BRENHAM ISD RECEIVES $555,940 FOR HURRICANE HARVEY REIMBURSEMENT
Brenham ISD has received over half a million dollars in Hurricane Harvey funds.
During the school board’s meeting Monday, Business and Finance Director Kim Weatherby announced that on August 27th, the district received $555,940.
The extra funds came from the passing of Senate Bill 500 in the 85th Legislative Session, which appropriated monies to school districts who experienced a drop in property values due to Hurricane Harvey.
Weatherby said Brenham ISD was not terribly affected by the hurricane, but noted that there are school districts that received much more funding that Brenham did. She said some of the bigger districts that were more affected received millions of dollars, but that Brenham is happy with the extra funds.
Weatherby said this new funding will likely be used for one-time purchases, and added that she wants input from the board on what to do with the funds in the 2019-20 school year. A workshop to discuss the uses for the funds is currently scheduled for November 4th.
Weatherby went over some of the potential uses for the funds, including a master facility plan, a roof for the technology and tax office, improvements at individual campuses, curriculum and instructional needs, and extracurricular needs. She said the district will explore all options and try to make a good plan on how to use these new resources.
Weatherby also announced that this year, the Brenham ISD Education Foundation will present $77,656 in mini-grants for instructional needs for campuses, grade levels, and teachers across the district. Weatherby said the Foundation, celebrating its 15th anniversary, will distribute the next round of grants on Thursday and Friday.
Also at Monday’s meeting, the board heard an update on the Target Improvement Plan for Alton Elementary, Brenham Elementary, and Brenham High Schools. The principals for each of the schools discussed their plans for targeted improvement, including a focus on data-driven instruction, creating a safe environment and positive culture for students, and developing campus instructional leaders with clear roles.
Help me please, the drop in my property values has been lost!
Are you kidding me, a drop in property values, mine went UP! How about finding ways to cut our taxes instead of ways to spend the money. This attitude is very typical of our current school leadership, they are always much more interested in spending money than on saving money. I am not sure what it is going to take for our elected school board officials to realize our administration is completely out of touch with the community with regard to just about everything.
The property taxes in our state go up every year, with the exception of Seniors. And when voters vote YES on proposition 4 in the upcoming election the are asking for property taxes to increase.
The Texas constitution already states that a personal income tax cannot be levied without the voters permission. Why then, is Proposition 4 on the November ballot? The exact wording of this proposition will now allow all corporate businesses with earnings over 1 million dollars per year to challenge the validity of state franchise tax. They will win and the franchise tax will be eliminated. This will result in a significant decrease in revenue, and cause more cuts in public school funding. Our property taxes will go up again because the state tells Mr. Dilworth how much to increase your property value each year. This is nothing more than a calculated plan to give corporate business a break, and slowly kill public school in favor of voucher or tax credit system. We need good public schools because poorly educated children become adults, and everyone suffers when ALL children do not function to their fullest potential.
Should spend it on the teachers and better healthcare insurance
I agree our property taxes never went down during “Hurricane Harvey” and all the monies received comes from the people who pay taxes. The teachers deserve a better raise and insurance. Maybe you should start looking on spending the money in that direction.
75% of the don’t deserve the salary that they make
I would like to know when our property taxes went down in the BISD school district? This is just not right! There is no such thing as receiving money from the government. The taxpayers are being robbed and the monies are being distributed fraudulently. All money comes from taxpayers, not the State Government or Federal Government. There is NO SUCH THING AS GOVERNMENT FUNDS.. ITS ALL TAXPAYER FUNDS. The BISD budget never went down $500k.. PURE TAXPAYER THEFT. Spend it as fast as you get it……..
Agreed