0015:00 p. p.m. Tuesday, May 27th. The board of trustees of the port school district announced notice of this meeting was posted in compliance to the uh Texas Open Meetings Act at 5:00 p.m. Friday. The subjects to be discussed or considered upon which formal action may be taken have been listed. Let the record show a quorum is present. At this time, we'll stand up for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. The Texas flag. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible. Now our invocation of Miss Thompson. Me again. I didn't realize. It's okay. It's okay. No, it's okay.
002God is good. I got it. Yeah. Lord, we come to you with grateful hearts as we gather today to discuss the future of our district. Please help us all come up with great ideas and um look at look with discernment as we plan for the future of our district. Thank you for our teachers, our students, and our wonderful community that continues to bless all of us. It's in your name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. All right. The board will now hear those who wish to make comments as a completed return of the public comment participation request for section conducted accordance open meetings act and board policy complaints and concerns for which other resolution channels are provided shall be directed to us channels I check but we don't have any registered speakers. So we will move
003on to uh item four action discussion items approve the purchase of contract contracted services to expand the ECC program at Heritage Elementary. Yes. Uh thank you guys. So you guys know that the enrollment is we're planning to increase the number of uh the capacity at the ECC uh for next school year and so currently there are about 90 um young people there and we're looking to expand that by about 60 to get closer to 150. Uh so that's going to require some construction to u prepare for those students or for those young people. They're not technically students yet but they're still ours. Um, so we've we've got some plans. We've put some bids out. Uh, we've got an amount not to exceed 175, I think, is what you guys have on there. It's it's actually
004going to come in way lower than that. Um, so we're looking at um asking for your approval so that we can begin construction on that. Um, I know Blake uh Warren, our um department director for maintenance has been uh working with scheduling the timeline. And you know, we've got to get that finalized by August 1st is our target date. So, if uh once it's approved, we're going to get uh going on finalizing the quote and we'll get demo and any work that needs to happen here quickly. But we do have a trusted contractor that we worked with in the past where we're looking at that's going to um be the the one that's approved. So, okay. Fourth questions. I have a question. Yes. Are we at the point where we are breaking even um financially
005wise with the ECC? I know it's a matter of, you know, it's a value added thing for our staff that we're not really in it to make money, but I was just curious if we had our first year that we uh put money into the bank. Yeah, we had we received a grant a couple of years ago that has helped us float along. Yes. Um, but then we uh hired a a fantastic person who is like an assistant director along with Kelly Rice who was our director who and she still is our director. Um, but they have really worked closely together to help the parents and we we put in Proare is our system where they can make payments online. So all the payments are are now being made through that, not through payroll deduction,
006not through cash, not through checks. So, um, that really helped amplify, uh, our our revenue and also being more we changed kind of how we were handling the food situation there, like you know, providing meals. So, we just kind of took a hard look at it and then figured out, okay, what can we do to make this a better program and last year was the first year we put money into it. So, with with this expansion, I think it's a new um a toddler room, a three-year-old room, and a new infant room. Um, and so and the toddler room is really cool. toilet training room. I wish that was around when my kids were here, but um anyway, so but yes, we're we're looking we're feeling really good about the direction that program. And do
007we feel like um that we need that capacity or we we're having we have over 60 60 to 80 at a time on our waiting list to get in. We give priority to teachers, children. Um and that's that's a majority that is on on that list. So that will help, you know, as the kids move up and then we can um open up more opportunities for our staff. Okay. And their children. Awesome. Stacey, what do you think was like cooping our investment on 75 with the project within a year? Totally. Oh yeah, then a year. Because the the three classes that are getting added are the most you know, if you've ever had children in daycare, those are the most expensive classes. the infants and the two are the most expensive and we offer a
008better service and a better program than what you could get outside of the school district too. So that's why you guys align they love it. They they love the program. I mean we have been there a couple of times to to kind of scout out the rooms and try to figure out where where the expansion could happen, what could we do. Um, and because the the bilingual program is moving from Heritage to uh, Razudo, it opened up the capacity for us to be able to do that and keep it all in the same area because you don't want you don't want part of ECC to be you want it to be its own entrance. You want us to all of that. So, um, but yeah, the the parents they were talking us into, well, they
