Texas school systems hang on to big-bucks reserve funds while laying off teachers
Tuesday, May 10, 2011, 08:06AM CST
By Lynn Walsh and Steve Miller

Texas’ largest school systems are laying off teachers by the hundreds and thousands while hanging on to the tens of millions of dollars in their “rainy day” and reserve funds — and some in those communities, including some teachers, say that’s a bad idea.

The Houston public schools, the state’s largest school system, has laid off more than 700 teachers to solve its budget crunch while having $279 million in reserves. The Dallas schools are considering laying off more than 1,110 employees and expect to have $85 million to $95 million in reserves at the end of the fiscal year. And the San Antonio public schools have more than $63 million in reserves, though they have found other jobs for teachers who faced threats of layoffs.

None of the three systems currently plans to dip into those bank accounts to save teachers’ jobs, though their budget proposals for the next fiscal year are in varying states of flux.

“I think they should be using the rainy day fund,” said teacher Susan Wingfield, who will be laid off at the end of this school year after 11 years in the Houston schools, the last seven teaching art at Lamar High. “We need to educate these students … We need to spend money on teachers’ salaries to do that instead of laying them off.”

The Austin and Amarillo public school systems both plan to use some of their reserves to plug their budget holes and prevent or reduce layoffs, spokesmen for those districts said. The Austin schools have $165 million in reserve and plan to use $43 million of it, while the Amarillo schools don’t yet know how much of their $55 million in reserves they will spend.

But school officials in some districts say they need to keep their rainy day funds for an even rainier day than today. And some say the state should spend its rainy day money first, before school districts dip into their own reserves.

A reserve fund “is not money that just sits there,” said Amy Beneski, director of governmental affairs for the Texas Association of School Administrators.

The state of Texas does not require a public school district to keep money in a savings or reserve account, nor does it specify how much money a school district should keep in reserve, according to both Allen Spelce, a spokesman for the state comptroller, and DeEtta Culbertson, a spokeswoman for the Texas Education Agency.

However, the amount of a school district’s reserves factor into its bond ratings, a sort of credit rating for public entities. The worse the bond rating, the more it costs to borrow money.

“The rule of thumb is about two (to) three months of operating capital,” Culbertson said.

That’s a problem for some school districts already. Dallas would need about $150 million to run its schools for two months, but has less than $100 million in the kitty. Two months of running the San Antonio schools would cost $67 million, spokesman Leslie Price said, but the school system is short a few million dollars toward that goal.

“For us, the challenge is that we have to make ends meet for a year or two, but can’t go too deep into the fund,” Dallas ISD spokesman Jon Dahlander said. “It’s just not there. With that $85 million or $95 million, with the current projected cuts in the legislature — the House wants $126 million – we’d bottom out completely.”

The amount of reserves also figures into the state’s rating system for school districts’ financial integrity, called FIRST. It requires school systems to “maintain approximately 60 days of operating expenses in their general fund account,” Culbertson said.

The school systems have a right to worry about drawing down their reserves and hurting their ratings, said Lonnie Hollingsworth of theTexas Classroom Teachers Association. “I’m sure that’s justified. But some districts have more than the suggested two months in reserve. And in a regular year, I’d say they need to be spending that on teacher salaries, but this time around, it’s going to save teacher jobs.”

The Austin schools will still have three months of expenses on hand after drawing down $43 million from its reserves this year, AISD spokesman Andy Welch said. The system has cut more than 1,100 jobs through attrition and layoffs, including 500 teachers laid off, he said.

The Houston schools have reserve funds in two accounts — the rainy day fund, holding about $80 million, and the “undesignated fund balance,” which holds about $199 million, the district’s financial head, Melinda Garrett, recently told trustees.

Houston has “never tapped into the rainy day fund,” HISD spokesman Jason Spencer said in an e-mail. With about $130 million a month in operating expenses, the $279 million on hand would likely keep the 200,000-student system running for about two months.

Six of Houston’s nine school trustees told Texas Watchdog in recent interviews that they did not oppose using some of the district’s rainy day fund to ease the school systems’ budget crunch, though all six also said the state legislature should first dip into the state’s rainy day fund to help school districts across Texas.

“I am not opposed,” trustee Manuel Rodriguez said. “There might be a possibility of taking $10 million out of one of the funds to help plug the hole or reduce the gap, but, you know, once that money goes away, it doesn’t come back very easily.”

Also supporting the use of some reserve money were HISD trustees Harvin Moore, Mike Lunceford, Carol Galloway, Anna Eastman and Juliet Stipeche. Unable to be reached for comment were Larry Marshall, Greg Meyers and trustees president Paula Harris.

“I am not saying we won’t use it,” Moore said. “But the state needs to do all they can from their rainy day fund before school districts use their reserve funds.”

The state’s rainy day fund receives money from oil and gas production taxes, said R.J. DeSilva, a spokesman for the state comptroller. Currently there is $8.2 billion in the fund, though $3 billion of that is likely to be tapped to fill the state’s budget shortfall for the current fiscal year.

