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Lytle’s Christmas Lighting and Santa’s Hayride Dec. 14

Every year Lytle holds its Annual Christmas Lighting and Santa’s Hayride. The festivities begin at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday, December 14th at the Lytle Community Center. Santa arrives at the Community Center to turn on the lights at the Community Center and Main Street. After the lighting, Santa accompanies the children and their guardians on his hayride.
The 2024 Annual Christmas Lighting and Santa’s Hayride will start loading trailers at 5:30 p.m. at the Community Center, 19031 Priest Blvd., Lytle, Tx.
Admission is $1.00 or one canned good.
For information call 830-709-3692.
Please also join us at the Shops of Lytle at 15126 Main Street where we will have Santa’s Workshop with events for the kids to include an Ornament Workshop, the North Pole Post Office and Gingerbread Bakery.
The event is brought to you by the City of Lytle, Lytle Chamber of Commerce, Pena Family, Patriot Automotive, Lytle VFW Post 12041 and HEB Plus.

Hospice… Where every dollar you spend goes to good cause!

By Kayleen Holder
Editor
This summer marked the end of another fiscal year for our local DEVINE AREA HEALTH AND HOSPICE RESOURCE, which helps so many in our community.
Everything the thrift store makes is donated back into a good cause, so remember them as you do your Christmas shopping and anytime you have gently used items to donate.
In the most recent fiscal year, Devine Hospice donated over $201,000 to area charities, scholarships, and people in need including $6,000 in scholarships, $10,000 to the Bigfoot VFD, $11,000 to St. Jude’s, $10,000 each to the Seton Home, Fischer House, Shriner’s Children’s Hospital, and Texas Children’s Hospital, $8,000 to Mission Devine, and more.
In the past five fiscal years, they have raised an amazing $734,000+ for area charities, scholarships, and people in need.
Devine Area Health and Hospice Resource, Inc. is a 501(c)3 corporation.
Below are just a few of the goodies you might find there!

Devine ISD postpones action on proposed 4-day school week

By Anton Riecher
With a decision required by Dec. 5, the Devine school board tabled action on moving to a four-day school week for the 2025-2026 school calendar with plans for a called meeting in the near future.
In the face of opposition from board member Renee Frieda and a quorum of only five members present for the Monday meeting, the board opted to table action until a full board could be present.
Frieda cited a lack of research on the impact on families with both parents working for her opposition. She and others also expressed concern about how the change in schedule might affect the learning routine for kindergarten and elementary students.


“I still don’t think we did our due diligence with the people who I think are the most negatively impacted,” she said.
However, a motion by Frieda to stick with a five-day school week for the coming school year died for lack of a second.
More than 2,100 public schools in 25 states have switched to a four-day school week, often in hopes of recruiting teachers, saving money and boosting attendance, researchers estimate. Rural schools facing significant teacher shortages have led the trend, choosing to take off Mondays and Fridays to give employees and students a three-day weekend.
To make up for the lost day of instruction, school officials typically tack time onto the remaining four days.
District Superintendent Todd Grandjean recommended moving to the four-day schedule, citing the need to attract and retain qualified teaching talent as the primary advantage.
“What we came down to was, in the end, it is a focus on attracting highly qualified talent and retaining the teachers that we have,” Grandjean said. “That in itself will have a positive impact on our students.”
Consequences with regard to students remain largely undetermined, he said.
“In the beginning, student performance, student attendance and student success were looked at,” Grandjean said. “We were unable to determine whether or not that had a positive or negative growth cycle.”
The district has focused on the La Vernia and Bandera school districts in its research on implementing a four-day week.
“My recommendation is to approve the four-day work week and then for you to ask us (staff) to prepare a 2025-2026 proposed academic calendar,” Grandjean said.
Frieda countered that the board is sworn to make decisions “on the basis of what is in the best interest of the kids, not parents or teachers.”
“While I can see that attracting and retaining highly qualified teachers absolutely benefits kids, at the core, this is an experiment that we don’t yet know the impact it would have on the kids,” she said.
Some of the most important components of early education is consistency and routine, Frieda said.
“When you’re teaching fundamentals to kids and they have three-day breaks instead of two-day breaks what kind of loss to we have as far as consistency,” she said.
She also expressed concern that a longer school day for younger students might mean instruction time sacrificed to facilitate more athletics and nap periods.
Responding to a question from the audience about whether the problems for parents and their work schedules board president Nancy Pepper said that district moving to a four-day week often compensate with special programs.
Unfortunately, those districts report that over time participation in those programs drop to near zero, she said.
Frieda said she grew up in a low-income family with five children and that “it would have been very problematic for my parents had they not been in school five days a week.”
“I’m raising my kids not in a low-income family and it would have been very problematic for me to determine how we would handle childcare when my child was younger,” she said.
The only solution available would have been to move the child to a different school district, Frieda said.
Other members of the board said that the need to attract qualified teachers remained a powerful incentive to move to the four-day week.
“We have core positions that we can’t fill where people are going to the districts around us with four-day weeks even though our pay is right up there with those,” board member Chris Davis said.
Pepper said that of the two missing board members – Carl Brown and Henry Moreno – one indicated support for moving to the reduced week for staffing reasons while the other remains uncommitted.
No date was set for the special meeting needed to decide the issue.

