Carthage ISD approved a $31.5 million budget and seven-cent tax rate decrease Monday, bringing the tax rate to $1.21 total — 97 cents on the maintenance and operations side of the budget and 24 cents on the interest and sinking side of the budget.  The proposed budget includes a projected $25.944 million set aside for maintenance and operations and about $5.5 million in recapture payments. It is a balanced budget. view article

The Tyler Independent School District board of trustees approved its 2019-20 budget at the first board meeting of the year Monday night, which includes significant teacher raises and a new incentive pay fund. The district also approved its new tax rate, after a change to school finance swapped 7 cents per $100 of taxable value for increased state funding. The $163 million budget gives the district a net increase of $11 million over the previous year. As a result of the state’s tax swap, the district’s Maintenance and Operation tax rate will drop from $1.04 per $100 of taxable value to 97 cents. The board approved the overall tax rate of $1.335, which includes bond debt approved by voters. That rate is a decrease from last year’s rate of $1.405. view article

With nearly $2 million for pay increases and new jobs in the district, Decatur ISD is looking at a $2.9 million budget increase for 2019/20. Decatur ISD trustees discussed the $33.9 million budget for the upcoming fiscal year Monday night. A majority of the increase covers the $2,450 pay increase for teachers, librarians and nurses and 4 percent midpoint general pay increases. The district also added 14 new jobs – 10 teachers and four aids – which increased the payroll by $300,000. view article

At convocation Wednesday morning Temple Independent School District Superintendent Bobby Ott announced that every person the district’s payroll would be getting a pay raise. view article

First-year teachers at Spring ISD can expect a starting salary of $54,000 this school year following a unanimous vote by the SISD board of trustees Aug. 13. The board previously approved a 2019-20 starting teacher salary of $53,400 in June—up from $52,275 in 2018-19. However during the board’s workshop meeting Aug. 8, trustees and district officials discussed the possibility of further increasing the district’s starting teacher salary to stay competitive with neighboring districts. view article

On Tuesday the Fort Worth ISD Board of Education will consider the “Compensation Allotment” (pay increases) required under HB3 passed by the 86th Texas Legislature. view article

Every year, school districts across the state are graded on how they handle their finances with hopes of achieving a high score. The Texas Education Agency released the preliminary financial accountability ratings on Friday, and Cleburne ISD received a Superior rating along with other districts in Johnson County except Keene ISD, which received a Meets Standard rating. view article

The three public school systems on local military installations have adopted budgets for the coming year that include some of the highest teacher pay raises in the San Antonio area, with Randolph Field Independent School District approving increases ranging up to 12.4 percent. view article

Denison ISD teachers found out about their pay raise in a meeting with superintendent Dr. Henry Scott last week, and those teachers are coming back to school this year with a little more excited than usual. "We're getting a nice chunk of change, all the teachers are buzzing about this," said Denison High School history teacher Roger Mitchell. view article

The Alvord school district has kept the debt service tax rate the same for the past several years, but it has come at a price. Due to a drop in property tax values four years ago, keeping the tax rate steady meant using fund balance. This year the district is again proposing to leave the debt service tax rate the same. Only this year, the budgetary headache is smaller. view article

Plano ISD revised its budget for the 2019-20 school year to fully account for recent sweeping changes to how Texas funds its public schools. The district had previously projected it would face an $18 million budget shortfallheading into the 2019-20 school year. District staff now project the deficit will be $16.2 million. This change trims the previously projected deficit by $1.8 million. view article

The Diboll Independent School District board of trustees approved a proposed tax rate of $1.1783 per $100 valuation for the coming school year.  The official tax rate and budget still need board approval, which may happen at the Aug. 19 meeting following a public hearing. As currently proposed, the budget is balanced.  Of that rate, $1.0683 per $100 valuation will be used to cover the maintenance and operations and will bring in about $3.1 million in tax revenue. Eleven cents per $100 valuation will cover the debt service, and will bring in about $321,710 in tax revenue.  The total levy is $3,433,745 for the 2019-20 school year. view article

Omar Garcia with BOK Financial Securities has a new release (Release 8 dated 08/05/2019) that is now available for download.  This new release includes a few additions and corrections from the prior release. Please read the notes on the Notes tab before entering data.  There may be more to come, so as always, please stay tuned for any new developments. read more

Legislative changes and figuring out how the logistics in incorporating them has made for a busy summer for the Hart ISD School Board. Board members began the summer with talks of budget discussions and adopted the 2019-2020 fiscal year budget during a meeting in June. Since Hart ISD does not have a business manager, the Region 16 Service Center out of Amarillo handles the budget. view article

As students prepare to head back to school, KBTX is interviewing superintendents from around the area. Monday, Scott Beene of Anderson-Shiro CISD appeared on Brazos Valley This Morning. view article

The Abilene ISD Board of Trustees on Monday night approved the 2019-20 compensation plan, which includes the largest raise for many district employees since 2006-07 and an eight percent raise for the most experienced teachers in the district. view article

Conroe ISD will hold a public hearing on the preliminary 2019-2020 budget on Tuesday, August 6, at 6:00 p.m. Key components of the proposed budget include a salary increase for employees as well as funds for a Capital Maintenance Fund. CFO Darrin Rice will also provide information on the 2019-2020 proposed tax rate of $1.235 which is $.045 lower than the 2018-2019 tax rate. The Board of Trustees may also hold a Special Board Meeting on August 13 to receive information about a potential bond referendum.  view article

Hallsville ISD board of trustees will meet at 11:30 a.m. Friday to discuss the budget and a proposed bond. view article

