3. What will you do to continue the excellence Katy ISD has enjoyed and deal with changes from the State?

Recap of Katy ISD Candidate's Forum hosted by Rotary of Katy, Part 4:

3.  What will you do to continue the excellence Katy ISD has enjoyed and deal with changes from the State?

• Bryan Michalsky (Position 6) said Katy is still a "destination district", attracts the best and brightest teachers, enjoys 75,000 applications for teaching positions, terrific programs like fine arts and athletics, however last years cuts and layoffs gave Katy ISD a black eye, even though only 9 out of 341 total staff cuts were teachers.  Teachers are having to do more with less.  Hopes that state funding will return to earlier levels, but uncertainty is still present.  He would be in favor of rewarding teachers by increasing teacher salaries, and require departments justify their needs annually rather than automatically increase budgets if more money comes in from the State next year  because it is the fiscally responsible thing to do.  Katy ISD's reputation is strong but perhaps less than it was.  The Board must set exceptional goals for the district and direct the Superintendent to achieve those goals.
• Charles Griffin (Position 7) said he would focus on vision and goals that are realistic, achievable, and measurable.  Leaders must empower the professionals that have brought Katy ISD to excellence.  We are excellent because we trust our educators and administrators. "Give 'em a goal and get out of the way", but a feedback loop is needed.  WoodCreek Jr. High last year was so crowded they didn't get to use lockers.  It took a year for that issue to get to a school board member who is making an issue out of it for the new Seven Lakes Jr. High, because the feedback needs to be improved.  However, it doesn't need a board member's action, because teachers, students and administrators handled it without micromanagement.  He would lead without micro managing and trust the professional educators to handle local and State issues.  
• Betty Powell (Position 7) said communication needs to be improved and all stakeholders need a voice.  We have 6300 employees, is the largest employee in Katy, and we need to work together.  Layers of communication are important like newspapers, phone calls, etc, but also start talking to your kids and ask them about technology and how it's used in classes.  Improve the web page (www.katyisd.org).  She wants to better use what we have, rather than buy more.  When in graduate school and first employed by Katy ISD she was the envy of her grad school classmates, who all wanted to go to work at Katy.  Now when she talks about Katy on the outside, it is no longer thought of as a progressive, high-technology district any more, and we need to return to that. 
• Cynthia Blackman (Position 7) said transparency is critical, and mentioned the Sunny award that KISD did not win but which went to FBISD and CyFair ISD.  She is worried about our ratings.  Katy is a Recognized district but the average SAT scores since 2003 to 2009 were "not excellent": 1093, 1092, 1100, 1099, 1088, 1079, 1080.  She said Katy ISD was not preparing children for college because "very shocking" data from the Texas Higher Coordinating Education Board showed the 6 (not 4) year completion rate for children graduating high school in 2002-04 for Katy HS was 588 out of 1159 graduates, or 33%, CRHS (756/1712 or 44%), and MCHS (420/1865 or 23%), THS (809/1736 or 47%) and KISD overall was 2573/7272 or 35%.  For 2010, 5499 of Katy ISD's high school grads had not finished college.  What happened to them?  Are they living with Mom and Dad?  Low paying jobs?  Married with babies?  What happens to these kids?
• Shame on Mrs. Blackman for implying this data indicates a failure on the part of the district!  The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board's explanation of the data shows that it only includes "degrees earned by Texas public high school students from Texas public and independent higher education institutions", meaning that all the Katy ISD grads who can't get into A&M or UT due to the 10% rule and go to LSU, OSU, OU, or those who go to Harvard, Yale, and any other out-of-state school are not included in the data as college completers, but are there in the High School graduate numbers.  
•  Neal Howard (Position 7) said the data shows more kids are taking college entrance exams, with improving scores, and are getting into college.  More kids are taking advantage of Career and Technology education to get certificates.  We have outstanding Performing Arts Centers that give students great opportunities they would not have had otherwise.  The community should be proud of that.  He worked on the Teacher of the Year committee, and outstanding stuff is going on in Katy ISD.  The State has caused us some problems.  The lawsuit the district joined against the state to make the legislature meet the constitutional requirement to fund education.  He also wants to improve the student/teacher ratios particularly in secondary schools.
• Terri Majors (Position 6) said Katy is fairly high ranking when compared with the state in general, but is not "A Plus" any more.  She echoed Mrs. Blackman's data about completion rates, and said students are not graduating with skills.  Many high school grads need remedial classes at community college.  Writing is very important and it bothers her that students are graduating unable to write well.  We have to look at State budgets and mandates carefully.  The loss of only 9 teachers is incorrect-- hundreds of teachers left last year.  Talk to teachers in the community.  She is concerned teachers have to teach to the test, and many students spend way too much time preparing for a bad test.  She is not sure what a school board member can do about that, but she would be a voice for "...making changes in the way we look at those test results." 
• Mrs. Majors and Mr. Michalsky seem to be saying very different things about teacher layoffs, but here is the deal:  There are always "hundreds" of teachers who leave every year-- they quit to have families, to retire, to enter the private sector, etc, so Mrs. Majors is, in a sense, correct.  However, only 9 teaching POSITIONS were lost due to the layoffs, so Mr. Michalsky is correct.