http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Sit-up-and-listen-folks-HISD-is-about-to-make-12530850.php

http://m.chron.com/news/education/article/Houston-ISD-proposes-drastic-changes-to-school-12512316.php

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Houston ISD officials said Saturday the district will need to cut about $200 million from its 2018-19 budget to bring spending in line with an increasingly gloomy financial outlook.

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In an equally momentous move, Houston ISD officials also proposed far-reaching changes to how the district operates its magnet and school choice systems, some of the boldest moves to date by second-year Superintendent Richard Carranza.

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The staffing standardization would mean the district's largest schools, such as Bellaire and Lamar high schools, could see a large number of teachers cut, while under-enrolled schools such as Kashmere High would likely see cuts on a smaller scale.

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Houston ISD Chief Operating Officer Brian Busby said that in his 20 years with the district, he's never seen cuts so deep that they would affect every level of the district.

"This is a different kind of cut. We've had cuts where we had to cut food service staff because of a shortfall, but we always had a way we could get out," he said. "We always had CFOs who could come in say, 'We'll help you this time but won't help again,' and they would go in fund balance or the superintendent's account.

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So they've never really put forth an effort to make meaningful changes because they always get bailed out?

I'm shocked that a government entity doesn't know how to manage money.

Haha, and it's crazy because they've had BOOMING property values in the city. How could you screw that up?

17 minute interview with Superintendent Carranza about this.

http://abc13.com/video/embed/?pid=2981621

http://abc13.com/education/hisd-chief-blunt-about-budget-shortfall-were-broke/2981532/

Out of money.....but still have enough to change the names of a bunch of schools.

hodgesco said:

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Out of money.....but still have enough to change the names of a bunch of schools.

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I still think they should just rename based on the highest bidder.

"It's just so expensive / unreasonable / difficult to do what the state requires because the state / principal / uninvolved parents / over involved parents make it impossible to do my job, which by the way I'm way underpaid to do (except that I'll never leave because let's be real no one else would pay me what the school does)."

- nearly every teacher I've ever met.

Gator03 said:

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Haha, and it's crazy because they've had BOOMING property values in the city. How could you screw that up?

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Look up recapture. The BOOMING property values means they need to send hundreds of millions of dollars to the state over 3-4 years. I think next year's payment is $148 million or something like that.

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"It's just so expensive / unreasonable / difficult to do what the state requires because the state / principal / uninvolved parents / over involved parents make it impossible to do my job, which by the way I'm way underpaid to do (except that I'll never leave because let's be real no one else would pay me what the school does)."

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Nailed it.

Between Ed and the Astrodome, HISD and their funding, and Queen Sheila, Galveston County is not a bad spot to be right now.

Seems like there has been a 200 million deficit mentioned in the news before. Terry Grier was smart to get out when he did. This should shock no one.

True, but they knew the recapture was coming. I'm willing to bet they spent and issued debt as if there would be know payment due.

I'd be willing to be that if you looked at their overhead, the number of administrators would be disproportionately high. Seems that is near universal in all school districts - administration out the ying-yang, all of which comes at a cost.

Didn't they also spend a million or more renaming schools because of some feigned SJW cause not too long ago?

Odds are they also own a lot of unused property that could be offloaded to reduce costs and bring in money from the sale. I know our school district here won't sell an asset to save their life, mostly because their fear is that a private or charter school will be the one that buys it and they will have actual competition overnight. Can't have that when a .gov monopoly works so well...wait, what?

I was impressed when they voted to sell the old Law Enforcement campus. Not sure where that stands or if they've studied the sale of any other properties. They had to have made some money when they sold the old Taj Mahal on Richmond, but it probably all disappeared in the new state of the art HQ.

The law campus was sold and is being leased back from the new owner until the new campus is ready.

The Richmond deal was over a decade ago, but I guarantee they made a mint on that real estate.

The previous $200MM was from the bond. Separate issue than this.

stroodles said:

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The previous $200MM was from the bond. Separate issue than this.

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OK thanks for clarifying. 200MM here and 200MM there all run together.

Some of the problem goes all the way back to Rod Paige when they decentralized control over the schools and made the Principals kings and queens. You have some schools with double-digit Asst Principals and some with only 2. Next year, they are standardizing the staffing to follow ratios (1AP:250 students, etc) as well as standardizing start times which will save millions in transportation costs...but a lot of it is too little, too late.

