, Channelview, McNair, and New Baytown as their suburbs. Where do you think half of that Eastside talent comes from?

TX Senate voted on Thursday to accept the House Bill as-is. Next stop is the Gov’s desk. Should be signed by him into Law sometime next week, I’d guess.

I’ll tell you something else that isn’t getting talked about much but that could really hurt Baytown in the long run. GCCISD has multiple schools with either D or F ratings for 2023. 2024 ratings are still held up in the same appeals court that just ordered the 2023 results released so 2024 is sure to be released pretty soon, and then 2025 results should be out around August. Unless something is done to get those failing campus’ grades up, that’ll be 3 years in a row of at least 1 campus having a failing grade. If any District has a campus with a failing grade for 5 consecutive years, the State is then empowered by law to close that failing campus AND take over the entire District. That’s what happened to HISD. Supt and Board members out on their butts and State appointees in their places. We’re a ways off from that but there’s a good chance that by August we could be looking at 3 years worth of failing grades for one or more of GCCISD’s campuses and only a couple of years away from a State takeover unless those failing grades can be brought up for all those campuses. Below is a quote from the Baytown Sun. ”Goose Creek CISD had 31 campuses receive ratings, with only two, Sterling and IMPACT, getting As. Ten schools received Bs, eight received Cs, seven scored Ds and four schools – Ashbel Smith, Carver and James Bowie Elementarys and the Virtual Academy – received Fs.”

You want to know what the REAL shocker to me was? Not the District ratings but the campus ratings. Barbers Hill High School scored a 90, BUT Baytown Sterling scored a 91. There’s a LOT of stuff in these results if you really dig into them. The methodology is really screwy BUT there’s a lot of data in there. I mean, I’m from Baytown so I figured the “Economically Disadvantaged” numbers would be higher here but man, I think it’s something like 70% District-wide for GCCISD. At REL it’s over 80%. It’s over 60% at RSS and they were the “rich school” until BH came into their own. BH High is like 25% and it’s the same across their District. It’s crazy that RSS received a higher score than BH High even by a single point, considering the disadvantages ANY school in GCCISD has. I don’t know how much stock I’d put in any of these letter grades.

The TX House and Senate have to reconcile their separate versions before sending a combined Bill to Gov. Abbot to sign but that’s easy compared to the House vote this morning. The vote this morning was the last point at which it could have been stopped and it wasn’t. For better or worse, it’s happening.

Shoulda, coulda, woulda, mighta, etc. None of that matters ‘cause it is what it is. I just wish I knew exactly what “it” is and what the ramifications of implementing “it” are gonna be on our ISD. Oh well, not like I’ve got any “School Choice” anyway.

Vouchers passed in the House this morning. There’s a couple more steps but mostly formalities. Looks set to hit the Governor’s desk pretty soon. [Hidden Content]

Likely, but that’s IF those numbers end up being close to that. These are the numbers GCCISD put out there BUT like I said, when they were asked point-blank at their February Board meeting if these numbers were accurate and if GCM was for sure going to be under the 6A threshold they wouldn’t answer either way. It’s a mess and we probably won’t know for sure which way GCM or any other GCCISD school is going until after next season most likely.

They’re not too radical for the High Schools but supposedly they’re trying to reduce GCM’s enrollment around 700 students. RSS would see a 500 student increase and REL around 200. Of course this doesn’t take into account many incoming 9th graders choosing their campus through the various academies. At the Feb Board meeting the question was asked whether or not this rezone would drop GCM down for sure and they didn’t answer that question, just saying that there are other things they can do as well like moving programs around to get that enrollment number down but that even if GCM drops down in ‘26 they’ll be back up permanently in ‘28 or ‘30 at the latest. Long story short, they want to drop GCM down in ‘26 and think they can do it but no guarantees and if they CAN do it, it’ll only last 2-4 years before they’re back in 6A to stay. If that’s the case I say leave them where they are and let them learn to live with it but it’s not up to me. It’s a lot more radical at the elementary and Jr school level. Some Junior Schools have fed into multiple High Schools for a while now. After this, each High School will have 2 Jr Schools which feed exclusively into them. At the Elementary level they’re closing Lamar Elementary and splitting its students between Carver and Ashbel Smith. It isn’t over after this rezone, either. GCCISD is going into year 3 of cuts in ‘25-‘26 and they said at the last meeting that the year after that ‘26-‘27 will be a cut year as well and that’s without taking into account what the Legislature is going to do as far as funding/Vouchers/etc.

