Tag Archives: Cypress-Fairbanks

November 2023 Texas School Board Election Recap

From Franklin Strong: Since Tuesday, headlines across the country have highlighted crushing defeats book-banning school board candidates, often associated with Moms for Liberty, suffered on Election Night. That trend carried over into Texas elections, too— but only to an extent. … Continue reading

Posted in Election 2023 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Keep an eye on the Cy-Fair ISD elections

There’s potential for a lot of badness here. Conservative political-action committees and GOP U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz are backing four Cy-Fair ISD trustee candidates in next week’s election for four positions that could sway control of the board in one … Continue reading

Posted in Election 2023 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

It’s not a teacher shortage yet

But you can see one on the horizon. School districts across the Houston region are trying to fill thousands of teacher vacancies before most will be welcoming students back to classrooms in the coming weeks. A review of about 18 area school districts’ job … Continue reading

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Many more school districts are feeling the pinch

Not just HISD. Not by a long shot. For eight-straight years, Cypress-Fairbanks and Conroe ISDs earned the Texas Smart Schools Award, bestowed on school districts with prudent financial practices and high academic achievement. Now, Cypress-Fairbanks faces a $50 million deficit … Continue reading

Posted in Budget ballyhoo, School days, That's our Lege | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Bad signs of the times

I don’t even know what to say. Cypress-Fairbanks ISD will spend $55 million to tighten school security, including installing strategically placed panic buttons on campuses and replacing existing entry windows with bullet-resistant glass – upgrades experts call a necessary but … Continue reading

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School superintendents for Early To Rise

From the press release: (Houston, TX) Today Harris County Superintendents participated in a press conference for the Early to Rise campaign, which is seeking to create a dedicated funding stream to improve the quality of early childhood education through a … Continue reading

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What they’re saying about education

The Chron has a couple of stories focusing on area legislators and their priorities for 2013. There will be many new faces in the Lege and the Senate in this session, so the more we know about what these folks … Continue reading

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On comparing school districts

Easier said than done. The way the state distributes money to school districts, and how much, will be center stage when a trial begins this fall involving more than half of the state’s districts serving the majority of its students, … Continue reading

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We have a long history of screwing public schools in this state

I’ve been meaning to post about this Texas Observer story about the current status of school finance, the litigation challenging it, and the story of how we got here. Here’s a little local angle to illustrate one of the many … Continue reading

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Cancelling constables

Like Grits, I see this as an opportunity, not a loss. Budget cuts have led two Harris County constables to cancel their security contracts with several area school districts, leaving the districts scrambling for a fix to cover the end … Continue reading

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What school districts may do to respond to the budget cuts

They may raise taxes: Some school officials also are considering even more unpopular options – increasing property tax rates or eliminating special tax breaks. In some cases, even those moves aren’t expected to raise enough money to plug the worst-case … Continue reading

Posted in Budget ballyhoo | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

The Pitts budget

Here it is, and if it is a shock to you, you haven’t been paying attention. The House’s starting-point budget proposal would provide for a total budget of $156.4 billion in state and federal money, a decrease of $31.1 billion, … Continue reading

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School districts feeling the crunch

The state’s budget problems, which are caused to some degree by the economic slowdown, aren’t just problems for the state. They’re local problems as well, and the entities that have been hardest hit are those that had been given short … Continue reading

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Today the HCDE, tomorrow the world!

Remember those Cy-Fair school board candidates I mentioned last week? Turns out they each have Facebook groups supporting their candidacies. A brief look at them reveals a couple of interesting things. One is that spelling, or at least spell-checking, is … Continue reading

Posted in Election 2009 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Where conservative governance gets incubated

This story about area school board elections is both a revealing look at the state of the modern conservative philosophy of how to govern, as well as a stark reminder of why these obscure little elections really do matter. In … Continue reading

Posted in Election 2009 | Tagged , , , , , | 8 Comments

Cy-Fair parents want their school buses

Parents in the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District react with dismay to cutbacks in school bus service. “I implore you, please reconsider these routes,” said parent Rachel Gerhardt. “Some are hazardous. My main concern is that my child gets to and … Continue reading

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You don’t get what you don’t pay for

School buses. Who needs ’em? Homeowners in the Cypress-Fairbanks school district are able to keep their special tax break this year, but now thousands of students are left without school bus rides. To make a dent in a $14 million … Continue reading

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As goes Cy-Fair, so goes Texas

Earlier this month, I noted that the Cy-Fair ISD was considering the repeal of an optional homestead exemption so it could pay for salaries and services it needed for the schools. They backed off after residents protested, choosing instead of … Continue reading

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Lower taxes, less revenue, lower quality

Apparently, you need tax revenues to pay for needed services, and when the demand for those services outstrips the growth of the tax revenues, you either have to find a way to raise more revenue, or you have to cut … Continue reading

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HISD to broadcast some meetings

This is a good first step. Saying they want to be more transparent, Houston Independent School District trustees agreed Thursday to broadcast their once-monthly general meetings on the district’s cable access station, which runs 24 hours a day. Trustees, though, … Continue reading

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