2009 FBISD Tax Hearing (On YouTube)

CLICK HERE FOR THE 2009 FBISD CONTROVERSIAL TAX HEARING (YES THEY ARE RAISING THEM AGAIN--see petition of over 500 district taxpayers asking for board accountability) --In case anyone missed it they raised the property tax rate again (4th time) in 2010 and more than likely will do so again in 2011 facing another projected 15-20 million dollar budget deficit, according to some media reports. ***NEW*** ..Petition TO STOP THE GSTC (Global Science Museum being planned at the district central office--near $30 million dollar project that superintendent Jenney is pushing): http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/stopthegcst/ (see update below on this apparently ending this project after 2 years)

Friday, March 13, 2009

IS THE NEW FBISD TRUANCY POLICY BEING USED AS A FUND GENERATOR FOR THE FIRST EVER DISTRICT BUDGET DEFICIT?

A QUESTION THAT CRITICS OF THE CURRENT FBISD BUDGET DEFICIT RAISED DURING THE NEW TRUANCY POLICY INITIATIVE EARLIER THIS YEAR ASKED WAS THIS BEING USED TO GENERATE ADDITIONAL FUNDS FOR FBISD'S FIRST EVER BUDGET DEFICIT.

See this chronicle piece for more:

http://blogs.chron.com/fortbend/archives/2009/03/is_fbisd_truanc.html#comments

FBW comment: Apparently, nearly 8% of the student population has received citations this year raising almost 1 million dollars in district revenue. IS YOUR CHILD NEXT?

FBISDWatch would like to thank Dawna Loose and John Fjord for their assistance in following this story.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Comments from area blogs coming in:

This is just another stellar example of this administration shucking their responsibilty to work with parents and resolve attendance problems and dumping it in the lap of the court system. They could care less if the kids have to miss school to go to court and if the parents have to miss 1/2 day of work to go.

You have an administration thats totally aloof with their head in the sky and doesn't have a clue or a care about reality.

It time for some new board members to represent the people who pay these aloof administrators,and help them get their perspective and don't care attitude straightened out.

Maybe, if the FBISD Police didn't spend so much time doing paperwork to take parents and kids to court, they might have some time to get on to school campuses in the mornings and do some traffic control, instead of shucking their duty to keep kids safe and keep traffic moving.

Posted by: Bruce Albright at March 12, 2009 04:58 PM

Only the zero-brained advocate zero-tolerance. How much do y'all pay these mullets to not think? I'll bet next election you can find some with brains. And a spine.

Posted by: lil ol' me at March 12, 2009 08:07 PM

I guess I must be missing something: your kid misses school, you send a note. You don't send a not 3 times, you go to court. If your kid has extenuating circumstances (medical for instance)and misses more than the 10 days, they school WILL work with you - after all, they'll probably have missed at least 1-2 standardized "practice" tests, and "God knows" that they can't miss those practice tests!

So basically, send excuse/doctor's notes and avoid court. IF your kids is gone more than 10 days in 6 months/semester/whatever, and it's NOT medical, then you DO have explaining to do. I'm not saying that there aren't non-medical reasons to miss so many days, but they ought to be explained - and NOT under the guise of "God-given parents' rights"!

I'm no fan of this administration to say the least (especially with the discussion of the Jenney Hall being built - I mean the Global Science and Tech Center), but I can't see the big problem here if parents follow the rules. Maybe it's just because I went to the trouble of following the attendance rules when my kids were absent from school. Actions (or inactions here) have consequences - isn't that what kids are supposed to be learning?

Posted by: JC at March 12, 2009 11:35 PM

"Superintendent Tim Jenney dismissed the kindergartener's story as one to garner sympathy. He said the truancy policy has always been in existence but the district decided to step up the enforcement this school year." Chron

PERHAPS we should be asking why suddenly Jenney decided to strictly enforce the rule for only this year and not his previous years? Could it have been "all about the money"? The state pays districts for average daily attendance (ADA) and Jenney was on a local PAC which pushed a RECORD bond issue that lead to the FIRST EVER budget deficit (this group pushing the RECORD bond was also supported by Charlie Howard).

During the past year Jenney has stated in the media that they will need to find and generate other sources of revenue, which apparently they have done through this method.

This is why I'm backing non-incumbent candidates like Carlos Cain for the school board race this year and encourage others to do so too. The question is why is the BOT NOT providing over-sight regarding administration issues??? They were also very quiet during the recent internal non-investigations with senior level administrators. Are we sending the wrong message to our kids and community?

Visit http://fbisdwatch.blogspot.com and network with other community groups to TAKE BACK YOUR BOARD.

Posted by: Chris Calvin, Ph.D. at March 13, 2009 09:24 AM

Anonymous said...

More:

This kinda sounds like the zero tolerance interpretation for that honor student recently who was placed on 7 months alternative school for her brothers play prop:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcmGzk_cSHU&feature=channel_page

-What ever happened to common sense. Why have the reported attendance issues only shot through the roof this year? What was wrong with the old policy or did someone see dollar signs again?

Posted by: anonymous at March 13, 2009 09:28 AM

When I grew up, the problem was kids ditching school. If a parent took the child out for a few days, then it was parent execused. Now it is my understanding that if I take my kid out of school for a week, that I am going to get in trouble. I don't know about "god given rights", but if I need (for any reason) to remove my child from school for a few days, then I should be able to do it. As longs as he\she is keeping grades up and I ask for the homework ahead of time, the district has no "state given right" to send me to court. A parent taken their child overseas or where ever, is not the same as ditching school and anything under 10 days is completely reasonable. I also dont' need an attendance clerks making the descision. I am the parent and the decision is mone.

Posted by: CarlosK at March 13, 2009 09:54 AM

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

I just wanted to say that I was very impressed with Mr. Albrights response to this issue.

Anonymous said...

This is so scary. Instead of getting better with public relations which relates community/family/child friendly, this school district gets worse. It seems like the school district belongs to the hired administrative staff at the Taxpayer's expense with the citizenry elected BOT's permission.

Is it just me? Does it seem like something is terribly out of synch to the rest of you all?

Anonymous said...

It reminds me of some template they are handing around to all the insider politicians that just do what they are told by corporate America. Sounds very familiar.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

I agree that the district should be more open with the public. Keeping everything behind closed doors just leads to more distrust.