CRYSTAL CITY INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT
PROGRESS REPORTIntroduction
In November 2000, Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Rylander began a review of the Crystal City Independent School District (CCISD) as part of a three-district project that included reviews of the neighboring Eagle Pass and La Pryor school districts. These three districts are located near each other in Maverick and Zavala Counties. In July 2001, a final Texas School Performance Review (TSPR) report was issued detailing 36 recommendations that could save the district more than $2 million by 2005-06 During August 2002, TSPR staff returned to assess the district's progress in implementing the recommendations.
Since 1991, TSPR has recommended more than 7,000 ways to save taxpayers more than $700 million over five-year periods in more than 80 public school districts and higher education institutions throughout Texas. TSPR also conducts follow-up reviews of districts that have had at least one year to implement the recommendations. These 47 subsequent reviews showed that more than 90 percent of TSPR's proposals have been acted upon, saving taxpayers more than $112 million, with the full savings estimated to grow in the future.
Improving the Texas School Performance Review
Comptroller Rylander, who took office in January 1999, consulted school district officials, parents and teachers from across Texas and carefully examined past reviews and progress reports in an effort to make the TSPR more valuable, even vital, to the state's more than 1,000 school districts. With the perspective of a former teacher, and a school board president, the Comptroller has vowed to steer TSPR toward increased accountability to local school districts and the communities they represent.
Rylander began by establishing new criteria for selecting school districts for future reviews. Priority is now given to districts judged poor performing academically or financially, and to hands-on reviews that benefit the greatest number of students. To ensure this process also serves small districts, reviews of numerous school districts in close proximity, regardless of academic or financial status, are also completed to achieve some economy of scale, as was the case with the smaller districts reviewed in Maverick and Zavala Counties.
Recognizing that only about 51 cents of every education dollar is spent on instruction, Comptroller Rylander's goal is to drive more of every education dollar directly into the classroom. In addition, no longer are school districts' best practices and exemplary models left buried inside individual TSPR reports. Instead, Comptroller Rylander has ordered TSPR to share best practices and exemplary programs quickly and systematically among all the state's school districts and with anyone who requests such information. There is simply no reason for a district that has solved a problem well to keep the solution to itself. Comptroller Rylander has directed TSPR to serve as an active clearinghouse of the best and brightest ideas in Texas public education. Best practices identified in the original review will be included in the Comptroller's best practices database, A+ Ideas for Managing Schools (AIMS), which is on the Web at www.aimsdatabase.org.
Under Comptroller Rylander's approach, the TSPR team and consultants work with districts to:
- ensure students and teachers receive the support and resources necessary to succeed;
- identify innovative options to address core management challenges;
- ensure administrative activities are performed efficiently, without duplication and in a manner that spurs education;
- develop strategies to ensure the districts' processes and programs are continuously assessed and improved;
- understand the links among the districts' functional areas and determine ways to provide a seamless system of services;
- challenge any process, procedure, program or policy that impedes instruction and recommend ways to reduce or eliminate obstacles; and
- put goods and services to the "Yellow Pages test"-government should do no job if there is a business in the Yellow Pages that can do that job better and at a lower cost.
Finally, Comptroller Rylander has opened her door to Texans who share her optimism about TSPR's potential. Suggestions to improve school reviews are welcome at any time. The Comptroller is a staunch believer in public education and public accountability.
Detailed information can be obtained from TSPR by calling 1-800-531-5441 extension 5-3676, or by visiting the Comptroller's Web site at www.window.state.tx.us.
When contacted by the Comptroller's office in August 2000, the CCISD board and Superintendent Alberto Gonzales voiced their support for the review. The superintendent and his staff have worked cooperatively with the review team throughout the project.
The Comptroller contracted with WCL Enterprises, a Houston-based firm, to assist with the review. The team interviewed district employees, school board members, parents, business leaders and community members and held a public forum on Wednesday,
November 8, 2000, at the Crystal City High School from 5 through 7 pm. To obtain additional comments, the review team conducted 14 small focus group sessions with teachers, principals, employees, students, parents and community members. The Comptroller's office also received letters and phone calls from a wide array of parents, teachers and community members.A total of 238 respondents answered surveys. Of this total, 82 campus and central administrators and support staff, 27 parents, 81 teachers and 48 students completed written surveys.
