Liberty Hill ISD adopts 4-day week amid budget cuts
LIBERTY HILL, Texas (KXAN) — School district leaders in Liberty Hill will talk about plans to put a Tax Ratification Election (TRE) for voters this November. The city wants to approve a tax plan it hopes will raise $11 million in revenue for student programming, safety and security and teacher staff and retention.
The Liberty Hill Independent School District was forced to cut millions from its budget over the last year. It also means it got creative this school year with a way to give teachers a break to plan while not breaking the bank.
Four-day school week during parts of year
The district is implementing a four-day school week for a portion of the year. Interim Superintendent Travis Motal admits it’s a risk, but one he hopes will pay off big.
“We definitely have an innovative calendar going into the new school year,” Motal said. “This past year, we had to cut $6.3 million from our budget, so roughly 70 positions.”
Most of these positions were support staff for teachers directly in the classroom, Motal explained.
“We really felt like we needed to give [teachers] the time to give back and be prepared for the students, so ultimately we decided to go with this innovative calendar to try and give our teachers more time to be prepared for the students to learn,” he said.
The first set of the four-day school week begins in mid-September and goes through Thanksgiving break. It picks back up for January, February, March and May. The full calendar can be viewed online.
“Definitely curious what the feedback is going to be from the community,” Motal explained. “I know from our staff, so far, they’re very excited about the time and really looking forward to it, especially knowing that some of that support isn’t there anymore because of the budget cuts.”
‘We grow at about 1,000 kids a year’
Another discussion that happens a lot inside Liberty Hill ISD’s main office is the explosive growth the area has seen.
“We grow at about 1,000 kids per year,” Motal said. “I tell everybody that’s about a school per year. A school holds between 800 to 1,200 kids.”
Motal explained the district gets quarterly reports on demographics to see what’s being built and where.
“We have constant meetings with real estate developers, county officials, city officials and just trying to understand infrastructure, what’s happening with commercial development and residential development,” Motal said. “Obviously water is a big thing and paying attention to where water is available and where the next set of houses are going to go. How many are there going to be? That way, we can have schools ready for those kids when they come.”
The Liberty Hill ISD school board is in the process of interviewing candidates for superintendent. That person will replace Steven Snell, who was appointed Williamson County judge earlier this year. Motal said he’s interested in the position and joked it’s the world’s longest job interview.
The board is expected to make a final decision on the district’s next superintendent in January.
