INTERPRETING THE WEDNESDAY CHRONICLE ARTICLE:

 

KATY ISD TOLD AREA SHOWS NO SIGNS OF SLOWING

By Leah Binkovitz

‘Katy will be larger than the city of Pittsburgh’ in two years

Posted on September 24, 2014

The Katy school district received another confirmation Monday night that the growth the area is experiencing shows no signs of slowing down. Though the demographer’s report doesn’t come out until later this year, representatives from the development community told the school board to expect more of the boom that has left some campuses turning parking lots into classroom space with the aid of portables.

“We can’t put lots on the ground fast enough to keep up with demand,” Kerry Gilbert, a land planning consultant behind developments like Cinco Ranch, told the board. One of Houston’s fastest growing neighborhoods, Cinco Ranch beat out its booming neighbor to the north, The Woodlands, by roughly 10 new housing starts, a measure of new homes under construction, in the past year.

The district is expecting to add more than 20,000 units by 2018, according to the most recent report from demographers at Population and Survey Analysts.

But it’s more than just homes.

Gilbert pointed to some 18 projects along the Interstate 10 Energy Corridor alone. “You will notice that there are a lot of cranes,” he said, pointing to projections from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that show Houston leading the state’s job growth numbers in the coming year.

“Even through the recession years,” said Gilbert, “Katy ISD was growing at a very rapid rate.”

The school district remains the area’s largest employer, with 8,000 employees. But BP America Inc. is close behind with 7,000 employees.

To read the rest of the article, go here:  http://blog.chron.com/katy/2014/09/katy-will-be-larger-than-the-city-of-pittsburgh-in-two-years/

Really!

Since when did we start comparing school districts with cities?  Pittsburgh is a northern industrial city in decline.  Yes, it's (declining) population number is close to that of the Katy school district. So what?  Pittsburgh also has an extended urban population of 1,753,000 (down from 1,840,000 in 1980) which is five times the size Pittsburgh.  Is Lance LaCour, chief City of Katy/Katy ISD cheerleader, claiming that Houston (in whose ETJ most of us live) is Katy's "surrounding area"? That's a big stretch, in my opinion. Remember that Mr. LaCour, as head of the Katy Economic Development Council, has motives unlike those of Katy ISD parents and taxpayers.  He WANTS crowded schools, because that means we taxpayers have to cough up more taxes to build more schools for yet more people!  He only keeps his job and his membership IF the area continues to grow. He only has members to pay his fees IF there is growth and business coming from the school district. The reader should always keep those facts in mind and know who is pushing the deals.

Elsewhere on this web site, I have chronicled the declining enrollment growth that has been happening in our school district since 2008.  No one pays attention to my numbers! We had higher percentage growth in the 1990's than we do now, and we kept up with it without spending millions of dollars to do so. We haven't had 3,000+ new students show up in six years--since 2008!  And yet the KISD administrators would have you believe that we've been gathering new students at this rate for years instead of just THIS year.

So who is Kerry Gilbert?  He's always at the KISD table when it comes time to build something, but he seems to be one of those individuals with a nebulous purpose who gets paid, but we never know what for (and I've asked).  Go here to read about his latest alignment and what his purpose may seem to be:  http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/morning_call/2014/01/brown-gay-acquires-land-planning-firm.html  Does the school district need him?  What is there that he can do that the District's in-house architect, Peter McIlwain, and the other contracted architects can't do with regard to "land planning."  The only "land planning" I see going on is that the school board made sure that they had land in the City of Katy close to Katy High School (and not close to any other high school) to build a second stadium.  And besides, I thought Fred Fargo was the District's "land planner." New stadium land has been the school board's number one priority for the last several years. So what was Mr. Gilbert's real purpose at this school board meeting?

As for the Katy area beating out the Woodlands for most housing starts, that may well be, but I'll take the housing starts in the Woodlands over what we're seeing in Katy any time!  The Woodlands, a well organized township, unlike any subdivision in Katy, is much more discerning about the way it has developed over time. They have entertained the idea of becoming incorporated, but that hasn't happened yet.  In the meantime their community association which is very powerful has developed a central "city" that belongs to the entire area with a large commercial/retail center, the additions to the area are well planned and controlled and not thrown out helter-skelter by this and that developer, and the whole seems to be organized.  I don't have to describe what we have in Katy. We can all see it.

The allusion to Population and Survey Analysts, KISD's on call demographer, (who has admitted in the past to being + or - 9% accurate with their predictions), as a firm that can predict anything accurately is ludicrous.  For example in 2006, this firm predicted that there would be 83,418 students in 2015.  Think we'll get there?  Think we should base building programs on these prognostications?  In my opinion a crystal ball would serve us better.

 Mr. Gilbert points out the "18 projects ...and cranes" along the Katy freeway.  Once one goes East past Kirkwood, all those cranes are building "projects" in someone else's school district!  Another statistic thrown in for effect says that "The School district is the area's largest employer, with 8,000 employees.  But BP America Inc. is close behind with 7,000."  Funny, the "KISD Comprehensive Annual Financial Report" for 2013 (the last copy available to the public) states that BP North America is the largest employer in the Katy Independent School District with 9,000 employees FOLLOWED by Katy ISD with 8,929 employees. So much for "facts." (Is this sort of like that "700,000 new students" number that we saw recently in the Chronicle?)

Throwing out Morton Ranch High School and Woodcreek Junior High as overcrowded schools is a ruse.  Move some of those students to undercapacity schools nearby.  That's what a good manager (you know, one with an MBA) would do instead of crying "Poor me, poor me!" and begging for more tax dollars.

Thanks for the interesting information that portables, which are also a mismanagement tool in the Katy school district, do not cost $50,000 like we were told a couple of years ago, nor do they cost $95,000 which the 2014 Bond Committee was told  just a few months ago, but now they cost $110,000! "...the bond includes $2.75 million for 25 new portables." That is, that's the cost unless, like other things BOND, they are a 30% padded item.

The superintendent appeared to be muzzled for this meeting--no delicious quotes!  But remember, his job too hangs on the passage of this bond.  He drops two bonds, and he no longer has much standing around here in my opinion.  He was brought here ostensibly to pass bonds and build stadiums as those were his only viable credentials.

Can't wait for the next Chronicle article about the KISD Bond!