Lynn Walsh

A story written for Texas Watchdog:

HISD summer school costs to be covered by individual schools: West University Examiner
Wed Jul 21 19:27:00 2010 CST
By Lynn Walsh

A $19 million federal funding shortfall at the Houston Independent School District has been passed on to individual school campuses, according to an article in the West University Examiner.
Programs normally funded by the Houston Independent School District’s central office, like summer school and preschool will now have to be funded by individual school budgets, the article says.

This is not the first time summer school funding has been at the center of budget conversations at HISD. In April, HISD Chief Financial Officer Melinda Garrett and other top administrators were scrambling to find a way to fund summer school programs across the district.

Garrett said HISD normally spends about $28 million to fund summer school, and most of the money for the summer programs comes to the district in the form of Title I funds, federal funding aimed at boosting achievement among poor students. Title I funds are redirected to school districts from the state of Texas.

According to the Examiner, principals at schools across the Houston district were told of projected budget cuts in federal Title I funding for the 2011-12 school year on June 22, just two days before HISD trustees passed the $1.6 billion budget.

The article says:

“Board members were not officially informed of the adjustment until July 14, well after some were alerted by principals in their respective districts; many trustees felt slighted by the miscommunication and have also expressed that a drastic shift in expenses passed to individual schools should have been brought before the board for a vote.

“It’s a sensitive issue we should have addressed up front,” trustee Lawrence Marshall told The Examiner.”

Texas Watchdog has questioned the transparency of the 2010-11 HISD budget process before, asking Garrett if the scheduled public hearing and comments from citizens would really change what the budget looks like, because of their timing on the night of the vote.

Garrett has fired back via the Houston Press, which has updated its earlier item on the funding issue. She tells the alt-weekly that the $19 million figure may change, and that “trustees have known for months about the summer school funding problems.”

For weeks Texas Watchdog has been trying to get answers from HISD to find out how summer school will be funded in coming years. After phone call, e-mail and in-person requests, Texas Watchdog is still waiting for answers from the district.

In the article, the Examiner also describes its difficulty in obtaining information: “HISD originally declined comment. Since last week … HISD leaders have scurried to produce a cohesive explanation for the cuts.”

Contact Lynn Walsh at 713-228-2850 or lynn@texaswatchdog.org. Follow all her reports on the Houston Independent School District by searching #HISD on Twitter.