Lovejoy Schools Opinion

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You have to be able to afford to operate it.

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=6771253&BRD=1569&PAG=461&dept_id=180945&rfi=6

Willis trustees to decide on opening new middle school

By: Nancy Flake, Courier staff January 22, 2003

No one in Willis knows whether the new middle school on FM 830, now under construction and due to open in August, will actually be filled with students next school year.

The Willis Independent School District board of trustees will tour the site at 4:30 p.m. today, then have a special board meeting to discuss the financial feasibility of opening the school.
Approximate construction cost of the school is $17 million, paid for out of a $25 million bond referendum approved by voters in February 2001.
While the money to finish the construction is a safe bet, no one is sure whether the money necessary to operate the school -- including hiring teachers -- can be found.
"I'm really concerned about the school opening," Willis board president Garry Bingham said. "With some of the issues coming out of Austin and not knowing if we'll get less funding from the state, we could be in a shortfall."
Even if trustees hold off on the school's opening, the district faces another very lean year budget-wise, one that could mean no personnel raises and eliminating what is left of the 10 percent homestead exemption Willis residents enjoy on top of the state's 15 percent homestead exemption.
"What I saw today, if the information is correct," Bingham said, "the only way we could balance the budget initially is to not give raises, not open the new school, keep the half-day kindergarten and eliminate the rest of the homestead exemption.
"That's pretty stout. Any other scenario is going to cost us money."
Costs to operate Hardy Middle School, the district's only current middle school, are about $2.4 million a year, Bingham noted.
Trustees have four different budgeting scenarios they are now looking at for the 2003-04 school year, and Bingham said each of them will put the district "in the hole" by $1 million.
Each scenario includes a 3 percent salary increase for teachers.
"If you take away the homestead exemption, I can't see giving teachers raises," he said.
Willis, with a total $1.73 per $100 valuation property tax rate, is three cents below the $1.50 M&O tax cap, but the costs of opening a new school could put the district at the cap, or above.
"Looking just at the fixed costs, like administrative and support personnel and utilities, that would increase our M&O," Bingham said.
School districts all across the state are facing similar budgeting difficulties, with funding from the state one of the Legislature's biggest question marks this session. The state faces a nearly $10 billion budget shortfall.
With many districts already at the $1.50 per $100 property valuation cap in their maintenance and operations tax -- the portion of the tax rate that pays for utility bills, teacher salaries and student programs -- administrators and trustees across the state don't know whether they will have the money they need for those necessities.
Once the first of the 2001 bonds were sold, shortly after the referendum was approved, construction began on the school.
"Once it's rolling, you can't stop it," Bingham said. "Some of the bonds we issued because our financial advisor said the state would help pay for the costs.
"From the I&S standpoint, we've mitigated quite a bit for the taxpayers."
Compounding the problems are high property values and flat enrollment growth in the Willis district.
"Our local tax values went up so high last year that money from the state went down," Bingham said. "If it goes down again, then we're going to have to make it up."
He added that he began raising the possibility of not opening the school last August, when student enrollment showed no real growth. "The student growth not happening was a surprise," he said. "What triggered us looking at this was that overall revenues wasn't going to support new growth."
The Willis school budget for this year was cut to the bone by trustees when they learned a year ago that attendance had been overestimated for the second year in a row.
Because an anticipated 3.5 percent enrollment growth for the 2001-02 year turned out to be almost no growth at all, the district lost nearly $1 million in state revenues this year.
Enrollment for this year shows an increase of only 125 students, according to Willis Superintendent Brian Zemlicka.
"They're so many things up in the air," he said. "At some point in time, I hope people are going to come (to Willis)."
Another question facing board members is how will not opening the school affect potential overcrowding of present schools?
"Right now, we have one or two schools with portable buildings," Zemlicka said. "We might have to shift boundaries to move students to other schools."
The numbers are not firm, but Bingham plans to take a hard look at the benefits of opening the school versus not opening the school.
"I'm just trying to take a snapshot to look at where the money's coming from," he said.
"It's going to be flat ugly."


©The Courier 2003

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WISD will not open new middle school

By: Nancy Flake, Courier staff January 24, 2003

Willis students will not be attending a $17 million middle school, only months from completion, until at least the 2004-05 school year.

And it's questionable whether they'll be able to walk the school's hallways even then.
Willis Independent School District trustees were split in a 4-3 vote Wednesday night to delay the opening of the school because of financial problems in the district. Those board members wanting to delay the opening were board president Garry Bingham, Bubba Elmore, Ray Ready and Lindy Haley, while Gene Lamont, Becky Broussard and Eddy Ruth Lagway voted to open the school as originally scheduled.
"We delayed the opening initially for a year, but we'll probably take another look at it then," Bingham said. "Either way, the best scenario is we're still going to lose $3 million in state funding.
"We can't even balance the budget as it is."
Superintendent Brian Zemlicka wrote an open letter for publication in The Courier explaining the situation to WISD parents and taxpayers.
Rising property values in the Willis district have reduced the district's funding from the state, according to Bingham. Under the state's "Robin Hood" school finance plan, the richer a school district is in property, the less money it receives from the state.
Compounding the problem in Willis is flat student growth, which also affects state funding for attendance.
Willis schools are recording only 125 more students this year than in the 2001-02 school year.
"When the bond went before the voters, we were experiencing a 5 percent growth in students for the last 15 years," Zemlicka said. "Now, we're in our third year of flat growth."
As it is now, trustees are already looking at an $800,000 to $900,000 deficit -- and that's a best-case scenario, according to Bingham -- as they begin the budgetary process for the 2003-04 school year.
"Even if the school wasn't to open, right now we would have to raise taxes to the max and not give teacher raises," Bingham said. "We have no more money."
The middle school was approved by voters as part of a $25 million bond referendum in February 2001.
The only current Willis trustee who was sitting on the board who asked for the referendum is Lindy Haley. Bingham and fellow WISD board member Becky Broussard openly opposed the referendum before it went to the voters.
Trustee Bubba Elmore headed the bond facilities committee that recommended the bond package.
The bond won with 57 percent approval.
Opening the new school would add $600,000 in operating costs to the shortfall trustees will soon have to overcome in the upcoming budget, according to Bingham.
The current WISD tax rate gives little wiggle room to trustees. The rate of $1.73 per $100 valuation includes a maintenance and operations tax rate of $1.47, only 3 cents shy of the state's mandated $1.50 M&O cap.
"We tried every way we could" to come up with a way to open the school, Bingham said. "We can't raise taxes any more."
For those parents worried about possible overcrowding if the new school doesn't open, Zemlicka, who is completing his third week on the job as superintendent, emphasized, "We presently can still house the students we have and offer a quality education.
"We still have a pretty good school district."

©The Courier 2003

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Reader response to the article at:

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=6801546&BRD=1569&PAG=461&dept_id=180945&rfi=6

[Susie Were]

If people think that all these things can't happen in a separated Lovejoy district, please, go back and look at the numbers that have been provided by the school board. The entire success of a separated district depends on residential growth. I certainly hope the economy turns around soon, and that growth would be possible, but there are no guarantees. I think the outlook is grim for growth, especially for the high end market homes in this area. This is scary stuff. To actually read that my worst fears for Lovejoy are actually happening in Willis, makes me feel sick.