Board Meeting Recap
March Special Board Meeting
Summary
The Board of Trustees met on March 5 for a Special Board Meeting and Budget Workshop. Included below are the most notable information and action items.
As a show of appreciation for the Burnet CISD staff, the Administration recommended and the Board approved a resolution to pay all District staff not able to work on Monday, January 15 due to the weather closure. This means that Burnet CISD staff will not need to make up the bad weather closure day, and that May 10 will be a school holiday for most staff. The Facilities and Operation staff, originally scheduled to work on April 8, will now have that day off due to the challenges caused by the eclipse, and will instead work on May 10 allowing them to have access to the buildings while they are unoccupied.
In separate Business Items, the Board took action on HVAC related approvals. The Board approved the purchase of 6 HVAC units at Bertram Elementary. These units are being added to the scope of the 2021 HVAC Replacement Project. The Board also approved Filterbuy as the District's provider of HVAC filters. With this single preferred vendor, the District projects significant savings on the purchase of filters district-wide.
Assistant Superintendent of C&I, Dr. Rachel Jones, presented the proposed School Year Calendar for 2024-2025 and the process of its development. Next year’s calendar is similar to the current year with non-student days for staff learning and collaboration about every three weeks. However, in response to staff feedback, it also includes a brief Fall Break with a staff and student holiday on November 1st, and an additional non-student Flex Day on February 14th which allows campus staff to be off for a long weekend with training and professional development completed in advance. Staff members will receive communication about how Flex Hours will be earned in the summer and fall semester for the new Flex Day in February.
Chief Financial Officer, Clay Goehring and Director of Human Resources, Michele Gilmore presented to the Board about the District’s budget status for the current year as well as next year. Burnet CISD’s current year budget began with a $400,000 deficit. As a reminder, despite a record budget surplus, lawmakers in Austin failed to provide additional public school funding in the regular session and four special sessions. School districts have not received additional funding since 2019, while inflation has been at 17-20% annually.
It was shared with the Board that the budget was trending in a positive direction for 23-24 (deficit reduced to about $300,000) because of a slight increase in student attendance as well as an increase in students enrolled in special programs which generate additional funding for the District.
Unfortunately, this positive trend has been offset by an unexpected decrease in revenue. The decrease is related to the Property Tax Relief bill passed by the Legislature after their special sessions last summer and into the fall. All tax relief to taxpayers was promised by the State to not result in a loss of revenue to school districts. Per the law, the State was supposed to provide additional revenue to each district, as stated in the law, to “hold them harmless”. Current projections indicate the State will not be holding Burnet CISD completely harmless. At this time, the District projects a $600,000 shortage in revenue due to the tax cuts. That increases the deficit for the District to ($900,000) for the current 23-24 school year and creates a ($900,000) deficit starting point for next year’s 24-25 budget. The District is appealing the mechanisms that were used to calculate the hold harmless amount. The District has learned that Marble Falls ISD as well as over 100 additional Districts are currently filing a similar appeal.
The District will continue the budget process through the spring and into the summer. The next budget workshop is scheduled for early June. Staff salary and benefits will be a primary topic of discussion between now and June. Burnet CISD stays committed to maximizing pay raises for staff despite the current deficit. Budget discussions are currently based on a 2% pay raise for all staff at a cost of $800,000. We will continue to keep you informed as we learn of any new information and make any decisions.
The meeting adjourned at 8:04 p.m. The next Board of Trustees Regular Meeting is scheduled for March 25 at 6:00 p.m.