Introduction
Transmittal Letter
Improving TSPR
TSPR in the Riviera ISD
Riviera ISD Report Card
Exemplary Programs and Practice
TSPR Key Recommendations
What Remains to Be Done
RISD's Ideas for Improving the TSPRAppendix A - Status of Recommendations and Savings
In August 2000, the Comptroller of Public Accounts' Texas School Performance Review (TSPR) staff and consultants completed a comprehensive school review of the Riviera Independent School District (RISD). During October 2001, TSPR returned to assess the district's progress in implementing its recommendations.
Since 1991, TSPR has recommended more than 5,500 ways to save taxpayers more than $500 million over five years in 63 different public school districts throughout Texas. TSPR also conducts follow-up reviews of districts that have had at least one year to implement its recommendations. Thirty-seven of these follow-up reviews have shown that 90 percent of TSPR's proposals have been acted upon, saving taxpayers more than $109 million to date, with full savings estimated to rise in the future.
Improving the Texas School Performance Review
Upon taking office in January 1999, Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Rylander consulted school district officials, parents, and teachers and carefully examined past reviews and progress reports in an effort to make the Texas School Performance Review more valuable, even vital, to the state's more than 1,000 school districts. Having served as a teacher and later as a school board president, Comptroller Rylander has vowed to make TSPR more accountable to local school districts and the communities they represent.
Comptroller Rylander began by establishing new criteria for selecting school districts for future reviews. Priority now is given to districts judged to be poor-performing, academically or financially, and to reviews that will benefit the greatest number of students. To ensure that this process also serves small districts, reviews of numerous school district in close proximity, regardless of academic or financial status are also done to achieve some economy of scale, as was the case with the smaller districts reviewed in Kleberg County.
Recognizing that only about 52 cents of every education dollar is spent on instruction, Comptroller Rylander's goal is to channel more of every education dollar into the classroom. In addition, the comptroller has acted to ensure that school districts' best practices and exemplary models will not 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. There is simply no reason for a district that has solved a problem 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 of RISD are 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, the TSPR team and consultants works 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 continually 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.
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.
TSPR in the Riviera Independent School District
In January 2000, Comptroller Rylander selected the four districts in Kleberg County-Kingsville ISD, Ricardo ISD, Riviera ISD, and Santa Gertrudis ISD-for school performance reviews. After two failed attempts to secure consultants to assist with the reviews, work began in earnest in May 2000.
Based upon more than three months of work, this report identified RISD's exemplary programs and suggested concrete ways to improve district operations. If fully implemented, the Comptroller's 35 recommendations could result in net savings of $796,214 over the next five years.
The Comptroller's office selected SDSM Inc., an Austin, Texas-based consulting firm, to assist the agency in this review. The TSPR team interviewed district employees, school board members, parents, business leaders and community members and held a public forum on May 18, 2000 in RISD's school cafeteria. To obtain additional comments, the review team conducted focus-group sessions with teachers and area business leaders. TSPR also received letters from parents, teachers and community members, as well as calls to the Comptroller's toll-free hotline.
Fourteen campus and central administrators and support staff, three principals, 12 teachers, 68 parents and 28 students completed written surveys as part of the review. The review team also consulted two databases of comparative educational information maintained by the Texas Education Agency (TEA), the Academic Excellence Indicator System and the Public Education Information Management System.
Riviera ISD selected peer districts for comparisons based on similarities in student enrollment, student performance and community and student demographics. The peer districts selected were Benavides, Skidmore-Tynan, Three Rivers and Woodsboro. TSPR also compared RISD to averages for TEA's Regional Educational Service Center 2 (Region 2), to which RISD belongs, and for the state as a whole.
Riviera Independent School District is located in rural South Texas, about 60 miles south of Corpus Christi. The district is a source of pride and focus for the unincorporated Riviera community. Historically, the community has had strong farming roots; today, many community members commute to jobs in Kingsville or other nearby towns.
RISD served 517 students in the 2000-01 school year, on three campuses: Nanny Elementary, De La Paz Middle School and Kaufer High School. Sixty-six percent of the district's students are Hispanic, 33 percent are Anglo and about 1 percent are African American or American Indian. About 59.4 percent of the student's are economically disadvantaged. The district's enrollment has been dropping by 3 to 7 percent each year since 1993-94, but for 2001-02 enrollment is expected to rise to 519. RISD's property value per student is higher than the state average and ranks third-highest among its peer districts.
In 2000-01, RISD received an Academically Acceptable rating from TEA, with its high school rated Exemplary and its middle and elementary school judged Academically Acceptable.
In 2000-01, 89.5 of all RISD students passed the reading portion of the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) test; 91.8 percent passed the math portion and 84.3 percent passed the writing portion. RISD's students improved in nearly all categories and all subcategories of students taking the test.
In 2000-01, RISD employed a staff of 87, with 44 teachers accounting for or nearly 51 percent of RISD staffing. The district spent $4,709,948 in 2000-01. In 2000-01, RISD spent 50 cents of every tax dollar on classroom instruction, compared to the state average of 51 cents.
