LTISD Info

According to the LTISD, the “Lake Travis ISD Board approves $81.9M budget” and according to the district’s press release, they have done it without incurring a deficit.

Now isn’t that amazing! The district can make cuts and still remain in the black.

Remember it was not more than a year or so ago that they district was predicting a budget deficit, doom and gloom unless we all approved another tax increase?

“Kirk made reference to a chart [above] that showed the district that without the 2 cents, the district will be in the red with no fund balance whatsoever by 2013. With the 2 cents, the district could stave off the problem for a bit longer.”

“Kirk said 86 percent of the school district’s budget is tied up in payroll — teachers, administrators and support staff. He said that under the circumstances, without help from voters, the district would be forced to cut its staff — including teachers.”

“We all know that property tax increases are unpleasant, but we missed an opportunity to secure additional funding for our District that would have provided some short-term relief. As a result, our District is now faced with a budget deficit of more than $1.7 million.” -Susan Tolles

“`With projected deficit funding of approximately $1.8 million, coupled with a steady increase in student enrollment and operating expenses, the board believes asking voters for additional revenue through a tax ratification election is a prudent and fiscally responsible option,’ said Susan Tolles, President of the LTISD board.”

Finally, and this from the LTISD’s own propaganda, created on September 11, 2009 by Marco Alvarado:

“Future budget projections for the District indicate that at the current tax rate of $1.04, the District would deplete 81 percent of its fund balance or savings account by Fiscal Year 2012-2013.”

Let’s just see if Rocky Kirk get’s another pay raise. Rocky probably will probably convince all his friends on the Board that he needs a salary bump to pay for the cost of his divorce.

Recently I reported that our Superintendent Rocky Kirk’s house has recently been placed on the market.

Unfortunately it looks like the LTISD Superintendent, Rocky Kirk is not selling his house as a precursor to his departure from the district, rather it appears to be the result of a Petition for Divorce that Rocky filed in Travis County on June 10, 2010 (Case: D-1-FM-10-003126)?

By the way, does anyone know who Catherine is?

Is Rocky’s house on the market?

Update, August 21, 2010: The listing price has gone down by $10,500 since the first post! When the story was initially posted, August 10, the listing price of the house was $449,500, now the listing price is $439,000. According to one of the real estate web sites, the property was first listed on July 26th. Interestingly, the Travis Central Appraisal District (TDAD) valued the property at $422,553 in 2009 but the “preliminary” 2010 valuation is only $381,119?!

According to the Travis Central Appraisal District (TCAD):

Recently I discovered that this property located in The Hills has been listed on the market (MLS #4729797):

4 Windwood Court, The Hills, Texas 78738

4 Bed, 3 Baths Single Family in The Hills, TX 78738

What does this mean?

Recently I have been told that Holly Morris-Kuentz the LTISD Director of Educational Support Services will be taking on the position of Executive Director for Human Resource Services previously held by Susanna Russell.

Well, it’s been officially announced by the district. Rocky is even quoted as saying:

“While Holly has been with Lake Travis ISD only a short time, she has excelled in her work, and her talents, work ethic, and commitment have impressed those who have had the opportunity to work with her”

Hopefully Holly will remember what happens to those who don’t strictly adhere to the party line.

Recently the Americans for Posperity (AFP) Texas Blog wrote “Texas school districts claim shortfalls while holding millions in reserve.”

The blog references another excellent article “Texas school districts maintain billions in reserve funds” from the Texas Budget Source.

“Chairman Eissler [House Public Education Chairman Rob Eissler] says every business, including school districts, need reserve funds for unexpected occurrences. According to Eissler, public school districts in Texas have more than $7.1 billion in reserve funds. In the last five years, Eissler says reserve fund balances per student have risen from $1,000 to $1,500.

“When times get tough, or you find you really need something, you can dip into the reserve fund,” said Eissler. “School districts are no different.” However, Eissler remembers last legislative session hearing a particular school district tell legislators if districts keep spending the money at the rate their going, they’ll be broke within five years.

“We’ve taught school districts, the state has, how to spend money. When they run out, they ask for more.” And with dozens of school districts across the state reporting budget shortfalls, the time to ask for more money is once again here. But with the state facing an estimated $18 billion budget shortfall and 29 percent of that going to public education, Eissler says it is time districts learn better spending practices.

“Most say spending more will give you better results,” said Eissler. “We’re working on that.” Eissler adds every year the state spends more on education but districts have trouble getting performance to rise accordingly.

“What that tells us is we’re probably spending money on the wrong thing. The only way we’ll be able to get a handle on that is to reallocate spending on things that work and less on things that don’t work,” said Eissler. “Rarely do we eliminate a program. We usually add them on. At some point in the financial future, we’re going to have to start replacing things more than we add things. We have to get this under control. Our future depends on it.””

- “Texas school districts maintain billions in reserve funds,” Sara Talbert, Texas Budget Source, July 27, 2010

Agreed!

