The Frisco ISD board of trustees approved a nearly $416 million budget for the 2015-16 school year and a three- to five-year strategic plan during the June 22 meeting. The board also voted to maintain a tax rate of $1.46 per $100 of valuation for the fourth straight year. The budget and the strategic plan were approved as the district prepares to open four more schools and enroll an additional 3,500 students next school year.

District budget

The new budget is about $26 million more than the 2014-15 school year’s budget and increases the district’s spending by about 6.6 percent. However, the district’s combined tax rate will stay at $1.46 per $100 of valuation. The tax rate includes $1.04 for maintenance and operations and $0.42 for principal and interest payments on debts. The increased budget will accommodate hiring approximately 200 new teachers. It also includes a 2.5 percent midpoint salary increase for employees. The district normally includes a 3 percent midpoint salary increase for employees, but that increase was reduced to help tighten the budget, FISD chief financial officer Rick Bankston said in a previous story. FISD’s projected revenue for the 2015-16 school year totals more than $417 million, almost 70 percent of which comes from local funding sources. FISD’s budget was formulated with the district still not knowing exactly how much funding will come from the state, Bankston said. FISD board member Brian Dodson said the district’s budget is an investment in its students. “I would challenge the legislature to not think tactically, to think strategically when it comes to funding our schools,” he said.

Strategic plan

Discussion to form FISD’s three- to five-year strategic plan began in January and involved more than 200 active participants in the process. The district hired former Allen ISD administrators Jenny Preston and Sheri Sides as consultants to guide the planning process. The plan includes six focus areas: teaching and learning, human resources, budget, facilities, whole child and communications. Each focus area includes several strategies and action steps to realize the plan. To implement the strategic plan during the next few years, Superintendent Jeremy Lyon will schedule the roll out of the plan and assign staff to head the action steps laid out in the plan. “I think one of the things we achieved with this is to not come away with an avalanche of new tasks for people but to really build a strategic plan that really looks at what we’re doing [and] the efficiency of how we’re doing it,” Lyon said. Click here to view the meeting agenda and the presentations on the budget and strategic plan.