Archives > News Update
Print
E-mail
Comment
Rate
RSS
Share
CISD officials address financial concerns
By Bill Conrad, bconrad@acnpapers.com
School districts across the state are facing a financial crisis. Administrators and trustees from Carroll ISD are calling on their residents to do something about it. Representatives from CISD, Grapevine-Colleyville ISD and Keller ISD held a public forum Tuesday night to inform residents about school finance and what they can do to try and enact change at the state level.
About 900 people attended the public forum at Carroll Senior High School. The superintendents of each district shared some of the positives about each district, but also spoke about the budget deficits that each is expecting to face in 2011-2012. Without salary increases, CISD is expecting to face a $2.3 million deficit, GCISD is looking at a $6.6 million deficit and KISD is looking at a $16 million deficit.
CISD Board of Trustees President Erin Shoupp told those in attendance that their voices would be heard in Austin. She encouraged people to write letters to their representatives and also encouraged people to join school trustees and administrators on a trip to Austin, which is scheduled for January when the legislature is back in session.
In 2007, the Texas legislature passed House Bill 1, which reduced property taxes across the state. Funding for districts was also frozen at the 2005-2006 level, meaning districts cannot receive additional funds to combat inflation and the rising costs of items such as gasoline and electricity.
“One of the key determinants of target revenue was the historical tax rate,” Youngs said. “The closer you were to $1.50, the more target revenue you got. If you were not at $1.50, you received less target revenue.”
In 2009-2010, CISD received $5,977 per student. Other cities, such as Sundown, Texas receive considerably more. Sundown, a town of less than 2,000 people located west of Lubbock, receives more than $12,000 per student according to Youngs. Needless to say, CISD would not be facing a budget shortfall if it received funding at the level that Sundown does.
Another problem that faces property-wealthy districts such as Carroll is the so-called “Robin Hood plan.” Districts such as Carroll, referred to as Chapter 41 districts, must pay money to the state that is then redistributed to districts that have less property tax money. According to documents handed out at the forum, of the 1,100 school districts in Texas, only about 100 are Chapter 41 districts. In 2010-2011, Carroll – which faced a $2.3 million budget shortfall – will send $12.5 million to the state to be redistributed. Over the past 10 years, Carroll Superintendent David Faltys said the district has sent about $124 million to the state. With the amount of schools receiving money greatly outnumbering the schools paying the state, Carroll trustee Sue Armstrong admitted that “Robin Hood” is not going anywhere anytime soon.
Districts are able to raise the maintenance and operations portion of the property tax from $1.04 to $1.17, but that requires a tax ratification election. If Southlake voters approved the tax increase, two cents would go to the district and not be subject to the “Robin Hood” payments. The two cents would give the district an additional $2 million. Of the other 11 cents, the district would have to send more than 50 percent of that money to the state.
Faltys said that the district has done what it could to reduce expenditures. He said that for the 2010-2011 budget, the district eliminated 13.5 teaching positions and cut central administration expenses by $1 million. Still, he said that unless something is changed at the state level, more cuts are going to have to be made.
A handout provided by CISD said that possible cuts for 2011-2012 include elimination high school block scheduling and reorganizing or reducing athletics, art, music, science labs, CARE reading and QUEST programs. Administrators and teachers may also have to be laid off and class sizes may have to be increased.
Carroll ISD is looking for public input on what budget cuts should be made. As Faltys said at the meeting, the district wants to know what kind of cuts the “public can stomach.” The survey is available at www.southlakecarroll.edu/er.aspx and will be up until Nov. 12.
At the end of the public forum, State Representative Vicki Truitt – whose district office is in Southlake – spoke to the crowd. Truitt admitted the system is not perfect, but said that the state is facing an $18 billion budget shortfall. Truitt said she supports making changes to the way schools are financed and will do what she can to see that it happens.
The following are comments from the readers.
In no way do they represent the view of Starlocalnews.com
In no way do they represent the view of Starlocalnews.com
You must register with a valid email to post comments.
Only your Member ID will be posted with the comments.
Only your Member ID will be posted with the comments.
Registered users sign in here:
Become a Registered User
- Return to: News Update «
- Home «
- Top of Page ^