Since when did extra taxes collected during “financial hardships” get reduced later when the difficult funding times went away?

The Bee Cave Bee reports “LTISD in land deals for up to six new schools” on August 6, 2010.

“LTISD has purchased four lots of land and accepted donations of two other parcels in preparation for future school district growth. The money came from the 2006 bond.”

What’s next, another bond election? Another run at increasing our taxes as they did in November 2009?

Thanks to a recent Texas Public Information Act request from Tracy Henry, President of the Lake Travis Education Foundation (LTEF), I too have obtained a list of the district’s vendors for everyone to see.

This could be interesting reading. Let me know if you find out anything that might be of interest to other readers of this web site.

You can obtain the list of the LTISD’s vendors^TPIA by year in Adobe Acrobat™ format (PDF), HTML page or a consolidated Microsoft Excel™ spreadsheet from these links:

One might guess that Tracy wanted this list so as to “shake down” the LTISD’s vendors for a donation to the LTEF?

Perhaps there is some sort of implied tax due from those who do business with the district?

Just a little bit of  interesting information made available from the fiscal year 2008-2010 LTISD vendor list :

The district has done $403,462.23 of business with Chick-Fil-A from fiscal years 2008-2010. Does Alan Williams still refuse to publicly state that he has not conflict of interest? If so, why?

The district has paid Population Survey Analysts (the district’s demographers) $97,410.

So much for Susan Bohn saving the district on their legal expenses! The LTISD paid at least $653,198.43 in legal bills in just 3 years! I have not parsed the list to find all the lawyers and law firms that have been paid during this time frame, but there are more hidden in these lists.

All this and the LTISD has the audacity to ask us to pay more taxes in tribute to their mediocrity and inability to contain costs!

Susanna Russell, the LTISD Executive Director of Administrative & Human Resource Services in Lake Travis ISD since July 2007 has left the district for a position as the new Area II Associate Superintendent for the Ysleta Independent School District (El Paso).

Interesting that the district did not issue a press release as they have then other high level administrators have escaped from the LTISD.

Good luck Susanna!

The August 6th edition of the “Community Impact” local paper writes about the LTISD and their plans for new schools in the western parts of the district.

Interesting to note that the article does not mention the 17.28 acre lot on the corner of Old Ferry Road and Pace Bend Road (FM HWY 2322) that they own. Doesn’t the district have a plan for that land as well? Interesting …

But the economy seems to have these plans on hold as they have been for some time now, particularly since it has been reported that recent property “appraisals drop area’s property tax values“

DANGER, DANGER!

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

It seems that the write up might be part of a set up by the district for another attempt take more of our money in the near future:

“If a bond is to be called in November 2011, a decision would not need to be made until mid-2011, but a community focus group is likely to begin this fall.

Ratcliff said in the next bond proposal, building a new elementary and middle school is likely to take priority, along with technology, buses and building upgrades. Since the district is relatively new—it split from Spicewood ISD in 1983—the schools have not needed many updates. Almost 30 years later, however, the district will begin factoring in upgrades, such as new air-conditioning systems and roofs for the schools.”

- “Lake Travis ISD plans new schools for growth in western district,” Tiffany Young, Community Impact Newspaper, August 6, 2010

and the article goes on to say:

“Not only does growth affect the district further down the road, but new students are also affecting the district’s budget that must be adopted by the end of August and is anticipated to be up 2 percent from last year’s budget.

The increases come primarily from three areas: 20 new teaching positions mandated by the teacher-to-student ratios set by the state, 2 percent salary adjustments (the average teacher’s salary at LTISD is $51,485) for teachers and other staff on the district’s salary increase schedule and health insurance adjustments estimated to increase 7.7 percent.

“There are going to be some financial hardships coming so we’re trying to make plans right now in order to help ourselves down the road,” Assistant Superintendent for Business, Financial and Auxiliary Services Johnny Hill said. “Just about every district in the state is going to have hardships.”

Hill said the reason for financial difficulty could be traced to Senate Bill 1, which initially put money back into the districts. However, since inflation was not taken into consideration, the targeted revenue per weighted average daily attendance (WADA), or the amount the state redistributes to each district per student, has not increased over time.

The state’s targeted spending per student is $6,169, but LTISD’s actual spending per student is $7,098.

“The only way for our systems to grow is to have more kids in the district, but the problem is our expenses per kid is going up because of inflation [and the] revenue is staying the same per kid,” Hill said.”

- “Lake Travis ISD plans new schools for growth in western district,” Tiffany Young, Community Impact Newspaper, August 6, 2010

See the “eye candy” chart that is being published with the article? Bet we’ll see more of it in the near future?

Finally, Rocky get’s his “exemplary” rating. I bet he gets another undeserved pay raise for this. Just how long did it take Rocky to achieve this?

Does this mean that since the district is exemplary they don’t need to go out and shake down the tax payers for more money?

