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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024-03-12 Euless Articles Get ready for ‘the bloodletting.’ School districts are in for a rocky budget season BY SILAS ALLEN | MARCH 04, 2024 5:00 AM Two years ago, finding themselves flush with federal cash, school districts across the country built out summer school programs, added after-school learning time and hired armies of tutors to work with students who lost ground academically during the pandemic. Now, facing the end of the federal COVID relief program, district leaders have to decide how many of the programs they started and the people they hired they can afford to keep. Many districts, including some in Tarrant County, have already begun cutting staff. Education finance experts say they expect those cuts to get deeper as school boards get further into their budget-making processes. “This will still be one of the largest ever one-time financial impacts to public education, at least that I’ve seen in my lifetime,” said Marguerite Roza, director of Georgetown University’s Edunomics Lab. FEDERAL ESSER MONEY SET TO EXPIRE IN SEPTEMBER Federal education officials sent billions to school districts and states as a part of the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief fund, or ESSER. The money was intended to help school districts cope with the effects of the pandemic, including closing skills and knowledge gaps left by the shift to online learning. Across the country, districts used that money to pay for programs like intensive tutoring, expanded school days and beefed-up summer learning offerings. Many districts also used that money to upgrade HVAC systems in aging school buildings. The program gave districts broad latitude for how to spend the money, and a hard deadline for doing so. The last round of funding expires in September. Districts must send back any money they haven’t spent by that point. As that deadline approaches, districts are looking at the cuts they’ll have to make once that money is gone. Last month, officials in the Fort Worth Independent School District announced the district would need to cut 133 jobs, all but four of which are federally funded. Those cuts fell most heavily on the district’s technology division, but assessment data analysts, freshman success coaches and Leadership Academy Network instructional specialists also lost jobs. District officials and board members said those cuts were necessary in part because of the end of federal relief money. They also pointed to legislative inaction on school funding as another factor behind the layoffs. “It is crucial to remember that more than 80% of our budget is allocated to salaries,” Superintendent Angélica Ramsey said in an announcement about the cuts. “We are fundamentally a people-centered organization, and when we must address fiscal matters, it unfortunately affects our valued employees.” Fort Worth ISD used much of its allotment — roughly $261.64 million — on a number of programs intended to give students extra learning time, including expanded summer learning and Saturday Learning Quest, an enrichment program that brings kids to school on certain weekends for fun activities like art, music and STEM, as well as extra instructional time in reading and math. Like other districts across Texas, Fort Worth ISD also used a portion of its federal money on intensive tutoring for students who didn’t perform well on the state test. State lawmakers passed a requirement in 2021 that districts offer small-group tutoring for any student who failed a section of the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR. Charlie Garcia, assistant superintendent for leading and learning in Fort Worth ISD, said district officials are looking at student performance data to determine which programs had the biggest academic impact. As it moves forward with its budget process, the district will prioritize the programs that had the biggest impact academically, and also the biggest benefit to the community, he said. Garcia said the fact that state lawmakers didn’t come through with increased funding for school districts compounds the problem. Texas lawmakers had billions in budget surpluses to spend last year, but proposals to boost school districts’ per-pupil allotments became entangled in a fight over school vouchers. Ultimately, none of the surplus money went to school districts. Although the district doesn’t yet have a finalized list of which programs it will be able to keep and which it will have to phase out, Fort Worth ISD officials began scaling back some of those programs as early as last year. District officials scaled back Saturday Learning Quest, offering it at just five elementary schools instead of 24, for the summer of 2023. They also began offering the program, which had previously been open to every elementary student in the district, only to those from the 15 highest -need elementary campuses. HEB ISD FACES STAFF CUTS AS FEDERAL PROGRAM WINDS DOWN The Hurst-Euless-Bedford Independent School District will have to cut from three main areas, said district spokesperson Deanne Hullender: academic interventionists, Communities in School staffers and Language Proficiency Assessment Committee specialists. Academic interventionists work one-on-one with students who have challenges at school, including those who are learning English and those with learning differences like dyslexia or dyscalculia. Hullender said those staffers have been a key part of the district’s strategy for closing learning gaps left by the pandemic, but the district can’t afford to keep all of them once federal relief money is gone. Beginning next year, the district will no longer have full-time interventionists and it will reduce hours for its part- time interventionists, she said. Language Proficiency Assessment Committee specialists work with students who are learning English and their teachers, Hullender said. Among other things, those specialists handle state-mandated documentation, which allows teachers more time to give those students the one-on-one attention they need, she said. The district will have to cut half of those positions in the coming school year, she said. Following the pandemic, HEB