IntroductionIn September 1999, the Comptroller of Public Accounts’ Texas School Performance Review (TSPR) staff and consultants completed a comprehensive performance review of the Killeen Independent School District (KISD) at the request of the superintendent and Board of Trustees. In December 2000, TSPR staff returned to assess the district’s progress in implementing recommendations.
Since 1991, TSPR has recommended more than 4,400 ways to save taxpayers a net of more than $490 million over a five-year period in 46 different public school districts throughout Texas. TSPR also conducts follow-up reviews of districts that have had at least one year to implement recommendations. These 30 subsequent reviews show that almost 90 percent of TSPR’s combined proposals have been enacted, saving taxpayers more than $96 million with the full savings estimated to grow in the future.
Improving the Texas School Performance Review
Comptroller Carole Keeton 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 TSPR more valuable, even vital, to the state’s more than 1,000 school districts. With the perspective of having served as a teacher and a school board president, the Comptroller has vowed to steer TSPR toward being more accountable to local school districts and the communities they represent.
Comptroller Rylander began by establishing new criteria for selecting school districts for reviews. Priority is given to districts with poor academic or financial performance and to hands-on reviews that will benefit the greatest number of students. These are the school districts and children that need help the most.
Recognizing that only about 52 cents of every education dollar is spent on instruction, Comptroller Rylander’s goal is to drive more of every education dollar into the classroom. In addition, no longer will school districts’ best practices and exemplary models be left buried inside individual TSPR reports. Instead, Comptroller Rylander has ordered best practices and exemplary programs to be shared quickly and systematically among all the state’s school districts and with anyone who requests such information. Districts that have solved a problem well should share their solutions. 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 of KISD will be included in the Comptroller’s best practices database, A+ Ideas for Managing Schools (AIMS), which is accessible on the web at www.aimsdatabase.org.
Under Comptroller Rylander’s approach, consultants and the TSPR team will work with districts under review to:
- ensure that students and teachers receive the support and resources needed to succeed;
- identify innovative options for addressing core management challenges facing the district;
- ensure that administrative activities are performed efficiently, without duplication and in a manner that spurs education;
- develop strategies for ensuring continual assessment and improvement of processes and programs;
- ;understand the links among functional areas of the district 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 the potential for public education. Suggestions to improve our schools or the TSPR reviews of our schools are welcomed at any time. The Comptroller believes that public schools deserve all the attention and assistance they can possibly get.
For more information, contact TSPR by calling toll-free at 1-800-531-5441, extension 5-3676, or see the Comptroller’s Web site at www.window.state.tx.us.
TSPR began its review of KISD in April 1999. As in previous reviews, TSPR came to Killeen in response to a local call for assistance. In May 1998, the assistant superintendent for Business Services requested a review on behalf of the KISD Board of Trustees.
With the help of McConnell, Jones, Lanier & Murphy, a Houston-based consulting firm, the TSPR team interviewed district employees, school board members, students, parents, business leaders and community members. TSPR also held community meetings in three of the district’s middle schools. Participants were invited to write their observations on major topics of concern or be interviewed by a member of the review team. To obtain additional comments, the review team conducted focus group sessions with parents, teachers, principals, business leaders and representatives from community organizations. The team also collected comments from letters to the Comptroller and calls to the Comptroller’s toll-free hotline.
Written surveys were sent to district administrators and support staff, principals, teachers and students. TSPR received completed responses from 41 administrators and support staff; 92 principals and assistant principals; 251 teachers and 506 students. Public forums and focus groups sessions were held to gather perceptions and opinions from the Killeen community.
TSPR 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). For the review, KISD selected peer districts for comparative purposes based on similarities in size, location, student enrollment and property values. The selected peers were Copperas Cove, Temple, Irving, Lubbock, Spring Branch and Pasadena Independent School Districts (ISDs). TSPR also compared KISD to district averages in TEA’s Region 12 Education Service Center (Region 12) to which KISD belongs and to the state as a whole.
In 2000-01 KISD is serving 29,737 students, a nearly 4 percent increase from its 1998-99 enrollment of 28,576. KISD has four high schools, eight middle schools, 25 elementary schools and four alternative schools. With the exception of the slight decline in 1998-99, the district’s student enrollment has grown at a rate of 2 to 3 percent each school year and 31 percent since 1990. KISD’s property value per student is 59 percent lower than the state average, mainly due to the fact that Fort Hood, which is a federal installation, is exempt from paying property taxes.
