What we reported Residents living within Friendswood ISD’s boundaries voted in a September special election to approve a tax rate increase. School district taxes are separated into two buckets—operations and debt service. Residents voted to increase the district’s operations tax rate by 9 cents, going from $1.04 to $1.13 per $100 valuation. The rate increase was billed as a way to provide salary increase for teachers, improve personnel retention and staffing, and make up for tax dollars that were recaptured by the state each year through a tax recapture plan dubbed the “Robin Hood” tax.

The latest FISD has raised teacher salaries for two consecutive years, bringing the base teacher salary up to $50,250 for the 2016-17 school year from $47,000 in the 2014-15 school year.

What’s next The school district anticipates increased hiring for specialists, nurses, principals, administrators and teachers over the next year.

This story is one update from The January Issue. View the full list of 10 things to look for here