From the HISD news page:
HISD has scheduled a series of community conversations to discuss the possibility of closing four small elementary schools. The district administration is faced with making some difficult budget decisions to cover an expected $171 million budget shortfall caused by anticipated state budget cuts. No final decisions have been made on consolidation.
The four schools being considered are Grimes, Love, McDade, and Rhoads. The community meeting schedule is
as follows:Saturday, April 2 10:00–11:30 a.m. Rhoads ES Tuesday, April 5 6:00–7:30 p.m. McDade ES Thursday, April 7 5:30–7:00 p.m. Love ES Wednesday, April 13 5:30–7:00 p.m. Grimes ES The district first looked to Central Office for budget cuts. For the 2011–2012 school year, the HISD administration is proposing the elimination of 277 Central Office jobs. The recommended Central Office cuts amount to $18 million in savings and will be brought to the Board of Education for a vote on April 7.
Earlier this month, the Board approved reducing the amount of money schools receive for each student by $275. This is the first time the Board has ever been asked to cut per-student funding to schools. Trustees agreed to restore as much funding as possible if the state Legislature ends up cutting less than expected.
The per-student funding cut will have its biggest effect on the smallest schools. Closing small schools would mean students from those schools would attend nearby campuses. Since the funding follows the student, those consolidated schools would then have additional money to serve students and would be in a better position to keep employees small schools might have to consider cutting or sharing, such as nurses, librarians, or music and art teachers.
Didn’t see that in time to blog it for the April 2 conversation. There’s a lot of folks in my neighborhood who are worked up about keeping Love Elementary open. If any of this is of interest to you, please participate.
There must be some hidden agenda behind the choice of Love. Stevenson, on TC Jester, has fewer students, has a smaller property, and worse facilities. You would think it would be closed before Love. Moving the 300 students from Stevenson to Love makes more sense.