I recently went to a meeting of the Spring Klein Chamber of Commerce where Dr. Cain the superintendent of Klein ISD spoke to us.  I was amazed to find out that there is a law on the books in the state of Texas that does not allow a school district to give a teacher any pay reductions & they also cannot be furloughed. Schools are going through a rough time right now and according to Dr. Cain if they can’t ask the teachers to take a small decrease in pay then LOTS of teachers are going to be laid off.

My husband has been with a major airline for almost 25 years and two times in his employment we have had to take 10% pay cuts.  It was not easy but the alternative was to be without a job.  Unless something is done quickly according to Dr. Cain they are going to have to be sending out pink slip notices in April and this story is going to be repeated statewide.  I’m hoping that a bill is making its way through the Texas House to address this as I write this.  I can’t imagine that our Texas teachers would mind taking a small cut if it meant there would not be layoffs.   The rest of us are having to buckle our belts and I can’t imagine that they would not like that opportunity also. The other thing that could be done is some of the teacher work days could be furloughed without pay and that according to Dr. Cain would have a huge impact on their bottom line.

The other thing that I found out at this meeting was the law that the state of Texas has on the books only allowing a 22 child class size in grades kindergarten through the 4^th grade.  He told us that if a certain grade was full at 22 students per class and a new student entered that put that total over 22 per class  they immediately had to hire a new teacher and make a new class.  That is NUTS!!  When my children were small we lived in another state where the schools were very liberal and so I had my children in private Christian schools and I’m telling you the private school class size was huge.  I think there was something like 35 in each class but they did have a teacher and an aide.  Our children got an incredible education from that school.

We moved here when our children were in the 5^th grade and 9^th grade and I was pleasantly surprised to find that Klein ISD was still teaching reading, writing & arithmetic.  My children got a great education from Klein ISD.  My daughter ended up getting a degree in Communication Design at UNT and our son is now a sophomore at Texas A&M in Ocean Engineering.  He took the longer route as he was an Intelligence Analyst in the Army for almost 5 years.  The reason he joined the Army was because he scored so high on their entrance exam.

Like I said I hope a bill is already in the works as the public schools have to make key decisions in April and pink slips will be going out.  I am writing this as I want to see other people’s children have those same options that were available to my children and from what I can see something needs to happen quick or that is going to be in jeopardy.

I’m a real estate broker serving the  districts of Klein ISD, Spring ISD,  Tomball ISD, Magnolia ISD, Montgomery ISD and Cypress ISD.  All of these districts have done nothing but grow in the last few years.  Even though times are hard we are still in a big growth stage.  The boys and girls of Texas are the future and we need to protect our future.

Please consider writing your local Texas legislatures right away about this problem.  You can find ways to contact them at texas legislatures online.  Representative Rob Eissler is the public education chair.  I found that I could not email him through the website as I am not in his constituency but I called his office at 512-463-0797 and they were happy to give me his email address.  I don’t think I should put that address on the web but if you want to contact his office you can either call that number or email me and I will be glad to personally give it to you.

For all your Spring/Tomball/Magnolia TX Real Estate needs, contact me today! Marchel Peterson Results Realty Cell: 832-721-8332