Our desire is to provide accurate information regarding the performance, decisions and expenditures by our local School District and City officials!

The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so that they may retain control over the instruments they have created.

A request for information was submitted to 5 area school districts regarding their Preventative Maintenance program for equipment and facilities.
3 Districts have responded in writing with documentation of their programs.
So far, KISD is the only district to clearly not have a program in place. This is not the responsibility of our district maintenance employees. Their obligation is to perform the daily duties as assigned.
This responsibility falls squarely on the district administration and maintenance management company hired to provide this service.

**MAINTENANCE QUESTIONS **
An issue has come up that calls into question whether proper maintenance procedures and oversight have been provided by the company hired to provide this service for the district. It has been reported that this failure could result in a expenditure of district funds in excess of $100,000.00 to correct at one campus. Has the district fully evaluated the situation and received a second opinion by a qualified vendor ??? Since we pay more than $1.2m annually to this company to properly manage the maintenance of our facilities and equipment, this would certainly be inexcusable. We are trying to gather more information,
but it appears board members may not have been informed of this problem.
The district cannot afford to continue to build new facilities unless they are properly maintained for maximum life.

Our teachers are the school district's greatest asset.
They need to be protected from even the smallest of mistakes.
Read the article from the January 04 issue of StraightTalk (click on title)
by the ATPE about the TAKS test.

Construction Costs Review:
We had requested that our construction costs be reviewed in light of the article a few weeks ago in the Keller Citizen by Linda Taylor. Her research compared the costs of KISD schools to area districts,
and the state average cost per square foot. Five board members responded that they would be willing to research this area, and examine areas of opportunity. Please attend the Facilities Planning Committee Meetings when they are held.

Don't sign TAKS oath before receiving training

When can following a super­visor's directive cost you your job and your teaching certifi­cate and place you squarely in the middle of a criminal prosecution?

When you follow your supervisor's instruction to "Just sign the TAKS oath; the counselor will talk to you later about the training."

High-stakes testing makes casualties out of more than just students and schools that fail to meet set standards. It can also sometimes take down the most talented of teachers. Most TAKS administration security requirements prohibit actions that conscientious educators would never take anyway, such as peeking at questions in advance and coaching students. These are obvious no-nos.

But some prohibited actions would be perfectly acceptable on a normal school day. For example, you can't clean up a TAKS student answer sheet to make it more legible, and you can't look at the test booklet even after the testing is com­pleted and the answer sheets collected. Rules such as these make training and a careful review of the testing administra­tion booklet essential for educators who are asked to sign the oath.

School districts are responsible for training test administrators, but each test administrator is responsible for complying with his signed oath, which includes a state­ment that he has had an opportunity to know and understand the testing procedures. Once the oath is signed, the educator is responsible for strict adherence to every rule.

Any educator who will be involved in the testing and is asked to sign the oath must think carefully about its meaning, make sure he understands security requirements and sign only if he is properly prepared to administer the test. An educator cannot successfully defend himself by proving the district never provided training or an opportunity to review the testing manual.

The Texas Education Agency (TEA) takes testing violations very seriously. Infractions can lead to sanctions and even loss of teaching certificates. Some violations can result in criminal prosecution. Certified personnel are also responsible for super­vising non-certified personnel who have access to the testing materials, and if security violations occur, the certified professional is responsible.

For more information about these security guidelines, visit the ATPE TAKS Resource Center. Under Testing Resources, you'll find a link to TEA's District and Campus Coordinator Manual, which contains these policies.


You may contact us at citizens@ourkeller.com

























people have visited our page


Our desire is to provide accurate information regarding the performance, decisions and expenditures by our local School District and City officials !
The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so that they may retain control over the instruments they have created.

LATEST NEWS ! POSTED 5/22/04 9:30 am
NOTE:
Due to the recent election of Randy Pugh to the Keller ISD
School Board, Mr. Pugh is no longer affiliated with this web site.
This web site will continue to communicate the issues that we feel are
important to improving the education for ALL children in K.I.S.D., and
holding our elected representatives and administrators accountable
for the quality and effectiveness of the programs and sound financial
judgment.

*****ELECTION RESULTS*****
* denotes projected winner
Place 1 - * Linn Jencopale 1225 votes/100%
Place 2 - * Randy Pugh 973 Votes / 60.5%
Ben Smith 635 Votes / 39.5%
Place 3 - * Cindy Lotton 833 Votes / 51.9%
Joe Sandoval 116 Votes / 7.2%
Monique Haskins 656 Votes / 40.8%
Thank you to all candidates for stepping up to serve for our kids !

***MORE ON MAINTENANCE***
A request for information was submitted to 5 area school districts
regarding their Preventative Maintenance program for equipment and.
facilities.
3 Districts have responded in writing with documentation of their programs.
So far, KISD is the only district to clearly not have a program in place.
This is not the responsibility of our district maintenance employees.
Their obligation is to perform the daily duties as assigned.
This responsibility falls squarely on the district administration and
maintenance management company hired to provide this service.

**MAINTENANCE QUESTIONS **
An issue has come up that calls into question whether proper maintenance
procedures and oversight have been provided by the company hired to
provide this service for the district. It has been reported that this failure could
result in a expenditure of district funds in excess of $100,000.00 to correct at
one campus. Has the district fully evaluated the situation and received a second
opinion by a qualified vendor ??? Since we pay more than $1.2m annually to this
company to properly manage the maintenance of our facilities and equipment,
this would certainly be inexcusable. We are trying to gather more information,
but it appears board members may not have been informed of this problem.
The district cannot afford to continue to build new facilities unless they are
properly maintained for maximum life.

Our teachers are the school district's greatest asset.
They need to be protected from even the smallest of mistakes.
Read the article from the January 04 issue of StraightTalk (click on title)
by the ATPE about the TAKS test.

Construction Costs Review:
We had requested that our construction costs be reviewed in light of
the article a few weeks ago in the Keller Citizen by Linda Taylor.
Her research compared the costs of KISD schools to area districts,
and the state average cost per square foot.
Five board members responded that they would be willing to research
this area, and examine areas of opportunity. Please attend the Facilities
Planning Committee Meetings when they are held.

Information on various School District Committees (link at left)

Ethics Policy for Educators and School Boards available at left for review !