Back to School

School officially started on Monday for most students in the Houston area. The first week of school is always a time of hope for teachers, parents, and students. My building has new administration and it that is exciting for most of us. We want to see how everything will work out and those folks have a lot on their plates this year. I wanted to talk about a couple of changes that are coming down the pike.

First, the state decided in the past two years to install what most of you would think of as a curve to the TAKS test. In particular, in the elementary grades, students with failing scores in reading, writing, or math may be considered as passing for accountability purposes. The idea is that a formula was applied to predict whether that student would pass in the next testing cycle. In practical terms, it took our campus from acceptable to recognized two years ago and from unacceptable to acceptable this year. That multiplier is going away. Raw scores will now stand.

Secondly, everyone is feeling a budget crunch right now. The Texas Legislature in their infinite wisdom has not given Texas school districts any new money for a couple of legislative cycles. So, our revenues rise and fall with ADA. For those districts with declining enrollments (like ours) we must make due with less money. As you might imagine, costs for building, costs for supplies, and heck, labor costs are on the rise. So, if costs increase and revenue decreases you have a huge issue.

The pickle comes in when you give professional contracts to teachers, administrators, and support personnel. Those are guaranteed. So, when cuts must come they come with paraprofessionals that do not have contracts. Those folks are invaluable to a school and on the economic side, are a part of the lower middle class that seems to get squeezed in economies like this. We used our paras for tutoring more than for the menial tasks that most people associate paras with. So, the results will get worse on the TAKS test if everything remains stagnant. Things didn't remain stagnat, we had to cut back.

Naturally, programs and supplies are the next things to get touch. Just about every teacher pays upwards of $500 to $1000 a year on supplies and other materials needed for their classroom. We used to get a subsidy to pay for part of that. That subsidy is now gone. Furthermore, many of the supplies and services we counted on from the district had to be cut. It's a nasty situation.

In districts with level enrollment, the problems aren't so bad, but with no new money it is hard to keep up with increasing costs. Growing districts might have as bad a problem as diminishing ones. You have new kids with the state mandates that come with them (22 to 1 through the third grade) and not enough money to cover them. Money is tight everywhere. It was bad for people looking for teaching jobs and hard for those left behind to do the jobs. It's going to be a tough year.

All that being said, we can't make excuses for poor performance. Our goals are just as lofty as they have ever been and it always takes a partnership between students, teachers, and parents. If your son or daughter's teacher seems to be a little more on edge during parent/teacher night please understand it isn't about you or your student. We all are a little more stressed this year.