Snyder ISD officials held a public meeting Tuesday night and again, school officials had hoped for a larger turnout.
Approximately 50 parents and school employees heard updates on the district’s accountability and academic plans, along with an update on school financing, specifically the future of Additional State Aid for Tax Reduction (ASATR) funding. Most attendees were school employees.
Dr. Rachael McClain, the district’s chief academic officer, said she would have liked to have seen Worsham Auditorium at least half full of interested parents and citizens.
“The community needs to get involved,” McClain said.
McClain talked about Snyder ISD’s current school ratings under the Texas Education Agency’s system.
She said scores improved in the past year at each campus and that only Snyder Junior High School was rated as improvement required (IR).
She said districts are rated on four indexes — how students perform on all tests, their progress from one year to the next, how Hispanic and economically disadvantaged students fare on tests and college and career readiness.
McClain said the junior high school missed being rated met standards by only one percentage point after the district appealed the initial TEA scores.
“One of our goals this year is to remove the IR status at the junior high,” McClain said.
As part of Snyder Junior High School’s plan, the district has set a 70 percent passing rate for students, provided coaching support for all new teachers and moved the director of instruction to the campus.
Disciplinary issues are now handled by the associate principal.
McClain spoke about the goals on each of the other campuses, all of which include improved test performance.
McClain summed up her portion of the program urging parents to attend community meetings and meetings on campuses — and to make sure their students attend school.
“You need to have your kids in school,” she said.
Another district-wide goal was improved parent engagement.
“You need to know how your kids are performing,” McClain said. “Support your teachers and your schools. Pray, and encourage your church families to pray.”
Dr. Randy Burks, associate superintendent and chief financial officer, told the group that the end of ASATR would be devastating for the district.
“One-third of our total revenue would be gone,” he said.
He said the district has already cut expenses to help the district’s financial picture this year and into 2017-18.
“But in 2018-2019, the board will be looking at some really tough decisions,” Burks said. “The district will be at a point as to what do we cut and still have a good school?”
He encouraged the audience to contact state legislators and ask them to support efforts that would extend ASATR.
“Rep. (Dustin) Burrows has filed a bill to continue the program for 10 years,” Burks said. “But there will be opposition to it continuing.”
Burks said the district could hold a tax ratification election (TRE) to increase the district’s funding from local revenue. Currently, state law requires that the maintenance and operations rate be no higher than $1.04 unless a TRE is held to ratify a higher rate.
If approved, the change would generate about $500,000 in additional revenue.
Burks said the administration will begin planning next year’s budget in January and look “at everything, including personnel” for spending cuts.
“We need to put every available dollar into the classrooms,” he said.
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