Westlake (26-4 overall, 11-0 in district) beat Austin High (19-11, 4-7) at its own deliberate attack in a 55-50 win that moved the Chaps closer to the district crown.

The Maroon’s reliance on their zone came as no surprise to Westlake. In the earlier meeting between the teams [a 65-62 Westlake win], Austin High had its most success when it played zone defense and slowed down the pace. Friday, the Chaps held Westlake eight points under its season average.

However, Chap senior point guard Cody Doolin saw that score as a positive for his squad as it nears the postseason.

“Austin High did a good job in their zone,” he said. “They slowed us down, but I think that’s what we’re doing better as a team; we can play fast, or we can slow it down and win a game like this.”

Doolin did his part to help the Chaps get the victory. After spending most of the first half as a facilitator, he picked up his offensive game as the contest began to bog down.

Austin High never led in the game but cut Westlake’s to 33-30 midway through the third period. Doolin, who had 17 points in addition to seven assists and seven rebounds, responded by slicing into the lane and flipping in a reverse layup. He then nailed a three-pointer on Westlake’s next possession and finished his scoring burst with a trey that opened the fourth period and gave the Chaps a 43-36 lead.

Austin High didn’t close that gap to a single basket until a desperation three-pointer with four seconds left in the game.

“I wasn’t making many shots early, and my teammates were knocking them down,” Doolin said. “Once it [Austin High’s zone defense] started loosening up, that helped everyone else, and it helped me.”

According to Ellis, the officiating didn’t help his team find a rhythm. The Chaps were whistled for 18 fouls and suffered a 14-5 foul deficit by the end of the third period.

“It was about impossible to get going,” he said. “I couldn’t get a read on how they [the officials] were calling the game, and many questionable calls didn’t go our way. But that’s what happens in rivalry games like this. Sometimes, you have to be so much better just to get ahead.”

Conner Kemper scored 13 points for the Chaps, and Gus Leeper added seven points and nine rebounds.

Austin High’s Eric McClellan led all players with 19 points, and teammate Alex Reinking chipped in 13 points and 13 rebounds. The rest of the Maroons combined for 18 points on a collective 7-of-28 shooting.

With a season sweep of their most bitter district rival behind them, the Chaps can now focus on finishing one of the most challenging district slates in the state. The Chaps enter the home stretch two games ahead of Bowie but face a daunting final stretch that includes trips to Akins and Bowie before a home finale with Pflugerville.

“We want to win every game,” Doolin said. “That’s been a goal of ours for a long time, to go undefeated in district. But we have three tough games left.”

News and notes
Sophomore post Drew Wikelius played his first game since suffering a foot injury a month ago and scored four points on 2-of-3 shooting. … The Chaps knocked down eight of 19 three-point shots, compared to three of 19 for Austin High.

Box score
Westlake 55, Austin High 50

Austin High 13 11 12 14 – 50
Westlake 23 8 9 15 – 55

Austin High (19-11, 4-7) – McClennan 5-10 8-9 19, Reinking 5-14 3-5 13, Dogale 0-5 0-0 0, Robbins 3-7 0-0 7, Strake 1-7 0-0 3, Gonzalez 3-8 2-2 8, Nath 0-0 0-0 0, Wright 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 17-52 13-16 50.

Westlake (26-4, 11-0) – Powell 2-7 0-0 7, Meyertons 1-2 2-2 4, Kemper 5-11 0-1 13, Leeper 2-7 2-2 7, Doolin 6-15 3-4 17, Rowan 1-2 1-1 5, Cox 0-1 0-0 0, Wikelius 2-3 0-0 4, Lancashire 0-1 0-0 0, Fell 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 19-49 9-11 55.

