Friendswood ISD called for a tax ratification election to be held Sept. 10 after proposing a tax rate of $1.387 per $100 valuation at its June 13 meeting.
Texas requires a TRE for maintenance and operations rates that exceed $1.04, officials said. FISD called for an M&O rate of $1.13. Overall, the proposed tax rate is 2 cents higher than the 2015-16 school year.
The increase is needed to balance the budget following districtwide teacher salary increases, officials said.
FISD residents to vote on proposed tax rate[/caption]FISD Chief Financial Officer Connie Morgenroth said the salary raises were necessary to keep up with surrounding districts.
“About a year ago, we were having a hard time recruiting [teachers] because we were so far behind—as much as $7,000 behind—what we could pay our teachers versus Alvin ISD and some of the other districts,” she said. “So we started benchmarking ourselves [against] Clear Creek, Alvin and Pearland [ISDs].”
According to 2015 data from the Public Education Management System, FISD received the lowest amount of funding among six surrounding districts. The district received about $9,400 in operating revenue per student and $6,894 in general fund revenue per student. Pearland ISD—the next lowest—received almost $12,700 in operating revenue and about $7,000 in general fund revenue.
FISD residents to vote on proposed tax rate[/caption]“We are nestled in between three very fast-growing districts,” FISD Superintendent Trish Hanks said. “Because they are so close and in some ways very similar to Friendswood, our teachers—especially our young teachers—were very attracted to those higher salaries. We had to find a way to retain those teachers.”
Morgenroth said the M&O increase would create about $2.5 million in revenue for the district. The projected additional revenue would cover the $1.8 million in teacher salary increases and set aside $690,000 for capital improvement projects.
Although the increase to the M&O rate is 9 cents, Morgenroth said refinancing some 2008 bonds allowed FISD to decrease the debt service from $0.327 to $0.257.
“[Refinancing] was a win for the district and for the taxpayers,” she said. “It helped to offset what we need on the M&O side to be able to give the teachers the raises, balance the budget and have some money for some capital improvements.”
The board of trustees unanimously approved a balanced budget July 18 for the 2016-17 school year. The budget uses the proposed tax rate of $1.387, however, officials created a secondary budget option in the event voters reject the rate.
“If this [TRE] fails, we’re going to have a $2.5 million deficit,” Morgenroth said. “[Trustees] may decide not to do the $690,000 worth of capital improvement projects, but [FISD would] still have a $1.9 or $1.8 million deficit. You can [operate like] that for a year. You could maybe do it two years and hope that maybe the state comes in to help out, but you can’t sustain that.”