Nearly 38 percent of KISD students are Anglo, 17 percent are Hispanic, 40 percent are African-American and 5 percent are classified as Asian/Pacific Islander and Native American. Fifty percent of its students are economically disadvantaged. While student performance is slightly below the state and Region 12 averages, the district has had no low-performing school in the last five years and the district has made improvements as measured by the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS).
During 2000-01 the district had a staff of 4,231 full-time employees, with teachers making up 2,028 or nearly 48 percent of the total KISD staff. The district’s 2000-01 operating budget is approximately $200.1 million. KISD’s revenue during 1999-2000 was generated from 17.5 percent local funds, 63.1 percent state funds and 19.5 percent federal and other sources as compared to statewide averages of 46.0 percent local, 46.1 percent state, and only 7.9 percent federal and other sources.
While the district still has a lot of work to do, both KISD staff and TSPR team members have a sense of progress. Seventy-two recommendations have been implemented, 33 are in various stages of progress and 5 have not been addressed. KISD officials rejected 12 recommendations, because they believed implementation was not feasible at this time. (See Appendix A for details on the recommendations’ status.)
Killeen ISD Report Card
Chapter Total Complete In
ProgressNot
ImplementedRejected Percdent Complete/
In ProgressGrades District Organization and Management 16 8 2 1 5 50%/13% Needs Work Educational Service Delivery 10 8 1 0 1 80%/10% Satisfactory Community Involvement 5 1 3 1 0 20%/60% Satisfactory Personnel Management 13 8 4 1 0 62%/31% Satisfactory Facilities Use and Management 8 3 5 0 0 38%/63% Satisfactory Asset and Risk Management 6 6 0 0 0 100%/0% Excellent Financial Management 12 6 5 0 1 50%/42% Satisfactory Purchasing and Warehouse Management 10 8 0 0 2 80%/0% Satisfactory Computers and Technology 8 7 1 0 0 88%/13% Excellent Student Transportation 19 6 11 1 1 32%/58% Satisfactory Food Services 7 6 0 0 1 86%/0% Excellent Safety and Security 8 5 1 1 1 63%/13% Needs Work Totals 122 72 33 5 12 59%/27% Satisfactory Excellent = More than 80% complete
Satisfactory = 80% to 100% complete or in progress
Needs Work = Less than 80% complete or in progressExemplary Programs and Practices
During the original review, TSPR identified numerous best practices in KISD. Through commendations in each chapter, the report highlighted model programs, operations and services provided by KISD administrators, teachers and staff members. Presented here, in italics, is an update on these exemplary programs. Other school districts throughout Texas are encouraged to examine the exemplary programs and services to see if they could be adapted to meet local needs. The commendations include:
- The two area assistant superintendents for education services conduct performance appraisals of principals more frequently than is required by the Education Code, which has resulted in increased accountability.
The two area assistant superintendents for education services conduct appraisals of principals three times a year. In addition to increased accountability, campus improvement plans have stayed on track.
- KISD uses SYSTAT, a commercial statistical software program modified by the Education Productivity Council at the University of Texas at Austin, to analyze TAAS data and provide various performance reports for school district use. School-based personnel say the program provides a clearer focus of strengths and weaknesses at both the student and grade levels, allows for a review of student performance, and is readily applicable for use in modifying instruction.
KISD continues to use SYSTAT to analyze TAAS data and provide various performance reports for school district use. In addition, school-based personnel have expanded its use beyond their original focus and are providing cross grade level data on former and future students. Sharing this data with the principal and other staff enables all personnel to work toward meeting individual student needs.
- By opening its facilities for community use, KISD promotes positive community relations with local government agencies, youth support organizations and Killeen community members. The district allows the YMCA, the City of Killeen’s Parks and Recreation Department and various civic, fraternal, religious and support groups to use school facilities.
