Spring ISD's board of trustees passed a balanced fiscal year 2024-25 budget—should a voter-approval tax rate election ballot initiative be called in August and passed in November—in a split vote June 11.

The gist

The FY 2024-25 budget passed in a 4-2-1 vote, with board President Justine Durant and Secretary Kelly P. Hodges dissenting; trustee Carmen Correa abstained from the vote. The budget includes $20.4 million in potential voter-approval tax rate election, or VATRE, revenue, which would potentially cover the district's anticipated budget shortfall and pay for 2% raises for staff.

SISD leaders were able to slash the district’s anticipated $25 million FY 2024-25 budget gap by $13.4 million, as previously reported by Community Impact. A net loss—employees cut plus employees added—of 100 full-time staff members can be attributed to the $9.8 million in staffing cuts.

According to SISD’s website, the main FY 2024-25 budget cuts include:

• $2.2 million from staffing cuts made in accordance with recommendations from the Texas Association of School Boards
• $2.4 million from the central office budget
• $1.9 million from adjusting teacher-to-student ratios and schools’ master schedules beginning in the 2024-25 school year at the district’s middle and high schools
• $1.7 million from cutting student interventionists to one per campus and shifting those duties to other staff
• $685,000 from closing the School for International Studies at Bammel’s dual language program, which includes the loss of 10 teachers and one assistant principal

Budget reductions will become effective July 1, according to SISD’s website.

Quote of note

In a June 11 interview with Community Impact, Chief Financial Officer Ann Westbrooks said district and campus leaders worked to move employees to open positions if their position was lost due to budget cuts.

“We were looking for operational efficiencies everywhere that we could and trying our best to make sure that we were doing right by our employees. ... We did a lot of work with placing positions that were closed and eliminated, ... so that was really critical,” Westbrooks said. “Even though we were doing budget reductions, we were still trying to take care of our Spring [ISD] family and have a place for them next year.”

What students and parents are saying

On June 11, Briantè Jackson-Gibson—a choir student at Spring High School—spoke to trustees about her choir teacher, who she says was laid off due to budget cuts.

“This woman is somebody that I consider a role model in my life, and it saddens me to think that future students won't have someone like her. ... SHS needs teachers like this; the teachers who see the good in us when nobody else does, the teachers who have faith in us when everyone else has lost it,” Jackson-Gibson said.

Sarah Welsh, a mother of two band students at Springwoods Village Middle School and Spring High School, expressed concern about band assistant director positions being cut at both campuses.

“This will put strain on our directors [and] even more countless hours than they already put into our programs,” Welsh said. “The [assistant director] who was cut is a very important part of the band [and] is not only a positive role model to students, he is also the technical director who helps make our band successful.”

Diving deeper

SISD’s FY 2024-25 budget also includes:

• $302.6 million in payroll costs, which makes up 87.6% of the general fund budget compared to 85.8% in FY 2023-24
• $345.5 million in total general fund expenditures compared to $346.9 million in FY 2023-24

The context

Unless trustees call a VATRE in August and voters approve it in November, SISD will face a roughly $12 million general fund shortfall, Westbrooks said June 11. On Feb. 8, Westbrooks said the district’s projected budget shortfall is being caused by:

• High rates of inflation
• Raises the district awarded employees in previous fiscal years
• Lowered rates of student enrollment and average daily attendance caused by the coronavirus pandemic
• Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund federal monies expiring on Sept. 30, 2024

“We're seeing costs going up in literally every category, whether it's fuel, food costs, just our day-to-day operations, when we're purchasing just regular supplies and goods; everything has gone up,” Westbrooks said June 11.

Stay tuned