“The state can afford to let some of that money go,” Galloway said. “They should release some of that money for education, because if we don’t educate our young people, I can just imagine what situation we will be in ten years from now.”

But local school districts’ rainy day or reserve funds generally must come from property taxes, and they can be slow to build up.

“No one is expecting the budget to get any better in 2013, so they are holding on to it,” Beneski said.

And there’s always the chance of some major unforeseen catastrophe on the horizon. Rodriguez recalled how, when Hurricane Ike hit the Gulf Coast in 2008, the Houston schools had to shut down for several days — but still had bills to pay during that time. (Hurricane expenses were actually paid by the school system’s insurance carriers and not out of the rainy day fund, Spencer said.)

“Something has to be able to sustain unforeseen emergencies and needs,” Rodriguez said.

He compared the reserve funds to an individual retirement account.

“You have your IRA and you lose your job. You don’t run to liquidate your IRA right away…You look for other jobs, you find ways to survive without having to go and dismantle your retirement plan. So, that’s where we are. I am willing to dip into it, but not in large quantities to where we destabilize the district’s financial stability.”

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Contact Lynn Walsh at lynn@texaswatchdog.org or 713-228-2850 or on Twitter at @lwalsh. Contact Steve Miller at 832-303-9420 or stevemiller@texaswatchdog.org

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Houston ISD trustee Larry Marshall held fundraiser on Rep. Borris Miles-arranged Costa Rica trip; see photo and source documents
Friday, Jun 17, 2011, 10:50AM CST
By Lynn Walsh and Jennifer Peebles

Houston Independent School District trustee Larry Marshall took up state Rep. Borris Miles’ offer of free trips to Costa Rica and travelled to the Central American nation twice, Marshall told the Houston Chronicle yesterday.

Meanwhile, campaign finance disclosures show that Marshall held a fundraising dinner for campaign donors — in Costa Rica — around the time he told Mellon he was in that country on a trip arranged by Miles, who does business with HISD.

From the Chron story by Ericka Mellon:

Marshall, the longest-serving member of the board, said he didn’t believe he needed to file paperwork to disclose the trips because he was there as a guest of a district vendor.

HISD’s policy, which appears to reflect state law for school board members, says trustees do not have to file conflict disclosure reports if they receive food, lodging, transportation or entertainment from a vendor or potential vendor “as a guest.”

“You treat it as an event,” Marshall said. “I’ve gone to baseball games with individuals, and the lawyers have said, ‘As long as the sponsor’s present, there’s nothing to disclose.’ ”

The “guest” argument perhaps explains why there’s a large blue check mark next to the word “no” on Marshall’s ethics form covering calendar year 2010, right after it asks this question:

During the reporting period, have you received any gift, honorarium, or other payment which was unrelated to services performed or goods furnished by you from any party who did business or who was interested in doing business with the Houston Independent School District? (You need not report food, lodging, transportation or entertainment accepted as a guest or gifts received which have a value of less than $50 each, excluding cash or a negotiable instrument.)

Marshall’s campaign finance reports covering the first part of calendar year 2010 also show he “hosted courtesy dinner for major contributors” on or about April 27 at the White House Hotel Restaurante in San Jose, Costa Rica, spending $246.64 there. He also listed minor expenses for “ground transportation from hotel to airport” and a $26 bank fee at an airport, along with $300 in reimbursement to himself for “miscellaneous cash donations and gratuities in Costa Rica, 04/25-28/10.”

Miles extended his offer to a majority of the Houston ISD trustees, offering to arrange an all-expenses-paid trip to Costa Rica for each of them and a guest, paid for by the Costa Rican government, according to an e-mail obtained by Texas Watchdog. Miles told Mellon that Marshall was the only trustee to take him up on the offer.

Calls by Texas Watchdog to both Miles and Marshall were not returned.

It’s still not clear who else was on the trips other than Marshall and Miles. Miles declined to tell Mellon who else was on the trips, and Marshall’s campaign disclosure form does not specifically name anyone giving him a donation during the time he was in Costa Rica. Marshall appears in group photographs taken on the trip that were posted on Miles’ Facebook page, but most of the other people in the photograph were not labelled.

(The photo appears on this page; if you can identify any of the others in the picture, please e-mail us at lynn@texaswatchdog.org.)

In addition to his service in the legislature, Miles is also an insurance agent who is HISD’s flood insurance vendor. He is a close friend of two HISD trustees, trustees president Paula Harris and trustee Carol Mims Galloway.

The value of an all-expenses-paid trip to Costa Rica is unclear. The e-mail obtained by Texas Watchdog was a reminder e-mail Miles sent to the trustees roughly two weeks prior to the November trip.; it’s not clear when Miles sent the initial invitation e-mail. The lowest available price on Travelocity.com this morning for a coach fare from Houston to San Juan, Costa Rica, for a trip beginning two weeks from today and returning three days later was a $674 flight on Taca Airlines — but that’s also for a trip in June, while the trip including Marshall took place in November.

