My name is John Pyle, father of a first grader
at Highland Village Elementary, and a four year old who
I hope still has the opportunity to be a Viking.
I wanted to take this last opportunity to address the
board and plead with you to do the right thing
and keep these schools open.
It has become increasingly clear that some sort of new
pressure has been put on this board to make these
drastic decisions.
We have asked time and time again why now, why
so soon?
Why, when we are within the 1.5% target deficit that
you are shooting for for the twenty four twenty five
school year, our deficit is 0.8%, or as Buddy has
now infamously put it, smaller than a gnat's eyelash.
Make no mistake about it, these moves are drastic.
Hundreds of parents have emailed you or spoken to you
about the commuting issues moving us to heritage will create.
Families who chose Highland Village because it was a neighborhood
school that they could walk to or they could drop
off and quickly be back on the highway.
Many like myself have come to you incredibly vulnerable and
discussed our children, some with learning disabilities, some with social
or behavioral issues, all of whom have had their lives
immeasurably improved by Highland Village and their wonderful teachers.
We have expressed to you our concerns about how this
change will affect or even set back our children.
By closing HVE in these other schools, you are drastically
altering the lives of your constituents in a negative way.
You have been so quick to bring up five to
seven years.
We'll be bankrupt in five to seven years if we
do nothing.
The proposed closure does nothing to fix the problem.
We will still be in a deficit.
So what is it by us?
One or two more years, then we'll still be bankrupt?
I urge you to buck whatever pressure has driven you
to this point.
I urge you to focus on providing the best education
for our kids instead of focusing on the bottom line.
Highland Village Elementary is an astounding school by every metric.
It should be a representation you're using to showcase to
the state why we need increased funding and why public
schools can work when we treat it like our duty
as a society and not like a business of profits
and loss or a piece of a political ecosystem.
I urge you to address the real problem that is
Greg Abbott and his cronies in Austin who've been doing
everything they can to cripple the public education system of
Texas so they can save their CEO friends $10,000 a
year on tuition.
Keep our schools open, spend the time you have left
getting every elementary school in LISD to perform to the
same standards that Highland Village consistently has.
Demand that Austin address the public education system, not just
here in Louisville, but across the state.
Be the district that stands up for what is right,
that stands up for your constituents.
If nothing changes in Austin, the district will go bankrupt
either way.
So operate at a loss.
Do it the right way.
Listen to your teachers, listen to your families, and when
the time comes, you can proudly showcase what it looks
like when a district truly cares about educating their children.