Bayou City Art Festival to return to Memorial Park in October with new nonprofit partners
Officials with the Bayou City Art Festival announced Sept. 8 the six local nonprofit partners that will benefit from the fall 2025 event.
About the event: The Bayou City Art Festival is a three-day festival produced by the Art Colony Association that showcases the works of 300 artists across 19 different categories. Visitors can meet exhibiting artists and purchase one-of-a-kind art such as world-class paintings, prints, jewelry, sculptures and functional art.
Giving back: Every year, a portion of the event's proceeds goes to a range of local nonprofits in the art sector. According to the news release, the six nonprofits that will benefit from the Bayou Art Festival Memorial Park 2025 include organizations such as ArtReach, Brave Little Company and The Health Museum.
Before you go: The event will take place from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Oct. 10-12 at Memorial Park. Early bird tickets are available on the Bayou City Art Festival website.
Early education school centered around child-led exploration to open in River Oaks
The KLA Schools of River Oaks is set to break ground in September, enrolling children from six weeks to four years old, according to the KLA Schools website.
The specifics: The school franchise’s curriculum is inspired by the Reggio Emilia approach, an educational philosophy that prioritizes children’s natural curiosity.
The main principles of the philosophy include respect, responsibility and community, which the school implements through child-focused curriculum and parent involvement.
“At KLA Schools, we believe children thrive when they can connect what they learn in the classroom to their everyday lives,” KLA Schools of River Oaks stated on its website. “In our preschool in Texas, students, teachers and families come together as a diverse, supportive community, growing, learning and inspiring one another.”
The background: Commissioners and department leaders have spent the last eight-plus months weighing how to offset at least $102 million in cuts and other savings surrounding the projected $2.95 billion FY 2025-26 budget. Factors impacting county department cuts in the budget process, according to the proposed budget document, included jail costs, indigent defense costs, health care costs and law enforcement contracts.
Items worth mentioning: The county clerk and administration offices will request discussion as part of a Texas law that allows for the creation of a salary grievance committee for elected officials. Several officials from elected offices went to Commissioners Court seeking higher pay in August, including judges within the county’s district courts and the county’s eight elected constables.
What to know: Most Texas school districts required to display donated Ten Commandments posters under state law
Most Texas public schools are required to display donated posters of the Ten Commandments in classrooms under Senate Bill 10, a state law that took effect Sept. 1.
The details: On Aug. 20, a Texas federal judge temporarily blocked the following 11 school districts from displaying the Ten Commandments:
Alamo Heights ISD
Austin ISD
Cy-Fair ISD
Dripping Springs ISD
Fort Bend ISD
Houston ISD
Lackland ISD
Lake Travis ISD
North East ISD
Northside ISD
Plano ISD
Attorney General Ken Paxton appealed the ruling and directed other school districts to begin displaying donated copies of the Ten Commandments.
The debate: Proponents of SB 10, including Paxton and Republican state lawmakers, have argued that seeing the Ten Commandments on a daily basis will help Texas students better understand U.S. history and learn about morality.
Some religious scholars have stressed the importance of teaching students about religion in an “appropriate educational context.” Democratic lawmakers have expressed concerns that non-Christian students will feel left out or be bullied by their peers for not following the Ten Commandments.
