2011 YEAR IN REVIEW: ECISD sees budget woes and highs and lows

The year 2011 brought many headlines that Ector County Independent School District leaders are probably glad to have behind them.

Massive budget cuts from the state led to the loss of more than 100 positions, while high-profile scandals plagued the district — most notably the resignation of Jordan Elementary Principal Jan Brown and ouster of Odessa High Principal Denise Shetter.

Amid all this, test scores continued to drop.

FALLEN STARS

Longtime ECISD employee Jan Brown was placed on administrative leave in January following an internal and then Texas Rangers probe into the Jordan Elementary activity fund. Investigators determined money wasn’t stolen but the school had spent money in ways other than what was allocated. In February, Brown announced her retirement effective April 30, with pay.

In July, Brown avoided jail time after pleading no contest on a class B misdemeanor charge of false report to a peace officer relating to the Texas Rangers investigation into the fund discrepancy. In June, her husband Steve Brown had also left district, retiring from the No. 2 position he’d held since 2007 and 36 total years in education.

Shetter, meanwhile, had no criminal accusations against her, but her fall from grace came just as quickly.

The former principal at Bowie Junior High credited with making it the first recognized secondary school in ECISD was promoted to principal of OHS in June 2010. But by November 2011, she was reassigned with little explanation.

The district said Shetter’s reassignment was unrelated to an earlier controversy at the end of the 2010-2011 year: accusations by Yolanda Carr, a former OHS administrator, that “at-risk” students were being withdrawn from OHS the week before TAKS testing, which may have affected scores.

Carr was reassigned May 9 to the Administration Building and later to Permian High School. After an ECISD investigation determined no actual wrongdoing, but acknowledged the appearance of impropriety.

Shetter filed a grievance based on her reassignment to a “do-nothing” administration job.

A third once-stellar example of the district, Cameron Magnet elementary teacher James Johnston, was placed on paid administrative leave in March before trustees decided not to renew his contract at the end of the school year. At issue was Johnston’s use of non-district Internet connections and some music videos on his computer deemed lewd.

Previously praised for his technological proficiency and teaching ingenuity, Johnston said his computer was password protected and it was all retaliation for him disciplining the child of then-Cameron Principal Yesenia Sandoval. However, subsequent levels of appeals upheld the district’s position, including Education Commissioner Robert Scott in August.

BUDGET CUTS AND SECRECY

While those personal stories garnered the most attention for ECISD, state cuts were the biggest challenge of the year. The budget woes started in January with ECISD bracing for a possible $26.5 million cut. While the actual number went back and forth for several months, ECISD was faced with tough choices.

By March, ECISD officials and trustees remained mum about how the district would trim the budget but it was apparent jobs were on the line. District officials began meeting with employees who were going to be cut. By March 4, Mendez issued a letter to employees discussing how the district would address a projected $26.5 budget shortfall for the next school year.

Mendez wrote that the district will continue to look for “efficiencies” in the system, including consolidation of duties and services, reassignments and elimination of services and programs. Word did get out that the Channel 10 TV station was being cut. Officials and board members alike dodged all questions from the media on the planned cuts to trim ECISD’s budget before they notified employees of their terminations and nonrenewals.

By March 8, ECISD made public plans to make initial cuts of about 64 jobs. More than half ($7.34 million) of the planned $13.4 million in cuts came from non-personnel areas, such as forgoing new computer and bus purchases, savings on utilities and fuel and even a $200,000 cut in the athletics budget.

That included elimination of 35 positions as part of “program adjustments,” which would affect the Virtual High School, the district’s truancy program, Channel 10, ECISD Police, Communities in Schools, as well as “extra” clerk positions.

In addition, 13 full-time employees were cut from central administration, while nine positions opened by attrition was not filled.

A list of employees cut was obtained by Odessa American through an open records request, showed two of 60 employees that were named, executive director of athletics Leon Fuller and executive director of special projects Randy Talley, made more than $100,000 a year. Meanwhile, nine clerks at magnet schools, who make between $13,739 and $22,399 annually, had their positions cut.

OTHER REDUCTIONS

Other reductions in payroll, which makes up the vast majority of ECISD’s $191 million annual budget, included suspending ECISD’s sick leave buyback program, its teacher perfect attendance stipend, teacher school supply reimbursement and superintendent’s activities.

