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Fort Bend Independent School DistrictNEWS RELEASE |
** FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE **
FORT BEND ISD - The Fort Bend ISD Board of Trustees approved a $498,278,116 operating budget. The adopted budget projects deficit spending that will be funded from the district’s reserve accounts. Many school districts are experiencing budget deficits due to the failure of the Texas Legislature to provide inflationary increases to district revenues.
Given these challenges, the 2009-2010 budget is fiscally conservative and addresses District Strategic Plan priorities. The budget includes an increase in the spending per pupil, a continued low administrative cost ratio, and additional staffing for opening a new campus –
Included in the budget is a teaching staff state raise of $940 plus a step increase, which is an average salary increase of 2.7 percent. The non-teaching staff pay increase approved by the Board will be approximately 2 percent, and no increases for employee contributions were made for the district’s self-funded Health Insurance Plan. First-year teachers in Fort Bend ISD will start at $44,500.
The budget is designed to provide educational services for a projected 68,999 students. Overall, the district spends 66.76% of its budget on classroom instruction. The expenditure budget per student increased to $7,222 as compared with last year’s budget of $6,875, with a net increase of $347 per student.
The district is receiving approximately $19.8 million in stimulus funds to offset the state’s share of school finance which was used in part to finance the additional $120 per student which Fort Bend ISD received as a result of House Bill 3646. It is important to note, that after implementing the state’s mandated salary increase, the district gained less than two million dollars, or 0.4 percent of the current operating budget, in new discretionary revenue.
The Board and administration are committed to redirecting costs to balance the budget, while encouraging state legislators to provide financial relief for schools. Campuses and departments are being asked to decrease budgets even more. The district is also reviewing all staffing allocations for possible savings through reallocation and attrition, identifying and using energy conservation measures, critically reviewing all travel requests, delaying some new initiatives, and reviewing costs for catering and snacks for meetings.
The entire 2009-2010 approved budget will be available on the Budget and Finance link in the “Departments” listing on the district website beginning Friday, August 28.
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