LTISD Info

A local TV station requested an interview with Rocky to talk about his recent salary increase and explain some facts that the reporter has noticed concerning how Rocky’s pay stacks up against other superintendent’s in the state.^TPIA

That’s right, Rocky, seems unable to answer to the public and media about his outrageous contract. The usual cowardice on his part.

Rocky really does have a hard time when it comes to the truth and explaining himself to the citizens and tax payers of this district.

Rocky makes me think of Bill Clinton when he said: “It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is. If the–if he–if ‘is’ means is and never has been, that is not–that is one thing. If it means there is none, that was a completely true statement….“

Surely Rocky would want to take the opportunity to explain how his salary is commensurate with his management skills? Oops, Rocky really can’t do that, but, but …

Or how he has made the district “the most exemplary school district in the state of Texas,” or … or …

Perhaps it’s best for Rocky to cower in the corner and send Jim Cummings out to talk … Oh no, even Jim is too frightened to talk to the media about the Board’s foolish financial decisions.

The timing of the request was particularly bad considering the district’s precarious financial position.

Perhaps it was the fact that Rocky and Jim are such close friends:

“He has grown close to several trustees, but has particularly developed a friendship with Kirk, one he thinks will last a lifetime.”

- “Cummings stepping off school board after 12 years of service”, Lake Travis View, May 5th, 2009

Surely since  Rocky and Jim are such good friends there would be no questions about hiring Jim’s youngest daughter, Sarah Cummings, as a teacher in the district?

I guess Jim hit the eject button and left the rest to  endure the fiery heat of reentry.

According to an article in the June 23, 2009 Austin American-Statesman:

“Two Central Texas school districts — Lake Travis and Lago Vista — will be the unintended beneficiaries of a decision by Education Commissioner Robert Scott to help one struggling Houston-area school district.”

- Kate Alexander, Austin American-Statesman, June 23, 2009

Imagine that, the LTISD, who already spends more money than the Eanes ISD yet significantly lags behind them in academic performance, is getting more money.

Why is the LTISD getting MORE money?

Why can’t the LTISD tighten their belts like everyone else?

Why did the LTISD give Rocky Kirk a pay raise this year if they are in such financial straights?

Why, why, why …

We keep paying taxes and they keep throwing our tax dollars down the toilet. And they have the audacity to consider asking us for more money in a roll back election?!

After reading a June 10, 2009 press release from the Eanes ISD about how well the Westlake High School fared in the latest Newsweek rankings of the top 1500 public high schools, I decided to find out how the Lake Travis High School ranked.

Unfortunately, I found out why the LTISD’s Minister of Disinformation did not put out a similar press release!

Keeping with Chris Wilson’s list of ‘cohort’ high schools, I have compiled a history of the yearly Newsweek rankings of the Lake Travis, Westlake and Westwood high schools:

Newsweek’s ranking of Westlake, Westwood and Lake Travis High Schools in their annual list of the top 1,500 U.S. high schools.

(Source: Newsweek, “The Top of the Class, The complete list of the 1,500 top U.S. high schools”)

Wow, 1096 for the LTISD! Quite a drop for the “highly acclaimed” LTISD and no where near the ranking of Westlake or Westwood high schools.

Just how did this dramatic drop happen?

Seems like we have more proof to back up Chris Wilson’s call for improvements in academic rigor.

Just what has the LTISD been doing with all that money that they have been throwing at the problem?

Lets compare the three school districts for each of these three high schools from a financial and taxation point of view:

(Source: Texas Education Agency)

Notes: ¹Spending Efficiency = Expenditures per Student ÷ Instructional Spending per Student

On a spending basis, the LTISD should be a good as the Eanes ISD, but all the rankings and benchmarks say otherwise.

Why then can’t the LTISD academic performance be as good as the Eanes ISD?

When it comes to “bang for the buck,” we see that others can and do excel.

What’s wrong with the LTISD?

Why do they think that more money will solve their problems?

Why can’t the LTISD manage their money as effectively as other districts?

We pay a LOT of money for mediocrity.

