Counselor Barbara Gruener from Westwood Elementary has been invited to lunch. This will be no ordinary lunch on October 7, 2008 but will take place in Los Angeles with the founder of her own personal mantra, Character Counts!
   Gruener was invited to have a private luncheon with Michael Josephson. He selected her essay as one of his favorites in the Commentary Contest that asked interested participants to tell him by essay which of his commentaries over the last 10 years was the favorite and why in 200 words or less. He chose four winners, Gruener being one of them.
   As one of the winners, Gruener won the following:

   The Friendswood Lady Mustang Softball team will be busy this fall with two big fundraisers. They will hold the Fall Classic Softball Tournament for U6-U16 teams the weekend of October 3-5 at the Friendswood Sportspark on Moore Road. Four game guarantee. For more information contact Joe Garivey at jgarivey@bechtel.com.
   At the end of the month, October 30, they will hold their 2nd Annual Golf Tournament at Magnolia Golf Links. A pre-Halloween party on the green!  Enjoy a great day of golf while supporting the Lady Mustang Softball team. (Shotgun start at 1 pm, entry fee includes dinner). Contact Bob Smith at rwsmith@dow.com for more information.

  This is the second in a five-part series of articles explaining school finance.
  The General Operating Fund is a classification of school district dollars that includes revenues from local maintenance taxes, earnings from investments, participation and registration fees, co-curricular/athletic sales, and state revenues.  Expenses from this fund ...

   Four proved to be a charm for the Friendswood High School Speech and Debate teams at their first speech and debate tournament of the year in Deer Park.
   In Extemporaneous Speaking, Stephen Feith received fourth place in Domestic Extemp and Megan Brann was awarded fourth place in Foreign Extemp category. In novice, Seth Zawilla was fourth place. Cailey Fitzgerald was named semi-finalist.
    In Duet Acting, Jeff Allison and Lesleigh Balkum received fourth place.
    Balkum also placed fourth in each of the following three: Prose, Poetry and Dramatic Interpretation.
    Allison placed first in Humorous Interpretation with Balkum in third place.
    Sponsor is Melissa Victorick.

  The FHS Band is selling raffle tickets for a chance to win a 2009 Harley-Davidson Road King motorcycle.  Only 1,500 tickets will be sold; tickets are $50 and can be purchased by downloading this form and sending your payment to the Harley Raffle Coordinator who will send you your ticket.  Three finalists will be notified on November 14 and they will each select a key at the Marching Band Season Finale on Monday, November 17. The person with the key who starts the bike wins!  Questions may be directed to Kathy, the Harley Raffle Ticket Coordinator at 281-996-7879.  The MSRP on this beautiful bike is $17,000...and it can be yours for only $50!!

  Westwood Elementary Counselor Barbara Gruener has left a little of herself with more than 500 others in New Jersey. After attending Gruener's Sing, Dance, Laugh, and Building Character breakout session at the Character Education Partnership's National Forum last fall, William Osman, Supervisor for Professional Development, Mentoring & Character Education for Hamilton Township Public Schools in New Jersey, contacted the FISD counselor with an interesting invitation:  to deliver the keynote address to 500-plus elementary-school educators on their first day back to the 2008-2009 school year.