Academic Success Initiative
10-13-2011
Academic Success Initiative
Tuesday at the October 11, 2011 school board meeting, I presented a bold plan to motivate our students to strive for success. I’m so happy to share that the school board trustees unanimously voted to support this new plan.
Students who pass ALL their state assessments will be rewarded with an educational field trip.
Tidehaven ISD has made a tremendous investment in the employees of the district when the board took the strong stand to protect jobs and not have a RIF (Reduction in Force). Not a single teacher lost their job due to a RIF in the budget cuts which were created by the state legislature.
In the 2010-2011 school year, Tidehaven ISD operated on a 10 million dollar budget. This year, for 2011-2012, we have cut one million dollars from our operating budget and we are effectively operating on a 9 million dollar budget. We have cut one million dollars from the budget while simultaneously protecting jobs.
Tidehaven ISD will spend $6.9 million dollars on faculty and staff salaries this year in 2011-2012. Fully 74% of our working budget is dedicated to payroll for employees. This percentage does not include the money we are sending back to Austin as part of the “recapture” system.
Now, it’s time to make an investment in the students.
Tornillo ISD is a small school district outside of El Paso, TX. They have a high minority population and a high, poor population. This is what happened in Tornillo ISD: every student who passed ALL their TAKS tests took a trip.
2002-2003 school year, they had the 8th worst TAKS scores in the region.
2003-2004, TAKS scores fell for a tie in 9th place in the region.
2004-2005, TAKS scores truly were 9th place but they took their first trip.
2005-2006, TAKS scores jumped up to 6th place in the region. Trips continued.
2006-2007, TAKS scores shot up to 1st place. Trips continued.
2007-2008, TAKS scores remained 1st place. Trips continued.
2008-2009, TAKS scores remained 1st place. Trips continued.
2009-2010, TAKS scores remained 1st place. Trips continued.
Here is the plan…”change the lives of our students”.
Here are Tornillo ISD results:
Now let’s talk about Tidehaven students…
I believe in the students of Tidehaven. I believe we can achieve more by positive motivation.
Elementary students who pass all their required state STAAR tests will be rewarded with a series of day trips to nearby Houston, San Antonio, Austin or Corpus Christi to enjoy the zoo, Sea World, the Alamo, the big aquariums or some other appropriate educational venue. They will take day-trips to these destinations and be back home in the evenings to spend the night at home with their families.
Tidehaven ISD will pay the expenses of travel, tickets and meals.
Junior High students who pass all their required state STAAR tests will be rewarded with a trip out of the area. Plans are still being formed to honor these students and to give them incentive to work hard every day. The junior high trips will be out of town, overnight trips, complete with sponsors, chaperones and plenty of supervision. Lots of activities and educational trips can be expected.
Tidehaven ISD will pay the expenses of travel, hotels, tickets and meals.
High school students who pass all their required EOC (End of Course) exams or their TAKS exams will be rewarded with large trips. I have personally met with each of the freshmen, sophomore and junior classes today and shared this new vision with them.
Ideas generated for these trips include destinations such as:
San Diego, California; Washington D.C.; Boston, Massachusetts; Philadelphia, PA; or Orlando/Miami, Florida.
Tidehaven ISD will pay the expenses of travel, hotels, tickets and meals.
Here are some honest, sincere, legitimate questions.
Question: How can TISD not have money for pay raises and have money to take students on these trips?
Answer: TISD has protected every single faculty member by protecting their jobs. The state legislature cut our school budget by at least $750,000 and upwards of nearly $800,000.00 TEA has not told us the final figure as of yet. Not one single faculty member lost their job by a Reduction In Force. The school board trustees were strong in their support of our teaching staff and insisting that no teachers lose their jobs because of a RIF.
We protected all of the at-will employees with the exception of one single person. We worked very hard to protect our Tidehaven employees.
Remember how Bay City ISD was forced to close both of the intermediate campuses and lay off all of those employees?
TISD has invested $6.9 million dollars into staff payroll this year.
We are committed to providing out students with a strong, positive and powerful incentive to do their very best.
We have already protected the staff and made a tremendous investment in them. Now it’s time to make and investment in the students.
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Question: Will Tidehaven ISD spend $500,000.00 on these trips?
Answer: No. We will make a significant investment in the lives of our students but it will not rise to the level of half a million dollars. We will be very open with costs and total dollar amounts as soon as they are available. This will be an on-going process and it will be posted to our website.
The school board has given permission for us to move forward with this concept and incentive. Final expenses have not been totaled as of yet. We can’t possibly know how much this will cost the district until we know how many students are eligible and have passed all their tests. We will make this information public as soon as we have final numbers. I guarantee you it will certainly not be half a million dollars.
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Question: Is this legal?
Answer: Yes. I personally called Commissioner Robert Scott of the Texas Education Agency. I explained to him my thoughts and intentions. Let me give you a brief overview of our conversation.
Dr. Seigrist: “Commissioner Scott, can I reward my students who pass all of their TAKS tests with a field trip? Just like Tornillo ISD, is that legal?”
Commissioner Scott: “Yes, it’s perfectly legal as long as it is contingent on something, like the students passing all their tests. Yes, that’s perfectly legal.”
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Question: Will the students travel first class and stay in 5-star hotels?
Answer: No. This is an excellent opportunity to help teach our students how to handle money. We will not travel first-class and we will not stay in 5-star hotels. We will stay in nice, clean, safe and reasonable hotels such as Holiday Inn, La Quinta, Comfort Inn, Days Inn, etc. We will save money by staying at these hotels and eating the free breakfast that comes with our stay. We will take the money we save and spend it on the students, not give it to expensive hotels.
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Question: Will there be chaperones?
Answer: Absolutely, Yes! We will have plenty of faculty members, administrators and school employees to provide sufficient supervision to help our students.
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Question: What will the school pay for?
Answer: All costs associated with travel, hotels, meals and tickets for entry to any event we will be attending.
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Question: Who is eligible for these trips?
Answer: All students taking the required state assessments in grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11.
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Question: Who are we here for?
Answer: The kids.
I truly believe in the students of Tidehaven ISD with all my heart. I want to put an incentive in front of them so strong, so powerful and so positive that they will be inspired to work hard and pass all their required state tests. I sign all my letters the same way and I mean it…
For the kids,
Dr. Andrew Seigrist
