Ways to Cut the Katy ISD Budget:
I've left this material up because KISD is getting ready to do another bond election this summer. The public needs to see the tricks and ploys that are used in order for the administration and the Board to get what they want in a bond.
They realized the mistake of deciding what to do and THEN convening a bond committee of citizens last summer, as the public got wise to their ploy and defeated the bond last fall. Please, put people who are smart and unbiased on the bond committee! Let Dr. Harrison stay in his dental office. He's past his prime as a committee chairman!
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Discussion of the Katy School District's record of proposing cuts to the Budget
As the Katy Independent School
District school board and superintendent wait for the State Legislature
to tell them how much money is coming down the Pike, other school districts in our
area seem able to understand that there won’t be any big “gift” of money forthcoming.
These other districts are doing what they can to find ways to cut expenses.
That’s what wise people, companies and school districts usually do in hard times.
Discussions of budget cuts have been
around for many years. Our school district in
the late 1980’s, early 1990’s had a comprehensive audit done by a well-known firm.
It was full of good suggestions, but I doubt that many of them were implemented.
Hugh Hayes, as superintendent in the
early 1990’s came up with his own budget “cuts” in case cutbacks were required.
His was an interesting take—many of
his suggestions centered on cutting or getting rid of things he knew full well the public
wouldn’t abide --things like dropping bus service to students who live within 2 miles of
their school. (State law does not require such bus service inside the 2 mile radius unless
there is a major thoroughfare to be crossed.)
That means most neighborhood schools would see students walking to school instead of being
picked up by a fancy new bus. Even in the days twenty years ago when walking to school was
considered safe, parents weren’t wild about that possibility.
$48,000.00 pays for one of those fired teachers!
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