As Georgetown’s population rises, the scale of the city’s municipal operations has reached a turning point, officials said. Several utility rate increases tied to this growth took effect with the new 2026-27 fiscal year that started Oct. 1.

What's happening

Over the past several months, Georgetown City Council has approved various utility rate increases across the five utilities it manages: electricity, stormwater, solid waste, water and wastewater services.

The increases will help sustain city services and fund strategic high-capacity infrastructure during a period of population growth, officials said.

Better Health Counseling, a family-owned mental health practice in Williamson County, is moving its Georgetown address.

Learn more: Better Health Counseling offers services for children, teens, adults, couples and families. With a goal to provide accessible and affordable mental health care, the practice accepts most insurances and offers some sessions with a sliding-fee scale, Heselbarth said.

Better Health Counseling has over 30 therapists serving locations in Hutto, Round Rock and Georgetown. The Georgetown expansion will grow the practice to about 45 providers, according to Heselbarth.

• 2301 Westinghouse Road

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.