Saturday, June 27, 2009

Dallas ISD trustees adopt $1.24 billion budget for 2009-10 school year

By Pegasus News wire

DALLAS — The Dallas Independent School District Board of Trustees has adopted a $1.24 billion general operating budget for the 2009-2010 school year.

The new budget includes funds set aside for raises for teachers, counselors, librarians, nurses and speech therapists, pending action from the Texas Education Agency and U.S. Department of Education.

The 2009-10 budget also includes $840,000 to cover health insurance cost increases in order to implement a new high deductible plan offered by the Teachers Retirement System, $1 million for continued development of the dashboard project -- which will assist principals in identifying student academic needs in real time -- and $173,000 for the special board election in November.

Taxpayers can expect no change to the district’s maintenance and operations tax rate, which will remain at $1.040050 for the third consecutive year. The debt service tax rate will increase to an estimated $0.21 as a result of the first payment on the recent $400 million bond sale as part of the 2008 bond program.

Texas House Bill 3646 mandated that monies provided to Dallas ISD by the legislature be directed to fund raises for teachers, counselors, librarians, nurses and speech therapists. Because of the uncertainty surrounding the state’s use of federal stabilization funds, however, the adoption of a new salary schedule has been delayed pending a ruling from the Texas Education Agency and the United States Department of Education.

Source: DISD

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