What happened?
Since the last projected budget update given at the May 19 meeting, district staff made further budget cuts to save GCISD a total of $2.04 million for the upcoming school year. The reductions include decreasing staff positions through attrition.
District staff also discussed the changes made in the 89th Texas Legislature. The final version of House Bill 2, which gives Texas school districts additional state funding, was passed June 4 and will bring in a total of $6.16 million to the district, Chief Financial Officer David Johnson said.
The state requires GCISD to allocate $3.75 million to pay raises for teachers with three or more years of experience. Additionally, $498,353 is required to go toward support staff pay raises and $476,189 is supposed to pay for benefits, according to a presentation from the district.
This brings the district's maintenance and operation funding down to $1.61 million.
The board of trustees wants to give pay raises to teachers with less than three years of experience, as well as other staff, they said. Though HB 2 gave a small amount of funds for support staff pay raises, the board looked at other ways to increase pay for support staff.
Zooming in
District staff gave three options for pay increases for non-teacher staff and teachers with less than three years of experience. This included raising the base pay for first-time teachers.
- The first option gives supporting staff and teachers with less than three years of experience a 1.5% midpoint pay raise. This would keep the budget balanced, according to the presentation.
- The second option is a 2% midpoint pay increase, which would cause a $209,533 shortfall for the 2025-26 fiscal year.
- The third option gives a 2.5% midpoint pay increase, causing a $441,780 shortfall.
The discussion
Most of the board of trustees didn’t want to approve a budget shortfall because of the possibility of the budget gap increasing due to changes made in state funding.
Possible amendments added to HB 2 could contribute to funding being less than what Johnson predicted.
“I want to pay our people,” Vice President Mary Humphrey said. “Their jobs are hard. They work hard. They put everything into it and we can never pay them enough. ... I really don’t think, in feeling responsible for my job at all, that I can vote on a deficit budget.”
However, Trustees Diana Sager and Matt Foust wanted to give a 2.5% pay increase to support staff and teachers with less than three years experience, which would put the district at a $441,780 shortfall.
“I know what it's like to be a principal,” Trustee Dianna Sager said. “I know what it's like to be the vice principal. They have to deal with a lot of things that classroom teachers do not. Do I want to pass a deficit budget? No, but [I do] think this is an opportunity for us to come a little bit closer to our neighbors.”
Looking ahead
The final budget will be presented June 16 for board approval, Johnson said. The board will then adopt a tax rate in August or September.
