SISD budget targets long-term goals

Funding the five-year plan

SISD employed a zero-based budget for the first time in planning for the 2015-16 school year, forcing departments to justify each expenditure, district officials said. Departmental budgets previously had been compiled beginning with the funding received from the previous year’s budget.

“With zero-based budgeting we had to sit down and ask, ‘What did it cost to operate this?’ and go line by line,” Chief Financial Officer Ann Westbrooks said. “And it had to align with the five-year plan to make the budget.”

The budget calls for teachers to receive an average raise of 6 percent while bus drivers will get a 9 percent raise to retain quality staff, district officials said. It also includes $900,000 to repurpose its current Support Services Center into its in-house Disciplinary Alternative Education Program.

“From my experience this is one of the most sensible budgets that we have had,” Westbrooks said. “It freed up funds, which allowed us to do things like bring the DAEP in-house. We sought out inefficiencies that could be re-appropriated into better use.”

Watson said the budget prioritized more prekindergarten investment, a districtwide literacy plan and an increase in technology spending. The budget also features more than $4 million in technology funding with $2.3 million going toward contracted services to run software that will provide accurate metrics of student success, he said.

In accordance with the goals of the five-year plan, SISD’s budget added universal SAT testing for all eighth-12th grade students and Advanced Placement testing for all students taking AP classes.

SISD board President Rhonda Faust said she believes the budget featured a good balance of ideas.

“It required folks to dig in and really look at the budget,” Faust said. “This budget proposal is a direct reflection of community input.”

Development benefiting SISD

The growth of the community around SISD could help the district reach goals of its five-year plan, district officials said.

The nearly completed 385-acre ExxonMobil campus in Springwoods Village alone adds more than $1 billion in appraised taxable property tax value to the district, according to Harris County Appraisal District records.

“We have businesses that are moving in; you have small businesses [and] large corporations,” Watson said. “You have real estate that is continuing to grow and develop in this area. It’s the perfect storm with all of the pieces coming together.”

The budget increased by $17 million from $361 million last year after taxable property values across the district rose by $1.2 billion from last year, Westbrooks said. The increase in tax revenue allowed the district to increase its total revenue without increasing the property tax rate, which is expected to remain at $1.51 per $100 valuation, the same rate as last year, she said.

However, Westbrooks said the state contributes less funding to school districts as their property tax revenue rises. SISD received more than $202 million in state funding for the 2015-16 school year, a more than $7 million decrease in contribution from the previous year’s budget.

“The economic impact of Exxon[Mobil’s Springwoods Village campus] and the Grand Parkway’s development—those two projects alone will generate other businesses by themselves,” board member Ron Crier said. “Those entities are within our taxing authority. But there’s always a give and take thing with the state because of the formula within the state. Education is a socioeconomic undertaking. Money does count when it comes to educating kids.”

A ‘transitional budget’

Watson said the budget was the product of a yearlong listening tour across the district. SISD held meetings with churches, business owners, parents and community leaders before crafting the budget.

“One of the things I found when I got here through asking people informally is the community didn’t feel like they had a voice in the school district unless they were wanting to complain,” said Watson, who was appointed superintendent last summer. “Those meetings provided an opportunity for me to find out firsthand what the community felt.”

Crier said the budget is not perfect as he believes too much money was spent on contracted services for technology and other costs associated with the district’s transition to a new superintendent.    

“This is what I term a transitional budget after a change of leadership,” Crier said. “It reflects a loss of institutional knowledge, which increased contract services expenses. Our district should always maintain some semblance of institutional knowledge.”

Crier said he hopes the next budget has less expenses related to contracted services to manage district software.

“We’re not utilizing in-house knowledge,” he said. “We risk technology funding stay[ing] a high expense if we don’t develop our own in-house.”

Watson said the district hopes the next budget has more funding for increased security measures across the district and more early childhood centers. He said SISD has also had discussions of adding another middle or high school.

District officials previously stated any new bond package would feature at least one middle school and one elementary school. Land is available for an elementary school within Springwoods Village and a middle school next to Northgate Crossing Elementary School. The district will also need a fourth comprehensive high school before it reaches completion.

“One of the things I wanted to do this year before we went out for a bond is to have a detailed comprehensive five-year plan, and I wanted to make sure we were using all of the resources we have in the best way possible,” Watson said.