By Anton Riecher
Passage of House Bill 2, stalled in the Texas Legislature, could bring Devine ISD $1.5 million more in its next budget than current school funding legislation on the books, school district financial director Shannon Ramirez told the Devine school board Monday.
“People in my world are getting a little bit nervous because it’s not really moving,” Ramirez said.
Gov. Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 2 establishing a $1 billion private school voucher program Saturday.
HB2 represents a $7.7 billion investment in Texas public education. It increases the basic per student funding allotment from $6,160 to $6,555, provides raises for experienced teachers and overhauls special education funding for students with disabilities.
Ramirez told the board that HB2 represents significant changes to the school funding system including a 40 percent to 75 percent gain toward teacher salary increases. She encouraged supporters to get in touch with their state legislators to urge passage.
Presenting her report during the board’s second budget workshop in preparation for the next school year, Ramirez said there were no big surprises in the district’s complementary property values delivered last week.
Property values went up about $60 million, representing about $400,000 more in tax collection, she said. That amount should cover what is anticipated in raises under the new budget.
“It was pretty typical,” she said. “It was back to pre-COVID, pre-audit property values.”
Ramirez said that an anticipated drop in the interest and sinking account means the board should be able to reduce that tax rate “a penny or two,” now that the district is moving ahead with projects financed under the 2023 $11.255 million bond issue.
Following the meeting, Superintendent Todd Grandjean told the Devine News that the majority of school finance involves salaries.
“You never really have much control over it,” he said.
However, Devine ISD has been successful in managing its fund balance to the point that the board is considering capital improvements such as tennis court and softball field upgrades – “things we really need to catch up on,” Grandjean said.
“We’ve also been able to add money into bond projects that we didn’t have to include in the tax increase for the community,” he said. “So, in the end, much of this relies on what the state is about to do with House Bill 2. They can hurt us or they can help us. Right now we’re sort of in a holding pattern.”
Another capital outlay project that depends on the pending legislative action is $330,000 for buses. Over the last five years the district has funded bus purchases through grants from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality in a program designed to get older, less fuel efficient vehicles off the road.
Grandjean described the resulting price break as “buy two, get one free.”
“If the buses cost us $130,000, there was times we would get up to $80,000 applied to a new bus,” he said. “That was an amazing financial move that we were able to capitalize on. That won’t be in the budget forever.”
In other business, Keith McLemore, a compensation consultant with the Texas Association of School Boards, presented a salary survey review comparing Devine ISD to 14 other Region 20 school districts including Lytle, Natalia, Pearsall and Hondo.
The survey shows that while Devine ISD is very competitive in salaries for young teachers, the same cannot be said when it comes to older, more experienced educators, McLemore said.
“You have a comfortable lead at years zero through five,” he said. “You are right at market for years 10, but you start lagging at years 15 through 20.”
Many school districts prefer to “recruit strong early” to build their teaching ranks. However, McLemore recommended keeping salaries aligned with the market across all experience levels.
In action by the board, a resolution to cover salaries during the April 28 school closure due to a city water emergency passed 4-0.
“Hourly employees are the ones most affected because teachers are on a contract for 10 months,” Grandjean said.
The state does not require the district to add a school day to balance the schedule for the lost day, he said.
The board also voted 5-0 to accept booster club funding to cover a portion of purchasing a cooling station for athletic events. The station, costing more than $13,000, is required by the University Interscholastic League as a place where heat stressed athletes can rest and be evaluated before returning to the field.
Board members Keri James, Chris Davis, Henry Moreno and Nancy Pepper established the quorum for the meeting with Alixana Buvinghausen arriving after the emergency closure vote.
