Sponsor: Four Square Design Studios

Our thanks, once again, to Four Square Design Studio LLC for sponsoring this month's WHCA newsletter. The WHCA email newsletter reaches 425+ engaged neighbors. If you're interested in sponsoring please get in touch.

Historic homes, modern living, award-winning design

• Renovations
• Additions
• Kitchens and bathrooms
• Interior design and decoration

We have an abiding love of historic structures, but we enjoy juxtaposing old and new. We are skilled problem-solvers; when designing additions, we seek to accommodate the needs of modern living while respecting the original spirit and design of a historic building.

To see a sampling of our projects, visit us at foursquaredesignstudio.com or call us at 713-802-1699.

Our School Update

Travis Elementary

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Hogg Middle School

• Sixteen National Junior Honor Society (NJHS) and Student Council members from Hogg Middle School volunteered to make luminarias last month's Lights in the Heights festivities. They spent an hour-and-a-half filling bags with sand and a candle, enough to fill two trailer loads full. Thank you, Razorbacks, for helping to light up the route.
• The Hogg Library is undergoing a transformation. In its goal to become a library of the 21st century, they are building a Literacy Library for Language Art teachers and students. Students in middle school read at varying levels and Hogg is differentiating instruction to meet the needs of these students. Students take a test in the Myon program to determine their Lexile level. With this knowledge, students and teachers then select books that expand their vocabulary. Myon tracks students’ reading and growth by providing access to over 4,000 digital books. To compliment this digital library, the HISD Secondary Curriculum and Development Literacy Team helped Hogg process has over 2,000 books for its Literacy Library. Ten volunteers have logged in over 80 hours to label, barcode, cover, sort and shelve these books. A huge thank you to our HISD Secondary Curriculum and Development Literacy Team for showing Hogg spirit by wearing red on our big volunteer day.
• Hogg art students are busy creating Hollywood/Academy Award themed props for the WHCA Home Tour Preview Event held April 15th. Tickets now on sale.

Reagan High School

• The Reagan journalism class put together a very informative video about John H. Reagan and the current effort to rename the school because of Reagan's history as a Confederate.

WHCA General Meeting

The next WHCA General Meeting will be at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, March 8, 2016 at the Hogg Middle School Auditorium. Note that elections for WHCA Board positions will be held at the March 8 general meeting. In early February, the WHCA will notify the neighborhood (via NextDoor, the WHCA website, newsletter, and signs) regarding the details of how to submit nominations. Please remember that nominations cannot be accepted from the floor at the March 8 meeting.

Traffic Management Meeting

The City is going to hold a Neighborhood Traffic Management Program meeting on February 3rd at 7 PM at the Hogg cafeteria. The City is going to outline the proposed traffic plan for the Woodland Heights, which includes speed cushions and neighborhood traffic circles on Watson, Bayland, Michaux, Beauchamp, Euclid and Pecore. We really need to have strong support for this plan so that the City will move forward with implementing the plan. The first stage of the implementation will involve the installation of temporary devices to gauge their effectiveness on the aforementioned streets, and confirm that traffic is not simply shifted to other streets in the neighborhood. Please make every effort to attend the meeting and ask your neighbors to attend as well.

Yard of the Month

There is never a time when I drive by this house, that I don't love it! Donald Clay at 626 Omar has a knack for choosing plants that are not ordinary and they are beautifully maintained. His yard is manicured, well cared for and no matter the time of year, it looks splendid. I especially love the evergreen Wisteria on the arbor and the Weeping Crabapple tree in front of it. The Pride of Barbados planted next to the utility pole is the perfect way to enhance an otherwise eyesore. The hedge is Cuban Gold (Duranta).

Take some to walk by and see it for yourself!  You won't regret it.

Brigette Larson
WHCA Beautification

Lights in the Heights Wrap-Up

While Lights in the Heights 2015 was a rainy one, it did not dampen the spirits of the neighbors. Attendance was lower than last year but Woodland and Euclid were still filled with merrymakers and all the bands played their hearts out.

The committee would like to express deep thanks to our Entertainment Sponsor, Memorial Hermann Greater Heights. They were gracious, easy to work with and were crucial to our success. We also had amazing Gala Sponsors, most of whom have been donating all three years. Please check out all these local businesses and show them some love! We also thank all the neighbors who contributed through our 3rd Annual Gala and all who purchased LITH2015 merchandise.

I cannot say enough about the dedicated volunteers of the LITH committee. Thanks to each of you for all your hard work!

— Jan Rynda Greer