As school districts face tough decisions amid budget deficits, Waco ISD trustees hope to make the most of the $32.2 million sale of the former Indian Spring Middle School.
Board president Angelo Ochoa is proposing setting aside most of that windfall for a permanent endowment fund to help recruit and retain educators.
“We are not currently like every other school district financially right now,” Ochoa said at a board budget workshop Tuesday. “An endowment would allow us to earn money, earn interest on our money, and pull that money and use it specifically towards teacher bonuses, principal bonuses, all the things.”
Several million dollars of the money from the sale last fall to the city of Waco could also be used to meet more immediate needs.
Ochoa proposed that the rest would be set aside as the A.J. Moore Endowment Fund to reward teachers who are able to help economically disadvantaged students make up lost ground academically.
The concept is similar to the Teacher Incentive Allotment, a state reward program based on improvements in STAAR scores.
“It only targets student growth and that’s it,” Ochoa said.
“The only kids that can be impacted or that count are those economically disadvantaged kids. So, the wealthy kids, they don’t count.”
About 88% of students in Waco ISD are considered economically disadvantaged.
Ochoa’s proposal is inspired by a similar effort at Longview ISD, where students have a similar economic profile. Longview ISD began the LISD Incentive for Teachers in 2011 at two middle school campuses. Since then, it has expanded to include incentives for career and technical education teachers and bus drivers.
Ochoa said the proposed Waco ISD endowment could help the district recruit the best teachers possible. Combined with the state-funded TIA funds, the endowment incentives could raise some teacher salaries to $90,000.
He said those hires could in turn help Waco ISD attract students.
“That is something I think we need to consider because we’ve known enrollment’s been declining for 10 or 15 years, because birth rates have been declining,” Ochoa said. “At this point, we’re all fighting over the same good teacher, and we’re all fighting over the same student. I think having the best teachers is what’s going to get those students back.”
Ochoa proposed naming the endowment fund after Alexander James Moore, a Paul Quinn College professor who founded Waco’s first Black school in 1875 and later served as principal of the namesake A.J. Moore High School.
After desegregation, he was honored in the naming of the new Jefferson-Moore High School, which later served as A.J. Academy magnet school and later as Indian Spring Middle School.
Trustee Jeremy Davis questioned whether the endowment proposal suited Moore’s legacy.
“Can you make the connection between A.J. Moore, who started a school because Black kids weren’t afforded an education, to the teacher endowment?” Trustee Jeremy Davis said. “How would that be under the legacy of A.J. Moore?”
Trustee Jim Patton asked how incentives would work for teachers in career and technical education and special subjects.
Ochoa pointed to the Longview program, which began with $300,000 and expanded.
“How do you include everyone at a certain point?” Ochoa said. “Theirs initially started with just those two middle schools, and now it’s evolved to bus drivers, CTE teachers. The possibilities are endless.”
Questions about the size of the endowment and expected annual interest remain under study.
“The rules of the game are different for education than it is for business,” Superintendent Tiffany Spicer said. “And so that’s kind of the stuff that we’re looking at, and I’m talking through with our investors and our financial advisors.”
Ochoa said he believes the Longview model could work in Waco given its similar economic profile.
However, the district has more Hispanic students than Longview ISD. Another key difference is that Waco has more campuses, staff and students, said Trustee Jose Vidaña.
“Those are big differences when you’re trying to do what they’re doing,” Vidaña said.