The review team also consulted two databases of comparative educational information maintained by the Texas Education Agency (TEA)-the Academic Excellence Indicator System (AEIS) and the Public Education Information Management System (PEIMS).
Crystal City ISD selected peer districts for comparisons based on similarities in student enrollment, student performance and community and student demographics. The districts chosen were Cotulla, Carrizo Springs, Devine and Pearsall ISDs. TSPR also compared Crystal City ISD with districts in TEA's Region 20 Education Service Center, to which Crystal City ISD belongs, and the state as a whole.
During its more than seven-month review, TSPR developed recommendations for improving operations and saving taxpayers more than $2.5 million by 2005-06. Cumulative net savings from all recommendations (savings minus recommended investments or expenditures) would reach $2.0 million by 2005-06.
Crystal City ISD is a 656-square mile district located in Zavala County and is responsible for providing public education for all the students who live within the 656 square miles of the district. CCISD has four schools: Tomas Rivera/Zavala Elementary School (three-year-old pre-school through grade 3), Benito Juarez Elementary School (grades 4-5), Sterling H. Fly Junior High School
(grades 6-8) and Crystal City High School (grades 9-12). The district also has one alternative education program for junior high and high school students.In 2001-02, 98.0 percent of CCISD's 2,055 students were Hispanic, 1.3 percent were Anglo and 0.7 percent were African American. More than 90 percent of CCISD's students were economically disadvantaged.
In 2001-02, three of CCISD's four campuses received an Acceptable rating from TEA; Crystal City High School received a Recognized rating. The district received and overall Acceptable rating.
In 2001-02, 80.0 percent of all CCISD students passed the reading portion of the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) test; 79.9 percent passed the math portion; and 73.5 percent passed the writing portion. In 2001-02, 66.7 percent of all students passed all tests taken.
In 2001-02, the district employed a staff of 370 employees. One hundred and forty-five were teachers, more than 45 percent of all district employees. The district had expenditures of nearly $20.1 million in
2001-02. That same year, 9 percent of CCISD's budgeted revenues were generated through local taxes; 3.5 percent came from other local and intermediate sources; 58 percent came from the state, and 29.5 percent came from the federal government.In 2001-02, CCISD budgeted 49.4 cents of every tax dollar for classroom instruction, compared with the state average of 51 cents.
In 2002, significant changes have occurred in the district. Since the time of TSPR's initial review, the district has worked hard to make salaries more competitive with other districts in the surrounding area. CCISD gave the entire staff an across-the-board pay raise of $1,000 a year. This raise, coupled with the legislatively mandated teacher pay raise of 1999, has made CCISD one of the highest-paying districts in its region. The district has also made commendable progress in the service provided to its Limited English Proficiency (LEP) students by offering them individualized education programs that are tailor-made for each student to ensure their academic success.
While work continues in the district regarding all of the recommendations made in this review, both CCISD staff and TSPR team members have a sense of steady progress. Twenty-three recommendations have been implemented; 12 are in various stages of progress; and one has been reviewed but was not implemented. (See Appendix A for details on the recommendations' status).
Crystal City ISD Report Card
Excellent = More than 80% complete
Chapter Total Complete In
ProgressNot
ImplementedRejected Percent Complete/
In ProgressGrades District Organization and Management 5 3 1 1 0 60%/20% Satisfactory Educational Service Delivery and Performance Measures 7 4 3 0 0 57%/43% Satisfactory Facilities Use and Management 1 1 0 0 0 100%/0% Excellent Financial Management 4 3 1 0 0 75%/25% Satisfactory Computers and Technology 6 3 3 0 0 50%/50% Satisfactory Transportation 4 2 2 0 0 50%/50% Satisfactory Food Services 9 7 2 0 0 78%/22% Satisfactory Overall Grade 36 23 12 1 0 64%/33% Satisfactory
Satisfactory = 80% to 100% complete or in progress
Needs Work = Less than 80% complete or in progressExemplary Programs and Practices
CCISD is a school district with some notable successes, and TSPR has identified numerous "best practices" Through commendations in each chapter, the original report highlighted model programs, operations and services provided by CCISD administrators, teachers and staff members. Other school districts throughout Texas are encouraged to examine these exemplary programs and services to see if they could be adapted to meet local needs. TSPR's commendations are listed below followed by updated information on each topic in italics.
