Bastrop Independent School District If current trends continue, the Bastrop Independent School District (Bastrop ISD) student population will grow at double the growth rate of the rest of the state. This growth reflects a shift in the community, which has been largely a rural, farming area and is now attracting Austin-based professionals. This growing student population, paired with the changing demographics, presents Bastrop ISD with several unique challenges.
At the request of community leaders, my office agreed to review the district earlier this year. We discovered a district with some notable successes. Despite those successes, some community members had lost confidence in the district’s ability to adequately manage its financial affairs. Differences among community residents resulted in the defeat of key bond proposals designed to address current and future facilities needs of the district. To address these challenges, district officials will need to work more closely with community leaders to decide how to best spend district dollars to help their students.
Bastrop ISD spent only 46.8 cents of every education dollar in the classroom in 1999-2000, down from 48.8 cents the previous year. The district must focus on our most precious resource–our children. One of my 10 Principles for Texas in the 21st Century is to drive more of every education dollar directly into the classroom. And my Texas School Performance Review (TSPR) team has done just that for Bastrop ISD with 60 recommendations that could result in net savings of more than $3.9 million over the next five years.
The district has an opportunity to restore community faith in its financial management ability, maintain and enhance its upward trend in student performance and effectively plan for its future growth. My report contains a series of recommendations and implementation steps to help the district to achieve these objectives. Among those recommendations are:
- Convert either Mina Elementary School or the West Campus of Bastrop High School to offices for district administration and for the special education cooperative, and move these offices from their current, expensive location in a commercial area;
- Create a committee of citizens to help the district develop a facilities master plan linked to future growth data; and
- Link all the district and campus improvement plans to the district’s budget and prioritize projects.
Each of these major recommendations would redirect administrative costs and dedicate dollars to improving the education of our children. I am confident that school board members, school administrators, teachers and parents are all committed to making Bastrop ISD the best it can be for their students.
Carole Keeton Rylander
Comptroller of Public Accounts
