The Bastrop ISD board of trustees named a lone finalist in its search for a superintendent to head BISD in November.

What you need to know: BISD officials unanimously approved the selection of Interim Superintendent Kristi Lee as the finalist in its search for a new superintendent Nov. 18.

In their own words: "I sincerely appreciate the trust you've placed in me with this decision," Lee said. "It means the world to me. I value each one of you ... We have a lot of work to do, but we're going to do it, and we're going to do it well."

How we got here: Lee was appointed to serve as the district's interim superintendent July 15—about one month after longtime Superintendent Barry Edwards announced his intention to retire from his position after 17 years.

The Bastrop County Museum & Visitor Center team will throw a birthday party for Bastrop’s namesake Nov. 22.

What to expect: The celebration will commemorate the 266th birthday of Philip Hendrik Nering Bögel, also known as Baron de Bastrop.

“Enjoy historic old-timey music, grab birthday treats, test your Bastrop County knowledge and meet the legend himself,” officials said in a news release.

• Nov. 22, 11 a.m.-2 p.m.
• $8 (museum admission, ages 13 and older); free (museum admission, ages 12 and younger)

The University of Texas at Austin opened a 10,000-square-foot laboratory facility in North Austin, UT Innovation Labs, to support emerging health care and life sciences companies.

The wet lab space for UT researchers and private sector tenants was first announced in 2023 and is now launching under UT's Discovery to Impact startup program. The new labs are meant to serve as an accelerator in the life science space as the sector goes through "expansive growth" in Central Texas, according to UT.

The campus at 12829 Parmer Ridge Drive, Austin, is one of several new Central Texas developments with lab space for life science tenants. It joins similar institutional facilities such as Austin Community College's Bioscience Incubator and planned Texas State University life science incubator in Round Rock.

UT's Discovery to Impact is actively seeking early-stage biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical companies. UT marked the labs' opening with its inaugural BioBash life sciences event Nov. 6.

Texas cannot use its newly redrawn congressional map in the 2026 election, an El Paso federal court ruled Nov. 18.

The details: The state must instead use the congressional map that Texas lawmakers drew in 2021, after the 2020 census. 

“The public perception of this case is that it’s about politics,” U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Brown wrote in the Nov. 18 preliminary injunction. “To be sure, politics played a role in drawing the 2025 map. But it was much more than just politics. Substantial evidence shows that Texas racially gerrymandered the 2025 map.”

What they're saying: Texas Republican leaders said they would “swiftly appeal” the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.

If the court takes up the case, its justices will be pressed for time ahead of the Dec. 8 deadline for candidates to apply to run in the March primary elections.

Texas Democrats celebrated the Nov. 18 ruling as "very good news for Texans."