TSPR Clear Creek ISD

Appendix A
PUBLIC FORUMS AND
FOCUS GROUP COMMENTS

District Organization and Management

Educational Service Delivery and Performance Measures

Personnel Management

Community Involvement

Facilities Use and Management

Assets and Risk Management

Financial Management

Purchasing and Contract Management

Food Service

Transportation

Safety and Security

Computers and Technology

DISTRICT ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT

My children attend a school that has potentially been negatively affected by recent re-districting. That is my bias. Their school, or rather the composition of it, has been radically shifted away from the "neighborhood" school it once was. The student body was formerly drawn from its natural neighborhood and the school asset was effectively utilized to its capacity. I could understand if redistricting accomplished some discernable benefits, but those are not clear. We have lost a significant cache of motivated, intelligent parents who provided considerable volunteer support for the school.
It is less expensive to educate students where you can leverage the talents of parents who can devote the time our parents do to their children's education. Why not take this into account when allocating resources? Why move people council when it is easier to move money? I am in favor in increasing funding to those schools with more transients/limited English proficiency, etc. It requires more to teach effectively and prepare those students with a good education. Return the schools to their "neighborhoods" and make use of the vast numbers of parents than can and will take an active role in their school everyday.
There is no two-way communication between the board and the community. Community input is limited to three minutes talks to the board, with no response from the board. This is unsatisfactory to parents who come to the board with problems that they want solved.
"Site-based decision-making" is a sham. The schools have CIIC's to check off the box that says they've done it but the committees don't make any decisions.
I would strongly encourage the district administration to remember that the staff and teachers are the reasons for our educational hierarchy. Many times, I have felt that personnel at the district administrative level have lost sight of this. Teachers and principals need to be given a lot of opportunities to be heard on this subject. They're the ones who have to live and work within the organization that the district sets forth. I would also like to voice a strong vote for as much site-based decision-making as possible.
The current school board has planned for budget and facilities. They've done a great job. Due to budget cuts, elementary administrators have been reduced and it's affecting the academic programs once supported by two administrators. The site-based teams help provide guidance for the building administration.
Site-based decision-making is very ineffective. The committee appears to have no specific or general goals. There are no short-term or long-term goals. It appears informational only. For one thing, it has over 75 members. This is too large to work together. Subcommittees need to be formed to focus on various areas to be effective.
I think that the board and the superintendent do the best they can with what they have. I understand that everyone thinks that what affects their child is all that there is, but the purpose of the board is to do what is best for all children. That means they have to prioritize the things that need to be done and go until the money runs out.
I do believe that the schools that are older in CCISD are ignored and the newer schools get all the amenities. Unfortunately, that means that some of the older schools still have leaky roofs and not up-to-date traffic signs.
The management should give priority to the kids' education. At Armand Bayou, there's no math Triathlon or Math-Olympiad or Spelling Bee contest. The answer from the principal was there is no fund towards it. How can we challenge kids that want to be challenged? Management should really give more importance to the kids who want to accelerate.
The schools continue to be allowed to make site-based decisions that directly affect the students who attend there. District decisions are usually made with input from the school level and often with community and parental support.
I think we are overworking all of our management teams because of the magnitude of the job and the dwindling resources (money). I am continually amazed at what a good education we get here when our staffing is at a minimum.
Obviously, with all the expensive homes and high tax bracket in the Clear Lake area, there should never be a deficit in our funds for spending. To be "in the red" is incredible based on the millions of dollars coming into the district. Someone or some people are most assuredly mismanaging funds. There needs to have an oversight committee to see what's being spent on what.
Two years ago, the assistant superintendent came to Space Center Intermediate to tell the parents why they had to go to block scheduling. She said it was for two reasons: 1) for consistency throughout the district and 2) to provide every child with more opportunities. We went to block and neither of those goals had been realized. With double blocking, and block and a half, the students have gotten no more courses. And every school has a little different schedule, so there is no consistency. The teachers are unhappy, the parents are unhappy, and the students are unhappy. This is the first (and I hope last) year of this schedule. It is a disaster.
The CCISD school board has demonstrated both poor fiscal planning and control. The board also perpetuates its own agenda and members.
Board approved teacher pay raise without money budgeted or specifying the source of funding. The issue is not so much the pay raise, as it is an issue of fiscal responsibility. The board then approved pay raise for district employees. While the money was budgeted, the decision should have been reconsidered in light of the tight money situation.
Recently, the board selected a new superintendent. In the past, CCISD preferred to select someone with experience previously demonstrated as a superintendent-perhaps in a smaller school district. This time, they selected someone who has held a PHD for only three years and it was earned while working full-time for CCISD. She has no business experience at all. Overseeing a multi-million dollar business is no small feat. My main concern was the lack of community involvement in the decision process.
