(Pat Hernandez, KUHF Public Radio)
Public hearings continue on plans by the Houston Independent School District to tackle a multi-million dollar deficit. One that is getting attention is the district’s plan to streamline the bell schedule.
The plan to implement a uniform schedule across the HISD’s 279 campuses, would free up $1.2 million as the district is trying to find ways to cover a $34 million deficit.
Sharon Eaves is general manager of budget and finance for HISD:
“This past legislative session was the first time in 60 years that they have actually cut funding to school districts, and what that amounted to was in total, about $5.3 billion – 5.4. So it was kind of a strange legislative session for school finance.”
But the bell change would add an extra 19 minutes in the classroom, and that would add up to 7 more days of instruction time over the course of the year.
(See more at KUHF Public Radio)
OTHER HEADLINES:
- Initiative Against Child Predators Starts On High Note (KUHF Public Radio)
- Malian Girl’s Cry for Help Reaches Houston Law School Class (Houston Chronicle)
- Measuring the Rain, Drop by Drop (KUHF Public Radio)
- Recent Twisters Spawn Claims Topping $300 Million (Houston Chronicle)
- Former Homeless Man Who Co-Wrote Best-Seller Dies (Houston Chronicle)
- Philanthropist, Democratic Patron Rapoport Dies (KRIV 26 News)
OPINIIONS ON THE NEWS:
- Autistic Grandson Helped Ex-Priest Find Way ‘Into the Light’
(Patricia Kilday Hart, Houston Chronicle)
“…What they couldn’t know was that Charlie’s diagnosis would eventually bond them in unimaginable ways. Or that his grandfather, Houston psychotherapist Earle Martin, would be inspired to pen a book titled, “The Boy Who Saved My Life: Walking into the Light with My Autistic Grandson.” - A Rockier Pathway to Work
(Editorial, New York Times)
“Hundreds of thousands of unemployed people are desperate for new skills to pull them back into the job market, but when they visit a job-training center, they are often turned away. …The reason: drastic cuts to federal spending on training over the last six years, including $1 billion since the 2010 fiscal year.”