The GMPL goes completely unused by students and faculty most days. The expense and resulting stormwater mismanagement, including its impact upon the City of Mertzon, just boggles the mind. My latest Public Information Act request shows that the District did a budget amendment in Jan. 2023 for unplanned costs of $427,574 to pay for this parking lot and for paving Juanita Street from 4th St. to 5th St. This means, among other things, that the 2019 bond project went over budget at least by the same amount.
With special thanks this Thanksgiving season to my ICISD high school teacher who created a spark to write, Byrene DeCordova, below are my comments regarding the regular meeting on Nov. 13, 2023 of the Irion County ISD school board. The agenda for this meeting can be found here.
Retention Stipends. The Board had budgeted in and approved at this meeting a retention stipend of $1,000 for full time and $500 for part time employees. This is the week before Thanksgiving, and I'm sure any amount is appreciated. But, it isn't enough. I won't do a deep dive on teacher salaries here, but, generally, a starting teacher salary at ICISD is $38,500. If a teacher could have made it teaching the last 30 years, they would cap out this year at only $59,575. The salary schedule for 22-23 at ICISD is here. This pay scale is abysmally low and diminishes the value of the profession. Read my legislative fix for low teacher salaries here. Our state, the ICISD school board and our community need to do more for teachers.
Budget. In other budget related news, CFO Robert Helms reported that the ad valorem tax revenues are starting to come in. He has been able to invest the first $1.6 million at an attractive 5.75%. He stated that this would also help with salaries. That's welcome news, but market interest rates should not be a limiting factor on raises. Remember, it was investment revenue that saved the District in an earlier budget crisis (see Comment 4 here), and relying on the market for revenue is not a safe way to run a railroad. Again, the better approach would be to already have those raises banked, as I suggest in my legislative fix.
Superintendent Moore’s Report. She gives the board members a report in written form each week, so the board meeting report is typically brief. The written reports are subject to the PIA, and I do request them. Otherwise, at this meeting she reported on the STAAR school district litigation and that TEA had lost. See my blog post on that here. This means the current metrics have been determined invalid and are not being used while the case is on appeal. The unknown here, in terms of accountability metrics, is: are ICISD teachers continuing to teach to standards while the case is on appeal by TEA? “Scores or no scores, we are still teaching kids,” she said. Were I a parent on the front lines during this appeal, I would certainly want to drill down on this issue because this appeal could well last beyond this school year. Parents should especially know what the standards are during the appeal of this litigation.
Facilities Update Informational. A representative of Gallagher Construction Services made a presentation on the condition of District facilities in open meeting, and a security review to the board in closed session. The public part was informative and well done. That said, let’s call a spade a spade here and recognize this firm has already been chosen to advise the District on pre-bond referendum planning. See their list of services here. There’s reason to suspend judgment about Gallagher from the start. Their business plan is clear - earn as much off the bond dollars derived from Irion County minerals as they can. And, they aren’t one of our neighbors already paying our local property and sales taxes. They hail from Richardson. Why does this matter? Well, do a search for “Potter” and “WBK” in this blog and you might ask yourself, “Where is the architect and construction manager for the 2019 bond projects today?” They are gone, g-o-n-e, to build on with the protection of governmental immunity, never to face the consequences of stormwater flooding that they had knowledge about from the start. And this community, as I am documenting in this blog, has a mess on our hands for generations to come. My message - especially for those considering being on the District’s community committee evaluating a new bond - is suspend judgment.
Executive session. As I stated at Comments 1 and 2 on my agenda review page, the meat of this meeting was in the executive session. By law, the public can’t know much of anything about what went on. Generally, what to look for is whether the governmental body voted on any matter after they re-enter the public meeting, and at this meeting the Board did not. However, the Board admitted into executive session the representative of Gallagher Construction to discuss his security audit and recommendations. This is where my review of the pending HJR 1 below is worth real attention. If that proposed Texas constitutional amendment is passed in current form, in practice it will funnel literally billions of dollars to Texas school districts who will then be able to meet totally in private in executive session to discuss security matters with any number of individuals and companies who, like Gallagher, will have a financial stake in selling consulting services, construction management, security devices and all manner of things. Such folks may not even have a security clearance. In effect, this could become a private digitization of school security, with billions of tax dollars involved, and without the oversight of parents and the community. Everything done by the school districts with these billions of dollars, at least under the current provisions in the Texas Open Meetings Act, could be done in total privacy. If this doesn’t awaken your inner George Orwell, well, you may be in a coma. And remember, AI is already here… There’s already reason to be concerned with facial and vocal recognition and AI. How they will be used - and potentially abused - in school security is anyone’s guess. But if HJR 2 comes to pass, you won’t know about it.
An amendment to the Texas Constitution is needed for teacher salaries
Since January 2023, our state legislature and governor have been spending down an $18 billion surplus. Even now, after one regular session and four special sessions, our state leaders have not allocated any of that to teacher salaries. I expressed my concern here, questioning the wisdom of demeaning teachers in such a way.
I believe Texas taxpayers are victims of an ongoing bait and switch. Even as our state last week voted in significant property tax reductions, our state leaders and TEA are missing a significant opportunity to prioritize teacher pay in our public education system. All the while our state coffers have grown, they are passing premise safety laws (which are going to have significant long term maintenance and operation costs) as a backdoor response to school shootings, in particular at Uvalde. That is, while Texas taxpayers are receiving significant property tax relief, in the background we are about to get hammered with long term security and safety "upgrade" costs that in effect hand further insulation to the gun control lobby.
Here's a solution. Take a look at the currently pending HJR 1 and its fiscal note, which has already passed out of committee. (More on HJR 1 here). This proposed constitutional amendment aims to create a constitutionally protected fund for safety and security in public schools, amounting to billions of dollars.
I suggest that the language in HJR 1 be edited to create a state school teacher salary fund instead. Such a constitutional amendment would prioritize people over chasing school safety.
My amendment would also prevent our governor, state legislature, and TEA from playing politics with teacher salaries and firearm regulation. They need to stop avoiding the elephant in the room. We shouldn't promote constitutionally protected right to work laws for the school security industry, we should promote competitive teacher salaries that will draw more and more qualified folks to the profession over time. And, of course, we should ask our state leaders for more sunlight on the gun lobby.
Copyright 2023 G Noelke