Updates: Four days after this meeting, the Board held an emergency meeting and approved a $109,190 contract for video security surveillance at the campus. For the specifics on how Texas law changed in 2023 related to school safety, see HB 3 and its $327+ million fiscal note. Here are my comments for the October 16, 2023 Irion County ISD School Board meeting:
School safety goes underground. The Board used its executive session in this meeting to discuss the results from the unannounced safety inspection done by the ESC, Region 15. Then upon entering open session they voted to "approve the 3 year safety audit and move forward with recommendations" without any discussion. Taxpayers should receive more information than this. School safety has become a huge expense for Texas taxpayers. In late 2022, before the 2023 legislative session, I objected to TEA's proposed school safety rules (19 TAC 61.1031) that, once implemented, were to have cost Texas schools $2.1 billion. The Texas legislature appropriated hundreds of millions in 2023. And, at ICISD, there was also a $30,000 budget amendment in the 22-23 budget for additional safety expenses. And for all this expense, our community gets a watered down motion to approve a surprise safety audit, discussed in private and with no discussion in public, that was done by a quasi governmental body (ESC 15) that has no enforcement authority to regulate its findings?! And, it is a 3 year audit, meaning the next one won't occur for another three years?! School safety has turned into big dollars, and I believe this is the consequence of our state legislature and Congress being unwilling to regulate gun control. These expenses are largely the legislative response to school shootings. See this comprehensive list of shootings in Texas, including schools. If we don't regulate guns, we have to regulate, and pay, to keep them out of our schools. (My views on gun laws are nuanced, so don't leap to conclusions here. I sure enjoyed going dove hunting last week...) My interest in school safety originates from ICISD using safety as a dog whistle to justify closing 4th Street and its alley to plant City Gym where it is, not from gun control. There was absolutely no evidence of a child ever being injured from crossing the street; the gym's location was really just a matter of convenience to the athletic program, and the public's safety was entirely disregarded even though the District knew about the flood risks. And, one can only wonder whether the on campus stormwater flooding created by the new gym was addressed in the safety audit because that also was not discussed publicly.
Financial Report. CFO Helms reported that TEA returned $70,000 recapture overpayment from last year, and Moak Casey finally came back with a revenue estimate for the current fiscal year for the wind farm agreements at $100,000. OPEN RECORDS UPDATE ABOUT MOAK CASEY'S ESTIMATES: Last month I did an open records request for the District to provide me with a copy of any document from Moak Casey explaining their miscalculation on revenue last year. See this page for background on the $800,000 shortfall. No documents were provided because Moak Casey did not put anything in writing. There is clearly no accountability for these wind farm agreements, and there is therefore reason to consider even this $100,000 figure suspect. Remember, as I explained here, what was then considered to be lucrative wind farm agreements were the economic justification ICISD leadership used for the affordability of the 2019 bonds. My comfort level for any 2024 bonds has just decreased.
Continued silence on monthly expenses. The Board failed at both Helm's report and during the consent agenda to ask anything, anything, about the monthly expenses report. This is very uncharacteristic, as I reported here last month. I am currently reviewing several months worth of monthly expense reports that I received from my Open Records request last month, and my early impression is that no one wants to talk because the new budget is already getting blown up. When things are going well it is easy for board members to laugh about the inspection expense of an elevator, but when things get rough its hard to laugh away an almost $22,000 a month electric bill.
Accountability/STAAR Rankings: Superintendent Moore's report included the litigation against TEA brought by a number of school districts regarding the latest accountability standards that I addressed last month here at # 3. There is a possibility she said that districts might go without standards for 4 years, but ICISD is acting as if standards are in place. I'm not sure of her basis for the 4 years, but any appeal of the case to the Texas Supreme Court could last that long if the parties don't settle. Here's another article that addresses what the kerfuffle is all about. The original petition can be found here. That's "original", meaning "first", and I'm sure it has had lots of revisions since that was posted. I am trying to get more information on the status of the case. Since it was filed only in August, consider it to be in its infancy.
Pending.