At the Oct. 13 regular meeting, Tomball ISD board members authorized multiple material purchases and construction contracts totaling over $11 million and approved a slight name change for Creekside Park Jr. High School.

The discussion: Approved projects using the funds include the Tomball High School HVAC Controls Replacement, with a project cost of $3.7 million. 

The approved projects also include athletic facility improvements for Tomball High School with a construction cost of $4.04 million and a contingency budget of $300,000.

One last thing: The TISD board of trustees also voted to officially rename Creekside Park Jr. High School to Creekside Park High School, removing “Jr.”

The Tomball ISD board reviewed a districtwide improvement plan on Oct. 12 to address academic development. Presented by Chief Academic Officer Michael Webb, the plan follows a school year where the district made strides in four categories but did not meet expectations in eight others, including SAT, social studies and math scores.

Moving into the new school year, the district will focus on four categories for improvement:

• Elementary literacy, aiming to decrease the percentage of first- to third-grade students needing STAAR Reading intervention to 6.2% and increase certain STAAR Extended Constructed Response scores by 5%.

• Secondary and emergent bilingual literacy, with a goal to increase emergent bilingual students meeting expectations on the Reading STAAR exam by 3%.

• Advanced academics and math, targeting an increase in the STAAR A-F raw math score from 63% to 66%.

• Science and social studies, aiming to raise STAAR A-F scores to 75% and 70%, respectively.

A new online marketplace called Shef launched in Houston this month, connecting residents with local chefs who prepare and deliver fresh, homemade meals.

The specifics: Houston is the 10th market to join the platform. The service offers 1,351 diverse dishes from 60 different cuisines, allowing customers to choose meals by cuisine or preference, such as high-protein, vegetarian, gluten-free, GLP-1 friendly and kid-approved.

How it works: To use the service, customers select their zip code, household size, weekly meal count, diet preferences, proteins and favorite cuisines. Shef then recommends meals made by nearby chefs for delivery during the week.

One more thing: Weekly meal subscriptions start at 4 meals per week and cost $35 for the first week.

Shef is available for residents across the Greater Houston area, including Houston proper and cities such as Bellaire, Pasadena, Clear Lake, Cypress, Katy and Spring/Klein. Service also extends into Fort Bend County, including Sugar Land, Missouri City, Pearland and Friendswood.