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Contact Lynn Walsh at lynn@texaswatchdog.org or 713-228-2850. Follow her on Twitter at @lwalsh. Contact Jennifer Peebles at jennifer@texaswatchdog.org or 281-656-1681.

Houston ISD leaders won’t criticize trustees president Paula Harris for voting on contracts that included work for close friend’s firm
Thursday, Jun 16, 2011, 09:30AM CST
By Lynn Walsh

The leadership of the Houston Independent School District hasn’t said in so many words that it’s entirely appropriate for HISD trustees president Paula Harris to vote on contracts that included work for a company owned and run by one of Harris’ closest friends.

But they certainly aren’t condemning her for it.

(See the orignal Texas Watchdog story by clicking here.)

Trustee Carol Mims Galloway said she didn’t know whether the votes presented a conflict of interest. Trustee Manuel Rodriguez said it was a personal decision, Greg Meyers said it was “up to the individual board member,” and Harvin Moore said it was a “judgment call.” HISD Superintendent Terry Grier said through a spokesman that he would not voice an opinion on the matter. And the school system’s spokesman criticized Texas Watchdog for characterizing Harris’ votes as a potential conflict of interest.

When asked whether Harris should have abstained from voting on $28 million in contracts that included work for her friend’s company, Galloway said she wasn’t sure.

“Well, I do not know … but if it’s a very closely related friend, I would think so, but, I do not know to what extent, because I don’t know people in her circle because she’s so much younger than me,” said Galloway, a former Houston city councilwoman.

Galloway said she was not aware of Harris’ relationship with Nicole West, who is an owner or principal in a handful of firms that have done business with HISD. She said the friendship between Harris and West never came up as a topic of discussion while trustees prepared to vote on the various contracts. Galloway said she knows West but doesn’t “know her that well or who she’s associated with.”

In remarks she made as she was being installed as president of the HISD trustees earlier this year, Harris said she was the godmother of West’s children, and added that both she and West were godparents to the children of state Rep. Borris Miles, D-Houston, whose insurance firm has provided flood insurance to HISD, records show. At the same meeting, Miles called Galloway his “my dear mother and friend” and said she “almost was my mother-in-law.”

Rodriguez also said he was not aware of the relationship between Harris and West, and said the decision to abstain from voting is a personal one for each trustee. “That’s normally left to our ethics,” he said. “If there is some sort of association, relation, we recuse ourselves from voting and abstain if that’s something that you feel might come into play in any way.”

Said trustee Mike Lunceford: “If you look at the rules, (West is) not a family member.” Harris “has said she has no conflict, so, at this point, I have nothing to go by to say that there would be.”

Meyers echoed Lunceford’s comments.

“I know there are no policies or laws that have been violated. I think, from my standpoint, it is up to the individual board member if they think there is any need to abstain,” Meyers said. “… One of the things I would like to point out was, last year when I was board president, even though we had (or) have one of the strongest ethics policies, I think, of any school district that I could think of, last year we embarked on adding to it and put in that ‘black out’ period and I think that’s something that has really strengthened what we do further. And it shows that the bidding process, the (request for proposals) process, the whole process of dealing with a vendor, is very important to the board because it passed unanimously. So, (it was) another attempt to make what we do and how things are governed, as far as process-wise, even stronger.”

Among the amendments made to the conflict-of-interest policies last year was the addition of a “code of silence” period — generally covering the entire bidding-and-contracting process — during which trustees and many HISD administrators are forbidden from communicating with potential vendors.

“I have never been approached by another trustee about a contract vote,” trustee Anna Eastman said in a written statement. “I have had people who are not on the board contact me regarding upcoming votes on contracts.

“I need to know that our procurement process is free from influence to remain focused on my ultimate goal, which is graduating young adults from every corner of this city equipped to realize fully their goals and dreams.”

While the leadership may not object, some in the HISD community are critical. A group calling itself “Educators for a Better District IV” — the HISD district Harris represents — have circulated an e-mail in recent days criticizing Harris’ connection to West. “We find it strange that while our schools are suffering and in need of education dollars, those dollars have gone into her best friend’s pocket,” the email reads. No current HISD employees identified themselves publicly in the missive.

Harris’ votes broke no laws, ordinances or HISD rules. The district’s conflict-of-interest policy for trustees forbids HISD from contracting with business entities “in which a Trustee or anyone related to the Trustee in the first degree of consanguinity (blood) or affinity (marriage) … has any pecuniary interest.” It makes no mention of friends or acquaintances.

In an interview with Texas Watchdog last week, Harris said her votes were ethical because West is not a relative. She said she has never used her influence to help West gain business with the school district.

