What happens when you are thrown a curve ball? Will you choose to see a dead end or a detour?
Adam Bender was thrown a curve ball, and he threw one right back. He did not see a dead end. Adam saw a detour.
Adam is a cancer survivor. He said, “When I was born, I had a large tumor in my left thigh and had to have my leg amputated at the hip when I was a year old … At an early age, I began to show an interest in sports … I quickly learned to adapt my style of play … and I never looked back.”
Recently, Midlothian ISD was thrown a curve ball, actually two curve balls.
Before the 2011 Bond was passed, MISD was informed that it had the bonding capacity to build a second, comprehensive high school, a seventh elementary school, and an addition to Frank Seale Middle School (FSMS). Also, just in case it was needed, the district was prepared – proposed, but not taken to the board for its consideration – to commit $5M dollars of its fund balance toward the total cost to build the three bond projects.
After the bond passed, the financial picture changed. MISD was told that it could finance, with a fairly common financial package, the second comprehensive high school and the addition to FSMS. The School Board approved this option (July, 2011).
The construction of the seventh elementary school has been placed, temporarily, on hold. To build it, MISD was given a finance option by its financial advisor that would have provided funds for a seventh elementary school. However, as the financial advisor noted, it was a plan that was not in the best, long-term interest of the district. He did not recommend it. It was an option, but not a legitimate option. The District did not take action on that plan.
The district was thrown a curve ball, but it was not its only curve ball.
The second curve ball came when MISD received its first enrollment data of the 2011-12 school year. From 1991-92 to 2010-11, MISD grew in total student enrollment every year … 2,818 to 7,540 students. The district’s demographer predicted 3% growth for 2011-12, but MISD did not grow by 3%. In fact, enrollment is a few students shy of last school year’s (2010-11) figures.
MISD planned on the 3% growth to fund the staffing and operation of the second, comprehensive high school when it began its first school year (2014-15). With 3% growth, the district could financially support ninth and tenth grade students in the new school’s first year.
Now, without the 3% growth, starting the new comprehensive high school with ninth and tenth grade students in 2014-15 is not financially prudent.
A financially prudent option is to populate the second, comprehensive high school with all of MISD’s first-time ninth graders in its first year of operation.
This option would take approximately 600 students from the classrooms and hallways of Midlothian High School (MHS) in 2014-15. Then, when the financial picture warrants it, the district will move forward with a plan to move multiple student classes (e.g., 9th and 10th graders) into High School #2 (Phase 1) on its way to a 9 -12 student population.
A second, comprehensive high school (phase 1) is scheduled to be ready starting with the 2014-15 school year.
If today’s financial picture/forecast carries forward, unchanged, to the 2014-15 school year, then the district’s second, comprehensive high school will begin operation with all of MISD’s first-time ninth graders.
Adam Bender was thrown a curve ball. He did not see a dead end, Adam saw a detour. MISD was thrown two curve balls, and, like Adam, the District did not see a dead end, it saw a detour.
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Note: MISD’s financial advisor and demographer could write blogs with the same theme. My guess is that they, too, were thrown curve balls.