KISD has expanded availability of its facilities to the city of Harker Heights and Fort Hood. Every campus in the district now has an after-school program provided either by the YMCA or Fort Hood. Although the YMCA and Fort Hood charge parents a fee for each participating child, there is no facility-use fee charged by the district. KISD’s most recent partnership shows promise of being an ongoing approach to the planning of new elementary campuses. KISD purchased the land for its 26th elementary campus and will lease five acres of the site to the city at $1 a year for 20 years. In return, the city will turn that parcel into a park and will install and maintain walking trails and soccer fields.
- KISD works closely with Fort Hood to foster strong communication and to administer a wide range of educational support programs that benefit all students in the district.
A Fort Hood unit or company adopts every campus in KISD. Additionally, Fort Hood encourages parental involvement in a child’s education by mandating military personnel’s attendance at parent conferences.
- The district supports a national coalition to improve educational services to military families. KISD’s superintendent assisted in founding the Military Child Education Coalition, a national group that addresses relocation and educational issues that affect military dependents. The coalition now includes U. S. military installations and affected public school systems as well as schools operated by the Department of Defense.
The Military Child Education Coalition is now an independent organization. KISD maintains a membership in the organization and is part of a regional committee that was formed to address transition issues of military students. The committee has produced an action plan that covers seven key areas of transition. Many KISD staff are involved in its implementation.
- KISD’s automated substitute caller system facilitates scheduling of approved substitutes and tracks employee absences. KISD uses an automated database to call qualified substitutes. Teachers dial a central number, enter specific codes identifying the teacher, work category, work location and absentee code, which determines substitute need. The computer then calls the appropriate substitute, who responds with appropriate codes (available or unavailable to work) and the substitute then arrives at the correct location. If the initial substitute is unavailable, the computer continues to call substitutes until one is found who can work.
The district is updating it software to make it possible to know of substitute needs earlier and to generate online reports. The decision was made to route the initial teacher calls directly to the principals who will then automate the substitute caller system.
- The district has actively managed its debt obligations and used a refunding technique to significantly lower its future debt service requirement. A refunding bond is issued to refinance existing bond indebtedness at a lower interest rate. The district advance refunded the 1992 series bonds to reduce its total debt service payments over the next 15 years, resulting in total savings of nearly $500,000 annually.
The district continues to monitor debt and look for ways to improve overall financial management.
- KISD has received its certificate of achievement from the Association of School Business Officials and the Government Finance Officers Association for its annual financial report every year since 1989-90.
KISD’s Budget department is working with the Media department to make the budget document more user-friendly for 2001-02.
- KISD reviews its Purchasing Policies and Procedures regularly, revising when necessary to make the purchasing processes more efficient. In April 1999 the Purchasing director, after reviewing internal processes, eliminated the necessity of filling out additional paperwork for controlled items that are stocked in the warehouse. This eliminated schools from having to fill out a paper “controlled item purchase request” form and allowed schools to request the item online.
Most recently, at TSPR’s recommendation, the district has piloted a procurement card program whereby some departments use procurement cards to make purchases rather than prepare a purchase order. This has further streamlined the purchasing operation.
- The KISD ATM network is a state-of-the-art network, which provides integrated voice, data and video to all locations across a single fiber optic cable. Sprint built the fiber optic cable network in exchange for a 7-year contract for leasing the equipment necessary to access the service. KISD pays a flat annual rate, regardless of the number of sites added to the network. KISD is the only district among its peers using this technology.
KISD has expanded the ATM network and its technology. All campuses are on the network as are a number of outside sites. Hubs are being replaced with switches, increasing access significantly. Additionally, the fiber optic network is being extended to the new campuses.
- KISD has developed an exemplary management in-service training program for its food service workers, covering a wide variety of topics. In addition, employees are encouraged to complete the Texas School Food Services Association and Central Texas College professional development courses where, once certified, the district will pay the employees a stipend. Finally, KISD has instituted an employee awards program based on attendance, work performance, customer services, attitude and teamwork. All of these efforts instill a sense of pride in food service workers and show them that their work is valued.
The professional development training program for food service workers has had positive effects. Food service workers as a group are exhibiting higher morale, better service and a commitment to continuous learning. Some are going on to earn their associates degrees. As a result, KISD has expanded the training program to other auxiliary personnel. The district has developed a similar program for secretaries that focuses on professional needs and technology, and is in the process of developing a program for instructional aides that will be focused on educational service delivery.
