The Woodlands Township Transit Department announced an updated schedule effective July 1 for The Woodlands Express bus service, according to a release. The updates were put into effect in an effort to better serve rider needs, improve service in the afternoon and provide improved access to business centers in the area.

What’s changed: The Woodlands Express travels operates Monday through Friday and has routes from Research Forest Drive, Sawdust Road and Sterling Ridge to:

• Greenway Plaza
• Texas Medical Center
• Houston Museum District
• Downtown

Howard Hughes Communities announced Uni Sushi will be returning to The Woodlands at Grogan’s Mill Village Center.

What you need to know: Uni Sushi, led by owners Angel Barragan and Rosie Izaguirre, will provide an updated experience representing the brand’s reputation and loyal customer base, according to a news release.

Uni Sushi will be roughly 3,500 square feet in size with a covered patio and feature indoor seating for approximately 230-250 guests.

• Opening in 2027

• 7 Switchbud Place, Ste. 190, The Woodlands

Culture Shock Collectibles closed on June 21 for its relocation next to the Children's Place store in The Woodlands Mall, according to its store flyer.

What you need to know: The store reopened June 24 at its new location. It sells video games and a selection of trading cards.

• Relocated June 24
• 1201 Lake Woodlands Drive, Ste. 2130, The Woodlands

The Texas Education Agency released results for the spring 2026 State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR, on June 16. Tomball ISD was able to surpass or match a majority of the test scores within the district compared to last year and outperform statewide results.

The outlook: TISD surpassed spring 2025 test scores in fourth-, fifth- and eighth-grade math, as well as in fifth-, sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade reading. The highest test scores the district earned were 98% in both the Biology and U.S. History EOCs, or end-of-course exams. The lowest test score for TISD was in seventh-grade math at 62%, which is a 1 percentage point drop from the spring 2025 score of 63%.

Several events are happening around Greater Houston for the Fourth of July weekend, including Freedom Over Texas and the South County 4th of July parade. This list is not comprehensive, and these events are subject to change.

Freedom Over Texas
The 39th annual Freedom Over Texas festival will feature headliner country music artist Keith Urban with supporting acts Collective Soul and Los Lonely Boys.

• July 4, 4:45 p.m.-9:53 p.m.
• $15 (admission)
• 18-3600 Allen Parkway, Houston

• July 3, gates open at 6:30 p.m.; show starts at 8 p.m.
• Free (admission)
• 2005 Lake Robbins Drive, The Woodlands

• July 4, 8-11 p.m.
• Free (admission)
• 1500 Hermann Drive, Houston

Among students learning English in Greater Houston area public school districts, Spanish, Vietnamese and Arabic were the most common home languages spoken in the 2025-26 school year, according to Texas Education Agency data.

The breakdown: Emergent Bilingual students are students “in the process of acquiring English and [who have] another language as the primary language,” as previously reported by Community Impact.

In regions 4 and 6—which comprise most of the public school districts in the Greater Houston area—the most common home language spoken by emergent bilingual students was Spanish, according to TEA data released April 27. However, the number of Spanish-speaking students decreased year over year in both regions.

• Vietnamese with 8,742 students across both regions
• Arabic with 5,777 students across both regions
• Urdu with 4,644 students across both regions
• Mandarin with 3,974 students across both regions