Katy ISD · Documented Records
The only academic programme Katy ISD eliminated.
On 26 February 2018 the board ended the Two-Way Immersion bilingual programme at Fielder and Memorial Parkway Elementary. Across fourteen years of board records and 7,226 agenda items, this is the only academic programme the district has eliminated. The overcrowding it was said to solve was real; the cost figure that carried the argument was 94% teacher salary the district would still be paying; and the savings the board voted on differed from what the superintendent stated three weeks later by roughly double.
The finding
In fourteen years of board records, 7,226 agenda items, Katy ISD eliminated one academic programme. Every other phase-out, discontinuation or closure in the record is a construction contract or a policy revision.
The Two-Way Immersion bilingual programme at Fielder and Memorial Parkway Elementary was ended on 26 February 2018, on the consent agenda, bundled with seventeen other items, in a single vote with no separate discussion.
The overcrowding was real
This should be said first, because it is true and it is the district's strongest ground.
At the work study of 15 January 2018, an administrator described Fielder to the board: a building for roughly 900 students holding about 1,200, with "half of a playground that has 12 to 14 T buildings on it." Of roughly 500 children in the two special language programmes there, about 250 bilingual and about 250 in TWI, only about 100 in each were actually zoned to Fielder. Roughly three hundred were arriving from outside the attendance zone.
That matters because it is the one problem the district's ordinary tools cannot solve. Boundary modifications move zoned students. Closed-campus designations stop new voluntary transfers. Neither removes children already enrolled in a choice programme. Ending the programme does.
What the district said it would do in January
In that same January exchange, the administrator told the board:
"We're still going to provide the opportunity to be involved and to participate in TWI and bilingual. That's not going away. It just may be that it's not at that building and it may be at another building."
The plan described to the public in January was relocation.
Six weeks later the board voted to phase the programme out entirely, ending it with the 2018–19 kindergarten class while honouring the commitment to children already enrolled.
What the written recommendation said
Agenda item 7.3 gave two reasons. The first was capacity: Fielder "having a student enrollment 25% above design capacity." The second was cost and scope:
"this optional specialized program is unique in the fact that the TWI program only benefits approximately 1% of all Katy ISD elementary students at an approximate cost of $1,414,072."
Stated saving: between $502,325 and $862,325 a year.
What the cost figure actually contained
On 19 March 2018 a member of the public brought the district's own breakdown to the podium, obtained by public information request:
| Component | Amount |
|---|---|
| Teacher base salary | $1,366,000 |
| Teacher stipends, specific to TWI | $60,000 |
| Testing and professional development | ~$18,000 |
Ninety-four per cent of the headline figure was teacher base salary, pay determined by experience and seniority, not by the programme. The genuinely programme-specific cost was about $78,000 a year, which the speaker put at $181 per student.
The superintendent responded the same evening and conceded the data without qualification:
"The district does not dispute those numbers."
"The district does not dispute the fact that the majority of the cost of the TWI program is in staff salaries."
His counter-argument was that the teachers would not all be needed once 430 students dispersed into existing open seats, and that the reduction would come through vacancies rather than dismissals: "no teachers will actually lose their teaching position."
The figure the district could not keep straight
The written recommendation the board voted on said the saving would be $502,325 to $862,325.
Three weeks later, from the dais, the superintendent said:
"I maintain there would be a savings of $1.4 million... let me be clear that is not an ambiguous statement."
Same administration, same programme, two figures that differ by roughly double. The board voted on the smaller one.
There is a plausible reconciliation, and it is unflattering to the larger number: if no teacher loses a job and the TWI teachers fill vacancies that existed anyway, the benefit is avoided future hiring, not $1.4 million removed from a budget. That is a real economic argument. It is not the same claim, and it is likely why the written item carried the lower range.
What this record does not show
- It does not show the capacity problem was invented. Twelve hundred children in a nine-hundred-seat building with a dozen portables on the playground is a genuine crisis, and the record describes it in the district's own voice.
- It does not show the decision was hidden. The item was previewed a week early, published in full with its rationale, and its cost figure was released to a requester who asked for the breakdown. The district then answered the challenge in public and conceded the numbers.
- It does not show anyone profited or acted in bad faith. Nothing in the record supports that and nothing here implies it.
- It does not establish why the plan changed between the January statement that the programme was "not going away" and the February vote to end it. The record shows both. It does not explain the gap.
What is worth a reader's attention
Four things, each checkable in the district's own documents:
- This is the only academic programme eliminated in fourteen years of board records.
- In January the district said the programme would continue, possibly at another campus. In February it was ended.
- The cost figure that carried the public argument was 94% fixed salary, and the district conceded this.
- The administration stated two different savings figures three weeks apart, and the board voted on the smaller.
Sources
| Record | Where |
|---|---|
| Agenda item 5.4, 19 February 2018 | BoardDocs, Katy ISD |
| Agenda item 7.3, 26 February 2018, with vote record | BoardDocs, Katy ISD |
| Item 7.15, same consent agenda: closed campuses for intra-district transfers | BoardDocs, Katy ISD |
| Attendance boundary modification for 2018–19, approved 11 December 2017 | BoardDocs, item 8.2 |
| Board video, 15 January 2018 | Swagit 172410 |
| Board video, 19 February 2018 | Swagit 172412 |
| Board video, 19 March 2018 | Swagit 172414 |
| Board video, 16 April 2018 | Swagit 172416 |
Transcript note
The passages set off in block quotation above are drawn from machine transcripts of the district's own recordings and have not yet been checked against the audio by a human. Speakers are identified by their role in context, not by the recording. Under this archive's transcript policy, no passage may be attributed to a named living person until that check is done; the passages above are attributed to roles for that reason. The agenda items, the recorded vote and the signed minutes are primary documents and are solid.