School safety, funding and accountability were the main topics of discussion Sept. 12 when state Sen. Robert Nichols visited Nacogdoches County school superintendents at the NISD District Support Center.
Every Nacogdoches County school district was represented during the meeting that lasted a little more than two hours.
“Before every session I try to give (superintendents) an opportunity to give me some things to focus on,” Nichols said.
Funding
Nichols told superintendents he fully expects movement next year on school funding when the Texas Legislature convenes in January.
“One way or another, the dam is going to burst,” Nichols said. “We can’t go through another session without fixing school funding.”
Nichols said there’s a good chance the basic allotment will increase for schools in 2025. Some legislators, he said, will advocate for money going directly to teachers as an increase in compensation. Nichols favors simply increasing the allotment and letting districts spend it as they see fit, knowing the vast majority of any new funding will go to staff.
“I think it’s best to get you the money, and you will take care of the teachers because it’s a competitive situation you have to address,” said Nichols.
NISD Superintendent Dr. Gabriel Trujillo said getting full-day funding for Pre-K would provide crucial funding support. Currently, schools receive only half-funding for Pre-K students.
“We need to receive full funding on that, too,” Trujillo said. “We’re paying half – and now we tell them they can’t qualify for Pre-K because we can only afford to pay for those automatically qualifying.
“The system is broken when it comes to funding Pre-K.”
School safety
Much of the discussion Thursday centered around the state’s expectations for safety and the necessary funding for districts to harden campuses to meet requirements of new laws adopted in 2023 in the wake of the school shooting in Uvalde.
Superintendents outlined for Nichols some of the “conflicting” messages they’ve received from state officials regarding measures the districts are putting in place.
“I have ‘inconsistent’ marked with a big star,” Nichols reassured superintendents.
Trujillo said the department at TEA responsible for designing and enforcing school safety measures has grown significantly in recent years while school districts like NISD have received little funding outside of the opportunity to apply for state grants.
“Go back and look at the size of TEA, and you can see it’s grown significantly,” Trujillo said. NISD has hired additional police officers to fulfill state requirements, he said. That also requires the district to properly outfit the new officers, spending that can’t be completely offset by obtaining grant money that may or may not be available in coming years.
Superintendents asked about allowing school district police officers to resume writing Class C misdemeanor tickets, something legislators took away in 2019.
Accountability
Superintendents also addressed concerns over accountability, advising Nichols that if districts are going to be rated, other things besides passing rates on the STAAR exam (State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness) must be considered.
They also criticized changes made by TEA to the latest ratings system.
“We haven’t had a consistent assessment since 2019,” Trujillo said.
Trujillo also pointed out other changes to accountability ratings, including adjusting in November of 2023 performance measures for post-graduate success for the Class of 2023, after students had already graduated from high school in May of that year.
Grading of writing exams was also emphasized. TEA began using artificial intelligence on essays that are part of STAAR.
“TEA said, ‘let's use AI to grade tests,’” Trujillo said. “Students enter their writing on a computer, and it goes off and is graded and then no one ever sees it again except for a grade. English teachers are livid about that.”