During its Tuesday meeting, the Fort Bend ISD Board of Trustees approved a $498,278,116 operating budget for 2009-`10.
The adopted budget includes projected deficit spending that will be funded from the district’s reserve accounts.
District officials pointed out many school districts are experiencing similar budget deficits due because the Texas Legislature failed to provide inflationary increases to district revenues.
Despite the financial challenges, the district said its 2009-`10 budget is fiscally conservative while still addressing District Strategic Plan priorities. The budget includes an increase in spending per pupil and additional staffing for opening a new campus – Juan Seguin Elementary School.
Also included in the budget is a teaching staff state raise of $940 plus a step increase, which is an average salary increase of 2.7 percent.
Non-teaching staff will see an approximate two percent pay raise, with no increases for employee contributions were made to the district’s self-funded health insurance plan.
First-year teachers in Fort Bend ISD will start at $44,500.
The budget is designed to provide educational services for a projected enrollment of 68,999 students. Overall, the district spends 66.76 percent of its budget on classroom instruction.
The expenditure budget per student increased to $7,222, as compared with last year’s budget of $6,875, a net increase of $347 per student.
The district is receiving approximately $19.8 million in stimulus funds to offset the state’s share of school finance. That funding is being used, in part, to finance the additional $120 per student Fort Bend ISD received as a result of House Bill 3646.
District officials stressed that, after implementing the state’s mandated salary increase, the district gained less than two million dollars, or 0.4 percent of the current operating budget, in new discretionary revenue.
Trustees said both the board and district administration are committed to redirecting costs to balance the budget while also encouraging state legislators to provide financial relief for schools.
Campuses and departments are being asked to decrease budgets even more.
The district is also reviewing all staffing allocations for possible savings through reallocation and attrition, identifying and using energy conservation measures, critically reviewing all travel requests, delaying some new initiatives and reviewing costs for catering and snacks for meetings.
You’re wasting your time, I didn’t click on any of them.
Awww
They are not “my” sites sweetheart, They’re “our” sites. They have real information devoid of the insurance industry influence. Enjoy.
Are you done spamming your little sites now?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_MvNF2GUE0&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fvideo%2Egoogle%2Ecom%2Fvideosearch%3Fq%3Dpete%2Bolson%2Btownhall%2Bjoshua%26hl%3Den%26emb%3D0%26aq%3Df&feature=player_embedded#t=29
Pete Olsen being an idiot in the above video. Apparently he has no awareness of the issue whatsoever. Scary for us. And who is that woman on the front row whose facial gestures demonstrate her insistance on protecting her ignorance and ours?
http://www.pnhp.org/
http://www.consideringdemocracy.com/
The United States is the ONLY country in the developed world (except for communist China)who does NOT have a universal health care system. Our infant mortality is higher than most, and our life span is shorter than most of these as well.
How about that, consensus. Now if we could just get the board to do their job and balance the budget for just once over the last 3 years and get Timmy to live up to his promises when he came to the district 3 years ago regarding fiscally responsible behavior, less spending and improved academics.
How about the one that’s trying to force a trillion $$ Robin Hood Healthcare plan down everyone’s throats… but I wouldn’t
mind wiping the slate clean.
Do you mean the one that did the banks (R), or the one that did the autos (D). I guess according to bite we are to choose the lesser of both takers? How about we reject all of the above and wipe the slate clean of the corporate welfare monopolist and the governmental monopolist? I’m with the rest of you, fire them all!
Oh one party in particular is doing a great job of nationalizing. Can you guess which one it is?
Looks like you all got a party operative trapped in here. I think we need to stand and applaud both parties for nationalizing so many industries and working to include more. Certainly neither one is doing anything to protect and defend the constitution.
Likewise.
When we get tangled up in “parties” and “names” we fail to be able to see the issues. I hope that others will recognize this and remove the blinders of their party affiliations and look at the serious issues that we are faced with locally and beyond. These issues need our attention ASAP, if we are to make our way back up the river that our corporately-owned elected officials have sold us down.
Take off the blinders of your party.
