School districts will NEVER have enough money, that is according to them. Magnolia ISD held a planned clandestine PUBLIC HEARING on May 21st at 7:30 AM regarding their TAX RATIFICATION ELECTION aka “penny swap”. With the room completely empty with the exception of elected school board members and Magnolia ISD administration they unanimously passed a TAX HIKE ELECTION to be held August 14th while families are off for summer break.
Of course school districts are masters of deception when it comes to passing their tax schemes unbeknownst to voters. The districts prepared a pro TRE video and showed it to teachers and staff prior to summer break and then the district removed the video from the district website. Teachers are promised raises and curriculum needs if this passes and encourages them to get out and vote YES. The district uses teachers as guinea pigs in order to pass their TAX HIKES by threatening them with no raises, cutting various services and curriculum needs. This method of operation has been utilized by school districts as long as I can remember in order to pass their tax hikes. Unfortunately for teachers they will NEVER be paid what they are truly worth and that is planned as well. If teachers were paid top notch salaries they could not hold elections over their head. As Magnolia ISD’s Superintendent, Todd Stephens makes 250,000 in salary and benefits (See Contract) and the district pays it’s administration quite well (see below) the district will threaten teachers with no raises if they do not march to the beat of their drum in voting YES on their tax hikes.
NOTE: The district claims that they are not going to raise your tax rate they are just going to move 10 cents from the I & S sinking fund to the M & O account. What they don’t tell you is the their own NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING states they need a tax rate 1.4560 to keep up with their current spending and tax debt. So to claim that we are not going to raise your tax rate is dishonest at best. They also did not tell the teachers or the public that they can come back and raise the I & S side they are planning on stealing from anytime without voter approval.
This is a TAX HIKE SCAM.
While threatening teachers with no raise in the event the TRE fails the district is currently putting the finishing touches on their new SIX MILLION DOLLAR conference center to compete with the private sector. Yes, you heard it right. They are using our TAX MONEY to build a Conference/Event facility to rent out. I was under the understanding ISD’s were to be about the business educating children not creating for profit businesses within the district using our dime to compete with the private sector. What a waste of TAX PAYER FUNDS. And the poor district claims they have no money for teachers. GIVE ME A BREAK!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1F-79ov-TA&t=4s
Another HUGE waste of Magnolia ISD’s government spending is the United Nations MARXIST International Baccalaureate Program that the currently two high schools are using for a handful of students. There is NO high academic criteria for a student to enter this program. It is very costly and a waste of TAX PAYER FUNDS. If their is any arbitration on a students scoring it is held under Swiss Law. If you notice both of the High Schools flaunt their IB WORLD SCHOOL EMBLEMS on the outside of the buildings. I often wonder why a global school is desired. What is wrong with an American School? Currently the district pays 11, 650 per high school just to be IB DIPLOMA PROGRAM. More about IB here. Teachers must be trained under the IB program and many are leaving the district and the district has to pay to have new ones retrained. This is not a cheap endeavor and it is another unneeded waste of tax money. Below are two former teacher comments.
Please go vote NO!!
Early voting locations and times are… …http://legacy.mctx.org/election/evPolls.asp?ELID=58 Locations and times for voting day are.. http://legacy.mctx.org/election/EDPolls.asp?ELID=58 If you are not sure where to vote please go to the following link and input your name and DOB and it will show you a sample ballot and your voting location. https://legacy.mctx.org/election/vrlookup.asp?curLang=English