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Mutual aid missed call numbers questioned, contract, and legal use of new ambulances

By Anton Riecher
Disagreement over how often Allegiance Mobile Health must rely on neighboring ambulance services to respond to local calls arose during the Nov. 13 meeting of the Medina County Emergency Services District 4 board of commissioners.
EMS Director, Jason Miller, said data he obtained from the Medina County Sheriff Department indicates that at least 97 mutual aid calls requiring a response from outside MCESD4 were reported over this past year.
“It’s taking their unit out of service that’s supposed to be servicing their community,” Miller said.
Allegiance District Chief, Patrick Bourcier, questioned the accuracy of those figures. A report he obtained for ESD4 ambulance dispatches covering the month of October indicated only one such occurrence when compared to data compiled by Allegiance.


“I would just challenge that number because I have a hard time believing that the county would drop those calls to nobody,” Bourcier said.
However, Miller said that the report from the Allegiance computer-aided dispatch (CAD) software only reflects calls done by Allegiance.
“For the month of October, I got a report that eight of our mutual aid calls were done by other Allegiance ambulances, whether it be Frio or Bexar counties, whatever,” Miller said. “Thirteen additional calls were sent by other services.”
The report provided by Medina County 911 dispatch only identifies those responding ambulances as generic EMS units, not by the agency that operates them, he said.
“In a mass casualty situation, no one questions the need to muster additional units from surrounding communities to respond,” Miller said. “However, responding to everyday routine medical calls is a different matter.”
“It is a problem for the other providers because it’s not their obligation and the other EMS providers are upset,” Miller said.
Board member, Jerry Beck, asked how the numbers for the monthly report are compiled. Bourcier explained that once Medina County 911 dispatches the ambulance, each vehicle is tracked using global positioning system (GPS) technology.
“Sometimes there can be a ‘lag time’ in receiving that dispatch from the county,” he said. The result is the possibility that ambulance calls being placed by the public are not being received.
“We have a radio in this facility so when they call us it’s on that radio,” Bourcier said. “So if we’re not here we don’t hear that call” (to other mutual aid counties on Frio or Atascosa channels).
Allegiance carries two radios in their ambulances, one to communicate with Medina County, and the other to communicate with Allegiance dispatch at all times.
Procedure is for the dispatch to notify Allegiance through the sheriff’s department if the station cannot be reached. “That does not always happen,” Bourcier said.
“I’ve asked the county why they don’t do that and the response I get was that they didn’t want to bother us,” he said. “So if I don’t get it we don’t know about it.”
“Mutual aid ambulances from Lytle, Moore, Castroville or Hondo are dispatched when Allegiance personnel are away from the Devine station making a response call,” Bourcier said. “Allegiance responds as well when needed as mutual aid to other cities, common practice.”
“It’s just a question of if they tone out and we don’t respond they’re supposed to tone out somebody else or switch that call over to our dispatcher,” he said. “It’s their choice which one to do.”
Miller told the board that the routine work load for local ambulances is often difficult to manage.
“Devine is unique because we tend to get three or four calls at a time and we only have two ambulances,” he said.
Bourcier recommended that either Miller or Allegiance get with county officials to better determine how the county CAD system works.
A proposal to upgrade two Apple iPhones purchased for the new ambulances to iPads that would be used for direct real-time contact with the sheriff’s dispatcher, was tabled. Using software purchase through the county, the iPADs could be used to directly access the sheriff’s CAD system for more accurate data, Miller said on the new ambulances.
(The question remains if the new ambulances are going to stay or be sold, so upgrades would not be relevant.)
In his monthly report on response statistics, Bourcier said Allegiance, under its contract with Medina County Emergency Services District 4, made 213 ambulance runs in October, up more than 15 percent from the previous month.
“It looks like all the response times were well within the range of the contract within the city and the county,” he said.
The number of ambulance responses within the Devine city limits totaled 61 with an average response time of 4.8 minutes. In Natalia, Allegiance made 21 ambulance runs with an average response time of six minutes.
