The San Marcos CISD board of trustees will discuss the district’s 2016 budget, which currently includes $65.94 million of expenditures, at a meeting Aug. 24. The board called the meeting after deciding that voting on the budget Aug. 31, the last day before the district is required to approve a budget, would not provide enough opportunity for public input and study of the document. The current budget includes salary increases of 2.5 percent for administrative staff; 3.8 percent for teachers, nurses and librarians; and 5 percent for hourly employees. The district is also increasing its insurance contribution to $341 per month. The board was originally scheduled to vote on the budget Aug. 17, but that date was pushed back to Aug. 31 to allow for more discussion. “I think with all of the requests that were made at the last meeting it was important for us as a board to hear how that impacts the budget at least one more time, if not more, and also to get information about the values, which we did not have last time,” board president Kathy Hansen said at an Aug. 17 meeting. The district also voted to maintain its tax rate at $1.4141 per $100 of property valuation. That rate is not finalized, and residents will be able to give input on it at the Aug. 24 and 31 meetings. In its current form, the budget will require the district to take $2.38 million from the fund balance, which currently has about $28.33 million in it. Assistant Superintendent Karen Griffith said the district tries to keep enough money in the fund balance to cover at least three month’s expenses, but no more than six months. If property values or student attendance—currently at 95.1 percent—are higher than anticipated, the district might receive more money from the state and would not have to dip so far into fund balance, Griffin said.