📱No Phones Allowed

Good morning, Waco. This is The Waco Buzz. Waco's biggest school districts open their doors this week, so sharpen your No. 2 pencils. Consider this your SparkNotes version of back-to-school week in Waco.

In today's Sunday Sip:
🎒 School Is Back This Week
🥩 Restaurant Review: Milo
📅 3 Things to Circle This Week
🏠 Home of the Week: 2001 Washington Ave
📝 Good Life in Waco: Early 30’s Owns Three Businesses

Let's get to it!

- Sam Harper

🚚 Back-to-school season is when you realize how much stuff you haul.

The backpacks. The sports gear. The Sam’s Club run. The extra kid who needs a ride home. If your current vehicle is already feeling a little cramped, this is probably the time of year when you notice it.

Right now at Chevy of West, well-qualified buyers can finance a 2026 Chevy Silverado 1500 at 0% APR for 5 years through GM Financial. If a new truck or SUV was already somewhere on your radar, that’s a pretty meaningful number to know about heading into the school year.

👉 See the 2026 Silverado 1500 at chevyofwest.com*

This week marks the start of a new school year for thousands of Waco-area students, with school districts across the greater Waco area getting back into the swing of things.

While you may not have a kid heading to class, a few things happening in education right now are worth knowing.

📵 One year into phone-free schools: We’re 19 years into the iPhone and one year into local schools putting serious limits on student phone use during school hours. There’s a good reason for it: focus, social interaction and learning all benefit from having screens put away. Humans did manage to learn things before the iPhone. Now, schools are also figuring out how to bring AI into the classroom without letting it do the learning for students.

🤖 AI is becoming part of school: Teachers are using AI to create lesson plans and assignments, while schools figure out how students can use it as a tool without turning it into a shortcut. More than half of Texas students and teachers reported using AI for instruction during the 2024-25 school year, according to a state Senate committee report. The bigger question: How do you teach kids to use AI without letting AI do the learning for them?

🎓 The degree-to-career equation is changing: The AI shift is raising a bigger question about what today’s students should prepare for. Computer science isn’t going away, but a technical degree may not be the guarantee it once seemed to be. AI literacy, data skills, cybersecurity, healthcare and other fields where technology complements human judgment are becoming increasingly important. Given the announcement of what is planned to be the world’s largest building this week (located two hours from Waco), it makes you wonder what roles will be most valuable in 15 years.

💰 Texas school vouchers enter year one: This is the first school year of Texas Education Freedom Accounts, which allow eligible families to use state funds toward approved private-school and homeschool expenses. Nearly 85,000 accounts received initial funding in July, according to this Texas Tribune article, with more than 121,000 students still on the waitlist.

🐾 Cen-Tex Kennel Club's 60th Anniversary Dog Show
August 14-16 | Extraco Events Center (The BASE), 4601 Bosque Blvd

Three days of AKC all-breed conformation and obedience and rally trials return to Waco. Cen-Tex Kennel Club has been putting Central Texas on the map for dogs since 1966, and this year marks 60 years. Bring the kids to watch, just leave your own leash-puller at home. This is a free event to attend from 10 AM - 3 PM each day. More information.

🎷 Jazz Night at For Keeps
Friday, Aug. 14 | 7 PM | For Keeps Coffee, 3619 Bosque Blvd

For Keeps Coffee turns into a jazz club for the night. Tickets are $20 and include admission plus one drink. A dessert menu reveal is coming soon, so keep an eye on their Instagram. Grab tickets here.

🎭 Dear Evan Hansen Opens at Waco Civic Theatre
Thursday, Aug. 13 | 7 PM | 1517 Lake Air Dr

The Central Texas premiere of the Tony-winning musical opens this week. It's funny, heavy, and honest all at once, following a teenager desperate to be seen after a misunderstanding pulls him into the middle of a tragedy. Parental guidance is advised for mature themes. Grab tickets here.

We went to Milo for date night last week. The steak frites have been on the menu for a while, but they’re still a “can’t-go-wrong” order: Texas Wagyu tri tip, cooked medium rare, red wine demi-glace, and fries.

The chimichurri was my highlight. If it wasn’t socially looked down upon, I could drink the stuff.

Also worth ordering: the Brussels sprouts, which were cooked exactly right. Insider tip: the cornbread arrives basically swimming in honey. Not a drizzle. A full-immersion swim.

What to order: Steak frites + Brussels sprouts

Where: Milo, 1020 Franklin Ave.

Cost: $27

Six-word review: Great steak. Ridiculously good chimichurri. Order it.

🤔 Know a Waco spot I should try next? Hit reply and let me know.

Good Life in Waco is our series on how real Wacoans build a life here: what you earn, how you're saving, what you've learned about money and health in this city.
👉 Participate.

Job: "I manage a self storage facility and a feed store. No degree, but I've tried to show up early and overdeliver on every opportunity. Started at $10 an hour at 16. By 20, I was making $25 an hour in management."

Income today: "I don't make a whole lot more than $30 an hour take-home, but I have ownership in all three things I'm operating, so there are advantages like a company vehicle."

Side hustle: "Five vending machines that net about $13,000 a year."

Money education: “Dave Ramsey, my dad, and hard knocks.”

Housing: "I rent a 1,000-square-foot house. Unless you want a rough neighborhood or a mobile home, it's pretty hard to buy when you're young. I'm saving up for a down payment on land, probably farther from town than I'd like."

Best Waco money tip: "Shop at the discount grocery stores. Don't pay too much in rent. You might have to be a little farther out of town than you'd like."

Favorite subscription: “YouTube Premium. Incredible education with zero ads, and I can listen to podcasts with my phone off.”

Freedom number: "I'd love to get my taxable income to $80,000. That would give us a much better buffer for medical expenses and starting a family."

What does wealthy look like in Waco? “$150,000-plus income with just about any kind of property.”

Best health decision: “Rowing on my rowing machine three times a week.”

Building relationships in Waco: “For me, it’s been the church community, plus getting involved in local fundraisers, nonprofits, and church events that connect me with people I trust and respect.”

What I wish I knew at 25: “Spend less. Invest as much as you possibly can. Build as much trust as possible with people who are wiser than you. Give more than you take, and don’t get in debt.”

👉 Got a Waco money story worth sharing? Share it anonymously.

Welcome to Home of the Week, where we give you the house, the stats and one job: guess the price.

This one sits in the heart of Waco, within walking distance of Pinewood Coffee, and it’s currently running as a successful short-term rental.

👉 Take your best guess at the price, then peek at the answer here.

Thanks for reading The Waco Buzz today. If you found something useful, share it with your group chat that is about to turn into a wall of first-day-of-school pictures.

Three ways to be part of The Waco Buzz:

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3. Dinner Club: Meet five other locals over dinner on August 26. New to Waco or have been here for years, it's an easy way to meet people you probably wouldn't otherwise cross paths with.