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Welcome to the December, 2015 edition of the FOTPS Newsletter!
Please read below to learn about the FOTPS position on superintendent salaries, a recap of the Friend of the Year Gala, and information about our new billboards, posters, and bumper stickers. Have a wonderful holiday!
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We are thrilled to report 187 districts have joined the network.
Network membership is $300 for the school year. If your district is not listed and you'd like to be a part of the Friends Network, please call FOTPS Executive Director Stacey Osborne at (512) 334-6555 or sosborne@fotps.org. |
Want to help out Friends of Texas Public Schools?
When you shop on Amazon, go to www.smile.amazon.com and log in as you normally do. Amazon will donate a percentage of your purchase to Friends of Texas Public Schools when you select us as your charity of choice.
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DK Haney Roofing is a certified TIPS and TXMAS vendor dedicated to helping schools get roofing projects done. Schools have been our specialty for 23 years, so we can help you navigate insurance claims and board approvals. Our state-of-the-art roof management portal provides instant access to all your roofs and reports. Call 866-379-4846.
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SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENTS ARE JUSTLY COMPENSATED
A note from our Founder, Scott Milder
 Dear Fellow Texans,
School superintendents are often vilified for making too much money. Claims are routinely made that reducing their pay would leave plenty of money to educate kids.
Nonsense! That's our official position at Friends of Texas Public Schools on this unjust myth perpetuated by the very vocal minority of public education funding critics.
Not only are school superintendents justly compensated, but the percentage of tax dollars allocated toward their salaries and the salaries of all staff at the central office level across the state is just 3 percent. That's right! Texans invest just 3 pennies on every dollar for capable, conscientious, transparent, frugal, courageous, and servant leadership of their public schools. The other 97 pennies are invested directly into educating children. Watch our short video to see where each penny goes.Props to the Texas Association of School Boards Texas and the Texas Association of School Administrators for their annual look at superintendent salaries across the state. Their review continues to reveal that Texas pays its school leaders reasonably, if not beneath their actual value, in our opinion. The average superintendent salary for 2015-16 is $139,494, which is a 2.9 percent increase over 2014-15.
Average superintendent salaries range from $92,479 in districts with fewer than 500 students to $302,563 in districts with more than 50,000 students. Half of reported salaries are less than $120,000.
Do superintendents make more than teachers? Sure they do. Do they make more than most private sector CEO's? Absolutely not, yet they are responsible for every bit as much and in many cases a whole lot more than their CEO counterparts. They lead the largest workforce in nearly every town. They manage the largest portfolio of facilities in every town. They also run the largest food service program and transportation system in town. They work nights and weekends year-round. And, they report to seven bosses known as school board members who represent the voters in their communities.
Teachers and staff cannot do their jobs if the school superintendent is not doing his or her job. It's a complex, political, and underappreciated role that few understand or want to take on, which is why we applaud those who choose to serve Texas as public school superintendents. If you'd like to know more about the role of the superintendent in your community, pick up the phone and give them a call. They would be thrilled to hear from you.
God bless,
Scott Milder, Founder
Friends of Texas Public Schools
smilder@fotps.org
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11th Annual Friend of the Year Gala Recap
More than 320 people attended the 2015 Friend of the Year Gala on December 2 at the Baylor Club at McLane Stadium in Waco, Texas.
This was the 11th annual gala honoring the Friend of the Year, which was created by FOTPS to honor those rare individuals who clearly see beyond the sensational
headlines and often negative politics and who understand that the success of Texas public education is everyone's business.
In recent years FOTPS has also used the gala as an opportunity to honor an Ambassador of the Year from within the school system who has served as a positive ambassador for the public school profession. This year's Friend of the Year honoree was former Commissioner of Education Dr. Mike Moses, and Dr. James Cain was honored as the Ambassador of the Year. The Master of Ceremonies for the evening was Pastor Charles Foster Johnson, Executive Director of Pastors for Children and Founding Co-Pastor of Bread Fellowship of Fort Worth. The evening was made possible with the generous support of Gold Corporate Partners TREA and TASA, as well as Silver and Bronze Corporate Partners and numerous table hosts.
Thank you to our Gold Corporate Partners
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FOTPS Billboards, Posters Praise Public Educators
Friends of Texas Public Schools was founded by Leslie and Scott Milder in 2004 with the mission of facilitating respectful conversations about Texas public schools through honest communication, productive dialogue, and relentless encouragement. A primary purpose for establishing the organization was to educate Texans about the strengths and achievements of Texas public schools, and one way that the organization does that is through the annual distribution of posters and the production of large billboards seen along Texas highways and byways. The artwork for this year's poster and billboard displays a the simple and important message: Great Things Are Happening in Texas Public Schools.
 This year's posters, which were sent to more than 8700 campuses throughout the state of Texas, congratulate Texas Educators for having the highest graduation rates in America, showing comparison of the graduation rates and rank among African-American, Hispanic, White and Economically Disadvantaged students in Texas and in the nation. The posters, which were sponsored by College of Education at University North Texas, K12 Insight, Stantec Architecture, Google for Education, and NWEA, were sent to every public school campus in the state in early October.
If you are at a public school and you would like additional posters to put up at your campus, or if you would like some bumper stickers to distribute at your next public meeting, please contact Executive Director Stacey Osborne at 713-456-9429 or sosborne@fotps.org.
If you have seen the billboards, send us a picture!
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Corporate Spotlight
The Texas Rural Education Association is a Gold Partner for Friends of Texas Public Schools. Since 1992 TREA has been dedicated to improving teaching and learning in the rural schools of Texas. They do this by participating in small schools coalition (TREA, TACS, TAMS), working with various ad hoc groups on issues that affect rural membership, and regular communication during legislative sessions to keep members informed and involved. The organization also unites and mobilizes members to impact legislation.
Benefits of membership include scholarship opportunities, affiliation with the National Rural Education Association, regularly scheduled conferences, discounts on CASE Solved community engagement software, access to the Powell and Leon Legal Services Program (LSP), membership in the TREA Risk Management Co-Op (RMC), and a stringent public relations program. TREA is a tight knit community of educators that rely on each other and their affiliates to constantly improve and adapt to the challenges rural educators face. Learn more online at http://www.txrea.com
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Spotlight on Regional Service Center 4
The Region Four Educational Service Center is located in Houston, Texas. One of the largest service centers in the state, it serves serves a seven-county area composed of 50 public school districts and 41 open-enrollment charter schools, representing more than 1.1 million students, 91,000 educators, and 1,500 campuses.
The Executive Director is Dr. Pam Wells. Dr. Wells' professional background includes experience as a teacher, campus and district-level administrator, associate superintendent, and interim superintendent in Cypress-Fairbanks ISD. At Cypress-Fairbanks ISD, Dr. Wells was responsible for overseeing four successful bond referendum processes totaling $2.25 billion. Dr. Wells said that serving such a large area presents unique challenges for the service center: "Not only do we serve very large school districts in the Houston metro area, but we also serve smaller districts in some the outlying regions of the our service are that have very different needs. Balancing them can be a challenge, but it's a challenge we're happy to accept."
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Advertise with Friends!
With more than a million hits annually on our website and more than 22,000 e-news subscribers, we are pleased to offer advertising and sponsorship opportunities available to organizations wishing to reach school leaders across Texas who support Friends of Texas Public Schools.
For information on getting your organization's message out to Friends of Texas Public Schools followers and readers, please email Scott Milder at smilder@fotps.org.
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