While RISD still has a lot of work before it, both the district's staff and TSPR team members have a sense of steady progress. Twelve recommendations have been implemented, 17 are in various stages of progress and six have not been addressed. No recommendations were rejected as unworkable. (See Appendix A for details on the recommendations' status.)
Riviera ISD Report Card
Chapter # of
RecommendationsComplete In
ProgressNot
ImplementedRejected Percent Complete/
In ProgressRating District Organization and Management 4 0 4 0 0 0%/100% Satisfactory Educational Service Delivery 6 2 4 0 0 33%/67% Satisfactory Financial Management 8 3 3 2 0 38%/38% Needs Work Operations 17 7 6 4 0 41%/35% Needs Work Overall Grade 35 12 17 6 0 34%/49% Satisfactory Excellent = More than 80% complete
Satisfactory = 80% to 100% complete or in progress
Needs Work = Less than 80% complete or in progress
Exemplary Programs and PracticesTSPR identified numerous "best practices" in RISD. Through commendations in each chapter, the report highlighted model programs, operations and services provided by RISD 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. The TSPR commendations include:
- RISD has a relatively flat organizational structure that encourages teamwork. This was especially apparent in interviews with principals, who said that district employees have a close and supportive working relationship.
RISD's organizational structure has remained flat, with principals and administrators working together to review and implement a number of the recommendations contained in this report. According to the superintendent, cooperation and teamwork within the district and with the community have helped the district to focus on its facility needs and build a consensus on what needs to be done, and when.
- RISD provides a number of activities to expand community and parental involvement. Nanny Elementary school students, for instance, decorate the seasonal bulletin board of the H.E.B. grocery store in Kingsville. In turn, H.E.B. gives the school a $400 gift certificate that it uses to purchase student incentives. The store also donates food items to RISD for special activities such as field trips.
Community involvement remains a key RISD goal. Recently, the district's Instructional Leadership Team began preparing a parental and community involvement plan based on a TSPR recommendation.
- RISD employees are actively involved in ensuring their students' well-being, both at school and in the community. RISD forms intervention teams with teachers, counselors, community members and students, if appropriate, to help at-risk students. Team members identify any problems these students face, not only in the classroom but also at home, and work to help them resolve those issues.
Last year, the district provided an in-service day during which parents could come to school to meet with their children's teachers and pick up report cards as well. This worked so well that the process was expanded; now, all of the schools hold a conference day simultaneously, so that parents with children in multiple grades can visit each of their children's teachers on the same day. Eighty percent of elementary parents, 85 percent of middle school parents and 75 percent of high school parents attended the sessions held on September 28.
- By entering into articulation agreements with Del Mar and Coastal Bend community colleges, RISD provides its high school students with early opportunities to take college classes and receive college credit while completing their high school requirements.
RISD has expanded its collaboration with area higher education institutions through an agreement with Texas A&M-Kingsville that provides a counseling intern to the district on two days a week for group and individual counseling sessions, and to deliver class presentations on the "six pillars of character": trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship.
- RISD vigorously pursues grant funds from the state and private foundations. Eighty percent of the district's computer equipment was obtained through grants. Each classroom has an average of four computers with Internet access and teachers have been trained extensively in their use. The district library also has benefited from technology grants, which have allowed it to offer the community with internet access for research and study.
Grants continue to provide funds for district technology. In 1999-2000, for example, RISD received a Technology Integration in Education (TIE) grant from TEA, to establish a distance-learning center at RISD's Learning Resource Center. In 2001-02, RISD students are taking an AP Statistics course from another school within Region 2 through district video-conferencing facilities.
- RISD participates in a self-funded workers' compensation cooperative, Creative Risk Funding, Inc., with 34 other districts. Since joining this shared service for workers' compensation plans in 1993, the district has reduced its premium costs by $37,000 annually.
The amount the district pays through the co-op is based on each district's claims history and payroll. Each district holds its own funds until they are needed to pay claims. Each district pays its own claims up to an assigned level; after that level is reached, the other member districts pay a percentage of the claim.
The following are some of the key recommendations that administrators and staff believe have had the greatest impact on district operations. The highlighted recommendations are organized by chapter and area of operation, as in TSPR's original report. The comments came from district administrators during the TSPR team's follow-up visit to the district.
District Organization and Management
Recommendation 1: Integrate the district's planning documents into a district strategic plan and link the plan to the budget. The district had been trying to push itself in this direction, and this recommendation provided the impetus to encourage this connection. According to the superintendent, the district now is setting priorities and dedicating money to meet them.
Education Service Delivery
Recommendation 6: Consolidate low-enrollment courses at the secondary level and reduce the district's number of teachers. The consolidation of low-enrollment courses has generated significant savings, improving the district's overall financial situation while maintaining high-quality educational programs.
