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Austin Schools Board will vote Thursday night on a $ 1.8 billion budget that includes a 1% increase, scholarships for bilingual librarians, and cuts to police and headquarters.
It also comes with a tax increase of hundreds of dollars for the average homeowner.
The proposed budget leaves the tax rate at $ 1.1027 per $ 100 property value, but taxpayers will likely increase their taxes by an estimated $ 473 before exemptions, based on the average home with a market value of$ 554,160, due to rising property values. The district also budgets $ 35.8 million for food supplies and $ 162.5 million for debt servicing.
Austin officials say they will need to pull $ 43.6 million from the district’s reserves to meet local operating costs, although they are expected to send $ 709.4 million in local property tax revenue to the state to help keep the wealthy poor Fund districts. Officials said the loss of local tax dollars to the Texas school funding system and declining local enrollment have made balancing the budget a challenge despite rising local property tax revenues.
“We must always be aware that we are the canary in the coal mine and that public school funding is really one of the things that affects our budget,” said School Board President Geronimo Rodriguez in May.
As part of the latest general fund budget plan, the district has allocated $ 100,000 to bilingual librarians to receive scholarships equivalent to those for its bilingual teachers. It comes in response to requests from parents and staff citing higher scholarships in the surrounding school districts.
“I worry that if we don’t continue to offer comparable pay, we will lose the few bilingual librarians we have to other districts,” said John Garcia, a bilingual librarian at Casey Elementary School, Jan.
In Austin, the school district offers a $ 2,500 scholarship for bilingual support agencies and $ 6,000 for teachers, according to district officials. On Wednesday, they said they are still setting the criteria for bilingual librarians to receive the same scholarships as teachers, saying they are not sure how many would benefit from the additional funding.
By comparison, Leander School District has approved $ 7,000 in its budget for bilingual librarians and staff as part of its compensation plan.
More:Texas AG asked Ken Paxton to consider Austin ISD’s decision to terminate PTA-funded staff
Austin’s updated budget proposal also increases the district’s minimum hourly wage from $ 13 to $ 13.50. In May, Trustee Ofelia Zapata urged the district to raise the minimum for non-teaching staff to $ 15.
“A lot of our paid employees probably have two or three jobs,” she said of the $ 13 minimum in the district.
District officials said they wanted to achieve this over time.
Teachers and district staff would also receive a 1% raise based on the middle of their salary under the proposal.
Superintendent Stephanie S. Elizalde told the board of directors earlier this month that she was reluctant to take on larger pay increases as overall enrollment and funding for the district remain unclear amid the pandemic.
“All of the nation’s superintendents are quite concerned about what our enrollment will be,” said Elizalde. However, the board could change the budget in November to see a 2% increase, she said if the district hits its enrollment target and can find the funds to make the increases sustainable.
Salary increases have remained modest throughout central Texas. Leander and Lake Travis school boards passed a 2% increase and Round Rock approved a 1% increase.
More:“It was a godsend”: The lack of virtual options could drive some Austin area students out of the traditional counties
Austin’s budget also includes cuts of $ 6.9 million to the central district office, including four police posts. But Elizalde said the school district police department’s budget would not decrease, despite demands from some parishioners for lower police spending, as the staff cuts were offset by the salary increases.
District officials said the headquarters changes shouldn’t impact campus, but expect fewer teachers to be hired due to lower enrollments overall.
The district is also expected to receive $ 155.6 million from the third round of state coronavirus aid. Officials are scheduled to discuss their plans and the results of a community survey on the use of one-off funds to help students recover from the pandemic.
This is a developing story; check for updates.
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