“It doesn’t look good, in the sense that someone is getting all these contracts in all these different fields,” said Robert Wechsler, research director for City Ethics, a national nonprofit that works to improve local government ethics programs. “It definitely sounds fishy, but it’s hard to say that there was a violation,” he said, given that the Houston school district’s ethics policies don’t mention anyone but relatives.

“One of the problems is that this is one of these areas that ethics codes don’t deal with that well,” Wechsler said. “It is hard to define a ‘friend.’ It’s hard to define a ‘girlfriend’ or ‘boyfriend.’ So, usually, they’re not included. It’s only family members and business associates — you can say you are partners, or you own a business together — those kinds of things are factual. (But) nobody wants to go to the next step of defining what a friend is or what a lover is, so they’re usually left out, and they usually cause a lot of problems.

“It’s really important to point out with ethics laws that they’re minimum requirements,” he said. “It doesn’t mean that because it doesn’t say you can’t do it, like with friends, that means it’s OK to (approve) lots of contracts to your friends. It’s one of those areas (where) you really have to look at the spirit of the law.”

Harris and the other trustees merely voted up or down on slates of vendors to be approved for each contract. The makeup of each slate for each contract was determined by HISD’s administrative staff based largely on the estimated cost, and the trustees had no input into which companies were included in each slate, HISD has said. The votes on all four contracts were unanimous.

“If just knowing someone means that you can’t vote, or that you have to disclose it, then, that’s problematic,” Moore said. “The question is, how well do you have to know someone before you need for everybody to realize that you know someone? And then, what sort of relationships count? … I don’t know how you define that, for a friendship. It’s easy to define for (a) relationship, because that’s in the law and it’s pretty consistent. And you are either related to someone or you’re not. You just can’t do any business. But knowing someone — that’s where it probably becomes more of a judgment call.”

Some government agencies’ ethics policies do consider the involvement of people other than family members as conflicts of interest. Just this week, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Nevada state ethics law, which had been challenged by a city councilman who had been censured by the state ethics commission over a conflict of interest. The councilman had voted to approve a land-use change for a proposed hotel-casino that employed the councilman’s campaign manager, an old friend, as a consultant.

Trustee Juliet Stipeche returned a phone call for comment but could not be reached by press time.

Trustee Larry Marshall, a retired longtime HISD administrator, also didn’t return calls but lavished praise on Harris at last week’s school board meeting, the evening after Texas Watchdog’s story was published regarding West and Harris’ connections. Marshall — who has previously recused himself from votes on the grounds of having a potential conflict of interest — said the district was lucky to have Harris as president, calling her “sweeter than a politician’s promise and colder than a mother-in-law.”

Grier, who was hired by the trustees, has previously questioned HISD’s contracting processes, saying he discerned “no rhyme or reason except, quite frankly, influence where influence has no business coming from.” However, a spokesman last week said Grier did not want to give his personal opinion of Harris’ relationship with an HISD vendor.

“Dr. Grier is not in the business of passing moral or ethical judgments on the decisions made by his bosses on the Board of Education,” HISD spokesman Jason Spencer said in an e-mailed statement. “However, his administration has made it clear to you that there are no policies or laws prohibiting members of the HISD Board, or any governmental entity in Texas, from voting on contracts with companies that happen to be headed by people with whom they are friends.”

Spencer challenged Texas Watchdog’s statement in last week’s story that Harris’ votes presented a “potential conflict of interest”: “The fact that it appears you were unable to find anyone willing to go on the record making an allegation is very telling,” Spencer wrote. “It is also very telling that, to my knowledge, no one has filed a complaint against Ms. Harris in this matter.”

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Jennifer Peebles contributed to this report.
Contact Lynn Walsh at 713-228-2850 or lynn@texaswatchdog or on Twitter at @lwalsh. Contact Jennifer Peebles at 281-656-1681 or jennifer@texaswatchdog.org.

Texas Watchdog probes Houston ISD’s business ties to friend of trustees’ president
Friday, Jun 10, 2011, 10:25AM CST
By Jennifer Peebles

As part of its ongoing look at potential conflicts of interest for people in government, you may have seen that yesterday Texas Watchdog took a closer look the Houston school system’s business relationship with a close friend of the president of the school district’s trustees.

See the full story by clicking here.

Some key points from the story by Texas Watchdog reporter Lynn Walsh:
*Houston Independent School District trustees president Paula Harris has voted four times to approve contracts that included work for a firm called Westco Ventures, which is owned and run by a close friend of hers, Pearland businesswoman Nicole West, records show. Harris is the godmother of West’s children.

*The total value of the contracts is $28 million, though Westco is receiving only part of the work; total payments by the district to Westco so far total more than $1.5 million, records show.

*The school district has also done $125,000 in business with Westco and other West-owned ventures that did not require approval by the school board, including HISD’s payment of more than $19,000 to West’s private investigations firm, who were hired to track down truant high school students, records show.

*Harris says she has never used her influence to help West gain business from the school district. Harris’s votes were legal under state law and were allowed under Houston ISD ethics rules.

