Friday, August 29, 2008

$41 million budget approved for Lancaster ISD

By Bill Conrad of Lancaster TODAY

LANCASTER — The board of trustees of the Lancaster Independent School District approved a $41 million budget for the 2008-09 school year at its meeting Aug. 25.

The budget includes pay raises for all employees, but also features the elimination of 35 jobs and budget cuts in nearly every department.

“There is not much else that we can cut from this budget; this budget is lean and mean,” Superintendent Dr. Larry Lewis said.

To help pay for the budget, the board voted to raise the tax rate. The operating fund tax will be raised two cents, but the debt service rate is being decreased by 1.5 cents, so the net increase is a half cent. The tax rate is now set at $1.4127 per $100 of assessed home valuation. According to district budget analyst Ted Warren, the impact on a house in the district valued at $80,171 would be an increase of $4.01 a year.

The budget also included across-the-board pay raises. Classroom teachers will receive a 5 percent pay raise and the starting teacher salary will be $44,205. The pay increases add up to an additional $1 million in teacher salaries. All other district employees, with the exception of the superintendent, would receive a 4 percent increase in pay, totaling $600,000.

The budget also includes cutting 35 jobs, all of which were vacant in 2007-08. These jobs include 11 elementary teachers and 13 secondary teachers. The cuts will save the district more than $2.1 million.

The district paid $900,000 to Bank of America in 2007-08 for bridge loans taken out in August 2003 and May 2007. Lewis said these two loans are now paid off and that he doesn't foresee the district needing a bridge loan this year, or in the future.

“We are projected to get the funds that are in the budget,” Lewis said. “In fact, I think we were very conservative in the student numbers. I think those numbers are going to pan out.”

Lewis also said the district's new Public Education Information Management System coordinator, Tanya Boyd, will help prevent the coding errors that have cost the district funds in the past.

In the past, LISD has had a negative fund balance, but the approved budget includes a fund balance of $582,918.

The district didn't meet the TEA recommendation of 65 percent of funding going towards instruction. In the final budget, 58 percent of the funding went towards instruction. As a result, the board passed a resolution acknowledging the issue and the district will be required to post its check register online.

Lewis said that he felt some of the areas of the budget such as staff development should have been counted towards instruction, but under the current system they are not. He did say that he believes the system may be adjusted during the upcoming legislative term.

“Next year we will get closer to the 65 percent, but I am not sure that we will get there unless we get an influx of new students or an influx of cash,” Lewis said.

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• Lancaster ISD