The latest edition of the Lake Travis View contains a “Letter to the Editor” from Chris Wilson regarding the number of National Merit Finalists and Commended students in the LTISD to other nearby districts:

“More scholars needed at LTISD

To the editor:

I wanted to share some information with the Lake Travis Independent School District community regarding my comparison of the Lake Travis High School versus Westlake High School and Westwood High School performance in the most recent National Merit Scholarship Competition.

LTHS, a TEA Academically Acceptable school for 2007-08, produced four National Merit Finalists eight National Merit Commended students, and was announced by LTISD on March 23. Westlake High School, a TEA Exemplary school, produced 28 National Merit Finalists, 48 National Merit Commended students, and was announced by Eanes ISD on Feb. 12.

Westwood High School, a TEA Recognized school, produced 29 National Merit Finalists, 43 National Merit Commended students, and was announced by Round Rock ISD on March 5. Both Westlake and Westwood high schools have seven times as many National Merit Finalists as Lake Travis High School. Westlake has six times as many National Merit Commended students as Lake Travis High School and Westwood has five point three times as many National Merit Commended students as Lake Travis High School. Westlake and Westwood high schools . do not have seven, six or five times as many students as Lake Travis High School even though they are both 5A schools and Lake Travis High School is a 4A school.

Historically, Lake Travis High School students perform very poorly on the written skills portion of the PSAT test that determines the National Merit Finalist and Commended status.

Congratulations to all of the wonderful students that achieved the Finalist and Commended student status.

You are the cream of the crop amongst high school seniors.

This community should be demanding that it is time for Lake Travis High School to see much better results in the National Merit Competition in line with the schools down the road from us.

Chris Wilson
The Hills”

-Lake Travis View, June 18, 2009, Volume 24, Number 25

Good point Chris! But do these districts have a back-to-back championship football team?! I don’t think so. Let’s get our priorities straight now!

Obviously Chris has not read the Wikipedia entry for the Lake Travis High School which is filled mostly with information about the schools past athletic achievements and very little information about academics.

There is only paragraph in the LTHS Wikipedia page regarding academics and it is very amusing:

“Lake Travis High School classroom standards higher than many other high school, and, therefore, are more difficult. For a student to be in the top 20% academically generally requires having a class grade average over 100 while attending virtually all advanced placement (AP) classes. However, despite their apparent intellectual superiority, and the rigor of their elite classes, they can not manage to write a grammatically correct Wikipedia entry.“

Has Chris Wilson endangered herself with the “powers that be” within the district. Things like this won’t get her an invite to the next class of Leadership Lake Travis.

But sometimes, like the child in Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Emperor’s New Clothes,”  someone just has to tell the Emperor that he is naked.

We should read the rest of the Hans Christian Andersen’s great fairy tale (perhaps better categorized as a “satire”):

““But he has nothing on at all,” said a little child at last. “Good heavens! listen to the voice of an innocent child,” said the father, and one whispered to the other what the child had said. “But he has nothing on at all,” cried at last the whole people. That made a deep impression upon the emperor, for it seemed to him that they were right; but he thought to himself, “Now I must bear up to the end.” And the chamberlains walked with still greater dignity, as if they carried the train which did not exist.”

I have just updated the LTISD Cell Phone Directory.^TPIA

Note that these are district issued, tax payer funded cell phones, not employees personal cell phones.

A tax rollback election is when the LTISD goes out and asks the voters on the district to gouge more money from the tax payers to fund an already imprudent school district.

You can read more details about the subject in the “Truth in Taxation Manual (PDF)” or the “Handbook for Texas Public School Districts Property Tax Collection and Administration (PDF)” (HTML) published by the Texas Comptroller. The text of the legal code allowing the LTISD to fleece the tax payers is found in Texas Tax Code – § 26.08 Election To Ratify School Taxes.

The Texas Comptroller also has an excellent web page regarding “adopt the correct tax rate” and school districts which says among other things:

“The tax rate is important only in that it reflects the relationship between a school district’s ability to tax (the tax base) and the school board’s financial decisions and policies.”

Our spendthrift school board discussed the “potential tax rollback election” during their June 9, 2009 Board Workshop and the topic is on the agenda again, for the June 18, 2009 Board Meeting and in the June 18, 2009 copy of BoardBook.