In addition to the full text of the story — which includes an embedded spreadsheet of payments in West’s firms and an interactive map of site-specific work West’s firm has done for HISD — you can also read all of our questions to Houston ISD leading up to our report and the school district’s complete statement in response to them. There’s a first batch of questions, with the answers included in it, and a second batch with a separate statement from HISD.

And if you know of anyone else in local government who faces a potential conflict of interest, please let us know. We’re news@texaswatchdog.org.

Some Houston ISD trustees question cost of proposed ‘career academies’
Friday, May 20, 2011, 10:56AM CST
By Lynn Walsh

Some Houston school district trustees are questioning whether the time is right to spend $1.6 million on proposed “career academies” at four high schools that would allow students to earn both their high school diploma and an associate’s degree in just five years.

As the Houston Independent School District prepares to lose $160 million in state funding next year, the school district is also proposing to launch the career academies at Furr, Sterling, Kashmere and Scarborough high schools through a partnership with Houston Community College.

“I truly believe in infusing resources where they don’t already exist,” HISD Trustee Anna Eastman said at a recent school board meeting. “But I am concerned. As we are talking about cutting programs and talking about possibly closing schools, while opening three new schools … now this. How are we going to sustain this while we are making cuts? No one wants to stop offering excellence to our kids, but it seems contradictory.” (View her comments in the video below.)

Trustees Mike Lunceford and Juliet Stipeche also voiced concerns this week over the cost of the programs.

The proposal involves offering the students a mix of face-to-face and online classes that the district calls “hybrid learning.”

“The model that we are talking about here, hybrid learning, is going to become the delivery model for education,” HISD Superintendent Terry Grier said during a recent school board meeting.

The total cost of the four programs would be $1.66 million. Grier says the cost for the programs is between $200,000-400,000 per school, depending on how many students participate. HISD says that figure represents the upfront costs to get the programs started.

HISD’s head of high schools, Aaron Spence, said that while the programs may be “expensive,” they are still worth the money.

“During tough budget times, you don’t want to stop innovating and going away from our strategic plan,” he said. “I think this is a way — it’s expensive, but I think this is a way for us to go to different schools and offer them a chance to have access to college.”

Spence said the $1.6 million “is the minimum amount” HISD thinks it can invest to create the academies. HISD Chief Financial Officer Melinda Garrett said most of the money would go to cover the costs of working with HCC. The rest of the money would pay for furniture, training and technology.

In February, when HISD discussed launching the program, it was considering a partnership with Lone Star Community College, not HCC, Texas state Sen. Mario Gallegos told Texas Watchdog. Gallegos, a Houston Democrat, also sent a letter to Grier and others criticizing the district for not considering HCC.

Eastman asked Spence at a recent school board meeting about the switch in partnership from Lone Star to HCC.

“HCC indicated it had an interest and desire to work with us,” Spence said. “Which was, perhaps, not our initial understanding.”

The proposal would create learning tracks for students, including general education, career-focused education and a focus in business, information technology, engineering technology, emergency medical technology or pharmacy technology. Most of the courses would be taken on the high school campuses. The program would take five years to complete, a year longer than the traditional four-year high school program.

HISD Trustee Manuel Rodriguez said he “likes” the proposal and would like to see the program expanded to more schools in the district. (Find out why Rodriguez supports the career academies in the video below.) And trustee Larry Marshall said the district needs to invest in training students for medical technology jobs.

Grier said HISD “decided to start with these four schools because these schools have the space for the students to come back for that extra year.” Grier also said the district would not be opposed to expanding the program in the future.

Spence said he is still working out concrete cost details with HCC and expects the overall cost of the programs to decrease after the first year.

HISD trustees will have to approve the proposal before the academies would open next school year.

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What do you think about the proposed career academies? Contact Lynn Walsh, lynn@texaswatchdog.org, 713-228-2850 or on Twitter, @lwalsh.

4 HISD schools to be closed; view trustees’ comments in video here
Friday, May 13, 2011, 06:12PM CST
By Lynn Walsh

This will be the last school year for Rhoads, Grimes, Stevenson and McDade elementaries now that Houston school district trustees have voted to close those campuses.

The closures will save the Houston Independent School District close to $700,000 next year and $1.8 million the following year, the head of the district’s financial department, Melinda Garrett, said during the Thursday board meeting.

Trustee Carol Galloway voted against the closure of all four schools. Trustee Juliet Stipeche voted against the closure of Rhoads, Grimes and Stevenson elementaries but not McDade Elementary School. Trustee Manuel Rodriguez was absent for the votes, but present during other parts of the meeting. The other six trustees approved the closures.

See what HISD trustees Stipeche, Harvin Moore, Larry Marshall and board president Paula Harris had to say before the vote in the video below.

