Wimberley Independent School District a Texas School Performance Review
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Executive Summary The Wimberley Independent School District A Texas School Performance Review The 1990 Texas Legislature created the Comptroller's Texas School Performance Review (TSPR) to help the state's school districts, both large and small, to deliver the best possible educational services to their children in the most efficient and cost-effective way. Texas is now engaged in a critical debate over how-and how much-to pay to educate its children, and all of the state's customers deserve to know that schools are accountable for the cost and quality of the education they deliver. Who are these customers? They are the parents and families, as well the children, and the teachers, principals, and employees who work in more than 1,000 school districts across Texas. Ultimately, the taxpayers who support local schools also benefit from efficient and effective schools, and they deserve to know that their tax dollars are not wasted. Only then will they be willing to invest the time, energy, and resources required to ensure our children receive the education they need to succeed. TSPR IN WIMBERLEY TSPR began its review of the Wimberley Independent School District (WISD) in February 1998. As in its previous reviews of 28 other Texas school districts, the review team went to Wimberley in response to a local call for assistance. In July 1997, the Board of Trustees and Superintendent David Simmons, along with many members of the Wimberley community, requested a performance review of WISD. WISD presented a unique challenge for the TSPR team, which had not reviewed a district with a student population of less than 2,000 since its initial 1991 pilot project. The majority of districts reviewed by TSPR had fallen in the moderate to large range, including six of the state's largest districts: Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, Ysleta in El Paso, and Corpus Christi. TSPR's follow-up discussions with three smaller districts reviewed during its initial pilot project-the San Saba, Cherokee, and Richland Springs Independent School Districts (ISDs)-indicated that the review process was not sufficiently sensitive to smaller districts' needs. These districts' staff said they were overwhelmed by requests for data they did not have. Some Chapter 1 DISTRICT ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT This section of the report reviews the organization and management functions of the Wimberley Independent School District (WISD) and contains six major subsections: A. Governance B. Planning C. District and School Management D. District and School Community Involvement Initiatives E. Districtwide Policies and Procedures F. Personnel Management recommendations stemming from those reviews proved unworkable because the districts simply did not have the resources to accomplish what larger districts can. WISD and Hamilton ISD requested reviews last year and expressed their willingness to work with TSPR to modify the review process to meet the needs of smaller districts. Months in advance of the review, TSPR gave these districts a preliminary list of data the review team would need so the district could compile basic documentation at a less demanding pace. In contracting for consulting services, the Comptroller asked potential consultants to present workplans reflecting a sensitivity to smaller districts' needs. TSPR chose a consulting firm based on the firm's experience with smaller districts and the quality of its workplan. With the help of Empirical Management Services, a Houston-based consulting firm, TSPR interviewed district employees, school board members, students, parents, business leaders, and representatives from community organizations. On more than one occasion, district officials expressed concern over a review team process or method, and TSPR made necessary modifications in response. As a result, TSPR believes this report contains workable recommendations to improve WISD's operations. To obtain comments from community residents, TSPR held an open forum at Scudder Primary School and conducted numerous focus groups that yielded valuable comments from current and former district employees, parents, community leaders, and students. The review team also collected comments from letters to the Comptroller and calls to a toll-free hotline, and conducted a number of one-on-one interviews. TSPR sent written surveys to all district employees and junior and senior high school students. Thirty-seven administrative staff, including central and campus administrators, clerical staff, custodians, maintenance workers, bus drivers, and all other non-instructional staff; three principals and assistant principals; 91 teachers; and 191 students responded to the surveys. Details from the surveys, public forums, and focus groups are provided in Appendix A through H. In addition to its extensive interviews, the review team consulted databases of comparative educational information gathered by the Texas Education Agency (TEA)-the