FBN: Online candidates forum for TXHD27

See:

http://www.fortbendnow.com/2010/10/26/48587

Question of the week: Why Is The FBISD Administration Attempting To Investigate The Marshall High School "Embezzlement" Scandal Internally?

MCC Question: Why Is The FBISD Administration Attempting To Investigate The Missouri City- Marshall High School "Embezzlement" Scandal Internally? Wouldn't it be better handled by an outside agency? Will our reluctant D.A. get involved?

http://www.fortbendnow.com/2010/10/15/48405

Stay tuned for more...

FBN: Local Corruption & A Free Press

Click the title link for more...

Early Voting Begins Oct. 18th--

County, state and federal mid-term elections early voting starts Monday the 18th...

Get more info: http://www.co.fort-bend.tx.us/getsitepage.asp?sitepage=3230

TEC Orders Missouri City Officials To Revise Campaign Release For Ron Reynolds

"....District 27 State Representative candidate Ron Reynolds says it was a shock when he was confronted this week by a Libertarian candidate questioning Reynolds’ use of the term “representative elect.”

Reynolds, a Democrat, was speaking to the Fort Bend County Chamber of Commerce when Libertarian candidate Derek Grayson introduced himself.
“It was the first I ever heard of him,” said Reynolds, who said he was not intending to be deceptive by using the title representative elect.
“I was not trying to put myself ahead of an election,” said Reynolds. “I really thought I was unopposed after the primary and that had pretty much been undisputed until this Monday.”

Missouri City recently sent out a press release that included a photo with Reynolds, with the caption referring to him as representative elect. City administrators were contacted by the Texas Ethics Commission and told that Reynolds must be referred to as a candidate.
A revised press release was sent out this morning." FBN

Source: http://www.fortbendnow.com/2010/10/14/48395


Background: http://myfortbend.net/news/local/politics/1298-fbh-ron-reynolds-glosses-over-texas-bar-sanctions

School District Seeking To Usurp Voter Approval For Tax Hikes In Legislative Agenda (1 member speaks out against this)

FBN: Babb Abstains From Voting On FBISD’s Legislative Agenda

"Fort Bend Independent School District Board of Trustees member Jim Babb abstained from voting on a legislative agenda at Monday night’s board meeting after expressing concerns about a portion of the document that requested school districts have the right to raise taxes without voter approval..."

Click the link above for more...

FBN: Growing Controversy Surrounding Neighboring Districts Bond Election--click title link for more--

This bond committee is made up of district vendors (many involved with FBISD) and elected officials...get more...follow the link above.

Fort Bend County Touts 6 Of The Top 40 Most Expensive City Governments In Southeast Texas Region!--click here for more--

-Interesting factoid from the chronicle...

FBN: City Council Debate Lets "Cat Out Of The Bag" Regarding Half Empty Strip Centers (New and Old)--click here for more--

“...One of the problems when we look at this, if you drive around and look at some of these shopping centers, they are almost totally empty and all that is in there is a daycare center,” said Councilman Jerry Wyatt. “And you wonder why no one else is going in there.”

Elackatt said there were two brand-new centers on Hwy. 6 that are virtually empty, and neither has a daycare center.
“I am just not understanding how it’s going to affect business,” said Elackatt.

“It already has, Robin,” said Wyatt.

“That’s what I am saying, Jerry,” said Elackatt. “There’s two of them on Hwy. 6 that don’t have daycare and still can’t get business.”
“Those are spec buildings,” said Wyatt. “They didn’t build them to instantly fill them up, they are going to fill up as they go. That is why they are called spec buildings.”

“So, you have a 10,000 square feet just sitting there, a vendor comes along and they want to lease out 5,000 of that for daycare and we are going to tell them, no, you can’t,” said Elackatt..."

MCC comment: Mr. Elackatt was the last reform council member elected to city council in 2009 but has proven to be a disappointment as of late usually voting lock step (until this session) with the rest of the mayor's rubber stamp council. It is too bad he didn't make a stand like this during the tax votes when former council member Gary voted to oppose.

Chronicle: Reynolds Fined $11,500 By Texas Ethics Commission

http://www.ultimatefortbend.com/stories/216500-state-representative-candidate-fined-11-500

Derek Grayson, a constitutional and fiscal conservative, is facing Mr. Reynolds in the TXHD 27 November race. Candidate Reynolds also just finished serving duel sanctions imposed by the Texas Bar Association in 2009 for conduct involving several ex-legal clients.

FB Herald Editorial: Americans Distrust Both Parties!--click here for more--

"People are saying, ‘We don't like what we have, we're going to throw them out and we're going to trust that they're going to read the signals right and do something different,'" said Stanford University professor Morris Fiorina. FBH

Chron: Missouri City Raises M&O Property Tax Rate (Continue to draw on "reserve funds" to give the appearance of a balanced budget)

Missouri City council members on Monday officially approved the property tax rate for 2010-11, which will be 52.84 cents per $100 of valuation.

While the overall rate remains the same as last year's, it includes a slight increase in the part of the tax rate that goes for city maintenance and operations.