- All KISD employees, visitors, ninth grade and high school students in KISD are required to wear identification badges and plans are underway to make all middle school students wear badges before the end of 2000-01. This effort has heightened security awareness throughout the district. KISD contracts with Interquest Detector Dog Company to conduct random dog searches of student lockers, common areas and parking lots at middle schools, ninth grade centers and high schools. The detection program has contributed to lowering the number of alcohol, tobacco, drugs and weapons possessions throughout the district in recent years.
KISD continues to place a great deal of emphasis on security. At TSPR’s recommendation, the district implemented weekly incident reports listed by campus in August 2000. These are published in the local newspaper. In January the board compared the incident reports for fall 2000 with fall 1999 and found that the major categories had dropped and placements in Alternative Education Programs had gone down by more than half.
The following are some of the key recommendations that administrators and staff said they believe had the greatest impact on district operations. The highlighted recommendations are arranged by the chapter and area of operation contained in the original TSPR report. The comments came from district administrators during the TSPR team’s follow-up visit to the district.
District Organization and Management
#6 Develop a comprehensive strategic plan, complete with community participation, that merges the district’s disparate planning efforts and reflects the district’s vision, long-term goals and objectives.
Using a core planning team made up of parents, staff and community members, the district undertook a strategic planning process in June 2000. The team met to develop various components of the plan and work has proceeded steadily since then. The committee will present the plan to the board on May 8, 2001. The superintendent said he believes that the process was a “tremendous investment” that “will drive the district for years to come.”
Educational Service Delivery
#18 Realign responsibilities assigned to the district instructional specialists and create the offices of coordinator for Library/Media Services and coordinator for Guidance and Health Services.
The district realigned the responsibilities of the instructional specialists and has hired a full-time coordinator for Guidance and Counseling Services, a half-time coordinator of Health Services and a full-time secretary to support these two positions. Administrators intend to recommend the hiring of a coordinator of Library/Media Service in the future.
#19 Review and amend the district’s policy manual with particular attention to developing and adopting policies for direct curriculum management.
The district adopted Board Policy EG (Local) on January 11, 2000, which addresses curriculum philosophy, responsibility, adoption, articulation, guides and revision of guides. District officials identified Recommendations #18 and #19 as key recommendations because when taken collectively they believe they will significantly improve the educational delivery process and will have a long-term impact on student performance.
Community Involvement
#28 Identify communication alternatives that are easily accessible and capable of reaching a large number of community members.
The district made extensive use of the media to inform the community of the strategic planning process in Fall 2000. A color brochure detailing the current status of the 1997 bond election was also mailed to all district taxpayers in January 2001.
#29 Contact neighboring school districts and the local college to identify cost-effective ways to broadcast board meetings and instructional programs.
In January 2001, a presentation was made to the board proposing the establishment of a KISD educational cable channel. The board is scheduled to vote on the proposal in March 2001. The district has determined that it will make access available to other entities for a fee after it is comfortable with the operating process.
Personnel Management
#33 Determine the cause of high absenteeism and develop methods to reduce teacher absenteeism.
A KISD task force has addressed this recommendation, analyzed data and offered 13 suggestions to increase teacher presence in the classroom. As a result, the district says that they have been able to increase the number of days that a student is taught by his or her own teacher and the demand on the substitute pool has decreased.
#44 Remove the cap for years of experience for non-certified personnel and institute competitive pay for non-certified administrative personnel.
While this recommendation is still awaiting board consideration, one administrator pointed to this recommendation as being very liberating for the district. The district will be able to take a more flexible, competitive and open approach to hiring individuals whose experience is in areas other than education. The market for high-quality administrators has become very tight in recent years. District administrators said that implementing this recommendation will not only give the district a competitive edge externally, but it will also provide equity internally.
Facilities Use and Management
#49 Develop and implement a custodial staffing allocation formula that brings KISD staffing levels in line with suggested industry standards.
#50 Develop a staffing model for custodial work assignments that requires 75 percent of custodians to work at night and 25 percent to work during the day.
District officials knew this needed to be done, but the report gave them the push they needed to make the changes. Officials identified these two recommendations as key because they have the potential to save the district as much as $2.5 million over the next five years. More importantly, the new team cleaning concept promises to ensure that facilities are kept clean and attractive at all times.
Asset and Risk Management
#57 Conduct annual inventories of the fixed assets and reconcile the fixed asset property book to the district’s financial records.
