Monday - February 16, 2009
Good morning! I hope you enjoyed the weekend and had a Happy Valentine's Day. Last week I mentioned that eight Northside schools had been selected as 2008 Just for Kids Higher Performing Schools in Texas. On Monday I received a notice that the initial report was incorrect and there were actually sixteen schools in Northside that achieved this recognition based on analysis by the National Center for Educational Achievement. Following are the sixteen schools
I want to congratulate all of these schools on their success and I appreciate the hard work they are doing to achieve this recognition. As I write this Monday Message I know that the federal stimulus package was passed out of the Conference Committee last week, the House approved it on Friday afternoon, and the Senate approved it Friday evening. When the package was voted out of the Senate to go to Conference Committee the school construction money of $16 billion was removed. We were very disappointed with this, but since the House version going to conference had $14 billion in it for school construction, we felt that there would be a compromise with some money for school construction placed in the Conference Committee report. However, as the bill came out of Conference Committee there was no money in the stimulus package for school construction as a line item. I, along with several superintendents, am very disappointed with this action. I did contact the offices of Senator Cornyn, Senator Hutchison, Congressman Gonzalez, and Congressman Rodriguez and expressed my displeasure with this action by the Conference Committee. It is my understanding that there is a compromise provision that says that a portion of the money appropriated as the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund can be used for school construction, but I do not know the specifics of this provision. The State Fiscal Stabilization Fund is $53.6 billion of which $8.8 billion can be used by states for high-priority needs such as public safety and other critical services, which may include education, and for modernization, renovation, and repairs of public school facilities and institutions of higher education facilities. Before the action was taken of removal of the line item for school construction, Northside would have received approximately $16.3 million for that purpose. As it now stands, whatever portion of the $8.8 billion of Stabilization Fund money comes to Texas will then be determined for distribution by the State. Whether it goes to public safety, other critical services, public education, or higher education will be a determination of someone at the State level, either the Governor or the Legislature. If some of the money is allocated to schools for school construction, then how much a school district might receive would possibly be determined by TEA. And whether the money would be distributed as a grant is unknown. But basically Northside went from possibly receiving $16.3 million to possibly receiving nothing for school construction. It is amazing to me that Congress can appropriate over $700 billion to bail out Wall Street and banks, but will cut $14 billion that could go to schools for renovations and repairs. A part of the $53.6 billion State Fiscal Stabilization Fund includes $39.5 billion which is to go to local school districts using existing funding formulas, and this can be used for preventing cutbacks, preventing layoffs, school modernization, or other purposes as defined by the law. Again, we will have to wait and see how the Governor and/or Legislature decide to disburse this revenue. I am appreciative of the funds allocated for Title I and IDEA. Certainly these funds will help school districts fund services to economically disadvantaged students through Title I and fund services to special education students through IDEA. In the original House bill we were going to receive about $13 million in Title I and about $17.8 million in IDEA funding over a two-year period. Whether the funding in the final bill will provide us with this amount is still to be determined. There was funding in the bill for educational technology and other items related to education, but I am sure this will flow to states for the determination of whether these funds will be distributed by grants or allocations. As I learn more about how the stimulus package will help us in Northside, I will certainly let you know, but there are many unanswered questions at this time. We continue to track bills that could have an impact on schools, and George Torres and I are talking with some of our legislators about certain issues. We met with staff from Senator Van de Putte's office to discuss the funding bill that has become known as the Equity Center proposal, but which they are now calling the Formula proposal. Under the proposal as it now stands, we would get about $8 million in 2009-10 and $30 million in 2010-11. I have talked with several other superintendents and most of them seem to be favoring this approach to funding rather than remaining with a target revenue system. I do know that some in the Legislature will be proposing simply raising the floor on target revenue, increasing the dollars per WADA, and lessening the recapture amount of Chapter 41 school districts. We do not believe this proposal would help us as much, yet we have not seen any printout figures. At the current time I am supportive of what Senator Van de Putte has proposed and I know I will be discussing this at the Texas School Alliance meeting this week. Also, we do know that Rep. Mike Villarreal will file a bill that will give us five years on the TAKS exemption for the unschooled immigrant children, but we want to see a full exemption for those who come to us at the secondary school level. I am sure this will be dealt with when the Legislature begins taking up revisions to the school accountability system, and at this time I am not sure what will be proposed as a revamp of the accountability system. I want to make mention that several of the NISD high schools competed in the Music in the Schools competition, along with other high schools in the City, and that Taft HS was the only Northside school to make it to the finals. The competition is to showcase the wonderful work the Orchestras do in the schools and to allow the students the opportunity to be recorded for a live album. Taft HS came in second overall. This was a wonderful opportunity for our students, as well as our district, to show how talented our students are. Congratulations to the Taft orchestra and to all our orchestras who competed! I am very proud of our strings program in Northside and especially proud that every one of our 62 elementary schools offers strings instruction. A great program and one that I am very proud of! Also, this last week I was able to attend a Seussical performance by the second grade students at Fisher Elementary School. It was great and I enjoyed so much watching these second graders perform. Thanks to Chris Engstrom and Bertha Montoya, music teachers, and Cindy Benning, art teacher, for their hard work in preparing the students for this performance. I loved it! On Thursday evening, Trustee Lynn Britton asked me to attend bowling competition between some of our schools. Through the efforts of Mr. Britton, most of our high schools started a bowling team, and they compete against one another. On this night O'Connor was bowling against Jay and Brandeis against Stevens in both boys and girls competition. It was so enjoyable watching the students bowl, seeing so many parents there, and just experiencing the fun and enjoyment these students were having. I was so impressed with how good these students were in their bowling, and this was particularly impressive to me since I have bowled very little in my life. Other Northside publications have mentioned that A.J. Navarro, a student at Marshall HS, actually bowled a perfect game of 300 on January 6. This Northside High School Bowling Club League is in its first year with eight high schools participating with about 130 students. A great program for our students and I know this will grow in future years! Thanks to all of those who helped make this happen, especially the parents, and the team sponsor/coach! In closing, I thank each of you for what you do. Every day I see evidence of the fact that we in Northside believe in our students and what we do as educators. Have a great week! |
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