3-Point goals: Austin High 3-19 (Powell 1-2, Robbins 1-2, Strake 1-4, Wright 0-1, Gonzalez 0-2, Reinking 0-3, Dogale 0-5), Westlake 8-19 (Kemper 3-4, Doolin 2-7, Leeper 1-1, Rowan 1-2, Powell 1-2, Cox 0-1, Fell 0-1, Lancashire 0-1). Rebounds: Austin High 37 (Reinking 13), Westlake 29 (Leeper 9). Assists: Austin High 4 (McClennan 2), Westlake 9 (Doolin 7). Steals: Austin High 3 (Reinking 2), Westlake 5 (Doolin 2). Blocks: Austin High 1 (Robbins 1), Westlake 4 (Leeper 3). Turnovers: Austin High 16, Westlake 14. Total fouls: Austin High 13, Westlake 18.

Taste of Royal Fig

Patrons at the Royal Fig’s recent grand re-opening shindig at the new Westlake location at 4238 Bee Cave Road line up at a buffet delicacies ranging from crispy pork belly to braised short ribs to smoke parsnip soup shooters. The party also featured items from the two other businesses that share the space, Stardust Pastry and Rojo Pictures. For more information, visit www.royalfig.com or call 814-9743.

Photo by Rojo Pictures

The program will feature beloved retired counselor Toody Byrd, who is sure to delight the audience with a humorous keynote address. The program also includes former student and Texas Monthly writer John Spong, who will serve as emcee, and former student Kenny Luna.

There will be performances by the orchestra’s string quartet, band, choir and Hyline dance team.

Members of the current 40th graduating class and all alumni are invited. Light refreshments during the last 45 minutes will be served in the WHS Chap Court.

Eanes is the oldest school in the district, and it is one of the community’s precious few sites with historical significance. The first school was housed nearby, and the school district’s oldest still-standing school remains intact on the campus. Built in 1937, the rock school house is still used for educational programs as part of the history curriculum.

In addition, the Eanes-Marshall ranch house, former home to Eanes founding father, Robert Eanes, was moved to the campus and restored a few years ago.

So, nothing would be more tragic than to see the present day school changed drastically. That is part of the reason for the parents working hard to help school district officials make the right decisions.

But parents at the district’s other five elementary schools feel similar passion for preserving the good things about their campuses, and we urge all of them to get involved in any future renovation projects by laying out a similar vision. If school district officials can help make that happen by encouraging input, it would greatly improve the chances of the passage of future bond proposals.

It would be in the best interest of the district to offer proposed changes for each campus, get everyone on board and pledge to do the work in phases over a five-year period, with little or no disruption in school operations. We hope the bond package is one that is fiscally conservative in scope, because anything the scale of previously discussed $100 million-plus proposal is doomed to fail. Confidence in the continued economy’s improvement is simply not there yet.

During a public meeting on Jan. 27, Larry Kaiser, head of the district’s business department, told trustees the district had earned $916,441 interest on all funds during the 2008-2009 school year. The funds were invested in a local government investment pool, TexPool run by Texas Association of School Boards.

“We have stayed within governmental investment pools; our primary focus is safety,” Kaiser said. “The financial market is still weak. We are better off at the current time staying with short term rates rather than long term investments.”

Board vice president Paul Stone, president and CEO of Clearshot Capital Partners, said the investments in the pool aren’t nearly as conservative as he would have expected.

“These are not conservative; certainly, if you look at 2008, they are not.” Stone said. “It really catches my attention.”

Stone said he was concerned that 60 percent of the TexPool funds were in commercial paper.

“We want to understand the suitability of those investments,” agreed board member Clint Sayers.

Stone, Sayers and board member Robert Durkee all told Kaiser and district Superintendent Nola Wellman that they wanted more information on investments and the state law that governs them.

Board member Ellen Balthazar said she did not feel the board should attempt to micromanage the district’s investments and that she was comfortable that the TexPool funds were being overseen adequately.

“We [are] a small board with an individual small investment,” she said. “I am just wondering at what level we would need to second guess those [investment] decisions on a smaller scale.”

Stone said he wanted to know the standards that govern the TexPool fund.

