Fort Bend ISD students will end this school year one day earlier than planned.

In a nutshell: At a Sept. 28 meeting, the Fort Bend ISD board voted to change the last day of the 2026-27 school year from May 27 to May 26 to allow all students to complete the school year ahead of four consecutive days of graduation before Memorial Day.

The change comes after the board approved the original calendar in January followed by venue reservations for graduation at a later date, per agenda documents

Also of note: The last day of school will remain an early release day for middle school and high school students, per agenda documents. Meanwhile, May 27 will be a teacher workday. 

An improved way of predicting and analyzing floods is coming to Fort Bend County.

In a nutshell: At a Sept. 24 drainage district meeting, Fort Bend County commissioners approved $50,000 in additional funding for a new flood dashboard.

The details: The dashboard will pull together flood data into a user-friendly format that helps county staff respond to emergency events faster and better, Precinct 4 commissioner Dexter McCoy said.

“I am so proud of our drainage district and [information technology] department for collaborating on this very, very important improvement that will ultimately have a significant impact in saving lives,” McCoy said.

What else: The dashboard also has potential to use artificial intelligence for predictive modeling and to speed up analyses, which would allow the county to be more ahead of the curve in responses.

Several fall festival events are scheduled this month, though events are subject to change.

The upcoming activities include:

• St. Angela Merici Fall Festival on Oct. 3 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Missouri City

• Montgomery Fall Festival on Oct. 3 from 12:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. in Montgomery

• Pumpkin House & Pumpkin Palooza on Oct. 3 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Richmond

• Katy Rice Harvest Festival on Oct. 10 from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Oct. 11 from noon to 6 p.m. in Katy

• Pumpkin Float on Oct. 10 from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. in The Woodlands

• Halloween Bash on Oct. 16 from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. in The Woodlands

• Tricks & Treats on Oct. 17 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. in Missouri City

• ArBOOretum on Oct. 17 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Houston