“In the MCESD4 area outside Devine and Natalia, Allegiance made 131 ambulance runs with an average response time of 8.7 minutes,” Bourcier said.
MCESD4 logged 15 mutual aid events in which the district either assisted or received assistance from neighboring ambulance services.
“Eight of those came from Allegiance from out of the Moore station or the Castroville station,” Bourcier said. “The remainder came out of Lytle, at least those I can track.”
In other business, Miller reported to the board that the two ambulances recently purchased by ESD4 were scheduled to go into service Nov. 14 staffed by Allegiance personnel.
In the course of discussing the purchase of a third ambulance as a reserve unit to guarantee two functioning ambulances on the road at all time, board treasurer, Juan Zamora, made known his concern that allowing Allegiance to operate ESD4 owned equipment without some compensation to the district may violate state procurement laws.
The current contract “shows favor to Allegiance, especially if we are now burdening ourselves with additional cost and (Allegiance) are charging the same rate (while using) our units, our equipment which saves them money, unless they’re paying us back at some rate I don’t know.”
“In effect, operating under an earlier contract negotiated with the intention of Allegiance providing its own ambulances unfairly grants them more profit,” Zamora said. The board never reconsidered that issue after the decision earlier this year not to operate its own ambulances as planned, but to continue under the existing contract with Allegiance.
Beck noted that the agenda item under discussion called for considering the purchase of a third ambulance, not the renegotiation of the Allegiance contract.
“We need to put that on another agenda,” Beck said. He then made a motion that the board not move forward with buying the third unit. Seconded by Zamora, that motion to table was approved unanimously.
The board did approve the purchase and installation of storage organizers in the district’s new Ford Expedition command vehicle. Plastix Plus in Houston was the winning bid at $4,600. The storage organizers are for the protection of emergency equipment carried in the command vehicle.
Board president, Anthony Martin, explained that the command vehicle is for the use of the district’s EMS director, Jason Miller, in emergency situations. Comm. Beck said Miller should not take the vehicle home and the policy should reflect that.
“Jason responds to calls when they are going to wait 15 or 20 minutes for another unit to respond,” Martin said.
The board tabled the purchase of a lawn mower for the Devine station after Beck and others asked for time to reach out to local landscaping contractors. Beck and others also asked the board to table action on plumbing work at the station to move the washer and dryer located in the ambulance bay.
In a lengthy discussion on district job descriptions, Bourcier addressed the board on the disciplinary chain of command for employees under the current Allegiance contract.
“We have an open relationship where if Jason comes to us with a problem, we’re going to solve it to whatever extent satisfies the district,” Bourcier said. Allegiance has gone as far as removing employees under those discussions.
Miller verified Bourcier’s assessment.
“The agreement with Allegiance and the attorney was that if there was an incident or personnel issue, that I would bring that to Pat’s attention and Pat would take it to his leadership and then do whatever Allegiance decides to do with that employee.”
No action was taken following a closed executive session to discuss personnel matters.
ESD Coordinator, Chrissy Merendon, confirmed for the board that applications had been issued to board members George Moralez, Jerry Beck, and Viola Potter, all of whom have terms expiring in 2025.
After several exchanges with board treasurer Zamora during the meeting, one on payroll liabilities on the October balance sheet and one on leases for new emergency medical equipment. Regarding the renegotiation of lease agreements for ventilators and auto pulse devices to equip the new ambulances, Zamora said that the district administration is only authorized to approve purchases affected day-to-day operation to a threshold of $2,000 to $3,000. He also pointed out that the monthly bank statements were not provided again as he requested.
“I can’t remember voting on changing the terms of the leases?” Zamora said,
Merendon pointed out that the leases were approved by action of the board in September. She later asked to make a statement to the board, stressing that she has always made it a point to issue paperwork regarding the meeting agendas at least two to three days before each session.
“So I’m asking the board to look at your paperwork before you get to the meeting, so when issues come up such as the treasurer’s report or any of the other stuff, it can be discussed, so it’s not discussed here to make somebody look like a fool.”

