BURTON TRUSTEES PASS BUDGET, TAX RATE IN DIVIDED VOTE
The Burton school board adopted its budget and tax rate for the new school year at Wednesday’s emergency meeting.
After much discussion at Monday night’s meeting, concerning salary increases for teachers and staff, the board agreed upon a $1,200 increase for all district employees to help with insurance costs.
In addition to this, teachers will be eligible to receive up to a $1,000 raise, based on the state pay scale.
Superintendent Dr. Edna Kennedy stated that these budget discussions weren’t being fair to teachers on Monday, but now they were being unfair to other employees. She said “everybody works hard in this district to keep us successful.”
Board President Demetrius Colvin stressed the importance of equality, saying “if you can’t give a raise across the board, then don’t give anybody one.”
When Board Member Tracey Cox asked why payroll numbers appeared different from Monday's budget presentation, Dr. Kennedy responded that the teachers that weren’t receiving anything were now getting their step raise, in addition to the $1,200.
Cox believed that teacher payroll numbers should only have gone up an additional $27,000 with the new raises, instead of the $85,000 increase that was presented. Instruction expenditures totaled $2,776,932 in Monday's presentation, as opposed to $2,857,745 in Wednesday's. Colvin replied that the new numbers factored in each employee and teacher.
When put to a vote, the budget passed 3-2-1, with Board Members Linda Hasten and Felton Cox voting against the measure. Tracey Cox abstained, saying she needed additional information.
Total budget receipts, accounting for local and state revenues, equal $6,045,086, with total expenditures at $6,258,822. This leads to a deficit of $213,736, but Dr. Kennedy assured the board that it has a fund balance of $1.3 million to cover the deficit.
She also expects the district to receive more money from the Texas Education Association for student enrollment. In addition, she noted that no additional budget cuts had been made since discussion on Monday.
The board also motioned to approve the same tax rate as previously discussed, at $1.17 per $100. This includes $1.04 for maintenance and operations, and $0.13 for debt services. Dr. Kennedy says the district expects to receive $107,029 in additional tax revenue this year, due to higher property values. The tax vote passed 5-1, with Linda Hasten voting against.
After the meeting, Dr. Kennedy said the board will likely begin looking at next year’s budget as soon as possible, since the process takes several months to complete.