Magnolia ISD residents will not see an increase in the tax rate for the 2016-17 fiscal year if the MISD board of trustees adopts the proposed $105,619,774 balanced budget Aug. 22.

TOM-2016-08-016-1The proposed tax rate for the 2016-17 year is $1.3795 per $100 valuation, MISD Chief Financial Officer Erich Morris said.

“[This] is the same tax rate as the previous year,” he said. “This comes on the heels of consecutive tax decreases for the two immediately prior years.”

The new budget is an increase of approximately $5.5 million from the 2015-16 budget, Morris said, because of an expected increase in enrollment and economic growth. The increase includes maintaining competitive salaries, adding new instructional positions and accounting for an additional 250 new students.

To keep up with increased enrollment, Morris said the district will add 16 new positions, totaling about $800,000 for the year.

Fifteen of the anticipated positions are classroom-related, and one additional position is proposed for the operations department.

“Part of our administrative and school board goals [is that] we understand the importance and value of maintaining reasonable student-to-staff ratios in terms of [providing] the opportunity to maximize achievement and student growth,” Morris said.

MISD estimates a 2 percent growth in enrollment, which is similar to previous years. The district saw a 2.8 percent growth in enrollment in 2015-16, Morris said.

“We’ve maintained all programs and added some additional personnel to respond to the anticipated growth,” Morris said. “We’re going to adequately be able to meet the needs of the district with personnel [and] remain competitive with other districts.”

He said the school district has introduced several new programs during the past few years, including the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme that will be offered for the first time this fall at each MISD high school. Additionally, he said all district employees will receive a salary increase.

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“We understand the need to take care of our folks, to take care of our students,” Morris said. “We’ve been making strides in the last several years of making the district financially secure. It’s something we’ve tried to focus on. We’ve been able to increase our bond rating as a result of that [and] bolster [our] financial reserves.”MISD Superintendent Todd Stephens said 2016-17 is the fourth year in a row that salaries will increase as the district strives to offer its employees a competitive salary.

“[Four] straight years of 4 percent [salary increases] sure is a great start,” Stephens said. The salary for first-year teachers at MISD has also increased. Morris said a first-year teacher will earn $49,500—up from $48,000 last year.

“We understand the importance of talent,” Morris said. “We’ve talked about, obviously within our means, the need to offer attractive salary benefits and [incentives] to continue to focus on closing the pay gaps [with our competitors].”