Communication is poor within the district.
I am extremely pleased with the current school board and the trustees who have served over the last few years. They seem to work together well and focus on getting things done. There is not a lot of infighting and wasted energy or bickering as there had been several years ago. Our current superintendent has done an outstanding job and we are fortunate to have his talent in place in our district. He has done a fantastic job improving our district by all measures during his tenure. He is a people developer and has put together a very cohesive team of very competent administrators. This team is in tune with the needs of a very diverse district population and continues to respond to the need for change. Student performance has steadily increased. The central office and principals work well together from what I've been able to observe and the principals seem to have an appropriate degree of autonomy.
I think this school is very well managed and planned for all types of students.
CCISD, through the superintendent, has dictated that all high schools and intermediate schools be on "block schedule." The superintendent did this to prove her dissertation that block schedule does not work. Any schedule that reduces class hours, overcrowds classes, and totally confuses everyone is a bad system. Overall, the kids hate block schedule, the teachers hate block schedule, and the parents hate block schedule. Only the superintendent and a few administrators accept block schedule. If they say it is to get the kids ready for college-give me a break! Twelve year olds are not ready to go to college. All the colleges I know have Monday, Wednesday, Friday for 50 minutes each and Tuesday, Thursday 90 minutes each. Not one does A-day, B-day, keep up with what each day is, since it is different every day. I understand the district is financially in trouble and that is because of block schedule. It costs more to have eight classes per child. Go back to traditional seven classes that meet everyday, and many problems will be solved. Traditional schedule costs less and the teachers see the students everyday (necessary for Math, Language Arts and Foreign language), and the teachers have a conference period every day, not every other day. Everything we were told about block has not been true. They said less homework-wrong-more homework because they don't see the kids every other day, so they pile on the work. More choices-wrong-offering a class once a day prohibits many children from taking classes they want because they are only offered during certain periods. Classes are overcrowded because there are fewer teachers per subject. The bottom line is to get rid of block schedule. It's too costly to be so ineffective. Go back to traditional seven periods daily and many problems will be solved. We have gone backward in time. Other districts have learned that block doesn't work.
The principal at Bay Elementary does a terrific job of keeping our children in a safe and fun place to learn. She manages a wonderful school and staff. I have had one conflict and brought it to her attention, and she made sure it was handled professionally and quickly.
I am extremely happy with the management of Hyde Elementary. I think it is great that the individual principals have decision-making authority within their school and have the ability to manage as they see right. I think this makes for a great school at Hyde, but also realize it could go the other way depending on the principal.
The campus CIIC committees are effective in involving all stakeholders in decision-making. The DEIC and superintendent's council are also very effective. Everyone has a voice in CCISD.
I think that the current board and the administration is in the best condition that it has been in for a number of years. I am pleased with the cooperation and disciplined approach that is currently in place. As with many issues, I feel that the budget problems that are the product of the state-mandated financial constraints need to be rectified.
District lacks overall leadership and innovation in education.
Each school should be able to make the final decision for their own campus. There has to be overall control and guidelines but each campus needs to meet the needs of their own student body. Top management needs to go back to the basics with some of the campuses.
Overall, we are very pleased with the organization and management of CCISD.
The district does not effectively use, non-adequately oversees the site-based decision management organization. Local school based advisory committees do not receive adequate district administrative support, and are, in multiple example, openly resistive to parental or community involvement in site decisions and policy formulation.
This district is unable to fund both operations and maintenance necessary to deliver a quality education in a stable and on-going manner. It appears that the state method for funding public education does not allow the district to keep sufficient funds to accomplish this.
Administrators are fairly accessible, although you must be a persistent parent to reach them. They first ask if you have followed the chain of command, which is fair.
A failure to communicate continues to cause problems, especially distrust, in our school community. Questions concerning, old problems at Clear Creek High School would not/could not be answered in a meeting with top administration personnel and our school principal. At the time, our school principal was new to the district and I truly believe that he was as much in the dark as the parents, faculty and students. The administrators chose to say only the things that would make them look good which did lead to more distrust. On the other hand, those same administrators saw where some changes to the system would be beneficial and hopefully improvements were made (cleaning the whole A/C heating systems throughout the year, not waiting until the summer months to do all cleaning in all schools cleaning.)
Requesting records through the open records act is sometimes like pulling teeth; it takes a while and seems as though you will get these materials only if the person(s) in charge want you to have them.
My main concern regarding Clear Creek ISD would be the competence of some of the past and present board members regarding their ability to make good financial decisions. Is the school district "in debt" and if so, why?