“I would be stunned if we were the only [school] board sitting here asking these questions,” he said. “If someone stops me in the grocery store and says, ‘I hear you have 60 percent invested in paper. Are you crazy?’ I’d like to be able to say something better than, ‘Well, I don’t know. We’ve been told it’s safe.’ I would like to be able to provide a little more detail than that.”

Board members delayed reviewing and modifying the district’s investment policy until Kaiser pulls together more information on the current TexPool fund.

District curriculum and instruction head Bill Bechtol gave board members good news as he summarized a 20-page Academic Excellence Indicator System report reflecting student performance and campus profiles. He told the board that the district had maintained exemplary ratings during the 2008-2009 school year as a district and for each campus. The district earned 11 Gold Performance Acknowledgements for the time period for AP/IB results (2007-2008), college admissions (Class of 2008), college-ready graduates (Class of 2008), recommended high school program (Class of 2008), Texas Success Initiative ESLA, Texas Success Initiative mathematics and commended on reading/ELA, writing, mathematics, science and social studies.

Bechtol told board members that a high percentage of Westlake High School students take advanced placement exams and are successful in earning college credit for their efforts. Almost all students are passing Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills exams and a continually increasing percentage of students are reaching commended levels in most subjects, Bechtol said. He said the AEIS report confirmed that the district staff is highly qualified and doing a better job of preparing students for college than their average counterparts in the state.

During their meeting last week, district school board members also approved a May 8 trustee election for Place 6, currently held by Mike Monnig, and Place 7, currently held by Balthazar. Both three-year board terms expire May 31. Both incumbent board members will throw their hats in the ring for an additional term, the third for Monnig and the fourth for Balthazar. Monnig said he had work he wanted to finish and would run for at least one more term.

“I feel like I still have more to contribute, and it is really a labor of love for me,” Balthazar said.

A concurrent special election will also be held to fill the Place 5 seat vacated by Gail King last August. The board appointed retired University of Texas in Arlington educational leadership and policy studies assistant professor James Kallison as an interim replacement until the upcoming election. Kallison said he will seek election to the seat for the two-year remainder of King’s three-year term.

“It is important that we continue the process of developing a master plan,” Kallison said. “This process started two or three years ago, but the board has never put a definitive stamp on how it wants to continue for 10-15 years into the future. Once that is done, we can more easily determine the elements that need to go into a bond process.”

Kallison said the district continues to be constrained by the current school finance system.

“It is very important that we match our limited resources to the goals of the district,” he said.

Early voting for the school board elections will begin on April 26 and run through May 4. Saturday is the first day to file for a place on the ballot. Filing continues through March 8.

Since the aging sign had been damaged beyond repair, the church needed a variance to rebuild the two-paneled wood sign, asking for each panel to be about 26-square-feet.

“The two signs that are there exceed the variance for the square footage,” said church representative Tom Stratton. “We want to rebuild in the same footprint.”

Council members voiced concerns over the lighting of the sign, which Stratton asked them to allow until 10 p.m. Because the church, located at 1460 Red Bud Trail, is in a more residential area, they asked that the lighting hours be restricted and that the wattage be minimal.

Councilwoman Cindy Probst made a motion to allow the variance request, but restrict each panel to 24-square-feet and include low-wattage lighting to be turned off at 9 p.m. each night. The motion also requested the removal of a safety light and pole near the entrance. Council members voted for the measure unanimously with Stan Graham and Andrew Schwartz in absentia.

The council later voted to impose a new measure that would prevent any resident from obtaining a building permit while they have outstanding code violations with the city. The discussion, prompted by Probst, drew support from both the council and mayor.

“This ordinance attempts, in part, to bring the property into compliance, whether the current property owner was involved or not,” City Attorney Alan Bojorquez said of the initial draft.

Council members all agreed that they’d like to see the measure only impact property owners who were involved in a violation, not those who happened to buy a home with outstanding issues. With that detail changed, council members voted for it unanimously.