The Houston school system has been debating school closures for months and has been focusing on its smallest schools, those that the district considers under-enrolled. These schools receive additional school funding through a “small school subsidy,” which HISD expects to spend more than $10 million on this year.

Check out Texas Watchdog’s previous coverage:

Number of schools on HISD’s chopping block drops to 4 (again) — but Love Elementary is saved

Neighbors fear ‘eyesores’ if HISD closes four schools; old Bastian Elementary to be bulldozed

Parents want answers as Houston ISD weighs closing four elementary schools

‘Overage’ middle schoolers factor into debate over closing four ‘small’ Houston ISD schools

Race, history factor into debate over costs to operate Houston Independent School District’s ‘small schools’

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Contact Lynn Walsh at 713-228-2850 or lynn@texaswatchdog.org or on Twitter at @lwalsh.

Neighbors fear ‘eyesores’ if HISD closes four schools; old Bastian Elementary to be bulldozed
Thursday, May 12, 2011, 11:30AM CST
By Lynn Walsh

The proposed closures of four Houston elementary schools could leave those neighborhoods with more eyesores and create safe havens for illegal activity, some neighbors have said — but school district administrators said they’re taking steps to prevent that from happening.

As Houston Independent School District trustees consider closing four elementary schools, community members are reminding them of the forlorn condition of another campus, the old Bastian Elementary building on Calhoun Road.

“The fact that an unoccupied, unused, raggedy, unmonitored, closed school … sits within 1.3 miles of Grimes Elementary School and only 3 miles away from Rhoads Elementary School is very unsettling,” Tristan Washington told HISD Superintendent Terry Grier and trustees in an e-mail. “We don’t need another school closure which results in another ‘old Bastian Elementary’ situation.”

Washington is a deacon at the Berean Missionary Baptist Church, about a mile down the road from Rhoads, which faces possible closure along with Grimes, Stevenson and McDade elementaries.

HISD’s chief operating officer, Leo Bobadilla, said he has “heard those concerns, too.”

“The last thing we want is an eyesore in the neighborhood,” he said. “We want to be a good neighbor in the community.”

Bastian sites, four schools
Red balloons: Four schools HISD trustees may vote to close.
Blue balloon: Current Bastian Elementary School site.
Blue pin: Old Bastian Elementary site.

View HISD elementary schools in a larger map

The old Bastian building was left vacant in 2007 when HISD built the new Bastian Elementary on Bellfort Avenue in Sunnyside. The new school was financed by bonds approved by voters in 2002, according to HISD’s website, and it combined students from the old Bastian building and Thornton Fairchild Elementary.

HISD still owns the building and the land that the old elementary school occupies, said Issa Dadoush, the district’s general manager of construction and facilities. It was put up for sale a couple of years ago, but the district did not receive any offers on it, Dadoush said. (View video of the old Bastian site in a YouTube clip Sunnyside community members created recently.)

The land and buildings are appraised at $2.2 million for tax purposes, according to the Harris County Appraisal District’s Web site this week — $1.3 million for the buildings and $900,000 for the land. At one point, the property was listed for sale for $825,000, according to an online multiple listings service search, or slightly more than a third of the county’s appraised value for it. (“6-acre tract of land located in Southeast Houston,” the listing said. “Ideally located for redevelopment as a part of the Southeast/Hwy 610 South Corridor.”)

To make it more attractive to possible buyers, HISD plans to bulldoze the 55,000-plus-square-foot building, something Dadoush said should be complete by the second week of July.

Washington calls the Bastian demolition plans a “small victory,” but says there is still more to do.

“The bigger task at hand is upcoming,” Washington said in an e-mail. The possible school closures “must be thought out carefully.”

HISD has only hinted at what the future of the Grimes, Rhoads, Stevenson and McDade campuses may look like if trustees close those schools.

At a recent school board meeting, trustees discussed turning Rhoads’ building into a school that would help “over-age” middle-schoolers move on to high school.

Meanwhile, HISD has had real estate appraisals done for at least two of the other three schools, Grimes and McDade.

HISD has not said it plans on selling either school site, but Bobadilla says that “going forward,” the district wants to make sure its police department is aware of all vacant properties so they can be added to officers’ regular patrol routes for monitoring.

The district also wants to make sure the vacant buildings receive a “certain level of maintenance,” Bobadilla said, so there are not any “rodents, broken windows or fences that need (to be) replaced.”

The 44,000-plus-square-foot building at Grimes, plus the 16 acres of land that surrounds it at Grimes Park, is worth more than $3.7 million, Integra Realty Resources, a real estate appraisal firm in Houston, said in a report completed in late March. The building was built in 1959 and renovated in 2004.

The firm does not recommend razing the property, saying that its value “is significantly greater” with the building in place than it would be as a vacant lot.

McDade Elementary School is worth less than Grimes, according to an appraisal completed by T.N. Edmonds and Associates in Houston. The real estate appraisal company estimates the school building and the more than eight acres of land it occupies is worth a little more than $3.1 million. McDade was built in 1962, and an addition was built three years later.