When Fort Bend ISD is back in session Aug. 14, teachers and librarians will begin to see $2,500-$3,500 more on each paycheck for the whole school year, depending on experience. “We feel it is necessary to compete with those neighboring districts, such as Spring Branch, Pasadena, Aldine and Alief,” FBISD Executive Director of Finance Bryan Guinn told the board at its June 10 meeting. “If we can’t match those, we will likely see losses of teachers to those districts.” view article

The Brownfield Independent School District’s Board of Trustees voted unanimously during a Wednesday night board meeting to approve raises for all employees in the district. The board chose to use all the funds that were provided by the passage of House Bill 3 for the raises, even though the law requires a minimal use of 30 percent. view article

Marshall ISD trustees on Monday unanimously approved a new, increased teacher pay scale and raises for other district employees ahead of the new school year. Under the new pay scale, teacher, librarians, counselors, facilitators, coaches, interventionists, speech interns and athletic trainers have increased step raises ranging from 6.6% to 13.7%. view article

Omar Garcia with BOK Financial Securities has a new release (Release 7 dated 07/29/2019) that is now available for download.  This new release includes a few additions and corrections from the prior release. Please read the notes on the Notes tab before entering data.  There may be more to come, so as always, please stay tuned for any new developments. view article

Montague Independent School District recently announced the construcƟon of a new gymnasium. The gymnasium is set to be completed in the Summer of 2019, with the ribbon cuƫng ceremony scheduled August 15th. Government Capital CorporaƟon was selected to provide a unique financing structure. view article

On Tuesday, the Lubbock-Cooper ISD announced a pay raise for teachers related to recent changes approved by the Texas Legislature. A reform package in 2019 included more state money for teacher pay and it also limited the amount of property tax increases local governments can levy via higher property valuations. view article

Jacksonville Independent School District employees will be able to pad their bank accounts with a bit more money this school year. According to the district, at the regular monthly meeting of the JISD Board of Trustees, Lindy Finley, Associate Superintendent of Business & Finance, outlined the newly adopted budget for 2019-2020. Within that budget, teachers with more than five years of teaching experience will receive a $7,500 pay raise starting in September, while teachers with less than 5 years will see a $7,000 increase averaging 16.76% pay increase per teacher. view article

Kerrville ISD trustees adopted the 2019-20 budget for the school district at the July 22 meeting by a unanimous vote, following a presentation and a public hearing at which no citizen asked to speak. The adopted budget is balanced at $41,757,001; and Jarrett Jachade and Superintendent Mark Foust told trustees and the staff members attending that this will require no use of the district’s fund balance. view article

At a called meeting this Tuesday, the Greenville Independent School District Board of Trustees will consider approving the district’s budget for the 2019-20 school year. There is no public hearing about the budget on the agenda, nor is there a “receive individuals and/or delegates” – or “citizens to be heard” planned, but the board members will discuss and possibly vote on the budget in open session. view article

On Thursday, Hutto Independent School District announced its board of trustees approved a 2019-20 plan that would raise pay for employees up to 9%, based on experience. view article

School is almost back in session, and Hutto educators will have something extra to smile about with upcoming pay raises. Hutto ISD approved its revised 2019-20 staff compensation plan with a 5-1 vote at its July 25 meeting, with more than $2.8 million in salary raises accounted into its academic year budget. Board member Edgar Padilla was not present for the meeting. view article

A week after passing across-the-board raises for district staff with new money from House Bill 3, Northside Independent School District trustees approved a health insurance plan Tuesday night that will cost the district 5.8 percent more. However, not all of the cost increase will be passed on to the more than 10,000 people enrolled in the plan, NISD Director of Benefits Chris Rice said. Depending on the employee’s chosen insurance plan and the district’s contribution, the cost increase for employees will vary. view article

Magnolia ISD employees could see 4%-4.5% teacher and staff raises, $500-$1,000 one-time bonuses and a $50 monthly increase in health care contributions in the fiscal year 2019-20 preliminary budget, MISD Assistant Superintendent of Operations Erich Morris said at a July 22 budget workshop. House Bill 3—the school finance reform bill signed into law June 11—made changes in the funding formula, such as removing the cost of education index and shifting districts from using prior-year property values to current-year property values to estimate annual school funding. This caused districts such as MISD to not reap the same benefits as smaller or slower-growing districts, Morris said. view article

The Humble ISD Board of Trustees took one more step toward being reimbursed by FEMA for damages done to their facilities by Hurricane Harvey during their monthly meeting on July 24. The school board approved a measure to renew their contract with Disaster Recovery Services, LLC for one more year. view article

Millsap ISD board of trustees discussed the 2019-20 budget during a special meeting on Monday. Administrators presented different budget scenarios to the board, but nothing was officially proposed and many details about the budget are still unknown, Chief Financial Officer Kim Alexander said. Superintendent Deann Lee started the discussion by reviewing House Bill 3 — the state’s new school finance reform law — with the board. HB 3 would result in a basic allotment increase of more than $1,000 per MISD student and several changes to individual funds and allotments. view article

HERMLEIGH, Texas — House Bill 3 is touted as a sweeping and historic financial bill, but it could lead to devastation in smaller school districts such as Hermleigh ISD.  The bill, passed on June 19, has been praised for raising teachers' salaries and putting more money into classrooms across the State of Texas.  Hermleigh ISD received over $500,000 in tax breaks from local wind farms last year, but this year, those tax breaks rolled out. view article

Kilgore ISD school board trustees voted unanimously Monday to approve a compensation and benefits plan for the 2019-2020 school year which includes an additional $1.9 million investment, leading to substantial pay increases for full-time teachers and other district employees. The pay increases are a direct result of additional state funding for Texas schools mandated by House Bill 3, a measure signed into law by Gov. Abbott in June. “Kilgore ISD is anticipating additional state funding for our 2019-2020 school year,” said Superintendent Dr. Andy Baker. view article