Council members stuck with this tax rate despite final appraisal numbers from Fort Bend and Harris counties that represent an 8.8 percent drop in taxable value from 2009 to 2010. City Manager Frank Simpson said the tax rate will bring in $450,000 less than budgeted for city expenditures...(click the title link above for more)

Find Out More On Your Individual Property Rights In Texas (or lack of them)--click here--

Find out which lawyers and management groups control and feed off this industry and your property equity:

http://pages.prodigy.net/hoadata/

FBN: Update On Split FBISD BOT Vote On Property Tax Rate Increase--click here--

FBISD Moves Towards Raising The Property Tax Rate Again (3rd time in as many years)

Higher tax rate expected in FBISD
September 13, 2010 4:26 pm
Zen T.C. Zheng, Houston Chronicle

In a few hours, the Fort Bend school district board of trustees is expected to approve a 3.5 cent tax rate increase for 2010-11.

The increase would occur on the debt service portion of the property tax rate while the maintenance and operation portion of the rate has been frozen at $1.04 per $100 assessed value.

If the board takes that action, the total property tax rate will go up to $1.34 per $100 assessed value from the current rate of $1.305.

District Chief Financial Officer Tracy Hoke said the rate hike is needed to service debt for part of the bond package voters approved in 2007, this time mainly the construction of the district’s 14th middle school in the Pecan Grove area....(this is the same bond package that was based on faulty growth and projection numbers and pushed by a special interest PAC headed up by the superintendent and Charlie Howard in 2007. Later at the 2008 district tax hearing Mr. Howard would oppose the 1st of 3 rate increases to cover the debt created by his 2007 PAC--ironic--)

FBStar Compares Local Issues Facing Fort Bend Schools

See: http://www.fortbendstar.com/090110/n_SchoolDays.htm

Recent transportation concerns hit home too (remember the supt cut over $20 million from the transportation budget last year after running consecutive record budget deficits for 3 years while increasing our taxes over the same time period)...

http://www.fortbendstar.com/090810/n_Parents.htm

-Plans are still in the works for the "Global Taj Mahal" ($30 million dollar duplicate museum, according to district insiders). This was a non-voter approved project...

Stay tuned for more....

For More On Property Rights Efforts That Effect All Of Us--click here--

Also see:

http://www.ahrc.se/new/index.php/src/news/sub/report

http://pages.prodigy.net/hoadata/

FBISD News--click here--

Interesting facebook release of local school board member...click the title link above.

-LOWV Offers Report On The Texas Projection Measure-

UPDATE ON TEXAS EDUCATION (LOWV Houston Area Education Fund)

ACCOUNTABILITY: TEXAS PROJECTION MEASURE

TPM: The TPM is part of the accountability system that awards schools credit for students who have actually failed state-mandated tests, but who are expected to pass sometime in the future. Texas state Rep. Scott Hochberg, a Houston area representative and chairman of an appropriations subcommittee overseeing the education budget, was quoted by the American-Statesman as calling the measure “invalid,” and urged education officials to “start from scratch and develop a real measure of the progress students make in schools.” According to the State-Telegram, “when a student fails a test but shows enough gain to make it statistically likely that he or she is on track to pass during the next high-stakes testing period,” the TPM“ counts that student as having passed for school accountability purposes.”2 A Press Release by the HISD dated July 30, 2010, shows new data using the TPM and re-rating schools without the TPM. Data of 2008 reflects 38 Exemplary and 119 Recognized schools. Data for 2009 with TPM shows 84 Exemplary and 121 Recognized schools, while removing TPM leaves only 54 Exemplary and 111 Recognized schools. The difference shown in 2010 data reflects that with TPM, there are 101 Exemplary and 105 Recognized schools. Without TPM, there are only 56 Exemplary and 113 Recognized schools. HISD stated that even without TPM, HISD reflected growth by the number of highly rated schools increasing from 165 Exemplary and Recognized schools in 2009, to 169 in 2010.

This statistical device has magically turned about 450,000 of about 1 million failed TAKS tests last year into “passing” on the basis that the students were likely to pass two or three years later. The number of schools rated as “unacceptable” was more than cut in half, and the number given the top rating of “exemplary” more than doubled. Note: the student didn’t get credit for passing, but their school is shown to be doing a great job. Hochberg has shown that the Texas Projection Measure isn’t a “growth measure” at all, but has a miserable success rate at predicting success...

The statewide 2010 ratings recently released were fantastic, albeit, not credible. Of the 239 school districts that claimed the exemplary rating, only 72 met the standards without administrative help. Use of the TPM more than doubled the number of campuses classified as exemplary. The total went from 1,159 to 2,624 with the added boost. The same was true among the districts and campuses claiming Recognized and Academically Acceptable status. This measurement device is not fair to the children whose school districts and campuses have received a higher rating due to the creative bookkeeping. Students who are not passing the state’s accountability measures are not going to be equipped for college or the workforce. Accountability ratings need to mean something.

The TPM was introduced in 2009. It predicts students’ future TAKS scores in a given subject based ontheir current TAKS scores and on their previous year’s average campus score. If a student fails this year’s TAKS test but is predicted to pass in a future year, the school gets credit as if the student had passed thisyear. Because of the criticism, Commissioner Scott has said the TPM may be eliminated or revised in 2011. Supporters say the concept helps recognize the efforts of schools where students have made academic gains but still fall short of the passing standards.

Commissioner Scott sent a message to school leaders that he is considering doing away with the Texas Projection Measure or changing it for the 2011 accountability ratings. Some educators like the provision because it gives schools credit for how well students are expected to do in the future, while critics contend that it doesn’t give a true assessment of how students are performing.

Poor Treatment Of Employees Causes Split Vote At FBISD BOT!

See: http://www.ultimatefortbend.com/2010/08/district-bus-drivers-dont-get-paid-sick-leave