The district budgeted $60,000 to have all assets bar-coded and a complete fixed asset inventory conducted by the external auditor. The project started in May 2000 and was completed in December 2000. The district now has a process in place to bar-code all incoming assets and to conduct regular reconcilations to the district’s financial records. Administrators recognized that this was an area of district operations that was in dire need of attention and are pleased that they now have it under control.
#58 Revise the district’s Property Services Handbook and Purchasing Manual to include consistent policies and procedures for controlled items.
As another part of the process of maintaining better control of district assets, the district implemented a $5,000 threshold for fixed assets and also set up a control inventory for assets that cost less than $5,000 but are prone to theft or loss.
Financial Management
#64 Establish an Internal Audit function that reports directly to the board’s finance committee.
Despite the fact that the district has not yet filled this position, administrators and board members pointed to this recommendation as key. They feel that this position has the potential for enhancing the district’s continual improvement activities and will help the district set up appropriate systems of internal control. The position has been advertised and applications accepted. The screening committee has been identified. Action is awaiting their first meeting.
Purchasing
#80 Develop procedures to track textbooks as they are moved in and out of inventory and between campuses.
Textbook ordering, tracking and distribution to campuses have dramatically improved. Students and teachers now have textbooks when they need them, and the district knows what they have and how many children are eligible for textbooks. In all, the district feels they have made significant progress.
Computers and Technology
#83 Expand the district’s use of the Internet to provide useful information to schools, teachers, administrators, parents and the community.
According to the district, this recommendation has resulted in significant improvements being made to the district’s Web site, making it more of a marketing, teaching and recruiting tool for KISD. It also served as the catalyst for creation of KISD’s intranet that serves internal clients. The intranet offers model lesson plans to teachers and provides information on demographics, test scores, attendance zones and policies. As a result of this recommendation, access to district information has grown dramatically.
#84 Establish a help desk to define and prioritize information requests and projects as they are received by Computer Services.
The help desk concept, supplemented by new software, has enabled the district to document workload, direct requests for assistance to the appropriate expert, and become more proactive in identifying commonly asked questions and problems. As a result, district administrators say that both efficiency and effectiveness have been increased.
Transportation
#89 Immediately complete the feasibility study for outsourcing Transportation Services and outsource the function.
The district’s feasibility study considered the proposals of five vendors. The report of the study’s findings went to the board in May 2000. The conclusion was that cost savings would be the result of selling their fleet of buses and that service to their students would suffer. Although the board chose not to outsource, the district said that the analysis they undertook resulted in many changes within the department, which has increased efficiency.
#93 Recruit and hire a training specialist for Transportation Services.
#94 Develop a comprehensive training curriculum for drivers to include behind-the-wheel training, student discipline management and safety.
The district hired a training specialist for Transportation Services. He began work on December 1, 2000, and is now in the process of developing a comprehensive training curriculum. The district anticipates only nominal costs for training because it will be conducted prior to hiring the drivers. And, district administrators told the review team that they felt that providing adequate training would greatly improve driver quality and ultimately driver turnover.
Food Service
#108 Design and implement pilot programs to increase student participation in breakfast and lunch meals.
#109 Improve food quality and presentation.
#114 Develop a plan to work with campus principals and student organizations to improve campus cafeteria designs at high schools.
The district took these three recommendations very seriously and said that they felt the improvements that resulted from these changes have dramatically impacted the way students and staff view the district’s cafeterias. Using dollars from the food services fund balance, the district implemented a food court concept at its high schools. Students were surveyed and food was taste tested. In an unprecedented article in the Killeen Daily Herald entitled “KISD cafeterias keeping kids on campus,” the district was applauded for its efforts and students, parents and staff confirmed its dramatic turnaround.
Safety and Security
#116 Require all teachers and principals to attend training in discipline management and conflict resolution training.
The district began requiring all employees to attend training in “Working with Emotional Intelligence” in October 1999 and conducted a second session in February 2001. KISD believes this training to be a systemic approach to safety issues in the schools. Participants have given the training an 80 percent positive response and anecdotally report its usefulness. Conflict resolution training is ongoing as an independent topic and will also be embedded in the February 2002 Emotional Intelligence training.