- Continual updating of policies and procedures eliminates unnecessary administrative processing. Since arriving in October 1999, the superintendent and director of Curriculum and Instruction review district policies periodically. As a result of these reviews, a series of outdated policies were updated or deleted. Periodically, CCISD also converts an existing policy to procedures to ease the administrative burden. For example, the district had a policy on student conduct that enumerated the various elements of the code, infractions and discipline alternatives. Districts are required to review and update student codes annually and to distribute them to students and parents. By converting the policy to procedures the district is able to publish updates without the need for board approval.
CCISD continues to update policies and procedures and has most recently undertaken a review of all district financial procedures.
- Strategic planning involves parents, community members and staff. In November 1999, CCISD began a strategic planning process "designed to bring together all human and financial resources established by the school and community to achieve the district's goals." The first step in the process was a commitment by the Board of Trustees to districtwide, long-range planning. The district's improvement plan as well as individual campus improvement plans are all now linked to the strategic plan. The final step will be linking this plan to the district's budget.
CCISD continues to involve its parents, community members and district staff in the strategic planning process. Since the review, the district's planning process now includes a step for tying resources needed for each activity in the District Improvement Plan to the budget.
- Recruiting certified teachers is a priority. CCISD is addressing the need to attract certified teachers through a series of coordinated efforts including joining a personnel cooperative through Region 20 for the 2000-01 year, establishing focused district-college relationships, and making long-term investments in non-teaching employees and student-teachers.
CCISD continues to use the Region 20 Personnel Cooperative but has supplemented these original programs by raising beginning teacher salaries to better compete with neighboring districts in the region.
- Strategies focus on improving student performance. Recognizing that the performance of CCISD students had improved over the past five years but was still below the state and regional averages, the district improvement committee under the leadership of the superintendent formulated plans to address academic performance in CCISD. In addition to aligning curriculum to TEKS and TAAS, determining student performance strengths and weaknesses through benchmark testing and implementing a consistent reading program, CCISD is working to improve the student attendance rate, since students who are in school regularly tend to outperform those who are not in school.
CCISD's strong focus on improving student performance now includes designing individual education plans for all Limited English Proficiency (LEP) and Bilingual students, one of TSPR's recommendations.
- Gifted and Talented training is provided for staff and parents. In July 2000, CCISD held a weeklong Gifted and Talented Institute. More than 25 staff members and 10 parents attended the Institute where CCISD's coordinator reviewed identification processes, rules and regulations and consultants presented all-day sessions.
CCISD has now added a component to aid in the identification of Bilingual students to the Gifted and Talented program and has continued operating the district Gifted and Talented Institute.
- Student Assistance Teams help to identify Special Education students. CCISD uses a pre-referral intervention process, the Student Assistance Team, which is designed to promote collaboration among parents, students and school and district level instructional, support and administrative staff members before a student is referred for Special Education assessment. Before the classroom teachers recommend assessment, they must collaborate with a peer, the counselor and the student's parents to determine which instructional methods are appropriate for successful learning.
Student Assistance Teams in CCISD continue to help ensure that many forms of input and evaluations are exhausted before placing students in Special Education.
- CCISD's accident prevention program reduces accidents and claims. The district's Employee Orientation Handbook for teachers and paraprofessionals outlines the basic provisions of the district's accident prevention policy. CCISD's policy is designed to take every reasonable precaution for the safety of the students, employees, visitors and all others having business with the district by promoting and developing an aggressive prevention and safety education program. For example, the Food Services director, site leaders and central facility staff meet daily for five minutes to discuss safety topics relating to kitchen safety. Examples of topics include: back safety, disease prevention, hand washing and injury prevention.