One cut that officials said would save $1.5 million was the elimination of the Teen Parent Center campus. Thirty-five positions were eliminated with 29 of those from the Teen Parent Center, the other six from the Family Education Center.

The TPC offered students day care and teen parenting classes. Day care services were moved to Zavala Elementary. ECISD eliminated its supply warehouse,

In April, four employees whose positions were being eliminated resigned at the last minute, then the ECISD Board of Trustees officially terminated four other contracts. The board voted unanimously to lay off Education Foundation director Jaclyn Gaona, Channel 10 general manager Mike Barker and early-education social workers Shawana Glenn and Jessica Remenaric.

In April, ECISD changed the terms of contracts ECISD teachers and other employees receive. Most notable was a change in wording that told employees of a salary freeze possibility and possible reductions in other benefits.

By April, “104.5 positions” had been eliminated. Many of those who had positions eliminated were offered positions elsewhere in the district.

ADDITIONS

State budget cuts did not stop ECISD from moving forward with new programs that cost millions.

The New Tech High School opened in the fall in same building as the former Advanced Technical Center, costing more than $1.8 million. This created the state’s eighth New Tech High School. The schools, which started in Napa, Calif., in 1996, emphasize project based learning in small groups, with each student being issued a laptop computer to use while attending the school. Adrian Vega, principal of Boulter Middle School in Tyler, was named principal.

CSCOPE also went live for the rest of the district this year at a cost of $1.8 million in startup costs. Testing took place at Odessa High, Bonham Junior High and Milam Magnet School, during the previous year. The program offers lesson plans and assignments for teachers that are in line with state curriculum requirements and is used by more than 700 of the state’s 1,051 school districts.

And the Voice Over Internet Protocol phone system, costing $4 million, deployed throughout the spring, changing ECISD numbers to the prefix “456,” and more importantly to the district, reducing maintenance and repair bills by $20,000. The district said the money was set aside in 2009 when AT&T told them the communication giant couldn’t continue providing service on the outdated system.

The VOIP phones provided new voicemail boxes for teachers, videoconferencing, webinars and online messaging, as well as enhancing 9-1-1 services and emergency procedures messaging.

FALLING SCORES

In May ECISD’s TAKS numbers fell below 2010 and below the state average. Fifth and eighth-grade scores on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills in ECISD showed across-the-board drops compared to 2010 scores.

Statewide TAKS scores were relatively flat, the Texas Education Agency reported.

In July, ECISD maintained an acceptable rating overall but several campuses were rated unacceptable by Texas Education Agency for the 2010-11 school year. Permian High, Hood Junior High and Goliad Elementary were rated academically unacceptable. ECISD went from four campuses to one rated exemplary, Reagan Magnet Elementary. The number of recognized schools in ECISD decreased from 18 to nine.

In October the TEA placed the district in stage 4 intervention status for the Bilingual/ESL programs and in stage 3 intervention in the No Child Left Behind or homeless population. The district was also ranked at stage 1 for the special education program and stage 1 for the residential facility monitoring program. The district was put on notice via a Dec. 14 letter that TEA corrective action teams will be making an on-site visit Feb. 6-10, 2012.

IN OTHER ECTOR COUNTY ISD NEWS:

• Former Bonham teacher Byran Dale Berta pleaded guilty in December to four counts of sexual assault of a child relating to incidents with his geography student April 23 and May 14, both at her house and at school. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
• Former Odessa High English teacher and Bronchettes sponsor Jena Marie Graves was arrested in February after ECISD found a negative balance of $6,572.80 from the Bronchettes activity fund. She resigned April 1 and was indicted in May on felony theft.
• In May the district introduced “Abstinence Plus” sex education. Students previously were taught abstinence-only but now learn about birth control methods and failure rates. Texas Tech is teaching the classes free of charge to the district. They also discuss sexually-transmitted diseases. Ector County’s teen pregnancy rate was ranked 23rd of 254 Texas counties in 2008 Texas Department of State Health Services according to the most recent available statistics.
• ECISD trustees voted to give Summit a tax break in December by passing an agreement that will tax Summit Clean Energy at a value of $80 million from between 2014 and 2021. ECISD was the last of four taxing authorities that needed to pass a tax limitation on Summit after Ector County, Ector County Health District and Odessa College had passed their tax abatements on Summit in June and July. Until 2014, Summit will be taxed at full value, which a Summit official estimated would mean around $5 million of taxes paid.