An uptick in the number of senior citizens participating in Friendswood’s senior programming has led city leaders to call the city’s existing activity building outdated, overcrowded and unsafe.

The details: Friendswood City Council, at its Oct. 6 meeting, was briefed by the city’s Senior Citizens Advisory Committee on the challenges the city has faced in accommodating a larger influx of senior residents to Friendswood’s senior program.

Digging deeper: Between 2024 and 2026, active membership jumped 35%, an increase Assistant Director of Recreation Michael Boyett said was fueled partly by Galveston County’s decision to close its Dickinson center in September and direct seniors to Friendswood’s program.

Looking ahead: Council member Michael Ross asked the committee to continue to advocate for a dedicated senior activity center in upcoming municipal bond discussions.

What you need to know: Alvin ISD is aiming to raise STAAR reading and math scores by around five percentage points through 2030. Under House Bill 3, school districts must establish a five-year plan to improve student outcomes. The board of trustees reviewed the following goals:

• Increase the percentage of students meeting or exceeding grade level on the STAAR reading assessment from 63% in 2026 to 68% by 2030

• Increase the percentage of students meeting or exceeding grade level on the STAAR math assessment from 58% in 2026 to 63% by 2030

• Increase the percentage of high school graduates meeting college, career and military readiness (CCMR) requirements from 81% in 2025 to 98% by 2030

Diving in deeper: To improve literacy, administrators who have not completed the HB 3 Texas Reading Academy will participate during the 2026-27 school year. For math, the district will monitor progress through unit tests and student work analysis.

What’s next: The board will receive a mid-year review in February with campus performance and assessment data.

Blitz Flow Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is coming to Friendswood in November.

What you need to know: The studio will be led by black belt Professor Ygor Mauricio and offer programs for:

• Children ages four through 12

• Teens

• Adults

• Women-only classes

📍709 W. Parkwood Ave., Ste. D, Friendswood

The nonprofit Houston Parks Board is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, HPB President and CEO Justin Schultz said.

The history: Founded in 1976, the group works to expand, improve and protect parks and green space in the Houston region by building, renovating and managing projects. Over the past 50 years, the board has invested about $500 million in parks and green space using public, philanthropic and corporate funding.

Also of note: The parks board typically works on about 50 projects at any given time, including more than 170 miles of connected trails. Moving forward, Schultz said the board has three main priorities:

• Adding 50 miles of trail to the existing network

• Investing in about 180 of Houston's neighborhood parks

• Building the Hill at Sims and MacGregor parks

Texas school districts using the state-developed Bluebonnet Learning curriculum saw slightly better year-over-year achievement last school year than other districts, according to Texas Education Agency data released Sept. 30.

What's happening: During the 2025-26 school year, 619 of Texas' 1,200 public school districts opted in to implement at least one of the three Bluebonnet curriculum programs—elementary math, secondary math and elementary language arts.

On this spring's State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness exam, districts using the state-developed math materials saw student improvement that was 0.6 percentage points higher than students in other districts, while districts that implemented the reading materials performed 0.2 percentage points higher on the STAAR than other schools.

What they're saying: The TEA said the gains in student achievement are an "encouraging sign of early progress."

Zeph Capo, president of the Texas American Federation of Teachers, a statewide educator union, disagreed, calling the results "rather paltry."

"It may take a few more years to determine if this is a valid trend or simply an anomaly," Capo said in a statement.