CCISD aggressively enforces its accident prevention program and is making periodic updates of policies and procedures to the Employee Orientation Handbook for teachers and paraprofessionals.
- Video conferencing and Internet laboratory expand and improve educational programs. CCISD opened its Video Conferencing and Internet Laboratory at the high school campus in 1998. The facility was funded in 1997 and was implemented over a one-year period with a Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund (TIF) grant of $188,000. CCISD currently offers criminal justice classes for Carrizo Springs ISD. Southwest Texas Junior College in Uvalde offers English classes and Government classes to CCISD students via video conferencing and classes that provide an introduction to health care subjects are provided via the Internet by St. Philip's College in San Antonio.
Distance education is critical for the Career and Technology Education program, a TSPR recommendation.
The following are some of the key recommendations that administrators and staff said had the greatest impact on district operations. The highlighted recommendations are organized by chapter and by the area of operation as contained in the original report. The comments came from district administrators during the TSPR team's follow-up visit.
District Organization and Management
Recommendation 3 - Increase beginning teacher salaries to at least the average for area districts. Crystal City ISD administration feels that the recommendation to increase beginning teacher salaries will help the district attract new, highly qualified teachers to the district. The superintendent said that by offering more attractive salaries he feels the district will be able to attract new talent to CCISD. Competitive salaries will help the district as it competes with other area districts for high-quality teachers and staff.
Educational Service Delivery and Performance Measures.
Recommendation 8 - Develop individual education plans (IEPs) for each CCISD Bilingual/English as a Second Language (ESL) student using benchmark testing results. The district feels that it has greatly enhanced its service to Bilingual/ESL students by tailoring individual plans for each particular student. An administrator noted that school officials no longer talk about what to do with Limited English Proficiency (LEP) students in general, but rather, what can be done for each student by name.
Facilities Use and Management
Recommendation 13 - Reassign custodial cleaning responsibility using industry standards and reduce the number of custodians. The district used this recommendation to analyze and reduce the number of district custodians by one position based on industry standards in 2001-02. But, as CCISD floor space increased in 2001-02, additional custodians were needed. Yet the administration noted that assigning cleaning responsibilities using industry standards has increased productivity and reduced the number of custodians who would have been needed had this recommendation not been implemented.
Financial Management
Recommendation 16 - Establish a procedure to identify materials and services that require competitive solicitations. Crystal City ISD administrators said bid procedures are now allowing the district to better track materials and services and give CCISD a better understanding of the financial position of the district through increased internal controls.
Computers and Technology
Recommendation 21 - Use the State Board for Educator Certification draft technology standards as a guideline for establishing CCISD's technology knowledge requirements for teachers. The State Board for Educator Certification helped the district focus on technology training for teachers, according to district administrators. The standards also gave the district a blueprint for measuring the level of teachers' proficiency with technology.
Recommendation 23 - Hire a computer technician. Hiring a technician has improved the time it takes to respond to computer problems. This is increasingly important as teachers and administrators become more technologically proficient and technology is integrated directly into the curriculum.
Transportation
Recommendation 25 - Perform behind-the-wheel evaluations of all bus drivers at least once a year. While evaluations were performed in the past, district staff told the review team they were not documented. Currently, CCISD performs two behind-the-wheel evaluations on every driver each year and documents the results. The administration said the documentation is important and will aid in individual and departmental assessments.
Food Service
Recommendation 35 - Increase breakfast participation by increasing menu choices and expanding serving options. CCISD now serves a grab-and-go breakfast and has increased menu choices to help boost its meal participation. TSPR projected that through these practices Food Services Department revenues would increase by more than $28,000 over a five-year period. CCISD has aggressively implemented the recommend-ation and increased sales by more than $26,000 in 2001-02. The district projects that its Food Services Department will increase profits by more than $132,000 over the same five-year period.
