School superintendents talk legislative impact

Not much changed for Texas schools with the close of the regular session of the Texas Legislature.

According to two Jack County school superintendents, that’s both good and bad.

Perrin and Jacksboro school superintendents were both thankful proposals to allow for private school choice failed.

“I think that’s one area where I think we’re (public educators) a united front in opposition,” JISD Superintendent Dwain Milam. “The house came out and they took a vote on it. One of the things they passed was where no state funds could be used; it was like a 98 percent vote they didn’t want any state money going to private schools. In the situation we’re in right now, as scarce as those public dollars are. I think anything that pulls money from public ed is going to be a detriment to the overall system.”

Although most rural students do not have much choice when it comes to alternatives to public education, Perrin-Whitt CISD Superintendent Cliff Gilmore agrees vouchers are a bad idea.

“It’s probably not going to be a big impact on smaller schools in rural areas except I think the voucher system affects a lot of home school folks, too. That could cause an impact in rural communities, but I don’t see a whole lot of impact from private schools,” Gilmore said. “But I was glad (school choice failed) because I think public schools offer a great opportunity for kids and we’re struggling as it is making things work. To divide the kitty anymore would sure be tough on public schools.”

Both superintendents were disappointed that there was no change in school funding.

For JISD, that means an early estimated more than $600,000 cut or 7 percent of the district’s budget for the 2017-18 school year due to the repeal of the Additional State Aid for Tax Reduction.

“The whole dilemma with ASATAR ending August 31, that’s still the law,” Milam said. “The only opportunity is if the governor chooses to go into special session and put school finance as one of the topics he wants to address.”

Gilmore said the house bill provided some hope, but as it stands now, there will be no change for his district.

“HB 21 was going to bring a little bit of positive change, but that all went by the wayside. Not a lot of changes,” he said. “Our ASATAR had been depleted a couple of years ago. So we were receiving some financial help but it didn’t have any impact on us. We’re not going to see any additional funding, but we don’t know with a special session things could change. The dust hasn’t settled. Nothing’s finished yet. They could have a special session and come up with a whole new financial bill. From what I’ve read as of now, it’s stagnant.”

Milam said JISD is already running the numbers to come up with its options moving through its budget season this summer.

“We are in for a challenging summer. We’ve been running numbers already. We’ve been holding out a little hope that a special session is called,” he said. “We’re putting together our plans. Our options are to cut it all and get a balanced budget immediately or to use some of our fund balance to get us through the 17-18 year and make the adjustment over two years. The challenge is to find those areas for cost reduction that will have the least negative impact on student services we provide.”

The legislature also passed a law that is now awaiting the governor’s approval requiring three-point seat belts on all newly purchased school buses. Schools are not required to retrofit existing buses and can opt-out of seat belts on new buses if a school district finds it to be an undue financial burden.

“We can’t afford a bus next year, so it’s  not something we have to worry about for a little while in Jacksboro,” Milam said.

“We’ll do our budgets and look at what we’ve got. We’re always hoping to update our fleet,” Gilmore said. “Seat belts are  required and I’m not against that. I think it might not be a bad thing. You wouldn’t think it would be a whole lot of cost, but it probably will be.”

Other legislation that educators watched closely included HB 22 regarding A-F school ratings. 

“They passed the A-F in the last session, then they got blasted by people when they got home,” Milam said. “They went back and said we’re going to try to make this more usuable for our parents to understand. I don’t know all the details of what they came up with.”

Gilmore said there were some adjustments made to the A-F ratings, but they’re not going away.

“They’re making tweaks on how they come about the A-F, just the formula of how they come about the A-F. You have to continue to stay up on what impact each criteria makes on your rating. They’re pretty complicated. They involve a whole lot of different aspects on school. You have to wait for the dust to settle on that to figure out what they’re asking for.

“We just have to become accustomed to those kinds of ratings. I think for the most part, people are pretty used to A-F because it’s what kids bring home on their report card. But for districts, it’s kind of a bell curve. A few As a few Bs and a whole lot of Cs. They’re going to have to learn if their school is getting Bs and Cs they’re pretty fortunate. It’s just going to take time for people to figure out the way it works including superintendents.”