At an April 27 meeting, Katy City Council approved a $315,722 contract with JCT Landscape, Maintenance & Irrigation Corp., also known as Junction Landscape, for the 3B Learning Center to be located at 5402 Franz Road, Katy.

The center, which was first announced in December 2021 after the city acquired the historic Fussell House, is intended to serve as a 5-acre outdoor learning space and a home for bees, butterflies and birds, Community Impact previously reported.

The details: The approval comes after City Council previously delayed the item from its April 13 agenda after several City Council members raised concerns about the use of public funds for the center since city staff initially intended the facility for school field trips by appointment.

Now, the facility will be reserved for school groups in the morning and open to the public in the afternoon, as well as all day Fridays and possibly Saturdays for guided tours, council member Paula Taylor said.

Going forward: The contract is expected to take 65 days, per agenda documents.

Ignite Pilates is slated to open its second Fulshear location this summer, owner Edwin Donnelly confirmed.

The new location will join the nearby studio at 11605 S. Fry Road, Ste. 103, which opened in January 2025, Community Impact reported.

What they offer: The business offers both beginner and expert classes focused on members’ fitness as well as their mental health, according to its website. Each 50-minute Pilates class provides a full-body workout aimed at elevating a participant's heart rate and enhancing strength and stamina.

Also of note: The business also offers various community events including socials, workshops and challenges, per its website.

• 2014 Texas Heritage Parkway, Fulshear

In a one-year snapshot of Greater Houston attitudes, residents expressed the largest drop in confidence about regional job opportunities in more than 40 years, according to survey results released April 27 from the Kinder Institute for Urban Research.

About the data: Rice University researchers collected nearly 9,000 responses between January and February from residents in Harris, Fort Bend and Montgomery counties.

At a glance: One quarter of residents across all three counties named the economy as the “biggest problem” facing the Houston area this year compared to 16% in 2025, survey results show.

Crime and safety was the second-most commonly identified problem, followed by the cost of housing for Harris County residents and traffic for residents of Fort Bend and Montgomery counties. 

Another detail: The percentage of residents reporting they are “just getting by” or “finding it difficult to get by” increased across all income groups in the past year, survey results show.

Also of note: About 7 in 10 residents expressed concern about the environment’s effects on their health, researchers found. 

In the 2025-26 school year, Cy-Fair and Klein ISDs had the highest-paid superintendents while Lamar CISD and New Caney ISD had the highest-paid teachers, on average, according to Texas Education Agency data released in mid-March.

The big picture: Community Impact analyzed data from the TEA to learn about compensation for superintendents, teachers and staff at public school districts for the 2025-26 school year.

According to the TEA data released March 16, the Greater Houston-area school districts with the highest-earning superintendents for the 2025-26 school year are:

• Cy-Fair ISD Superintendent Wayne Killian with $520,231 in total pay
• Klein ISD Superintendent Jenny McGown with $508,554 in total pay
• Katy ISD Superintendent Kenneth Gregorski with $474,440 in total pay

• Lamar CISD with $76,225
• New Caney ISD with $75,125
• Deer Park ISD with $74,343

In the early hours of July 4, 2025, an intense rainstorm pummeled communities in the Texas Hill Country, submerging low-water crossings as segments of the Guadalupe River rose more than 30 feet in 90 minutes. Twenty-seven young campers and counselors died at Camp Mystic, a private Christian girls summer camp located along the river in Hunt.

Those deaths could have been prevented if camp leadership took action sooner or had a written evacuation plan in place, investigators told a panel of state lawmakers tasked with studying the flood response during an April 27 hearing.

Quote of note: “Questions about what should happen next are many, but for me, one thing is clear: This tragedy could have been prevented,” Sen. Pete Flores, R-Pleasanton, said.

Zooming in: Camp Mystic staff had more than two hours to evacuate 386 campers from their cabins, investigator Casey Garrett said.

In violation of state law, the camp did not have a written evacuation plan and counselors were not trained on what to do in an emergency, she said.