Emporium Games, a community-based game store and coffee shop, will open in New Caney this summer, store manager Walker Stevenson confirmed April 8.

What they offer: On the retail side, the store will sell board games; collectible card games including Pokemon, Magic: The Gathering, Dungeons & Dragons and Warhammer; and hobby supplies, including miniatures, dice and play mats.

Stevenson said the business will also feature 2,500-square-feet of gaming space, where the business will host themed game nights, classes and weekly tournaments.

On the menu: Additionally, Emporium Games will feature a coffee shop serving beverages, including:

• Story Teller espresso
• Critical Hit drip coffee
• Wizards Brew black tea
• Sun Burst Potion lemonade

• Soft opening May 23; grand opening June 6
• 22564 Community Drive, New Caney

On May 11, New Caney ISD’s board of trustees opted to request an exemption to a new state law requiring three-point seat belts on school buses that would cost the district almost $11 million to comply with.

Current situation: Senate Bill 546 requires public school districts to add three-point seat belts to all school buses by Sept. 1, 2029. NCISD has about 95 buses that would either need to be retrofitted or replaced in order to comply with the new law. 

Mealer proposed a hybrid plan that would cost the district $10.98 million total and would involve phasing out older buses, purchasing 20 new buses per year and retrofitting 11 buses.

The discussion: NCISD trustees unanimously voted to file a petition with the state stating that NCISD can’t afford to meet the seat belt requirements by the deadline. 

Mealer said NCISD will receive $3,000 in state funding per bus for the mandate. Next year, the district can apply for grants to earn $45,000 per retired bus under a state program, he added.

Montgomery County Sheriff Wesley Doolittle said the county jail has returned to compliance after previously failing state inspections, but the facility remains a major point of focus as officials continue weighing what comes next for the aging jail.

Doolittle gave county commissioners an overview of the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office annual report during the May 7 Commissioners Court meeting. The agenda also included a separate item to “consider, discuss, and take appropriate action regarding County Jail and related matters,” but that item was deferred during the meeting.

The gist: During the presentation, Doolittle said the sheriff’s office is responsible for 1,317 inmates “24 hours a day, seven days a week,” while also covering a county spanning 1,077 square miles and serving more than 800,000 residents, based on the office’s unofficial population count.

“The jail has been a big talk,” Doolittle said. “When I came into office, this jail was failing inspections, failing standards, had previously failed twice, was not in compliance, was in a remedial state and we brought that up to compliance.”

Lone Star College System has been launching new and expanded mental health and wellness programs for students and employees, with the next services slated to roll out in stages over the next few months.

Major takeaways: In March, LSCS mental health services were instituted, expanded or brought in-house for a soft launch of the programming. Current mental health services offered in-person and virtually by LSCS are:

• Short-term individual counseling
• Group counseling
• Career counseling
• Consultations for students, staff, parents and families
• Resources and referrals

• Telepsychiatry services
• A crisis phone line for 24/7 help

Roughly 76,000 fewer students were enrolled in Texas public schools this academic year than the year prior, according to May 11 report.

The overview: The 2025-26 school year marks the second recorded enrollment drop in recent history, according to Texas Education Agency data collected since the 1987-88 academic year. The first decline happened in the 2020-21 school year, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hispanic students accounted for 81% of the enrollment loss in the 2025-26 school year, the policy research group Texas 2036 found.

The local impact: School districts across Community Impact’s coverage areas are in the process of closing and consolidating campuses, citing enrollment declines and budget shortfalls. Statewide data shows that 130 campuses have been selected for closure in the past two years.

What they're saying: “This year, we are down students, and these [drops] are somewhat more accelerated than statewide demographic trends indicated,” TEA Commissioner Mike Morath told lawmakers May 11. “We cannot tell you the precise cause of this. We just know that it has occurred.”