In other action, WLH Police Chief Cliff Spratlan delivered a report of 2009 incidents that included 3,206 citations, 777 warnings, 47 arrests and 34 incidences of impounded property. He also delivered a state-mandated report about racial profiling statistics in the city, which showed no abnormalities in ratios of warning to citations for any particular race.

The bassist and back-up singer recently won SchoolJam USA’s battle of the bands competition sponsored by the National Association of Music Merchants, with her band, After Math, raking in $5,000 for the school music programs of the four bandmates and scoring them a trip to Germany next month.

“I started playing piano when I was three years old, and music has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember,” Bennett says.

She joined After Math three years ago, three years into the band’s existence, on a recommendation from her Austin School of Music teacher.

“He said, ‘Do you want to learn bass? Do you want to join this band?,’ I was like, sure,” she says of her initiation. “I just went in and kind of learned bass as I got there. We just kind of formed our own sound.”

All four members of the band go to different area high schools, so they didn’t know each other before the band, but have since become best friends. And while Bennett’s earliest musical paths took her to the piano and guitar, she says she has fallen in love with the bass.

“It’s kind of like the glue of the music and I guess that really appealed to me,” she says.

After Math was one of about 200 middle school and high school bands that initially entered the competition. The top 10 bands with the most votes via the internet won a trip to California to compete in the national competition with a panel of judges comprised of Michael Blakeslee from the National Association for Music Education, Steve Dobo from Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, Dominic Pohlman from SchoolJam Germany, Rob Davidson from VH1 Save The Music Foundation, and Louie Bandak, director of A&R at Interscope Records.

Bennett says landing in California was nerve-wracking, and a “not-so-great practice” the day before had the whole band jittery but the second they hit the stage, they just did what they loved to do. They not only came away with the grand prize, but three of the four band members got individual first place nods including Bennett on bass, Rachel Thompson for vocals and Dustin Belanger on guitar.

“In California, a German band called Heavy Ride kind of headlined, and now we get to headline over there so it’s kind of like this cool switch off thing,” she said.

While she has a hard time defining her band’s sound, she said the classic rock influences of the Beatles, Jefferson Airplane and Led Zeppelin all shine through.

“My dad really is one of the people who just introduces me to new music all the time. He loves the oldies, of course,” Bennett says. “My mom loves music as well. I think all of our parents are into music. We are so lucky all of our parents gave us a fair chance to express ourselves musically and just raised us off of that.”

For more information on After Math visit www.myspace.com/aftermathrox and to book the band, e-mail aftermath_rox@yahoo.com.

The group provided a 46-page presentation created by its members, which include architects, and an environmental engineer, accessibility expert, property developer, realtor and attorney.

“There is no doubt that the campus must be updated to meet the evolving needs of teachers, children, administrators and parents,” member Julia Webber said. “Without these needed improvements, the Eanes Elementary experience will diminish, threatening the campus’ long tradition of excellence.”

As the school is updated, parents want to make sure it retains its historic, park-like campus. Committee members said they are confident to preserve the school’s existing character while updating it for 21st-century learning.

“We know we need new buildings; it is very clear that we need new square footage,” said parent, architect and committee member Juan Miro. “We want to make sure the character of the new buildings matches the existing campus.”

Miro said the students at the elementary school value its history and unusual nature.

“When you think of a school that is unique, think of a school with a cemetery in the middle and a church that’s been converted into an art building,” he said.

The parents made their wishes clear – they want renovation, not demolition of the historical school grounds. Renovation, they say, is the environmentally responsible approach to updating the campus.

“We are not trying to design the school; we are just trying to establish the right parameters,” Webber said.

The parent coalition would like the district to replace portable buildings with new facilities; upgrade mechanical, electrical, plumbing and lighting in existing structures; upgrade communications infrastructure; upgrade campus access and security; and ensure Americans with Disabilities Act accessibility.