Arabians, Lady Pirates hit the hardwood @ Southside

Jerel Beaty-Staff writer
You know basketball season is officially underway when tournaments begin popping up on team’s schedules, which is the case for the Devine Arabians and Lytle Lady Pirates as they travel to Southside this weekend for the Lady Cardinal Tournament.
Pool A has Devine playing against the host, Lady Cardinals, as well as YWLA, Jefferson, and St. Anthonys.
Pool B pits Lytle against Cole, Providence, Fox Tech, and Uvalde.
Thursday, Nov. 14-Southside vs Devine 8:30a.m., Cole vs Lytle 10:00a.m., Devine vs St. Anthonys 11:30a.m., Uvalde vs Lytle 2:30p.m.
Friday, Nov. 15-Devine vs Jefferson 8:30a.m., Lytle vs Fox Tech 10:00a.m., YWLA vs Devine 11:30a.m., Lytle vs Providence 2:30p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 16-TBD.

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Heartbreaker ending for Mustang Football

Eric Smith
Staff Writer
The Natalia Mustangs saw their season end with a tough and disappointing loss last Friday night vs. the YMLA Lions. YMLA was able to score late in the game, following a controversial penalty on a missed field-goal to secure a 33-26 win over the Mustangs. Natalia finished their campaign under 1st year Head Coach Jason Reynolds with a 1-9 overall record. The season saw adversity, injuries and a youthful squad that battled hard ever game, but did not have many breaks go their way during Friday night battles.


“I felt like our kids came out fired up to play Friday,” Coach Jason Reynolds said. “Offensively, we did a great job of moving the football. Our offensive line had one of their best games of the season and our running backs did a great job of running the football. Defensively, we had our spurts where we played well and even had a couple of turnovers.”
It was a close and competitive game throughout the night, but a young man by the name of Raishaun Conway, was the difference for the Lions as he rushed 24 times for 148 yards and 2 touchdowns on the night. Natalia struggled to slow him down all night.
YMLA was able to use broken tackles and miscues by the Natalia defense to score first on a 31-yard pass from Matthew Kroger to Ty Burroughs to take a 7-0 lead.
The Mustangs responded with a drive of their own, capped off by a 3-yard Leo Cortinas run. This was the first of 3 touchdowns of the night by QB Cortinas.
YMLA was able to respond with a drive and touchdown by Conway to extend their lead to 13-6, prior to Cortinas scoring again, this time from 5-yards out. Juan Gonzales put the PAT up and good, allowing Natalia to tie things 13-13.
In the second quarter, Natalia took the lead on a 3rd touchdown by their QB, but a late score allowed YMLA to tie things 19-19 at the half.
The third quarter saw Natalia score the only touchdown of the quarter, thanks to a run by Monreal allowing for a 25-19 following another PAT by Gonzales.
Unfortunately, YMLA owned both fourth quarter touchdowns. The first was on a 27-yard touchdown by Mason Pena on a throw from Kroger. The final was an 8-yard run by Conway, following a penalty on a field goal by YMLA. Natalia had appeared to tip a field goal that was “no good”. Natalia ended up running into the kicker, resulting in a penalty. Film would later show the ball, in fact, was not tipped, but the penalty gave the Lions new life, allowing the game winning touchdown on a fresh set of downs. This touchdown would allow the San Antonio squad to upset the Mustangs 33-26.
The Lions finished with 21 1st downs, 32 rushes for 159 yards and 9 receptions for 203 yards on the night.
Natalia finished with 22 1st downs, 48 rushes for 231 yards and 7 receptions for 49 yards on the night.
Cortinas led the charge for Natalia with 23 rushes for 39 yards and 3 touchdowns, as Monreal had 6 rush….To CONTINUE READING PLEASE SUBSCRIBE at www.devinenewsmembers.com

