The Austin Independent School District Chief Financial Officer Nicole Conley-Abram and Superintendent Meria Carstarphen gave the community at look at a preliminary fiscal year 2013 budget during the Feb. 27 board of trustees meeting.
The presentation laid out the next financial season with total expenditures topping $724 million. It also addressed expected expenditures including $2 million for new Annual Academic Facilities Recommendations and—perhaps the most anticipated item in the budget—a one-time projected 3 percent, or $14.2 million district-wide, pay increase to employees.
It will be the first time in two years that AISD will have provided district employees with a pay raise, and any further increase after 2013 would likely hinge on a tax-ratification election.
The district has some headroom to work with—it has the capacity to raise its tax rate by $0.09 per $100 assessed property value before hitting a legal ceiling—but Carstarphen said that she doesn't yet know how much of an increase AISD would need.
"We have a plan that's smart; it will require some public support—an increase in taxes, if you will," she said. "We're still trying to figure out exactly what we want to do around compensation, and that's what drives how much We don't want to ask for more than we need. We want to be responsible with the few pennies that we have left, and of course, they are all subject to recapture."
She said that the district has been planning for a 2013 deficit that is just more than $32 million, but said that number could change based on several variables, including the one-time pay increase and TRE.
Although the board applauded the transparency of the district's finances and the effort put in by the superintendent and Conley-Abram, there are still looming issues that need hammering out.
AISD board president Mark Williams said that he would like to see a long-term solution for compensation that would help the district stay competitive in the coming years.
"I think we're going to need to set some time aside to talk about [the] compensation strategies. I do think we need to have a dialogue meeting so we can really kind of sort through which of these options make the most sense," he said.
The final 2013 budget is expected to be voted on in June.
EOC exam decision
Included on the agenda for the Feb. 27 meeting was the decision on how to implement STAAR testing for the 2011–12 school year. The new policy revisions, unanimously approved by the board, say that AISD students' scores on this year's STAAR exam will not affect students' grades or class rank.
"It's a transition year. This is the first year that the new end-of-course exams are going to be administered," said Christy Rome, director of Intergovernmental Relations and District Oversight. "That first year is sort of an unknown, and that's why within that transition year the district is not going to be held accountable for the performance of students on the test. And part of that is why I believe the Texas Education Agency has decided to defer the 15 percent requirement."
Rome added that students must take the test to fulfill graduation requirements and fully expects that the 2012–13 school year will see implementation of the 15 percent rule into students' final averages. She said the district believes that students are prepared to perform well on the test now but cites an ease of transition is behind the district's reasoning.
The vote comes after Texas Commissioner of Education Robert Scott announced on Feb. 22 that the decision to require end-of-course exams to account for 15 percent of a student's final grade would be left in Texas school districts' hands for the 2011-2012 school year.
"Based on my conversations with the Governor's Office and clarification of legislative intent from the House and Senate, I am modifying the Texas Education Agency's House Bill 3 Transition Plan," he said in a statement released on the TEA website. "The modification gives public school districts and charter schools the ability to defer implementation of the statutory provision that requires performance on an end-of-course assessment to count as 15 percent of a student's final course grade.
"The modification applies only to the 15 percent grading requirement in Chapter 39 of the Texas Education Code and will affect only the 2011-12 school year. For this school year, the ultimate decision whether to include end-of-course exam scores as part of course grades will be determined locally by school districts and charter schools," he continued.
The ruling is a result of input from parents, educational institutions and State Board of Education members, according to the statement.
Those districts that choose to defer implementation of the 15 percent rule are required to notify TEA of their decision.
"The new assessment system will be better for students and educators and will better ensure Texas students are ready for postsecondary success," Scott added.
Education Austin and IDEA Allan opt-out extension
Education Austin has represented district employees for the last four years but may now have to share its duties with another representative body. EA currently represents about 3,000 dues-paying members, with 60 percent of the remaining district employees left unrepresented.
The school board discussed a number of options at the Feb. 20 work session and will take action in April as to the how employee consultation will be handled in the coming years. A few district employees spoke up during the citizens communication portion of the meeting, saying that they did not feel properly represented and expressed their appreciation for a re-evaluation of the current employee representation. EA's term as employee consul is set to expire May 1.
Also notable, the deadline to opt out of IDEA Allan—AISD's new in-district charter—has been extended to March 9.
"While I feel certain that parents knew about their options before the Feb. 24 deadline, and while we have no request for an extension from parents affected by the choice, we will extend the deadline to March 9 in order to alleviate any lingering concerns from other community stakeholders," Carstarphen said in a news release sent out hours before the meeting.
