Schools seek help on unfunded state mandates

Galveston County school administrators have resigned themselves to the fact their districts will not receive more money from the state Legislature, so they’re seeking alternative ways to balance budgets

State Rep. Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood, sent requests to superintendents in his district to identify mandates — funded or unfunded by the state — they would like to have repealed.

Other representatives have sent letters to their school districts as well, Taylor said.

He and other state representatives will compile unfunded mandates school districts face and will try to repeal them during the 82nd Legislative session that convenes in January.

School districts most likely will not receive additional money from the state in the coming years, so eliminating some mandates will help districts balance budgets by reducing expenses, Taylor said.

Class Size

A state unfunded mandate requires districts to cap elementary class sizes at 22 students per teacher.

Clear Creek administrators support an average of 18 to 24 students in each elementary class, instead of a set number across the board, district spokeswoman Elaina Polsen said.

Clear Creek school district would save about $1.3 million a year if elementary classes increased by one student, Polsen said.

Those sorts of savings mean a lot to a district facing a $4.5 million budget shortfall going into the next school year.

“This would provide local school districts the options to staff classrooms based on the needs of students,” Polsen said. “We wouldn’t necessarily move all classes up to 23 students.”

The mandate creates a burden especially for growing school districts in economic recessions, Dickinson Superintendent Leland Williams said.

The Dickinson Independent School District requested 40 waivers to the 22-to-1 ration requirement, which saved the district more than $400,000.

Dickinson school district has had three bond issues in the past 11 years to provide more space for its growing student population.

“Maintaining a 22-to-1 ratio is increasingly hard, not just for monetary reasons but also due to space requirements as we are using every available classroom space in some of our campuses,” Williams said.

PEIMS

The Texas Education Agency gathers information from every school through its Public Education Information Management System, or PEIMS.

The data includes student demographics and academic performance and personnel, financial and organizational information, but the state doesn’t cover costs school districts accrue gathering the information.

Galveston Independent School District is preparing for PEIMS planning for the upcoming school year. The state used to require districts to submit information for high school campuses; now, the education agency wants information from grades one through 12.

Galveston school administrators have not calculated the dollar impact that will mean for the district, but the labor and time-consuming program will not come cheap, Finance Director David Dworsky.

PEIMS costs the Texas City school district $130,000 annually, school district spokeswoman Melissa Tortorici said.

Four Years Of Math And Science

The 4x4 graduation plan requires students to take fours years of math and science, which most administrators support but say the state should at least partially fund the requirement.

Voters in 2007 approved a $5 million bond issue for Clear Creek to build additional science labs at its high schools to accommodate for more students.

The price tag didn’t cover hiring additional math and science teachers and ongoing lab maintenance, Polsen said.

“It’s a good idea, but there’s not funding for it,” she said.

The science labs, plus modifications made to other spaces to meet 4x4 requirements, have cost the Dickinson district more than $1 million, Williams said.

The district was forced to modify plans for upcoming Dickinson High School bond projects to provide four additional labs to accommodate the four-year requirement for science.

The district must hire more teachers in the critical shortage areas of math and science to accommodate this requirement. Critical shortage area teachers are more costly to employ since the district provides an additional stipend program for those teachers.

Friendswood’s school district has spent $8.7 million to build a new math and science wing at the high school and hire five more teachers for the courses, Friendswood Superintendent Trish Hanks said.

Leave It To The Districts

School districts would institute programs, including the four years of math and science for high school students, even if the state did not mandate the requirements.

One of the most expensive state unfunded mandates regulates the ratio of students to teachers at the elementary level, which administrators say individual districts should set instead of the state.

“Local districts should be able to determine what ideas they put into place that would best suit their district for students to meet standards,” Hanks said. “If the state believes in the mandates for the districts, then the state should fund them.”