Houston ISD is set to shift a half-million dollars to the district's smallest schools for teacher salaries to comply with state requirements.

The district could shift the money in a couple ways, administrators said at a Monday board agenda review meeting. It could decrease the amount of money given to every school in the district by $3 per student. Or it could decrease a separate subsidy for small schools' general operating costs, and use that money to cover the salaries.

This second option would result in small schools losing between $108 and $14,602 each in general operating funds, depending on how much funding the small school currently receives.

Small schools are categorized by the number of students the campus has enrolled. For HISD elementary schools, the cutoff is 500 students or fewer; for middle schools, 750 or fewer; and for high schools, 1,000 or fewer.

Currently, small schools get some funding based on a formula the Houston Independent School District's board board adopted years ago, which is based on programs offered such as music or theater, and on organizational structure such as one set up around smaller class sizes.

HISD estimates that the small school subsidy needs to be increased by $530,000 based on campus enrollment projections for next school year, to comply with the formula.

Trustees are set to vote on the matter Thursday.

Trustee Diana Dávila questioned the small schools formula.

"The possibility for so much favoritism to go into the decision making of how much funding a small school or magnet school gets makes it hard to believe in the current process," she said. "We need to put a new formula together that eliminates the possibility of school favoritism."

Davila was referring to the differences in the amount of money given to schools, and a seeming incongruity with enrollment.
 
Grady Middle School's enrollment this year was 471 students; it received $300,000 in small school funding. Cullen Middle School, with more than 630 students, received $124,000.

Why the funding discrepancies? Schools get more money if they convince the district they are offering unique programs or a different teaching approach to students.

Trustee Anna Eastman questioned a suggestion that a professional public relations campaign for small schools would boost enrollment and eliminate the need for a small school subsidy fund. Eastman said she believes word of mouth would get the job done faster.

The discussion of small-school subsidy funding ended with Grier promising to have a new recommendation to the board at Thursday's meeting. Grier suggested he may look at magnet and charter school funding to come up with the $530,000.

Also reporting:
Houston Chronicle