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)

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???