Independent=moderate liberal. You aren’t fooling anyone.
BTW, isn’t this entire borrow, tax and spend board “republican”. The best reason for becoming independent I’ve ever seen.
Thanks for sharing those Joe. I’m tired of seeing this superintendent rewarded for not doing his job. Two major deficits in a row and to tax increases…..not a job well done!
How often have we heard the superintendents screaming for pay for performance. I guess that just doesn’t apply to them.
Wow, if we’re paying them so much then why is the district doing so poorly and why should we pay them all these bonuses too?
I read somewhere we have almost 1.4 billion in bond debt on top of the 18 or so million budget deficit.
Is this good fiscal management of our taxes? Why don’t they reduce his salary and benefits until these issues are dealt with?
They don’t reward the teachers for this type of performance.
It is painful to watch the superintendent and the ISD Board support a business system that feeds off of the real education that should take place with teachers and students in the classroom. In addition, it seems that the state is also involved in attacking the efforts of real educators and our students’ ability to be presented with an honest and basic social studies curriculum. http://www.tfn.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=5778
http://howardzinn.org/default/
Yes b_tabor, and these new generation superintendent ceos also get a very extensive bonus package often including liberal monthly travel expenses, housing reimbursements, communications allowences very large contribution to their 403(b) plan and some excellent life insurance contributions too. Quite a bit larger than those $10 incremental health benefits they were trying to cut from the teachers and other employees recently. I’m sure the assoc. supts they brought in also had similar perks. Too bad some seem to miss the point entirely and continue defending the excessive wasteful spending as is their MO and also continue to horn in on discussion when few actually are talking to them.
Good questions though b!
I thought the Guv and VP got residences and other perks such as an airplane paid for by taxpayers.
The Guv and the VP are given residences and other perks paid for by taxpayers. but why let facts get in the way of your strawman argument?
If you say its not a strawman argument are you saying you’re deliberating mis
Isn’t that more than the governor and vice president?
Isn’t that more than the governor makes and the vice president?
In the last district we lived in the superintendent made about 150 or so. That’s too much, especially if he isn’t doing his job.
He makes between 260 and 270K a year now. He’s given himself, with board approval, 2 raises and several bonuses. All this while running concurrent record budget deficits.
How much is the board paying the superintendent?
How much are they paying the superintendent?
It’s hard to believe that anything as simple as the 3 Rs could be that expensive.
Nothing like a half billion dollar budget…..
I forgot to add….how about they get their priorities straight for a change…
“delaying some new initiatives and reviewing costs for catering and snacks for meetings.”
We must stop the “wine and cheese” dinners for the BOT, that will surely balance the near 20 million dollar budget deficit and record bond debt that now has us in the top ten list (not good news).
How about we stop creating new senior level management positions for administrators that use the district resources to fix their personal vehicles and then promoted to supervise the bonds??? How about we stop giving raises to the superintendent that are 50k higher than the previous supt??? How about we stop preparing two sets of budget reports for the public and a different set for the “insiders”???
How about we stop feeding the vendors for a change and feed our children. One thing I noticed at this session was the fact that the BOT kept blaming everyone else for their gross mismanagement. Record and first district deficit last year and now another record deficit just 2 months after they voted to feed several district vendors a 30-40 million dollar duplicate building project???
If it wasn’t true it would almost make a great cartoon, but it is our dollars and our children they are messing with! Get involved. This was the first time in the last 2 years this board has not voted lock-step, but they did vote to increase the tax rate for the second year in a row and will do it again next.
How about going through the budget they didn’t give the public at the last meeting and reviewing non-personnel items line by line and how about NOT pushing another marketing effort to pass more RECORD bond debt???
Although I am a strong advocate for turning off lights when not in use, as well as cutting back on the cookies, it is not fair to call these measures serious when we still have a 40 MILLION DOLLAR GLOBAL SCIENCE CENTER on the table(not including exhibits, maintenance, staffing and transportation). Where are the FBISD records that the Texas Attorney General said “must be released?” Let’s talk about transparency before we try to tell voters and taxpayers that we are saving money on cookies!!!