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, February 25, 2011

Youtube On Recent FBISD Zoning Meeting--Lake Colony

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYmunEb7J0g

FBS: Do Parents Trust FBISD Communications Office?

See: http://www.fortbendstar.com/022311/n_ParentAlleges.htm

Budget Meeting At Marshall (Local report from FBSUN)

See: http://www.yourhoustonnews.com/fort_bend/news/article_ae2f25bd-9c52-5013-9e39-a91eb11b8e68.html


"Fort Bend stands to lose anywhere from $49.4 million a year to $73.9 million a year,” Hoke said. “Considering that our budget is $488 million, that is almost 20 percent of our operating budget that may disappear next year.” FB Sun

--Is the district trying to make the case for yet another property tax rate increase while they sit on $368,636,089 million in reserve funds (120 million for the rainy day fund)???

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Upcoming Meetings-

Date/Event
Feb. 26 Education Foundation Gala
Mar. 3 Budget Town Hall Meeting
Mar. 5 Watch Week Fair
Mar. 07 School Board Meeting
Mar. 8 Budget Town Hall Meeting
Mar. 10 Budget Town Hall Meeting
Mar. 7-14 Watch Week

SITE TRAFFIC STATS (SINCE 2010 FOR FBISDWATCH)--

FBISDWATCH BREAKDOWN ON SITE TRAFFIC BY COUNTRY OVER THE LAST 6 MONTHS:

United States
10,817

Netherlands
771

Germany
706

Russia
420

Latvia
197

Poland
147

United Kingdom
128

Ukraine
101

Thursday, February 17, 2011

FBN: Candidates Begin Filing For FBISD BOT Seats--

See: http://www.fortbendnow.com/2011/02/17/50481

Albright Announces Intention To Run For FBISD Board, Two Incumbents File For Re-election
By: Jamie Mock on Thu, Feb 17, 2011News

Fort Bend Independent School District Board of Trustee At-Large Position 4 incumbent Daniel Menendez and Position 1 incumbent Susan Hohnbaum have filed for re-election in the May 14 election. Bruce Albright has announced his intention to run against Menendez.

No candidates have filed for Position 5, currently held by Laurie Caldwell.

Albright is a longtime resident of FBISD and raised two children in the school system with his wife teaching in the district for more than 19 years. He has served as a volunteer teaching Sunday school for more than two decades.

Albright said that if elected he will “focus his attentions on the severe budget crisis the district is facing and work to bring more openness and transparency to the central office.”

“Restoring the board as the supervising body for the district is paramount in this campaign,” says Albright. “During times like these we must have community support to be able to continue improvements in the academic programming while simultaneously reducing extraneous spending and better aligning our processes of service delivery. We must be more responsive to the needs of the public and remember at all times, it is they who are paying for all this. The days of deliberate public deception by governmental agencies and their operatives must end during these tough times we now face.”

-Get the full piece by following the link above....

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Major Personnel Cuts Announced By FBISD Administration--or where is the money?

http://www.fortbendnow.com/2011/02/15/50442

FBW comment: Why no one has mentioned the "reserve" accounts (developed from past bond elections) often referred to as the rainy day fund. It was close to 100 million last year. We've had 3 property tax rate increases in a row...what next?

FB Sun- After 4 years of concurrent budget deficits and property tax increases, outlook under the district leadership is bleak:

http://www.yourhoustonnews.com/fort_bend/news/article_7ebbff56-aa84-5c62-9d2e-3b157ee6f7f9.html

Upcoming Meetings-

Feb. 14 Candidate Filing Period for BOT Begins
Feb. 15 Zoning Public Hearing
Feb. 17 Budget Town Hall Meeting
Feb. 21 President's Day - Weather Make-Up Day
Feb. 22 Zoning Public Hearing
Feb. 26 Education Foundation Gala
Mar. 3 Budget Town Hall Meeting
Mar. 8 Budget Town Hall Meeting

Thursday, February 10, 2011

FBI: Covers Specifics of Supts. Extended New 5 Year Contract (Gift from the BOT in 6-1 vote)--

http://fbindependent.com/virtual-science-center-is-part-of-districts-goal-p3376-1.htm

FB Star requested the latest amendments to the supts. contract: http://www.fortbendstar.com/012611/images/01.12.10_Supt%20Third%20amended%20Contract_Signed.pdf

FBW comment: Amazing the board is providing incentives for normal job expectations and performance...take a moment and read the link.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

FBN: Local Activist Group Questioning FBISD Open Records Process

“If this administration wants to espouse a hyper-technical enforcement of the Open Records Act, then what they are saying is that we reserve the right to spoon feed our school board and spoon feed our public information that should be readily available when it is completed,” Scott told Fort Bend Now. George Scott

--Click the link below for the full article...

http://www.fortbendnow.com/2011/02/08/50343

Update
: http://www.fortbendnow.com/2011/02/09/50351

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

FBN Editorial: Is FBISD going to meet its $74M budget deficit by creating “uniformly overcrowded” high schools?

See: http://www.fortbendnow.com/2011/02/01/50176

By A.Krishnan

"In Monday, Jan 25th’s FBISD Board meeting which started with a Budget workshop and concluded with the Zoning workshop, it was as if the FBISD Board who sat in on the budget workshop were not the same ones who sat in the Zoning workshop! In the budget workshop , it became evident that FBISD was facing one of its largest shortfalls in history – $ 74M and there would have be serious cuts in programs and services if the district wanted to live within its budget. In the zoning workshop that followed , not a single Board member raised a question around cost savings from the various rezoning options proposed. Instead the FBISD Board focused on creating “Uniformly crowded” High Schools as one Board member called it, by moving students from one overcrowded High School (Clements) to yet another overcrowded High School (Elkins). Their short sighted focus was on the here and now when all of the district’s own projection data showed Clements enrolments declining and Elkins enrolments increasing between now and 2014.They completely lost sight of the fact that Elkins would be at 137% of its capacity and Clements, at 88% of its capacity by 2014. Elkins has a capacity of 1959 students and based on the current rezoning, Elkins would reach 2682 students in 2014 , 723 students more than the school is built to handle! Where is the intelligence and foresight in this decision?"

Get the full piece by following the link above...

FBW comments: Where is the 90-100 million dollar rainy day contingency funds that were "repurposed" from past bond-debt elections???