Old Bastian Elementary: Video
The old school appears in this video made by Sunnyside residents to appeal to HISD to keep Grimes and Rhoads open.

In the report, the company estimates the land is worth a little more than $1 million. It also recommends that the property be used for “public educational facilities…private charter schools/academies, institutional, religious or community centers.” (View the documents here. View Grimes’ documents here.)

HISD also had an appraisal done for Love Elementary School in the Houston Heights, which was at one point being considered for closure along with Grimes, McDade and Rhoads. You can view more details about the Love appraisal here. Texas Watchdog did not include Stevenson Elementary in its public information request because Stevenson was not being considered for closure then.

In response to a Texas Public Information Act request, HISD said that no similar appraisal documents existed for Rhoads Elementary.

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Contact Lynn Walsh at lynn@texaswatchdog.org or 713-228-2850 or on Twitter at @lwalsh.

Test scores show improvements at Apollo 20 middle schools, Houston ISD says
Friday, Apr 29, 2011, 01:36PM CST
By Lynn Walsh

The percentage of students passing a state-sanctioned math test on the first try went up at three of the five Houston middle schools in the Apollo 20 turnaround program, and two schools saw increases on the reading test, district data shows.

Overall, the Houston Independent School District says the percentage of eighth graders passing the TAKS math test increased by two percentage points, from 76% last year to 78% this year. The overall percentage of HISD eighth graders passing the reading portion of the TAKS test decreased by one point, from 88% last year to 87% this year.

Only two middle schools that are a part of HISD’s academic turn-around program saw increases in the percentage of students who passed both the math and reading tests — Dowling and Key.

“We have some reasons to be optimistic,” HISD Superintendent Terry Grier said in a press conference Thursday. In “these schools, this year we have seen attendance up, we have seen discipline rates go down (and) out of school-suspension rates go down.”

Fondren Middle School saw the percentage of students receiving a passing grade decrease by six percentage points in both sections of the TAKS test. Compared to last year, Attucks Middle School didn’t see any change in the percentage of eighth graders who passed the reading test but saw the percentage of students passing the math test drop by 10 percentage points.

Ryan Middle School saw the percentage of students passing the math TAKS test increase by three percentage points and the percentage of students passing the reading test go down by four percentage points.

(View data from all of the Apollo 20 middle schools, including the number of students who did not pass the math and reading section of the TAKS test on the first try and the percentage of students who earned the highest performance level, “commended,” in the chart below.)

Being a part of the Apollo 20 program meant a longer school day and an extended school year for students at these five middle schools and four low-performing high schools in HISD. The longer school day allowed time for students struggling in core subjects like reading, math or science to receive an extra period of instruction. Longer school days also allowed time for sixth- and ninth-graders to receive math tutoring.

Grier says the academic growth of eighth-grade students at Apollo 20 schools is “most pronounced” among those “who participated in the double-dose of instructional time either in math or reading.”

Seventy percent of Apollo 20 eighth grade students receiving a “double-dose” of math instruction passed the TAKS math test. That’s an increase of 21 percentage points compared to the same students’ scores on the TAKS math test last year when they were in seventh grade, HISD data shows.

More than 75% of the students receiving a “double-dose” of reading instruction passed the eighth-grade TAKS reading test. That is a 20-percentage point increase compared to the same students scores on the seventh-grade reading test last year.

“You are looking at actual student growth from one year to the next,” Grier said. “So, is that progress, yes. Is that victory? (I) don’t think so. It is a small snapshot … I think it is still concrete evidence that we are in the right place.”

Grier says these schools have “been failing for such a long period of time” that turning them around is not going to happen overnight but, he says, HISD “is off to a great start.”

Key Middle School saw the greatest gains out of all of the Apollo 20 middle schools. Key saw the percentage of eighth graders passing the reading test go up by 11 percentage points, while the percent of eighth graders passing the math portion of the test went up by 24 percentage points.

Grier said he believes the passing rates at Key may be result of a new principal being hired.

“She was the first principal we hired,” he said. “We hired her early, and she had a chance to come to work and assess the staff that was there. And she had an opportunity to recruit…from other teachers she knew and other teachers across district.”

Roland Fryer, an Apollo 20 advisor for HISD, agrees with Grier’s reasoning, but also said that Key “had more to grow.” Key “had 30 points in math. Fondren couldn’t go 30 points in math unless you are somehow going to get 110% of the students to pass,” he said.

Fryer serves as the leader of the HISD partnership with Harvard University’s Education Innovation Laboratory, known as EdLabs, which has been working closely and making recommendations for HISD’s school turnaround program, Apollo 20.

Reading and math TAKS results from all fifth- and eighth-grade students in the district were released Thursday. The results are from the April 4 math tests and April 5 reading tests. Students who did not pass the first time around will have two more chance to pass the test, first in May and again at the end of June.

