Yes, Tim, the Booker T. Washington parents, kids, and staff are concerned today. Got a call from my daughter, a freshman there, as soon as she got inside the school.
“DAH-DEEE! They’re going to close the school and Townview, too. I know because I heard it from two kids.”
Yes, I’m proud she got a second source. Nevertheless, I thought I should call Jon Dahlander at DISD. Here’s the story: to get the $105 million in federal funds that are at risk, no school can be over-funded (by more than 5 percent) or under-funded (by more than 10 percent) from the average per-student expenditure of the district. If you’re spending $100 per student on average, no school can be funded at $89 per student, and no school can be funded at $106 per student. Booker T is over-funded to the point they would need to lose approximately 13 positions to get within the levels where DISD doesn’t lose that $105 million in funding. Now, everyone is trying to be creative on how this can be done. Can you move teachers and administrative people out (and, they hope, to other schools), or just teachers? Can students be added? This is all being explored. Still, as my as my daughter texted, “the whole school is freakgo out.” As Adam once said, developing.