ISD partnered with the nonprofit Comm unities in Schools to place 13 staffers on campuses to help address students’ social and emotional needs. Teachers, researchers and school leaders have expressed concern since the beginning of the pandemic about a sharp uptick in mental health issues among students. Those staffers also played a role in helping the district improve its attendance numbers, Hullender said. But once federal money ends, the district will have to reduce the number of campuses that have Communities in Schools staffers, she said. All of those are critical positions that helped students in the district make up ground they lost in the pandemic, Hullender said. District leaders are “absolutely” concerned that students could lose some of that progress once those supports are gone, she said. GCISD, NORTHWEST ISD ESCAPE WITHOUT CUTS Not every district will have to make cuts once the federal money is gone. Nicole Lyons, a spokesperson for the Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District, said leaders there don’t expect to have to make any program changes once that money ends. The district has spent the last two years coordinating with other sources of funding to plan for the end of the federal relief program, she said. Jonathan Pastusek, chief financial officer for the Northwest Independent School District, said the district expects to be able to absorb the loss of federal money without having to make cuts. Northwest ISD is one of the fastest-growing districts in Texas, meaning the revenue it gets from the state grows substantially each year. The district expects that revenue growth to be enough to supplant the federal money, he said. Among other things, the district used federal money to add English and math teachers at the high school level, allowing for smaller class sizes, Pastusek said. Having smaller classes allowed those teachers to give more attention to students who had gotten off track during the pandemic, he said. As the district grows, it needs more and more teachers, he said, so district leaders have had no trouble keeping those new hires on the payroll. The district also used that money to expand its summer school offerings and hire other staff like interventionist specialists, instructional coaches and counselors, Pastusek said. Once the money ends, the district expects t o be able to pay for those positions out of its general fund, he said. Although the end of federal money hasn’t created a crisis for Northwest ISD, it was still a key piece of the district’s recovery from the academic effects of the pandemic, Pastusek said. “It was critical,” he said. “And of course, it would be great if we still had it, but it was a big benefit for us.” END OF ESSER HITS POOR DISTRICTS HARDEST Roza, the Georgetown Edunomics Lab director, said districts across the country are in for an unstable year once federal money is gone. During training sessions with school leaders and briefings with the press, Roza routinely describes the 2024 -25 school year as “the bloodletting.” But the effects won’t fall on all school districts equally, Roza said. Low-income districts across the country will be hit hardest, she said, because they got bigger allotments from the federal spending program than more affluent districts did. Poorer districts also don’t have as much of an ability to absorb those losses. Compounding those problems is the fact that many big urban districts have seen their enrollments decline since the pandemic, she said. In a paper published last October, researchers at the Brookings Institution noted a sharp uptick in the number of students who have left traditional school districts for private schools, homeschooling or some other non-public option since 2019. Fort Worth ISD has seen its enrollment shrink by 17% since 2016. Because states fund school districts on a per-pupil basis, declining enrollment means lost revenue. The end of federal relief money leaves district administrators and school boards with a difficult budget-making season, Roza said. Districts will have to cut popular programs like tutoring, summer school and after-school enrichment, she said. Some, especially those with the biggest enrollment declines, may even have to close campuses, she said. Adding to the challenge is the fact that most school boards across the country have never had to deal with deep budget cuts, Roza said. Even before the infusion of federal money, most districts had seen at least a decade of solid revenue growth, she said. Although those decisions will always be difficult, Roza said the best way for districts to approach them is to figure out which of their programs are most effective and find a way to keep them after federal money ends. But she said that isn’t what all districts are doing. In many cases, she’s seen district leaders prioritize avoiding layoffs rather than preserving effective programs. Rather than cutting staff, those districts have cut unfilled positions and ended contracts with external vendors for things like after-school programs and tutoring, she said. Although it’s understandable to want to shield employees from job cuts, R oza said that approach isn’t focused on what students need. Cutting vendors and deciding not to fill open jobs might invite less pushback from teachers, staff and the broader community, she said. But if district leaders don’t make those decisions more thou ghtfully, they could end up needlessly cutting programs that are working for students, she said. But Roza said school district leaders need to make sure any pushback those decisions generate doesn’t derail their focus on academic recovery. When teachers and support staff are protesting against job cuts and parents are rallying against school closures, it can be easy for district leaders to get distracted, she said. She worries that closing learning gaps left by the pandemic will slip down district leaders’ lists of priorities as they’re faced with crises stemming from the end of federal money. “I think we’re going to have a very disruptive year with a lot of angry parents and a lot of angry staff,” Roza said. Sweet bakery with macarons and cake balls to debut at Glade Parks Euless By Cecilia Lenzen Mar 5, 2024 | 2:50 pm A mid-cities home baker