If a fifth- or eighth-grade student does not pass TAKS after the third attempt, he/she will not be allowed to move onto the next grade level, HISD said.

Some schools in the district have 100% passing rates in both subjects. Scott and River Oaks elementaries had 100% passing rates in both fifth-grade reading and math. Ross Elementary School has a 100% passing rate in fifth-grade reading and Briscoe, Bush and Seguin elementaries have 100% passing rates in fifth-graders’ math.

Briarmeadow and Kaleidoscope middle schools, along with Project Chrysalis, Wilson Montessori and Dominion and Wharton academies, all have 100% passing rates on the eighth-grade reading section of the TAKS test.

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Contact Lynn Walsh, lynn@texaswatchdog.org, 713-228-2850 or on Twitter, @lwalsh.

Number of schools on HISD’s chopping block drops to 4 (again) — but Love Elementary is saved
Friday, Apr 22, 2011, 09:18AM CST
By Lynn Walsh

Four elementary schools in the Houston school system are being considered for closure due to their low enrollment, the district announced Thursday — but Love Elementary School has been spared after all.

Once again on the small school closure list: Grimes, McDade and Rhoads elementary schools in the Houston Independent School District. Missing from the list is Love Elementary, which, along with those three schools, was being considered for possible closure earlier this month.

HISD has also added one school to the list: Stevenson Elementary, just outside Memorial Park, near the Houston Heights neighborhood.

Under the newest proposal from HISD, students from Grimes and Rhoads would attend Woodson, a pre-kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school beginning next school year. Students from McDade would attend one of three schools next year: Paige, Kashmere Gardens or Cook elementaries. Students from Stevenson would be directed to Memorial and Love elementaries.

If all four schools are closed, HISD says it expects to save more than $1.6 million. The savings would come from the district not having to supply additional funding to the under-enrolled schools through it’s “small school” subsidy. This year HISD expects to spend more than $10 million providing additional funding to its smallest schools.

HISD Superintendent Terry Grier said he expects the savings to be greater than the $1.6 million, citing the savings from principals’ salaries, school operation costs (such as electricity and air conditioning) and more.

HISD trustees are scheduled to vote on the possible closure of these schools May 12.

Earlier this month HISD said it was considering 17 schools for possible closure. In December the list contained 66 HISD campuses, and in March, there were 37 campuses on the list.

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Contact Lynn Walsh at 713-228-2850 or lynn@texaswatchdog.org or on Twitter at @lwalsh.

Houston’s Sunnyside neighborhood appeals to save Grimes Elementary School from closure: Featured video
Wednesday, Apr 20, 2011, 09:12AM CST
By Lynn Walsh

As the Houston school system continues to debate closing 17 elementary and middle schools in the district, alumni and community members at one school are creating a video awareness campaign to save their school.

Opened in 1952, B.H. Grimes Elementary School in Houston’s Sunnyside neighborhood, may see its final bell ring come June, as Houston Independent School District trustees consider closing small schools in the district.

Local Grimes alumni are hoping to keep the doors to the school open a little longer and they are pleading their case with a video, which is today’s featured video on the Texas Watchdog home page.

“When you go to HISD meetings, they show their videos,” said Travis McGee, a civic leader in Sunnyside. “Their videos paint the pretty picture, but that’s not reality. Our video shows the reality.”

The video begins with facts and images of the school, which was named after Buchanan H. Grimes, a one-time HISD janitor who worked his way up to eventually become a principal.

McGee, a Grimes graduate, produced the video with with help from a friend, also a Grimes graduate.

“The only thing (HISD) are looking at are attendance numbers,” McGee said. “There’s more to it. They need to look at this area, this neighborhood. They need to do their research.”

HISD trustees were scheduled to vote on whether to close Grimes and three other elementary schools — Love, McDade and Rhoads — earlier this month. That decision was put on hold, and now there are 17 schools facing possible closure at the end of this school year. Grimes is once again on the list.

If Grimes closes, students would be sent to one of three schools that are all less than two miles away. How students would get to these other schools has been a concern of McGee’s since the beginning.

In the video, McGee shows some of the routes students would have to take to get to the other campuses, Bastian and Mading elementaries and Woodson, a pre-kindergarten-through-eighth grade school. The video shows streets without sidewalks, dead-end road-blocks, and several busy intersections.

On top of the logistics of the routes, McGee says the neighborhood students would be traveling through is not the safest.

“We have some of the highest crime rates in Harris County,” he said. “There is a lot of gang affiliation. We have prostitutes and child predators on the streets. This is an at-risk area, an economically disadvantaged area.”

McGee says he has shared his transportation concerns with the district and has been told they are looking into it.

The video also highlights prominent Grimes alumni like state Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, along with providing parents and community members with information about how to help and whom to contact.

If McGee could have it his way, he says he would like to see Rhoads and Grimes combined into one neighborhood school. Until then, he says he will keep fighting for Grimes and plans on making more videos to help his cause.