Teachers, parents question Cy-Fair ISD's Willy Wonka event as budget deficit hits $140M

CYPRESS, Texas (KTRK) -- Questions have surfaced about the price tag on a Willy Wonka-themed faculty and staff back-to-school event at Cy-Fair ISD.

The mandatory event, hosted for teachers and staff in the third largest district in the state, took place as it faces a $140 million budget deficit.

The shortfall has resulted in recent cuts from bus routes to librarians.

"It's this huge expense in the context of this catastrophic budget crisis and these cuts that are feeling like we're bleeding now," Tara Cummings, a former Cy-Fair ISD school psychologist, said.

Cummings' daughter's bus route was eliminated as part of the cuts.

ABC13 is still working to uncover the total price of the event but has confirmed with the district that the event's keynote speaker, a Nevada-based guitarist, was paid $30,000. Bottled water cost nearly $5,150, according to a district spokesperson.

A spokesperson said ABC13 will need to file a records request for information on how much it was to bus the district's thousands of teachers and staff members to the event. They also acknowledged that the elimination of bus routes resulted in significant traffic delays on Monday.

"With fewer bus routes this year, there will be more cars on roads, as well as more walkers and bikers," the district wrote.

"The amount of time they have spent on telling us how bad our budget shortfall is to then cart us all over there and require us to see this thing that had very little point - it felt like a bad magic show," a current teacher in the district who asked to remain anonymous said.

Another teacher sent this statement to ABC13 which read in part, "I was deeply disturbed by the district convocation. It was a blatant misuse of funds and a strong example of how not to engage teachers. The superintendent's choice to don an embarrassing costume was not only unprofessional but also undermined the seriousness of the condition of education in Texas."

Videos shared with ABC13 show the district's new Superintendent Dr. Douglas Killian addressing the crowd dressed as Willy Wonka.

Several teachers who spoke with ABC13 under the condition of anonymity questioned Killian's decisions on content.

"The irony of him using Willy Wonka as an example of how to treat children is incredibly tone-deaf," one teacher stated. "Willy Wonka goes out of his way to basically torture children that are misbehaving."

Several teachers also told ABC13 they perceived Killian's speech as a message regarding their behavior. They viewed it as an attempt to deter them from speaking out against recent changes in the district, like the elimination of climate change and vaccine content from textbooks, as well as the decision to offer Bible-based elective courses.

They pointed to comments made in the speech reportedly stating they should embrace change, ignore negative headlines, and not be a "horse's patootie."

"It actually felt a little threatening that we would be called out if we caused any issues at all as staff," one teacher told ABC13.

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