Recommendation 36 - Conduct a needs assessment to determine if upgrades are needed to meet all the Federal Food Code requirements. The Food Services director and district administration commented that by bringing the department up to code and replacing old and worn-out equipment, food service efficiency has increased. Not only has the change in environment boosted the morale of workers in the Food Services Department, it has improved food quality and raised the overall student satisfaction.
CCISD has made steady progress in implementing TSPR recommendations. The district has implemented 23 recommendations; 12 are in various stages of progress; and one has not been addressed. District administrators have not rejected any recommendations from the original report. This section addresses the key areas requiring additional attention.
District Staffing Levels
The CCISD Board of Trustees and administration have been hesitant to implement Recommendation #1, which calls for bringing the reduction of educational aides and paraprofessional positions in line with regional averages, because the district's Head Start Program requires educational aide positions. Bringing staffing levels in line with those of Region 20 and the district's selected peers will require a change in philosophy in the elementary grades. Provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act will require the district to rethink its educational aide staffing levels and may mandate shifts in staffing to more certified teaching positions when fully implemented. TSPR originally predicted savings of more than $1.8 million over a five-year period for the implementation of this recommendation. This money could be freed up for increased salaries for remaining personnel or money that could be reinvested to enhance other educational programs. TSPR encourages the Board of Trustees and district administration to revisit this issue to harness potential savings, while improving educational opportunities for its students.
Food Service Procedures
CCISD has just begun documenting its procedures-TSPR is working with the district to identify potential models; in some districts procedures are presented in English and Spanish, all laminated and kept within easy reach of food service workers. The district has done a good job with procedures in other areas and TSPR commends them on their progress, but TSPR also encourages CCISD to do the same for the Food Services Department.
Technology Disaster Recovery Plan
The district's Technology Disaster Recovery Plan is only half-complete. While CCISD has made progress in this area, TSPR wants to emphasize the importance of a disaster recovery plan for the retrieval of data and return to normal operations should an unforeseen event occur. Tornadoes, fires or flash flooding are examples of natural disasters that can strike a district; a disaster recovery plan is essential for the fastest return to normal operating procedures. A comprehensive plan includes means for offsite storage of data backups, a list of people to call and delegates specific roles and responsibilities to district staff. It should also designate the employees responsible for each step.
Crystal City ISD's Ideas for Improving the Texas School Performance Review
The Texas School Performance Review team does not assume that its process for performing school reviews works so well that it cannot be improved. Therefore, as part of the progress report preparation, TSPR asked Crystal City ISD staff members and administrators what went right and what went wrong-and how the process could be improved. The feedback TSPR received from other districts led to improvements in the review process. For example, early reports did not include implementation strategies, and districts told TSPR they needed help getting started. As a result, the reports now include IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES AND TIMELINEs to complement the recommendations. Districts have told TSPR these blueprints are invaluable to achieving the desired results. It is important for TSPR to continually be mindful of those things that did not work as intended so that the review process can be improved.
Crystal City ISD administrators said the report was valuable because it forced the district to take a hard look at itself. Through this critical examination the district was able to identify and implement many improvements.
There were several recommendations that were made based on incomplete findings. For example, Recommendation 18 said to create a technology committee when a committee had been in place for years. Perhaps the committee was not meeting as regularly or did not have a membership as recommended by TSPR, but the fact is that a committee existed. TSPR is taking greater care during the findings meeting to fix the verification of incomplete findings.
The superintendent stated that the review was a worthwhile experience for the district. He complimented TSPR and the Comptroller's office for its selection of a professional and well-informed consulting team to conduct the review. He added that the team's evaluation was fair and thorough.
Crystal City ISD administrators also said they enjoyed getting the opportunity to talk to different experts in the education and school operations fields. The superintendent noted that the review process was an excellent way for his administration to exchange ideas with outside experts and garner new best practices and innovative ideas for improving educational service and district operations. He encouraged TSPR to maintain the same level of open communication with other districts in future reviews.