But then again, how will they be able to pay our overpaid superintendent Rocky Kirk, and his deputy, Susan Bohn, the LTISD’s “second in command” with only a teaching certificate in “Secondary Dance” and “Secondary Social Studies” as her qualifications.

According to Charles McClure of the Lake Travis View, this is the first time in the district’s history to be rated “exemplary.”

Wait a minute, there is more to this …

Get the latest Flash Player to see this player.

Did you know that the LTISD used the controversial Texas Projection Measure (TPM) to obtain the district’s recent “exemplary” rating rather than  meeting the “absolute standards” to earn their “exemplary” rating?

The Texas Education Agency (TEA) has a whole section of their web site dedicated to the TPM and how it relates to the recent ratings. Seems that the TPM has generated some controversy.

Bottom line, the TPM allows a school district to “boost” their ratings:

“When a student fails a test but shows enough gain to make it statistically likely that he or she is on track to pass during the next high-stakes testing period, TPM counts that student as having passed for school accountability purposes.”

- “TEA’s projection measures aren’t measuring up,” The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, July 12, 2010

Here is an excerpt of the TEA’s state ratings table showing that the district utilized the TPM to boost their rating:

LAKE TRAVIS ISD                          EXEMPLARY                             TPM ONLY
 LAKE TRAVIS H S                         EXEMPLARY                             TPM ONLY
 LAKE TRAVIS MIDDLE                      EXEMPLARY                             MET ABSOLUTE STDS
 HUDSON BEND MIDDLE                      RECOGNIZED                            TPM ONLY
 LAKE TRAVIS EL                          RECOGNIZED                            MET ABSOLUTE STDS
 LAKEWAY EL                              EXEMPLARY                             MET ABSOLUTE STDS
 BEE CAVE ELEMENTARY                     EXEMPLARY                             MET ABSOLUTE STDS
 LAKE POINTE ELEMENTARY                  EXEMPLARY                             MET ABSOLUTE STDS
 SERENE HILLS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL          EXEMPLARY                             MET ABSOLUTE STDS

Funny how the district failed to mention this fact. A fact that significantly weakens Rocky’s claim: “The Exemplary rating is indicative of the superior instruction delivered in our classrooms each day.”

Let’s read more about just how  the districts used the TPM to artificially boost their lackluster performance:

Rep. Scott Hochberg and his Appropriations Subcommittee on Education got Criss Cloudt (the Texas Education Agency’s associate commissioner in charge of the “accountability system” that administers the TAKS test and ranks schools and school districts): “… to admit that 73 of the 74 additional ‘exemplary districts’ that took us from 43 in 2008 to 117 in 2009 received that distinction only because the new Texas Projection Measure miraculously allowed nearly half the 1 million TAKS tests that had been failed to count as passing for the purpose of rating schools and districts.”

- “Hochberg unmasks TEA’s controversial rule,” Rick Casey, Houston Chronicle, July 8, 2010

This year the TEA announced that:

“The Texas Education Agency (TEA) today announced that 239 school districts and 2,624 schools received Texas’ highest accountability rating of Exemplary.”

This is an increase of 122 districts since the 2009 ratings.

Rocky and the Board shouldn’t revel in their new artificial elevation, the TPM has been a lightning rod of criticism and might not be used next year:

“Education Commissioner Robert Scott issued a letter to school administrators last week saying he was considering changing the way TPM is used — or even suspending it entirely — next year. The 2010 TAKS scores and the accountability ratings based on them scheduled to be released on July 30 will include the boosts afforded under TPM.”

- “TEA’s school ratings next week will have a footnote,” Ericka Mellon, Houston Chronicle, July 19, 2010

Have you noticed how quickly the district moved to place this moniker on their documents:

Why doesn’t the district let us know that is was only through slight of hand that they obtained their “exemplary” rating.

You can get the facts from the TEA:

The TEA will continue to post the detailed data charts online this year, but it will add a simplified page showing whether a school benefited from the projection measure or the other two looser rules, according to the agency.

“We’ll have more information out this year as to how a campus came to meet their accountability rating,” TEA spokeswoman DeEtta Culbertson said Monday.

But superintendents and principals still will be able to tout their schools’ ratings on marquees and in press releases without an asterisk.

“I don’t know of anything that requires them to do that,” Culbertson said. “(But) it’s something certainly they should be honest about.”

- “TEA’s school ratings next week will have a footnote,” Ericka Mellon, Houston Chronicle, July 19, 2010

Get the latest Flash Player to see this player.

You can read more about the TPM and the 2010 TEA ratings from these additional sources, just to name a few:

“State may eliminate use of student testing projection measurement,” Austin American-Statesman

“Texas schools’ accountability ratings jump dramatically in TEA report,” The Dallas Morning News

“TEA to Dump TPM?,” Half Empty Blog Spot

“Loophole in law let some schools raise TEA accountability ratings,” The Sulphur Springs News-Telegram

“TEA School Accountability Ratings,” The Winkler Post

“Texas Education Agency releases statewide rankings,” The Austin American-Statesman (the comments are the best read here)