Need something to do this weekend? Here is a list of five events happening in the Allen area Sept. 11-13.

1. Story time with at Bravo Park: Jeanie Schulmeister will be reading two bear-themed books at Bravo Park at Sloan Corners near the bear statue. Attendees will also hear the reveal of the bear statue’s name.

• Sept. 12, 10-11 a.m.
• Free (admission)
• 785 Bravo Park Drive, Allen

2. 2026 Guns & Hoses Boxing Tournament
North Texas police officers and firefighters will compete in a boxing tournament at the Credit Union of Texas Event Center. Proceeds from the event will go toward the Guns & Hoses Foundation of North Texas, which assists families of first responders.

• Sept. 12, 5-10 p.m.
• $40
• 200 E. Stacy Road, Ste. 1350, Allen

Members of the Our Lady of Angels Catholic Church celebrated 25 years as a parish in August.

As the church surpasses the quarter-century milestone, officials are looking ahead to future expansions of the Allen campus, Business Manager Tara Ellwanger said.

The details: The church is a Catholic parish in the Diocese of Dallas, and offers four weekend mass services as well as daily mass during the week.  The parish was founded Aug. 15, 2001 in response to population growth in Collin County and began offering mass at a Plano-area elementary school, with 389 people in attendance for the first mass, Ellwanger said. The church has since grown to an average weekly attendance of over 1,600, she said.

Looking ahead: A master plan for the expansion includes three phases, with the first phase outlining a 53-space parking lot expansion and creation of a new right turn lane from the parking lot onto Ridgeview Drive.

• 1914 Ridgeview Drive, Allen

The retail section of a mixed-use project in Allen and Denton County Civil Courts relocation are in progress. Check out some of the latest construction filings with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation.

1. Methodist Richardson Medical Center expansion
Methodist Richardson Medical center is adding a three-story tower with mechnical space and an imaging suite on the first level, a 25-bed intermediate care unit on the second and shell space on the third per a TDLR filing. Construction is estimated to take roughly a year to complete.

• Location: 2831 E. President George Bush Highway, Richardson

• Estimated timeline: Dec. 1, 2026-Dec. 30, 2027

• Estimated cost: $64 million

2. Denton County Civil Courts relocation
Denton County Civil Courts is relocating into an existing five-story office building in Denton, per a TDLR filing. The office used to be the corporate headquarters for Sally Beauty Holdings, Inc. before the company relocated to Plano at the end of 2025 per previous reporting.

• Location: 3001 Colorado Blvd., Denton

• Estimated timeline: Dec.1, 2026-March 31, 2028

• Estimated cost: $60 million

The Texas comptroller's office is requesting that lawmakers provide more than $2 billion for the state's education savings account program, which subsidizes private education and homeschooling for participating families.

How we got here: The legislature created the program in 2025, allocating $1 billion for the 2026-27 school year. Nearly 110,000 students have received state dollars from the program so far, and officials said funding should be doubled to ensure more students can enroll in the next two years.

Zooming in: According to the comptroller's legislative appropriations request for the 2028-29 biennium, it would cost:

• $916 million per year to continue funding the roughly 110,000 students currently enrolled

• $82 million annually would be needed to fund siblings of participating children who will soon qualify for the program

• $980 million per year to provide funding for more than 106,000 students on the program's waitlist

Something to note: The comptroller's $2 billion base budget request would not fully cover the waitlist and interest list, which would cost nearly $4 billion for the 2027-28 and 2028-29 school years.