Teachers weigh options for fixing school-wide funding shortage

Kaitlyn

Nash | Co-Editor

It is evident that there are budget issues plaguing PfISD. One proposed solution to these problems is eliminating the second planning period for high school electives (math, science, English, and social studies would keep their period), according to a recent email from Superintendent Doug Killian.

“The district is looking into ways to save money to repair the funding deficit for the upcoming school year,” principal Michael Grebb said. Worries from elective teachers have been spreading following this email, especially because teacher shortages have already spread resources thin.

“I only have one [planning period] right now but it’s because we’ve had so many kids in the agricultural [AG] program that we had to take on another period,” AG teacher Pilar Gonzalez-Munoz said. “We have four AG teachers and out of the four, three of us have an extra [class] so three of us only have one conference right now.” Though planning periods may be taken away for some teachers, those who lose them usually get something in return.

“We have some teachers that are compensated to give up a PLC [Professional Learning Community] or planning period,” Grebb said. “We would work in plans to help them prepare better before and during the school year.” However, sometimes a boost in pay isn’t enough for teachers who trade off personal time for more work.

“Time is money, money is time,” Gonzalez-Munoz said. “I still do work at home even when I don’t try to so I never feel like it’ll ever be enough for as many hours as we put in. I do love my job and I do love my students but I just wish I had a little bit more to really hit that sweet spot.”

Not only that, but many elective teachers have multiple clubs and organizations they have to run outside of their normal preps.

“I know personally I would not be able [to adapt] because I’m the UIL coordinator, I’m in charge of speech and debate and I have two [classes] that are AP [classes],” AP teacher and speech and debate coach Kirsten Nash said. “A lot of your elective teachers are the only teacher that’s teaching it so we don’t have somebody to share creating assignments or coming up with assessments. We’re doing it all by ourselves. I think it would be hardly fair for those people who already have a lot of preps and other responsibilities.”

Both Nash and Gonzalez-Munoz stay late multiple nights of the week because of the extra responsibilities they carry.

“I try to do as much as I can for grading [and] planning for the following week but again, it gets very difficult when it’s six preps,” Gonzalez-Munoz said. “I’m also over [with] FFA as well so we try to plan all of our FFA stuff, get paperwork turned in, [and] make deposits for the program. On top of that, I’m the class sponsor so I have to put that in there as well. Right now, it’s just one conference period so sometimes I stay really late, like 7 p.m. or later depending on what I have to get done or I come early to just get caught up on things.”

One main problem that has been singled out is the fact that only extracurricular activity teachers were targeted by the discussed elimination of prep periods.

“I know that the core stuff is important, obviously because I teach English and history, but the easiest way to kill [a] kid’s love of school is to kill all of the extracurriculars,” Nash said. “I’m not saying academics don’t matter but you can’t make the assumption that academics are the only thing that matter and everything else is open for cutting. I think that [it] would be really unfair to assume that just because you teach an elective class that you don’t have a lot of work.”

District considers cutting karate program, Kickstart

Sophia Johst | Reporter

Among changes to the boundaries of PFISD, the district is now cutting some extracurricular activities due to state funding and inflation. Kickstart is one of them. The program is a karate organization dedicated to building students’ confidence, team-work skills, and resistance to peer pressure. The program has been with the district for 15 years.

“When we’ve sat down, we’ve tried to look at outside services,” Principal Michael Grebb said. “We pay a company to provide a service because we would hate to cut people directly tied to the district.”

Kickstart is an independent organization paid for by the district to serve students. While it’s not directly connected to the district, as other extracurricular activities are, it carries the same value to students as activities like football or basketball.

“I know that Kickstart has made a huge impact on a lot of students’ lives,” Grebb said. “I think that’s why kids and parents are so passionate about trying to keep the program because it did make a difference in a lot of kids over the years that I’ve been at Hendrickson.”

The cutting of Kickstart is not due to it not providing enough, it is owed to the deficit.

“The district is currently trying to cover the deficit,” Grebb said. “They’re trying to find out ways that we can budget for the 2024 school year without having a negative balance.”

Additionally, the student allotment plays a key role in the cutting of certain programs. The average allotment for Texas is $6,160 per student. Districts then distribute funding based on the needs of each school. The allotment is based on the average daily attendance of students.

