My name is Ryan Ritter, and father of two boys, I hope will remain HVE Vikings when I leave this building tonight. Dr. Bonner, via email you told me that we were focusing too much on the financial side of the equation and not the attendance. Challenge accepted.
I have a couple of charts that my lovely and very patient wife will assist me with. The first chart referenced attendance by students at all three elementary schools feeding into Briar Hill. Each school is represented by their primary school color with HVE in purple. The green dotted line represents the 550 attendance number required for each school to be solvent.
There's three things I want to point out in this chart. HVE was never in that 550 standard. So which tells me the M and O budget maybe made sense somewhere around the 90s. 2019 was the last time this feeder ever had anything close to solvency, even though HVE was left behind. Of all schools, HVE is the only one that has
had any since 2019 attendance up or attendance up projected. Now, those leaking this data might think me crazy for showing as HVE is the clear line below both schools. That's where the next charts comes in. Percentage by optimal capacity. Three things here. HVE is the only school to ever go above 100% of capacity since 95, hitting the mark four times.
HVE is the only school to never go by the 60% line of overall capacity use. HVE is the only school to have a drop of do not have a drop more than 10% since 97. There was one loan drop from 11% down to 97%. Now this data tells me HVE's footprint is not only appropriately sized for the community it serves, but that it is also the most consistent and predictable of all when
it comes to attendant patterns. I urge the board not to sacrifice the appropriately sized schools simply to make up for shortfalls in larger buildings. At the end of the day, the 550 number is unreasonable for all schools. Hence why we focus on funding so much. We've been asked to consider the good of the entire district, and I promise that we are.
've In fact, I been as active as I have been because I'm worried about the future of our public schools throughout our state. I don't want LISD to take the lead in right sizing. It will send the wrong message to Austin, and one I fear they will use to justify their own delinquency. This is the same group of people that claim public
school funding was voted down while conveniently leaving out the bill required vouchers as well. Vote no tonight and delay this decision for a year. You will never have a more engaged group for advocacy than you will at this very moment. Lord knows that I feel like I've been screaming into the void about public school funding, but people are listening, being engaged, and are shocked at what they're discovering.
There may be come a time when these retirements are necessary, but that's not tonight. You've done your job. It is time Austin does theirs.
