Posted 1:32 am Sunday, August 03, 2008
Tyler School District Hopes To Keep Tax Rate Steady
By MEGAN MIDDLETON
Staff Writer
Staff Writer
Tyler ISD trustees will have a special meeting at 2 p.m. Tuesday to discuss the preliminary 2008-09 budget and tax rate and potential projects to be included in an upcoming bond election.
The workshops will take place in Room B-1 of the Administration Building, 1319 New Sunnybrook Drive. Also Tuesday, the board will have its first reading on policy changes.
Tosha Bjork, director of financial services, said Friday that she will present information about the tax rate, which the district is recommending remain at the current total tax rate of $1.215. That keeps the current maintenance and operations (M&O) tax rate of about $1.03 per $100 valuation.
Ms. Bjork told the board in May that the district would need to raise its M&O rate by a penny, bringing it to $1.04. That’s the highest a district can set its M&O rate before it has to go to voters in an election.
But in July, the state released information showing that because of an adjustment in a calculation, TISD will receive $127 more targeted revenue per student than in prior years.
That will help keep TISD from raising its tax rate, officials said.
“It puts us in a good position to help us move forward where we don’t have to do a tax increase this year,” Ms. Bjork said, noting next year TISD will probably have to go after that last penny. “But at least we can get by one more year.”
Ms. Bjork said the preliminary 2008-09 budget is about $130.4 million, $5 million more than the 2007-08 budget of $125.3 million.
The $5 million increase is mostly for payroll and related payroll expenditures.
TISD is proposing to give teachers a $1,200 pay increase, raise starting teacher pay from $38,000 to $39,500 and give 3 percent of the midpoint pay increase to other employees.
Other additions include $500,000 for purchases in the district’s technology plan and $350,000 for the AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) program, Ms. Bjork said.
“We were able to basically balance our budget without having a tax rate increase and add on those extra things we didn’t have when I first went to the board,” she said, noting the increases for technology and AVID.
The increases in the budget are being covered by the adjustment in the target revenue, an increase in the district’s Weighted Average Daily Attendance (WADA) by 25 students, a change in the “Austin yield” and other items, Ms. Bjork said.
TISD Superintendent Dr. Randy Reid said, “I feel real good about the budget we’re bringing forward. It’s certainly not exorbitant. But I think it meets the needs of the district for now. It leaves us a little bit of breathing room for the future, but not much.”
Reid said the district expected to have to raise its M&O rate to $1.04.
“It’s big for us to not have to do that,” Reid said, noting that many districts have done that. “We hope the taxpayers take that into consideration when we come forward with a bond election.”
BOND
Reid said he will present to the board six projects recommended to be in the Phase 2 bond election.
The district could call the bond election on Aug. 12.
TISD is considering a November bond election to address the second phase of a four-phase master facilities improvement plan.
Phase 1, a $95.9 million bond program voters approved in 2004, included construction of six replacement schools — Bell, Ramey, Douglas, Austin, Bonner and Peete elementary schools — and one new campus, Jack Elementary. Peete, the last to be completed, opened in January.
Phase 2, according to the original plan, addresses needs at the remaining elementary schools, through replacing or remodeling buildings. The third phase calls for addressing mainly middle schools; and the fourth, high schools.
Replacing five elementary schools in a possible November bond issue could cost $112 million, and remodeling several others could be another $77 million, for a total of $189 million, according to estimates presented in May.
Possible replacement schools for Phase 2 have been identified as Clarkston, Griffin, Jones, Orr and Woods. The possible remodels are Birdwell, Dixie, Owens, Rice and St. Louis School.
In June, Reid said the Phase 2 bond package likely will include the five replacement schools and possibly one other project from the elementary list, keeping the bond election within a $125 million range.
At Tuesday’s board meeting, Reid will present trustees with the full list of recommended projects.
“We feel really strongly that the plan we have in place is going to do what we talked about, which is continue the pledges made by the administration and the board in 2004 when we had the last election, to get that elementary work done first. We wish we could do them all, but obviously the dollars we feel like would be a little bit overwhelming for the public.
“We’re really trying to do something we feel is affordable but yet continues that path.”