• Why does the district need more money?
• Why can’t the district cut back like everyone else?
• Why is everyone else feeling the effects of the economic down turn  and taking action, except the district and Rocky?

Remember, Rocky graciously took only 2% of the 4% pay raise he was entitled to take. Rocky makes $247,840 per year, not to mention his other contract “perks” and outside consulting.

• How many of the district’s tax payers took a pay cut or even suffered a job loss recently?

The June 18, 2009 BoardBook says:

“The current budget projects a $1.6 shortfall with a widening deficit in future years. The District has two more pennies of tax rate that are not subject to recapture (Robin Hood), providing for all the revenue generated to stay within the District. A rollback election is required to access these pennies.”

(I would assume that BoardBook contains a typo and that the “$1.6″ should be “$1.6 million” …)

When did we ever see anything about “budget cuts” in a Board agenda?

Note that being a property or business owner is not a pre-requisite to voting for increasing taxation.

Doesn’t this smack of “taxation without representation?”

“Our landholders, too, like theirs, retaining indeed the title and stewardship of estates called theirs, but held really in trust for the treasury, must wander, like theirs, in foreign countries, and be contented with penury, obscurity, exile, and the glory of the nation. This example reads to us the salutary lesson, that private fortunes are destroyed by public as well as by private extravagance.”

-Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Samuel Kercheval, June 12, 1816

The LTISD is not the only district using Raptor nor are they the only user having issues with the product. Read what some others have been saying about Raptor:

Sex offender policy flawed, parents say

School security methods go hi-tech, but at what cost to our personal freedom?

Schools turn to technology to bolster their security–but will it help?

Community Update # 16

In a follow up comment to “Privacy lawsuit brought against sex offender background checks in schools” the commenter writes:

“I recently had an occasion to be at an elementary school (not in Texas) that uses this system. I was there during the school day for a Veterans’ Day assembly. I was providing instrumental music with four other musicians. I was the last to arrive and was taken directly to the room where we were to warm up. When I got there, I realized the other four musicians had been “screened” as they had sticker badges with their names and photos on them on their lapels. But somehow I was missed? Perhaps because the others are male and I am female? All I can say is, that a high-tech system is only as good as those in charge of using it. If those using it pick and choose who to screen based on perceived risk, it is not much good at all.“

I have seen the exact thing happen that is described above. Just this last week I attended an end of year awards ceremony where every parent I saw, including myself did not have a “visitor badge” resulting from being “scanned in.” Interesting …

EXACTLY what I have been saying all along. An “arbitrarily” implemented security system is worthless! Security systems are only as effective as they are consistently implemented. Kind of like having an alarm system in your house. It’s only effective if you turn it on every time you leave your house.

The LTSID neither uniformly nor consistently implements their own policies regarding their use of Raptor!

Then isn’t it discriminatory to force Yvonne Meadows to participate when so many others are not?!

Again, the LTISD is “consistently inconsistent!”

Good job Rocky! Go out and waste some more of our tax dollars defending the districts bungled implementation of a security system.

What’s next? How is it that all of these ugly issues have not only surfaced, but have been allowed to become catastrophes?

Seems like Rocky can’t effectively manage the district in the first place.

Instead of working to address, and correct problems before they become unwieldy nightmares, Rocky would rather spend your tax dollars on lawyers and PR campaigns such as Leadership Lake Travis.

If only Rocky could learn to “contain” problems before they explode in his face.

Obviously poor management skills. Perhaps Rocky could still take advantage of his ineptitude and use his blunders as consulting material for a class on “how not” to manage. Kind of like Susan Bohn teaching about public information requests.

How many other school districts the size of the LTISD have had as many problems like this?

Go out and spend good money on a security system, then spend money defending your mismanaged implementation, yes, that’s the LTISD!

The district doesn’t seem to care, its only your tax dollars they are flushing down the toilet.

Well, imagine that, the LTISD Board strikes again!

The Austin American-Statesman writes all about it in “Lake Travis school board raises public information law questions.”

I really like the comment by the districts Minister of Disinformation:

“District spokesman Marco Alvarado said that the district’s lawyers believe that the posting complies with state law. “

-Austin American Statesman

If the district was relying on the opinion of Susan Bohn, they had better watch out! Can we say Grumbels fiasco?