is about to take that giant next step into a brick -and-mortar space: Called The Iced Whisk, it's a cottage bakery that will open in a storefront in Euless' Glade Parks shopping mall at 1300 Red River Dr. #500. The shop is from Angela and Joseph Kmetz, a young couple who will share the duties: Angela is the baker, while Joseph will oversee the front of the house. They're planning to open in mid-March. Angela previously co-owned a bakery in Austin for six years, after graduating from UT- Austin in 2010. Her parents also owned a doughnut shop in Arlington for several years before her father passed away. In 2018, she started selling French macarons, cake balls, and iced sugar cookies out of her home kitchen in Bedford, as well as products at local farmers markets. That's when she saw a bakery gap in Euless. “I know there’s a lot of great bakeries and pastry shops in cities like Dallas, Fort Worth, and Carrollton,” she says. “But there’s not a lot over here in Euless." The menu will include macarons, cake balls, and sugar cookies in several flavors, with seasonal options rotating in and out. Standard flavors are as follows: ▪ Macaron: chocolate nutella, espresso, fruity pebbles, honey lavender, lemon, pistachio, strawberry, and vanilla ▪ Cake balls: carrot, chocolate, chocolate mint, chocolate chip cookie, coffee, cookies and cream, lemon, red velvet, strawberry, and vanilla ▪ Sugar cookies: vanilla and chocolate Other treats include chocolate covered strawberries, gingerdoodle cookies, rice krispie treats, hot cocoa bombs, and chocolate covered pretzels. In addition to baked goods, The Iced Whisk will also serve Korean-inspired drinks called ades. Similar to Italian sodas, they’re made with fruit syrup or juice mixed with sparkling water, and are popular in Korea during the summer. “Ours are going to stand out a little bit because we’re going to be using fresh fruit, which isn't standard,” Kmetz says. “That’ll enhance the flavor a little bit more, so we’re excited about having those at our store.” The drinks are inspired by their heritage, as both Angela and Joseph are half Korean. The bakery will open in a tiny space with just over 800 square feet. It was previously occupied by a tutoring business, and it’s being renovated to add a kitchen and small lobby with a couple tables, plus an Instagram -able photo wall. After The Iced Whisk opens, they hope to continue vending at local farmers markets, where they've developed a following. It depends on how busy they get. “We’re hoping it’ll be well received, and it can be a fun little spot for a quick dessert,” Angela says. At the car wash: Euless company develops device designed to cut water use by Bob Francis March 9, 2024 2:05 pm Texans love their cars and trucks — and love to keep them clean. Viran Nana has been a successful businessman for several years because of that. His company, Euless-based Q Companies, owns three hotels in the area and also owns and operates several car washes. Two years ago, Q Companies sold 11 car washes they owned at that time to Caliber Car Wash, an Atlanta company. Nana likes both his business lines, but one thing always troubled him about the car washes. “You just can’t always tell what your water costs are going to be, you can’t budget for that,” he said. “There is no greater headache or stressor than looking at a $10,000 water bill because of high water usage or leaks. By the time you get the bill, it’s too late, you have to pay it.” Nana mentioned the problem to his son, Dilan, 24, who began working on a solution. “We wanted to do something for us and for other operators as well,” he said. It took a while — about five years — but Nana believes they have the answer. “It sounds like it would be easy, but it’s not,” he said. “We own and operate car washes, so we really knew what we needed.” Their solution is a product called FlowStat, a mobile application to monitor the volume of municipal or city water utilized per-car-washed on an hourly, daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis. The real-time data empowers operators to resolve leaks and high -water usage issues on a timely basis. “You can be on a golf course and the system will tell you there is a problem and you can make decisions quickly,” he said. Nana says FlowStat can save car wash operators more than $30,000 in water savings per location annually. “Presently, numerous car wash facilities consistently utilize 40 to 60 gallons per vehicle, often without awareness that simple adjustments could reduce this figure to 20 gallons per vehicle washed,” said Nana. The product has been tested at 17 car wash facilities across the United States. FlowStat made its official debut at the Southwest Car Wash Association’s 2024 Convention & Expo in Fort Worth on Feb. 28. “There was a lot of interest,” Nana said. “I just got off the phone with someone with several car washes who is very interested.” Pricing for FlowStat per car wash location is $8,900, plus $199 per month maintenance and optimization fee. Nana estimates the payback for the cost of the system is less than one year. For Nana, FlowStat is a different type of business to be in. “I’ve always built and/or owned a business, like a hotel or car wash, all real estate based. So selling a product like this is different,” he said. “I’ve had to learn a lot.” But Nana knows a lot about learning how to operate a business. Born to Indian parents in Zambia, Nana and his family came to Texas in the mid-1970s. He got a degree in business from the University of Texas at Arlington. His family owned hotels and, for much of the time, the family lived in the hotel they ran. The company currently owns three hotels, a Marriott property in Cityview and two others in Denton, along with several car washes. The company has been so successful that they now help build schools and water projects in Nana’s native Zambia. “This year our goal is to complete 20 projects,” he said. “It’s exciting that we’re making a difference.” He believes the same thing is true of FlowStat. Water is one of the big issues facing Texas as it grows, he said. “If we can make a difference for the car wash operators, it will make a big difference to them, but also to the state to help preserve those resources,” he said.