Recommendation 10: Provide training to teachers using campus-level, detailed TAAS performance analysis in effective instructional planning. Administrators have been trained on and are now training their staff in the use of an AEIS-IT system that analyzes campus and student performance data. The system is easy to operate and graphic in its display of performance and weaknesses. The superintendent said that the principals are sold on this system, which promises to make a great deal of difference in student performance by identifying areas of strength and weakness in the system.
Financial Management
Recommendation 14: Fully implement the purchasing module of the financial computer system to facilitate the purchasing process and provide timely and up-to-date data on available balances. This recommendation, when fully implemented, should ease district workloads and streamline the purchasing process.
Recommendation 17: Develop a workplace safety training and accident prevention manual and provide periodic safety training to employees. While this recommendation has not yet been fully implemented, the district's administrators feel it will ultimately save money and improve safety in the district.
Operations
Recommendation 19: Conduct a formal facilities planning process that includes broad community participation, and prepare a long-range facilities master plan. Strong community support and input have made the planning process very thorough. The district formed a Facilities Review Committee in spring 2001. After reviewing all district buildings and facilities, it prioritized the district's needs and presented its findings to the Board of Trustees that summer. As a result, the district now has a clear understanding of its needs in the area of facilities and believes it now has community support for its proposed renovation program.
Recommendation 25: Implement the recommendations from the 1997 Energy Efficient School Partnership Report in the facilities planning process.
Recommendation 26: Set up and maintain the district's utility expenditures on a spreadsheet to monitor and analyze the district's energy usage from month to month.
Recommendation 28: Participate in the State Power Program to reduce utility costs. While implementation of these energy-related recommendations is only just beginning, the superintendent said they are going to be very important to the district in trying to control energy costs, which are escalating.
Recommendation 29: Apply standard Meals Per Labor Hour guidelines to food service staffing levels.
Recommendation 30: Improve the profitability of the food service program by promoting increased participation.
Recommendation 31: Implement an electronic point of sale system. In all, these three recommendations are credited with improving the district's food service operation; for the first time in several years, the program is operating without a deficit, which has improved the district's financial condition.
RISD has made steady progress in implementing TSPR's recommendations, particularly considering that a new superintendent joined the district during this time. Eighty-five percent of TSPR's recommendations have been implemented or are being implemented at this writing. District administrators have not implemented five of the report's recommendations, but have provided reasons for delay or inaction. This section addresses key areas requiring additional attention.
Curriculum and Instruction
The district has hired a consultant from Region 2 and is granting teachers release time to develop curriculum guides. The district has adopted new Math guides and will prepare Language Arts guides when the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills are finalized in that area (as per TSPR's Recommendation 7). To ensure that the district continually revises and improves its the curricula, the board should adopt a comprehensive plan (Recommendation 8) for the direction of curriculum management and quality control. Furthermore, the curriculum plan should take into account students with special needs, such as Gifted and Talented students (Recommendation 9), a revision process that has begun in the past year.
Facility Planning
RISD has undergone an extensive facilities planning process involving a large number of parents, community members and district staff. The result, according to district administrators, is a shared vision for what the district needs in the area of facilities. The one area of the district's facilities not addressed during this planning process was an evaluation of Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements, which will be mandatory for new construction and renovations to existing facilities. TSPR encourages the district to ensure that all of its facilities are accessible and meet minimum ADA requirements.
Energy Management
While RISD has begun some work in the area of energy management, and the superintendent has indicated that this will be an area of concentration in the coming year due to rising energy costs, it is important that steps be taken immediately to ensure that the district conserves energy and keeps its utility bills to a minimum. A number of simple things can be done to conserve energy, including campus-based programs that educate students and staff in the importance of turning off lights and turning down thermostats. The Comptroller's State Energy Conservation Office stands ready to assist RISD with this important work.
RISD's Ideas for Improving the Texas School Performance Review
TSPR does not assume that its process for school reviews works so well that it cannot be improved. Therefore, as part of the progress report preparation, TSPR asked RISD staff members and administrators what went right and what went wrong-and how the process could be improved.
Feedback TSPR has received from other districts has 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, TSPR's reports now include implementation strategies and estimated timelines. Districts have told TSPR that these blueprints are valuable.
RISD administrators and board members made the following observations.
In all, the superintendent said that a lot of TSPR's recommendations were very good, primarily because they gave the district the impetus to move forward in areas where change was needed. He said that, in some cases, they knew of changes that were needed, but other demands had their attention. All too often, especially in a small district, daily demands take precedent over long-range planning and goal setting. The report encouraged the district to take action on some things that needed doing.
The effort required of a small district during a TSPR review is considerable. TSPR's site visits, data requests, calls and questions all require a significant commitment of time and a heroic effort by staff to maintain their current workloads and meet TSPR's requirements. The superintendent suggested that TSPR make some adjustments to the review process to take into account the minimal staffing available in a smaller district. TSPR continues to refine the process it uses in smaller districts and will certainly take this comment seriously in planning future reviews.
