In late March, according to a story from KXAN-TV out of Austin, Gov. Greg Abbott’s Office announced some districts “may be eligible for an adjustment in operational minutes requirements for certain attendance reporting periods during the 2021-2022 academic school year,” with those periods being the first four of the school year.
The office reiterated at the time funding will be made available to systems in the state that have been impacted by the pandemic, given that they focus on in-person instruction now, which Brownwood does.
In November 2019, Brownwood had an enrollment of 3,307 students, with 96.56 percent attending, or a funded ADA of 3,193.24 Meanwhile, in November 2021 Brownwood’s enrollment was 3,318, but only 92.15 percent of students attended for a 3,057.54 funded ADA.
The difference of 135.7 fewer students attending class based on funded ADA, with approximately $6,600 funded per student, resulted in an estimated revenue loss of $895,634.52 for Brownwood ISD.
The Texas Academic Performance Reports adjusted ADA for the first four six weeks is now 3,136.582 while the actual daily ADA was 3,049.274. The increase in ADA with the
TAPR adjustment is 87.308 students which, with the approximate $6,600 funded per student, results in an estimated revenue gain, or reimbursement, of $576,232.80.
Brownwood ISD superintendent Dr. Joe Young said, “We appreciate the legislature for helping us out there because we have the same costs that we do whenever everyone shows up. We have the same teacher salaries, same air conditioning needs, busing needs, everything is the same. But if people don’t show up and or don’t bring their kids to school, not only do we lose instruction, we lost almost a million dollars based on those four performance points. And that’s money we put into teacher salaries, benefits for our employees, curriculum resources, etc.
“We encourage our parents to bring their kids to school because, while it’s not based on money and we don’t want your kid to come to school if they’re ill, we do have to have money to have programs, we do have to have money to pay salaries, and we have to have money to have nice facilities. So it is important to have kids in school for academic and financial reasons. We cannot achieve at the same level, we cannot make up the gaps unless our kids are here, and 92 percent is not going to cut it from an academic perspective.”
Trustee Eric Evans voiced his frustration over the matter, stating, “They feel like they’re giving us this huge gift, and I feel like $500,000 is not a gift in my opinion, it’s already our money, so that frustrates me. It’s pitiful. They can help us help these families by giving us the money that’s already ours in the first place. It immensely frustrates me.”
Also during Monday’s meeting, Young announced 365 transfer requests have been submitted since the Project Neighborhood plan was revealed in March. The changes move Head Start (pre-kindergarten) onto four elementary campuses including Coggin Intermediate School. Coggin will become a full neighborhood elementary school offering grades from Pre-K through sixth grade. East, Northwest, and Woodland Heights elementary schools will house Pre-K to fifth grade, beginning in the 2022-23 school year. Pre-K will also expand to include 3–year-olds along with 4-year-olds.
It was also announced that more than 120 kids, a record, took part in Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten pre-registration a week ago.
“We feel like we’ll be able to accommodate most of those transfer requests,” Young said. “We’re not going to overload campuses or any special grade level. We want to make sure we have good instruction. The ones who requested who may not get transfers are Pre-K, kindergarten and first-grade students who don’t have siblings and want to go to a different campus based on desire. We might not be able to accommodate those.”
Also during the meeting, it was announced Karen Dempsey, Executive Assistant to Brownwood ISD Superintendent Dr. Joe Young, will be retiring and East Elementary’s Krista Behler will be stepping into the role for 2022-23 school year.