The Friendswood ISD board of trustees is scheduled to approve the 2026-27 academic planning guides for Friendswood Junior High and Friendswood High schools at the Jan. 20 meeting.

The details: The guides outline courses and requirements for the 2026-27 school year, with several updates proposed. A significant number of changes fall within career and technology education, or CTE, according to district documents. According to district documents, key changes include:

• New courses in fine arts and mathematics
• Updates to CTE courses organization
• Transition of courses from full-year to semester formats

Manvel City Council is scheduled to approve a May 2 general election at its Jan. 20 meeting for the offices of mayor and council members Place 3 and Place 5, each serving three-year terms.

The details: The seats up for election are currently held by:

• Mayor: Dan Davis
• Place 3: Harry Opliger
• Place 5: Crystal Sarmiento

Two Democratic candidates are running for Texas Senate District 11 in the upcoming March primaries.

The overview: Shannon Dicely and Cameron A. Rollwitz will compete for the Democratic nomination.

The winning Democratic candidate will face the sole Republican candidate, Dennis Paul, and the winner of that election will begin serving District 11 in January 2027. 

What you need to know: Candidates were asked to keep responses under 50 words, answer the questions provided and avoid attacking opponents. Answers may have been edited or cut to adhere to those guidelines, or for style and clarity.

Houston’s housing market returned to a more balanced pace in 2025, with single-family sales climbing and prices largely holding steady as inventory expanded, according to a year-end update from the Houston Association of Realtors. 

What this means: HAR reported total property sales in the region finished 2025 up 2.3% from 2024, while total dollar volume rose 4.5% to $42.9 billion. Single-family home sales increased 3.8% year over year, with 88,634 homes sold in 2025 compared to 85,373 in 2024. 

A key driver of the shift was more inventory, active listings climbed through the year and hit a record high of 39,490 in July, when the market reached a 5.5-month supply—the highest level since June 2012, per HAR. 

Keep in mind: As supply grew, prices moderated, according to the HAR report the median home price was essentially flat year over year at $334,990, while the average home price rose 0.9% to $426,558 in 2025.