When you’re talking 9-5A-D1, remember also that GCCISD is rezoning this summer. GCM might be dropping back down from 23-6A if they can get the numbers low enough. They’d surely want back into 9-5A-1 with RSS. REL in 9-5A-2 in-District with Randle right now would probably like to be able to play up in 9-5A-1 again as well since RSS and GCM were the 2 teams they always beat there, (I actually think REL is doing just fine where they are but that’s just me). There’s gonna be a lot of movement in ‘26.

Yeah, both do. Difference is that at least in Baytown we can admit it.

You haven’t bothered me one bit. You really did it to yourselves and you’re so far up your own 4$$3$ y’all can’t even see it.

You’ve forgotten that even back when The Hill was small the folks there acted like they were all God’s gift. The very definition of Lace Curtain Irish.

I wouldn’t move to Mont Belvieu even if you gave me the nicest McMansion on top of the salt dome and a free lifetime pass to the wave pool. I wouldn’t move there if you paid me twice what yall are paying the dad of that QB you just brought in. I got a better idea, though. Why don’t you come on down here and hang out with us instead. I guarantee you that we’re a lot more fun and it’ll help to remind you how the other half lives, maybe teach you some humility. You know, “Humble in victory, Gracious in defeat”? OK, I’ll admit that some of us have to work on our graciousness still but you have to admit in return that a whole lot of y’all have to work on your humility. One more thing, I don’t vote. I figured since I was from Baytown you’d have already known most of us down here don’t vote but I guess not. A whole lot of us around here used to vote. We’d vote for one thing and then the City would do another, vote for the School Board to do another thing and then they’d do the opposite. Eventually you realize that it doesn’t really matter who or what you vote for, the folks in charge are gonna pretty much do what they’re gonna do. You may not be there yet but you’ll get there soon enough.

“Just messin’ with ya”? Bull. You said what you feel and what a LOT of folks on The Hill feel and say all the time, not just amongst themselves but what they say on social media and right to the faces of the poor folks down here. I’ll bet you just reread your prior post, saw how bad it sounds when you type it out like that for everyone to read so now you come back with “I didn’t really mean it, I was only foolin’, actually it’s Y’ALL who are the haters!” At least be honest and own it. You said what you said, feel the way you feel, so own it. Don’t talk big and then try to walk it back later. You think you’re so much better than everyone else? Well then at least be honest about it, but you can’t because of what you are, what BH is. Just a bunch of haters and bullies who get a kick out of picking on cripples just to make themselves feel bigger and better. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I don’t envy y’all, I pity y’all.

I’ll bet you can see the Monument from up on top of that high horse of yours. I’ve never met a single person who envies BH/MB/New Baytown, but I’ll grant you that there’s probably folks who do. Folks who haven’t actually taken a look at things over there and seen that the grass isn’t really that much greener and that folks there have just as many problems as folks down here. Many of those problems may be different kinds of problems, but problems they remain. Crime for y’all is WAY up, BTW. I hear that the felony dockets are backlogged 9-12 months at the Chambers County Courthouse. Mocking your neighbors for their problems is like whistling past the graveyard, I wouldn’t do it if I was you. All that said, yeah, you’re right. It’s been so long I can’t remember. Don’t think that’ll be changing anytime soon either, though it WILL eventually change as all things do.

