At a special meeting of the Houston Independent School District’s Board of Education, Chief Financial Officer Melinda Garrett Thursday briefed trustees on several budget proposals that would offset the district’s anticipated $171 million state funding shortfall.
Cost-cutting proposals presented to trustees for discussion and feedback include the closure of four elementary schools, the creation of four uniform start times at all schools to save on transportation costs and potential changes to HISD’s police force.
The four elementary schools include Grimes, Love, McDade and Rhoads. The four schools are the smallest in the district, each having between 272 to 425 students. Board trustees will hear more about the proposal early this week.
Garrett also outlined to board members why several funding decisions need to be made by the Thursday, March 10 board meeting, particularly those that will lead to personnel reductions at the school level.
By law, HISD must have an individualized letter prepared and hand delivered to any employee identified for termination at least 45 days before the end of their current contract. For most contract employees, including teachers, that 45 day notification would have to be given no later than April 18. However, before those letters can be prepared, there are several other steps that must occur in a timely fashion.
Individual schools must determine the extent of personnel cuts at their campuses and submit those proposed staff eliminations to HISD’s Human Resources and Legal Services Department no later than March 25. Schools must hold conferences for the record with each affected employee no later than April 1 and the board must also approve all employees displaced through a reduction in force by April 10.
Because of the impending timeline, Garrett outlined a proposal that would cut the funding schools receive by $275 per student, reducing the district’s general fund shortfall by $58 million dollars. A $275 cut at a school with 1,250 students means a $345,000 cut on the campus level, which amounts to the salary of 6.5 teachers
Reducing per-student funding still leaves a funding gap of $61 million to $77 million, depending on the reductions that can be made district wide.
At last week’s meeting with trustees, Garrett proposed preparing a budget without addressing this gap until later in the spring when more definitive information is available on how the state plans to balance the budget and how deep the cuts are to public education funding. Options for closing the funding gap at HISD, should it remain, include a tax rate increase, reducing the optional homestead exemption by 5 percent, using a portion of the district’s reserve funds, district wide salary cuts and furloughs, or a combination of any or all these options.
Board trustees were presented with several cost-cutting strategies that would reduce spending district wide including the elimination of 286 professional and support staff positions at the central office, 95 of which are currently vacant.
HISD Chief Operating Officer Leo Bobadilla explained how having four uniform start times for all schools could save the district $1 million in transportation costs, or the equivalent of 19 teacher salaries. The four times would be 7:30 a.m. or 8:30 a.m. for elementary schools, 7:45 a.m. for high schools, and 8:45 a.m. for middle schools.
Other considerations to reduce the budget presented to the board include the reduction or removal of the unique school funding that nine HISD schools currently receive and reducing the school subsidy small schools receive from $1116 per student to $850.
Board trustees are expected to vote on several funding allocations at its monthly board meeting on Thursday, March 10. They include the $275 per student allocation reduction, the small school subsidy reduction, the Title I unit allocation per student and the high school allotment allocation.
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