Good morning!  I hope you enjoyed the weekend and got some rest and relaxation.  It is a very busy time of the school year so we all need a little time to rest and spend with our families.

Last week Northside held its annual Partnerships Recognition Ceremony.  This is always a special event since it is held in conjunction with the showing of visual artwork from our schools.  Schools recognize Partners of the Year in several areas:  Outstanding Business Partner, Outstanding Mentor, Outstanding Partnerships Coordinator, Outstanding Partnerships Program, and Outstanding Business Person.  Over 300 campus winners were recognized, and 17 District-wide winners were selected from among the campus winners.  I won't list all the winners, but I want to congratulate each of the 17 District winners.  Much of the success of many of our students can be attributed to the time and effort of our many partners and mentors.  Also, the artwork on display at the recognition ceremony was great.  I am always impressed with the talent of our students and the work of our art teachers in helping these students make the most of their talent.  Thanks to Bonnie Ellison, Director of Partnerships, and her staff, and also Sharon Chumley, Visual Arts Coordinator, for their efforts in putting on this event.  It was a fun event and one the recipients of the awards really enjoyed.

On Thursday night Jimmy Elrod Elementary School held their 21^st Anniversary.  It was a wonderful celebration of 21 years and recognition of the school's namesake Jimmy L. Elrod.  Mr. Elrod served as a member of the Northside Board of Trustees and also as a member of the State Board of Education.  He and his wife Shirley have maintained a very special and active relationship with the school.  I want to congratulate Daisy Whisenant, principal, and all her staff on a great celebration.  The performance by the students was outstanding and I want to thank music teacher, Anna Loudermilk, for a great program performance.  Although schools do not normally celebrate a 21^st Anniversary, Elrod did not have a 20-year celebration and they wanted to do a special recognition of Mr. Elrod.  It was a great celebration and another fun evening of entertainment by Northside students.

As school nears an end so does the legislative session.  I wish that I could report that I have wonderful news about the funding of education, but I can't.  I am hopeful that as the House and Senate go to Conference Committee on the funding bill they will find a way to send more money to schools and do it in a more equitable way.  I was very disappointed in House Bill 3646 which is the House proposal.  Basically, all Northside is receiving is a little over $10 million for the biennium.  With over 90,000 students projected for next year and one of the fastest growing districts in Texas, the state would only increase funding to Northside by this amount for the two-year period.  The bill does state that one-half of the money has to be used to increase the salaries of teachers, counselors, librarians, and nurses.  I know that many of you would be pleased with this and I certainly support any increase in salary the Legislature gives.  Yet this would leave a whopping $5 million for the biennium to pay for increased costs for all other items and help fund some type of salary increase for other employees.  But what I remain most upset about is the use of State Stabilization stimulus funds from the federal government to fund the increases to schools rather than using state money.  They should be funding the $1.9 billion originally planned for schools before the stimulus money was made available with state resources, and sending this part of the stimulus funding to schools.  In other words the state should supplement the state budget rather than supplant the budget with these federal stimulus dollars.  As a reminder they are increasing the Rainy Day Fund from $7 billion to $9 billion at the expense of schools.  The least they could do is split the difference and take a billion of this and put it in the funding of schools.

Also, the House version reduces recapture payments of the richest districts in the state and actually eliminates recapture for 30 school districts.  There are districts whose property value per weighted average daily attendance (WADA) is greater than Northside that will receive more funding per WADA than we do.  For instance, a district in the San Antonio area has a target revenue of $5804 per student and we have a target revenue of $5055 per student.  This is $749 more per student which for an elementary classroom of 22 students equates to $16,478.  In other words, they have $16,478 more per elementary classroom than Northside has.  Yet under the House proposal this district will receive $115 per WADA while Northside receives $100 per WADA.  The effort to raise the target revenue of districts below the $4800 level I support and they will receive more per WADA than we do and I have no problem with that.  But reducing and eliminating recapture and sending a higher amount per WADA to richer school districts does not improve equity.  Again I am hopeful that common sense and reason will prevail in the Conference Committee and schools will receive more adequate and equitable funding.  Again, Sen. Van de Putte's proposal of school funding is much more equitable and if at least a billion planned for the increase of the Rainy Day Fund was coupled with her bill schools would be much better off.

As the session winds down the major educational issues are funding and accountability.  I had planned to talk about accountability, but I consider the changes in that system to really be moot if the state does not provide us adequate funding.  I am not opposed to the changes in the accountability system as they now stand, even with college readiness standards embedded in the testing program, but how can we reach new standards of accountability and improve student achievement when they will only fund us at an increase of $10 million for 90,000+ students for a two-year period.  An additional billion of funding from the Legislature would help bridge this gap between accountability and funding.

You are the ones that make education work for our kids.  You are the ones that improve achievement and help all kids attain success.  The success of our state and nation, the betterment of the economy, economic development, all depend on quality public education.  We all get it!  I hope others do!

Have a great week!