How did I miss this? So much projection. A classic “I can’t be a _____, some of my best friends are _____!” Methinks he doth protest too much! Seriously, this guy is so worried about being outed as a hater that he has to go out of his way to shout from the rooftops that it’s not HIM who’s the hater. TRIGGERED! Like I said weeks ago on this same topic where this guy was talking about what a good friend of GCCISD he is. “With friends like these…”

A Coke and a smoke, please.

I really started questioning rhe decisions made by the folks at GCCISD after they decided to fill the REL pool in with concrete. It was great. I knew a girl back then who was on the Water Polo team. Loved hanging out around there.

Yeah, Snowflake’s always been good. I remember the old location, barely. We didn’t go there much because we always went to B&L Donuts across from the old Hospital and the Library. My mom loved their Bavarian Cream donuts. They dusted them with powdered sugar. Had an old breakfast counter with the stools set into the floor. Great place. The old man that had it finally died and his kids didn’t want to run it so they sold out to an Asian lady that still makes pretty good donuts but they’re not the same. Best kolache I ever had, though, wasn’t at either of those places. They had them in the cafeteria at REL before school. Cubed ham and government cheese. Thing was huge, they served it on a small paper plate and it was the size of the plate. Good times…

Where snowflake is now or where it was before? Snowflake is in the old Bonus Burger building now and I think that building was a Whataburger originally back in the 50’s/60’s. Just trying to figure out what building that hamburger stand was in. That’s a great story, BTW.

Baytown Jr’s colors are still red and white. I still call their team the Red Goslins occasionally and every time I do I end up having to explain why. I don’t know why GCCISD decided to change the mascot when they built the current HMJS at its new location. Both Jr Schools feed into REL and are natural rivals and the mascots fed into that a little bit.

Now, if I were to answer that question, it might make it easier to reveal my identity and I’d rather just remain anonymous seeing as how I speak my mind on here and a lot of folks don’t exactly like what I have to say. I know that wasn’t your intention. I’ll say that I was at REL back when they were a powerhouse, and that’s about as close as I’ll go with it. I was using the term “Old Baytown” the way the youngsters these days do. They don’t know about the old rivalries between the folks who live in the State Streets, the fancy folks in Old Goose Creek, and the Pelly Rats. Funny fact, when REL was built in 1928 it was discovered after its construction that it sat just across the line in Pelly City Limits. Many of the street names in Pelly were changed after WW2 and before consolidation, named after Pelly residents who died in WW2. Their names are also on the plaque at REL’s Memorial Field in honor of all the REL graduates that died in WW2. The plaque used to be on the flagpole but after the remodel where they renamed it after Pete Sultis they moved the plaque to the entrance. There’s around 70 names on that plaque. Lot of history there.

Whatever else may be said of folks on The Hill, (and Lord knows I’ve said a LOT), one thing can be said for certain. They care. They care a LOT!!!

What killed the Consolidation idea years ago was that GCCISD went about the whole thing the wrong way. They had District employees hopping onto Social Media accounts and being extremely dismissive and downright nasty to anyone who was unsure of the idea. All that did was galvanize the opposition and drive all the fence-sitters right into the opposition’s open arms. Before they even begin to talk about Consolidation, they’ve got to build the new Senior High School where RSS now sits. They need to pass a Bond to do that and have failed in their last 2 attempts. After that, they go to the public and say “We’re broke, and we have to Consolidate the High Schools to stay afloat.” Don’t create a “maybe” situation, and for damn sure keep your employees from hopping online in their off-time to gloat about REL’s demise and end up riling up opposition to it. If they do it that way, and I think that’s their plan, they’ll probably have it done in the next 5-10 years. I love REL too. My whole family went there. My wife’s whole family went there. I met my wife there. Our kids will go there. With all that said, Consolidation makes sense, will eventually happen, and most folks realize this. Until then, though, REL is still Old Baytown’s school and we’re proud of it!