A couple of years ago, they were caught flatfoot when the TX Legislature didn't kick the school financing formulas down the road and it was evident that a recapture payment was going to be coming. They've had 2 years to cut and save (and they have to an extent) but it was nothing compared to the cut that is coming next year. I've heard a couple of central admin dept heads say that they were told to prepare a plan for a 40% cut, 50% cut and a 60% cut.

For an idea of the cuts some depts are facing, here are some slides that were presented to the board a couple of weeks ago...one of them says that depts have been asked to cut $178MM over the last 3 years...and then next year needs to be 208MM.

33:1 student to teacher ratio among the other issues. Also reworking the School Choice options with 4 quadrants of feed zones has parents in a tiff.

This has a potential to damage property values.

1. Immigration
2. "Johnny, settle down. Stop asserting your English language supremacy. Again, class: "Discrim...discrimation".
Good. Again."
3. "Johnny, that's it. You're off to Principal Yolanda Grievance's office. Shaming. Literate privilege."
4. "But this is PE....."

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"We always had CFOs who could come in say, 'We'll help you this time but won't help again,' and they would go in fund balance or the superintendent's account.

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English, bro, you speak it?

Can someone just tell me how I can blame SJL for this?

I know a few HISD employees. What they've all said is, they are guilty of getting too fat when the times were good. Last year health care systems laid off thousands, and Oil & Gas is arguably just starting to get back on their feet. But now that the state has come calling to collect, as they are considered a rich district, they're being caught having thrown a party while the parents were out of town.

I read a Texas Monthly article last year addressing the potential issues concerning the poorer districts, as the sate is so dependent on property taxes to fund education.

Just imagine how many illegals HISD is teaching and how much that costs.

Actually don't if you don't want to ruin hour night.

Make the illegals pay their own way.

Flashdiaz said:

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hodgesco said:

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Out of money.....but still have enough to change the names of a bunch of schools.

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I still think they should just rename based on the highest bidder.

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I'm a proud graduate of Gallery Furniture Saves Ypu Money High School!

Tom Hagen said:

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Make the illegals pay their own way.

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Don't be absurd. Schools are funded by property taxes. People in apartments and other rental properties pay property taxes via their rent payments. Landlords are smart enough to price their rent high enough to cover property taxes. Most of them, anyway.

What the **** is $162million on "Chief Operating Officer"?

So when you have 15 illegals living in a 2 br apartment they are paying "their share" of property taxes ?

Mattress Mack would be a deserving honoree for a school naming. Hell, we have one named after Bob Lanier now.

Plus, Mack saved a lot of young Houston school kids from gettin' that monkey on their backs.

I thought gentrification was solving that issue. If you think the districts demographics are the root cause of this, this isnt HISD of the 80s & 90s.

I'm going out on a limb here, but I am guessing that when you have that many illegals sharing an apartment, they're likely young males without families here. They are working here to send money back home. They aren't taking advantage of the meager education offered by HISD.

How about when you have 4 or more college kids sharing an apartment or duplex? Maybe they should pay their fair share.

And seriosuly, slum lords *ahem* apartment managers, should make better efforts to enforce occupancy limits.

combat wombat said:

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Tom Hagen said:

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Make the illegals pay their own way.

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Don't be absurd. Schools are funded by property taxes. People in apartments and other rental properties pay property taxes via their rent payments. Landlords are smart enough to price their rent high enough to cover property taxes. Most of them, anyway.

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That is true.

But the flip side is that those illegals tend to be the ones that use the "free" services the most. Which is the "free" food programs, which at some districts (don't know about HISD in particular) offer "free" breakfast, "free" lunch and " free" after school activities.

Not to mention the need for bilingual teachers and the creation of English as a second language programs, and the additional hard,costs that go along with those (books, having to print double copies of paper, etc).

Additionally, illegals and those from poor economic situations tend to be the ones that lead the charge for schools to have on site daycares because students get pregnant. I donlt know if HISD has one of those programs or not, but i would be shocked if they didn't. And those programs are not cheap.

On top of that is the sheer lost time educating those that do actually strive for an education and the continual lowering of the bar so that schools can ensure they qualify for federal dollars by meeting silly standardized testing guidelines.

But hey, lets keep funding a failed .gov monopoly so that little Juan can chase the American dream at the expense of my kid and largely on my dime.

Funding public schools is the biggest money grab in the history of our country. Enormous fraud on the taxpayer. ****ty product and corruption abounds. Not just HISD but virtually all school districts. Should have privatized long ago. Government does not run any business efficiently. Not one.