“The district is looking at the ratio of how much you spend and how many students it impacts,” Grebb said. “I think the state legislature probably needs to raise the basic student allotment because now we’re a district that gives money back to the state every year.”

State Representative Donna Howard has introduced House Bill 882 which would increase the student allotment from $6,160 to $7,075 and State Representative Gina Hinojosa has introduced House Bill 31 which proposes basing the state’s public education funding system on student enrollment instead of

Proposed Cuts for District Funding:

average attendance. At the last School Board meeting, it was discussed that the funding (based on average daily attendance) was two percent lower than projections costing the district over $4 million in funding.

“We are looking at cutting outside services first instead of firing the staff,” Grebb said. “If we raised the allotment per student, we would be able to afford programs such as Kickstart.”

The district’s concerns rely on budgets while students concentrate on the values of Kickstart that will be taken away. Parents and students are concerned about the cutting of kickstart, including freshman Ryleigh Mackey. Mackey is a part of Kickstart and made a speech sharing her concerns at a recent board meeting.

“Kickstart provides confidence,” Mackey said. “Without it, I wouldn’t have the confidence to talk to anyone.”

Martial arts may be a large part of Kickstart, but the purpose of it is to build friendships, social skills, and help students grow into themselves. Varying kinds of weapons and mats are used in Kickstart practices and performances that are funded by Kickstart, unlike programs like theater and art that rely on the district to pay for those supplies.

“Because of Kickstart, now I’m very social,” Mackey said. “It helped build my confidence and is how I met most of my friends. Kickstart is a really good experience to form friendships and become your best self.”

• Renegotiate the KickStart Program with the outside vendor (Private Company) applying the same requirements that we do for all other outside vendors using our facilities. We cannot fund an outside Karate School without charging them for facilities use. Currently the parents and district pay kickstart, only one will pay the outside vendor.

• Present costs for eliminating the second planning period for High School electives (Math, Science, English, and Social Studies will keep their period). Also, look at only tested areas with second planning periods too.

• Reduce Instructional Coaching staffing by 2/3 with a plan to prioritize transfers for them to open positions for 2023-24.

• Only subs will be allowed for classroom assignments, not other professionals; subs for classroom associates will be at a different pay than teacher subs.

• C&I will study Canvas and Edgenuity and report if we can consolidate them into one program to save costs.

• Cut all budgets an additional 5% (after the 5% cuts last year and again the year before)

• District will only fund in-state travel for students and staff. All other travel must be fundraised.

• Reduce travel budgets; reduce consultant budgets by 10%

• Take My Brother’s Keeper scholars program inhouse to eliminate external costs

More information on all scholarships, including those with more specific criteria can be found on Schoolinks. To view them, students can sign in from Clever using their student number and password.

Extended Day Program Scholarship

- aims to provide $1,000 financial assistance to students entering education, giving back to the educational institutions.

Criteria: Must be a senior pursuing a career in education at a state TX state university. Minimum of 2.5 GPA and must be in some extracurricular activity. Due 4:00 pm on March 31, 2023.

Mott Scholarship - Provides $1,000 financial aid to students pursuing degrees in Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Engineering or a focus in Pre-Med at an accredited state university in Texas. Criteria: Must be a graduating senior, member of NHS, top 5% of class, and passed 4 AP classes.

Due 4:00 pm on March 31, 2023.

PEF "Pfuture Workforce" Scholarship

- Provides $1,000 financial support to a graduating PfISD Senior pursuing a degree in in-demand career fields: Nursing/Healthcare, Social Work, Education, Construction, Engineering, Operations, Marketing/ Communications, Data/Math Analysis, Information Systems, Accounting/ Finance and Software Development.

Criteria: Must be a senior, and must be attending a two to four year college. Due 4:00 pm on March 31, 2023.

Pfluger Family Scholarship - An opportunity for students pursuing a career in Career and Technical Education programs to earn $1,000 for college.

Criteria: Must be a high school senior, must be participating in a CTE program in high school.

Due 4:00 pm on March 31, 2023.

Provan-Lockhart ScholarshipProvides $1,000 for students who have overcome some adversity and persevered.

Criteria: Must be a senior in PACE or Provan, must submit two nomination letters.

Due 4:00 pm on March 31, 2023.