The current gymnasium and cafeteria building is at capacity, and the district should take the opportunity to replace the structure with a new more flexible building that can be used for a variety of events.

The coalition has drawn up maps for how the campus can be retrofitted and expanded based on the idea of zoned program areas for academics, administration, other anchor activities.

“We want to establish an academic core in the center of campus that includes historical buildings,” Miro said. “New areas on the outer edges of campus would house administrative functions, the gym, cafeteria, library and computer lab.”

Members of the Eanes coalition want feedback on their ideas from parents and other members of the community.

“We want to get a plan, a message out that all of the school community can support,” parent group member Colleen Jones said. “We need to work as a team with other schools. We are a district with six elementary schools. We need to keep communication going with the district and all the other schools.”

West Lake Hills Officer Eric Barsanti reported first seeing the car going westbound in the 5600 Block of Bee Cave Road, at 66 mph in a posted 45 mph zone. After turning on his lights and sirens and pursuing the car, it then sped through the red light at the Loop 360 intersection, according to his report.

“The vehicle disregarded several red lights and picked up speeds of 100 miles per hour,” Barsanti’s report reads. “The vehicle was swerving through all five lanes of traffic.”

According to the report, Barsanti pursued the suspect, later determined to be Allan Wing, 58, northbound on Cuernavaca, onto Westward Drive, south onto Timber Ridge Pass and then back onto Cuernavaca. It was there, near the 1700 block, that Wing allegedly lost control of the blue Toyota Corolla.

“The vehicle continued at my patrol unit then went into a ditch on the northbound side of Cuernavaca and struck a tree, causing the vehicle to stop,” the report reads.

Barsanti then removed the suspect from the car at gunpoint, according to the report, and read the suspect his Miranda rights before charging him with a felony count of evading arrest. Before taking Wing to Travis County Central Booking, EMS arrived to transport him to Westlake Medical Center where he received treatment for lacerations on his chin.

If convicted, the felony could result in up to two years in jail and a fine of up to $10,000.

West Lake Hills police officers first visited the store shortly before 2 p.m. Saturday afternoon when the store proprietor, Andrew Herring, 30, reported a man attempting to pepper spray him then leaving the store with an $88,000 diamond ring.

“Mr. Ware stated the suspect then ran out the front door and then went south toward the back of the store,” the report reads. “Mr. Ware stated that he chased the suspect south through the parking lot and saw the suspect run through the fence just south of the store and that he thought he heard the car door close and a car speed off. The fence had three boards removed.”

According to the report, the officers could not view the security footage at the time because Ware said he did not have the pass code, but that he would gain access and make a copy for police by Monday, Feb. 1.

Ware, and another witness, Miram Leaman, 27, described the suspect as a white male between 5-feet-10-inches and 6-feet-2-inches, weighing about 200 lbs., in his late 20s or early 30s, with short, spiky black hair and a noticeable gap between his front teeth. At the time of the crime, witnesses say he was wearing a black pea coat with zippers on the sleeve, gray-colored pants, black designer European sneakers, black-rimmed glasses and an expensive Breitling watch.

Ware called police back to the scene at 3 p.m. the next day to report that the store had been ransacked overnight. When Corporal Greg Paiz arrived, he said he noticed that several wires appearing to be connected to the security system had been cut. He reported that he also saw a hole in the roof revealing a rope attached to a metal beam where the suspects apparently made entry.

Jewelry was strewn about the store, according to police, and it appeared the safe had a hole cut in it using a torch.

“Ware was not able to provide me with exact details of all items taken from the safe, but gave an estimated value of $1 million in jewelry,” the report reads.

According to the report, Ware told police that the buildings alarm company had called him at 9:45 to alert him that the main phone line wasn’t working, but that when he and his wife drove passed the store later that night, they did not notice anything amiss. Police say he also told them that he had unplugged the video system on the previous day to ensure that it would not record over the footage of the daytime heist.

The West Lake Hills Police Department is still investigating the incident.