Pirates battle Jourdanton

Pirates battle Jourdanton
Jerel Beaty
Staff writer
Lytle played its final game of the 2024 season at home against Jourdanton last Friday. The Pirates could not keep up scoring wise with the district champions as the Indians escaped Walter Joyce Stadium with a 42-20 decision.
The Indians went up 21-0 after the first quarter as they scored the first three touchdowns of the night.
Lytle fought back to make it 28-14 as Angel Delarosa scampered in from 7 yards out, and quarterback Weston Jackson sprinted in from 21 yards.
The Pirates have been known for big comeback wins this year, and some may have believed another upset was in the making.
However, Jourdanton scored 14 of the next 20 points to close out the victory.
Pirate Jair Flores hauled in a 13-yard reception from Jackson in the 4th and final quarter of the 2024 season.
Team stats
Total plays Lytle 60, J’town 56; Total yards Lytle 256, J’town 421; Passing yards Lytle 152, J’town 248 Rushing yards Lytle 105, J’Town 173 First downs Lytle 15, J’town 21; 3rd down efficiency Lytle 3 of 12 (25%), J’town 3 of 8 (38%); 4th down efficiency Lytle 2 of 4 (50%), J’town 3 of 5 (60%); Turnovers Lytle 1, J’town 1 Penalties Lytle 5 for 31 yards, J’town 2 for 10 yards.
Individual stats
Passing Weston Jackson 19 of 30 (63%) for 152 yards, 1 TD Receiving Robert Inming 4 for 56 yards; Chase Guevara 3 for 33 yards; Hudson Lindsay 4 for 18 yards; Jair Flores 1 for 13 To CONTINUE READING PLEASE SUBSCRIBE at www.devinenewsmembers.com

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Upcoming local EVENTS…

November
13- Lytle Public Library will host a story time for ages 2-5 at 10:30 a.m.
18- Regular Lytle ISD Board of Trustees meeting at 6 p.m.
18- Regular Devine ISD Board of Trustees meeting at 6:30 p.m.
18- Natalia City Council meeting at 7 p.m.
19- Devine Driscoll Public Library will host a story time for ages 9 months to 6 years at 10:30 a.m.
19- Trunk or Treat with the Devine Police Department at Walmart from 6-8 p.m.
19-Medina Watershed stakeholder meeting in Castroville 1-3 pm at Braden Keller Center.
19- Regular Devine City Council Meeting at 6 p.m.
19- La Coste City Council meeting at 7 p.m.
20- Lytle Public Library will host a story time for ages 2-5 at 10:30 a.m.
21- Crochet group meets at the Lytle Public Library from 5-7 p.m.
23- This year Devine’s VFW is sponsoring its first-ever Christmas Market on November 23rd from 12 noon to 8 pm at 211 College Avenue, Devine.
23-24- Spartan race at Sandy Oaks Ranch.
25- Lytle City Council Meeting at 6:30 p.m.
25- Regular Natalia ISD Board of Trustees meeting at 7 p.m.
27- Lytle Public Library will host a story time for ages 2-5 at 10:30 a.m.
28- Thanksgiving Holiday
29-Salvation Army Kettle Drive kicks off. Volunteers needed. See article for more info.
If you want to add an event to this calendar, please email devinereporter@devinenews.com or call (830) 665- 2211 and leave a message for Catherine.