Academic Excellence Indicator System and the Public Education Information Management System. To make useful comparisons, the review team also asked WISD to select similar, or peer, Texas school districts. The district chose five peer districts: Lake Travis ISD, Dripping Springs ISD, Lake Dallas ISD, Llano ISD, and White Oak ISD. These districts have significant characteristics in common with WISD, such as enrollment and student demographics. Exhibit 1 compares WISD and peer district enrollment for 1996-97. Exhibit 1 WISD and Selected Peer District Enrollments 1996-97 Students Percent # of African- District Enrollment Economically Anglo Hispanic Other Schools American Disadvantaged Lake 2,937 4 12.0% 89.3% .2% 9.6% .9% Travis Dripping 2,665 4 12.8% 89.0% .9% 9.0% 1.2% Springs Lake 2,426 5 17.0% 88.4% 3.3% 6.3% 2.1% Dallas Llano 1,512 3 37.0% 89.9% .1% 9.8% .2% Wimberley 1,498 4 14.0% 91.8% 1.2% 5.7% 1.3% White Oak 1,372 4 19.8% 94.5% 2.8% 1.5% 1.2% Source: AEIS 1996-97 Acknowledgments The Texas School Performance Review and Empirical Management Services, wish to thank WISD's Board of Trustees; Superintendent David Simmons; Debbie White and Emitt Herod, who acted as district liaisons to the review team; and the district employees, students, and community members, who provided valuable information and assistance during TSPR's work in the district. Wimberley ISD The Wimberley Independent School District is a small district located in an unincorporated community about 40 miles southwest of Austin. WISD was created by a group of community leaders in 1985 by detaching the district from the Hays Consolidated School District. WISD is a high- growth district, with an enrollment growth of more than 52 percent over the last five years; enrollment grew by about 100 students from 1996-97 to 1997-98, or about 6 percent. WISD has had to face the need for new schools to accommodate the increase in students, while holding the line on taxes. The district's annual operating budget has reached $9 million, up from $5 million in 1991-92, and three of the district's four schools and the administration building have been built since 1985. The district is a source of pride and focus for the Wimberley community. As shown in Exhibit 1, the majority of students are Anglo (91.8 percent), and only about 14 percent of WISD's students are economically disadvantaged. The community is predominantly well-educated. Many residents are retired, and most are upper-middle class. A strong artistic influence exists in the community. The superintendent, David Simmons, has been on the job since July 1997. During the 1997-98 school year, WISD's 175 teachers, administrators, and support workers served nearly 1,600 students in 4 schools, a primary (K- 3), intermediate (grades 4-6), junior high (grades 7-8), and high school (grades 9-12). About 90 percent of the students in WISD pass the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) test at all levels. For 1996-97, Danforth Junior High School was rated exemplary and Bowen Intermediate and Scudder Primary were rated recognized according to the Texas Education Agency's (TEA's) accountability system. TEA will not release rating for 1997-98 until August, but preliminary data shared by the superintendent indicates that the high school and, potentially, the district will receive an exemplary rating. Texas School Performance Review: A History of Savings For the last seven years, the Texas School Performance Review (TSPR) has helped public school districts across the state ensure they spend their scarce education dollars in the classroom, where they belong, not on red tape, paperwork, and needless bureaucracy. TSPR fields invitations from public school districts of every size and shape-large or small, rich or poor, rural or urban. The team settles in for months of detailed study at no charge to district taxpayers. TSPR's goals are to identify ways to cut costs, reduce administrative overhead, streamline operations, and improve educational services-in short, to help school districts operate more effectively and efficiently within their available resources. Most of the Comptroller's recommendations come directly from teachers, parents, students, and others who live or work in the district. TSPR has found that these hard-working folks often have known for years what would improve their schools-if only someone would ask. The Comptroller asks. Since 1991, TSPR has offered more than 3,000 detailed ways to save taxpayers nearly $341 million in 29 public school districts throughout Texas including Wimberley. And TSPR has accomplished this task without recommending the firing or laying off of a single classroom teacher. Districts studied by the TSPR team to date include San Antonio, Richland Springs, San Saba, Cherokee, Lubbock, Victoria, West Orange/Cove Consolidated, Lake Travis, Dallas, Austin, Calhoun County, Midland, Paris, San Marcos Consolidated, Brownsville, Longview, San Angelo, Beaumont, Waco, United in Laredo, Tyler, Houston, Texarkana, Spring, and Corpus Christi, Socorro, Ysleta, and Port Arthur. A review of the Hamilton ISD is under way.