KISD has made steady progress in implementing TSPR recommendations, particularly in the areas of Asset and Risk Management, Computers and Technology and Food Service, but there is still work to be done. District administrators have not implemented five of the report’s recommendations and have provided their reasons for their delay and their plans for future action. Another 12 recommendations were rejected outright because the district felt they were unworkable. This section addresses the key areas requiring additional attention.
District Organization and Management
Five of the 12 recommendations that were rejected outright came from the District Organization and Management area. These recommendations included elimination of overlapping agenda items between the various standing committees, providing additional board training, revising staffing guidelines at the middle schools, authorizing principals to make more administrative and operational decisions for their campuses and developing a tighter nepotism policy and following it. Another recommendation to add principal representation to the superintendent’s council has not been implemented, but the administration has not completely dismissed the idea for the future.While it is the prerogative of the board and administration to accept or reject recommendations, TSPR urges the district to rethink these decisions with a careful eye toward improved site-based decision-making. The recommendations were intended to help the board to better understand their roles and relieve them of time consuming, double work so that they could concentrate on their roles as policymakers. The recommendations further seek to move more of the decision-making down to the campus level, empowering principals and then holding them accountable for their campuses. And, finally, when decision-making is hampered by familial relationships among administrators and employees, these barriers need to be addressed so that a free-flow of information can occur.
Transportation
KISD has hired a new transportation director that has already taken a number of important steps toward making the transportation function more effective and efficient. Work has begun on many recommendations in this section and others are on hold until the new director has time to fully research the issues. It is critically important, however, for the district’s board and superintendent to provide this individual full support as he seeks to remedy the problems of the past and stop the drain of dollars away from the classroom. As the department is able to fully address the driver shortages and organizational issues, the efficiencies that are possible can and will allow the district to hold the line on transportation costs and direct those dollars back to its core function of educating students.Safety and Security
The safety of children in schools is an emotional issue that has dominated the news, in part due to a relatively small number of tragic incidents. After removing the emotional element from the picture three things are abundantly clear: 1) no school or school district is immune from violence; 2) districts can no longer dismiss any threat as just “big talk” or “joking around,” and 3) children in emotional distress must be identified and helped as quickly as possible. Another disturbing fact is that many of these violent incidents occur at the middle school level when children are most emotionally volatile. TSPR recommended additional police presence at the middle school level in KISD and while the district is in agreement with the recommendation, they do not have the resources to increase staffing at this time. TSPR urges the city, district and community members to join together to seek ways to provide this needed supervision.KISD's Comments on the Report and the TSPR Process
The TSPR 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 KISD staff members and administrators what went right and what went wrong—and how the process could be improved.
The feedback TSPR has 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 in 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.
Killeen administrators and board members said the report was valuable because it forced the district to take a hard look at itself. And, through this critical look, the district was able to identify and implement many quality improvements.
One administrator said that they liked the executive summary, because it gave a snapshot of the district’s operation that was useful when communicating with the public.
But as with all things, KISD administrators and board members gave constructive criticisms to help TSPR improve their process.
The Killeen superintendent and several administrators said they felt that the report simply could not be implemented within one to two years. They felt some recommendations would more realistically take five or six years to accomplish. They suggested that more realistic timelines be established so that districts could give adequate attention to each recommendation. TSPR has heard this from other districts and is attempting to make implementation strategies and timelines more realistic, especially when dealing with difficult or controversial recommendations.
KISD administrators also said that many of the recommendations resulted in efficiencies, but that savings were not quantifiable. In some cases, they felt the savings estimates were too aggressive and should have been more conservative. On a number of recommendations, TSPR found that KISD felt that dollars had been saved but those savings were not quantifiable because the district had not set up a tracking mechanism to gauge savings from the beginning. TSPR is now putting all savings estimates through a more rigorous review process to ensure that all estimates are conservative. TSPR is also attempting to work more closely with districts when reports are released to ensure that districts begin to track recommendations and savings from the start, rather than waiting until TSPR returns to try to recreate and project the savings or costs.
Board members felt that a board briefing would have been appropriate before the full report is released to the public. From its inception, TSPR has conducted these third party reviews with a promise that the report will be delivered directly to the public, the board and the school district simultaneously. Perhaps TSPR should have done a better job of communicating this process to the board at the time that the review began.