009thought we had a kid. This is a great place. And we're like, I'm not married. Um, I was there last week for the senior walk and yeah, the EC it is booming. That whole end of the hallway once you get past second grade hall is babies. I mean, they're all there and they're just goog- eyed. They love it. Is really really cool to see. I can actually speak on I had uh my child transitioned from daycare to BCC during CO cuz our daycare didn't reopen. um and uh it was a huge blessing for us. I don't I like shopped around other areas and um decided on ECC and it was a blessing during the school year because uh immediately she had a medical emergency and because there is a nurse on staff um during the
010school year and because they do like we had immediate response and daycarees don't have that. Um so it was just like such a blessing but the staff there is so awesome. Um they and and several of them transitioned from the previous daycare that we were at. So I know a lot about I love know their how loving they are but also how much they work with the children on learning all the different um skills and stuff. So it was it was really a blessing for us um and I know it would be a blessing to a lot of other parents. Yeah. in the district employees are re benefiting from what is the what kind of discount do the employees get and also too like I know it's not really up the topic tonight but how
011many like how many teachers or staff members we have sending their kids well let me let me gather that and we'll send that to you tomorrow we'll send it to everybody tomorrow because I don't have that off the top of my head I believe it's a 10% discount okay and Dr. church is is shaking her head. But yeah, we'll we'll be able to tell you that employees, but I don't have an exact number. And any percentage discount is a good discount, especially at that level cuz you you don't get your pay raise until they get out of that raises. Yeah. Well, in addition to all of this, let me just say strategically, when we have those kids at 0 to 6 months and 6 months to 2 years and 2 years to four years, we
012got a better shot of holding on to them when they're already here. And those parents develop relationships with the schools, with the community, with all of us, whether they're a teacher's child or not, we got a better shot of really developing that. And so, I think this district has benefited greatly from having that. I've been impressed since the day I walked into this district, but it's only gotten better and better and so I'm just glad to see it flourishing. Literacy. Yes, absolutely. Any questions for program flourishing? I seek a motion. So moved. Second. Second. We need to call for the vote. I unanimous. Thank you. Thank you board. We'll now move on to uh the meat and potatoes of tonight's meeting. Item five, our budget workshop. All right. So, we do know a little bit
013more than we did before we called this and a little more optimistic about what's happening too, right? Good. Um, so we, as Stacey is on our way up, I just want to say to the board again tonight as we review the specifics of developing uh, our budget for the upcoming school year, uh, we want to certainly take a moment to remind our board and our entire team and those listening of the significance of this work. And you know that because you've been engulfed in it, uh, for some time. The general budget is the single most important document guiding the growth and operation of our school district. And it's more than numbers. is our governing document that reflects our values, our priorities, and the needs of our students and staff and community. This board has consistently
014demonstrated a deep understanding of and sensitivity to the needs of Leaport ISD and uh we're certainly confident that tonight will be no different. I believe strongly that we will leave this meeting with a clearer, even more clearer direction. uh one that advances our mission and our vision and continues to move Leaport ISD forward in every aspect from safety and security to teacher and staff compensation and beyond. That's what this board does very very very well and I want to say before we even get started uh publicly applaud you and thank you for that. Uh, thank you to the board for your continued support, engagement, and commitment to this process. And we also are very thankful to our chief financial officer and her staff for all of the pre-work that she's already done to help guide
015us through this conversation. All right, good evening. So, in front of you, you'll have the handout that we're going to go through and then also you have the handout from our compensation plan work uh workshop that we had in April just for reference so in case you had any questions. So, we're gonna see if this this flicker works. This is um Okay. Oh, I go down. Okay. So, I'm gonna stand see it. I'm sorry. Move up just a tiny bit so I can see that. Thank you, sir. So, our discussion items that we're going to talk about tonight are our fiscal year 25 general fund estimated fund balance. We discussed that at our our June, I'm sorry, our May board meeting, but I wanted to give that information to you again. Um, our fiscal year
01626 tax rate and budget, fiscal year 26 salary and stipens, things to consider and next steps, and then any questions. But of course, throughout the presentation, if you have questions, please let me know. So these are the two decisions that uh at the end of this workshop that these are the two things that I need direction on so that I can build our budget for our June 10th uh adoption. So the M tax rate to use for fiscal year 26 and then also what type of raise increase uh would y'all like me to build into the budget for salary and for sniping. Okay. So this is a this is our fisc year 25 estimated budget. It's in the millions. This is I again, this should look familiar. We discussed this at our May board meeting,
017but um again, I wanted to have it in here. So, right now, as we stand, we think that our estimated uh change in fund balance is going from a negative $14 million deficit to a $7 million deficit. So, that's great news. Um, and it's it's mainly due to our property tax increase uh from $1 billion from last April to what we finally got um finalized in July. So, we expect to end fiscal year 26, sorry, 25 uh with a $54 million fund balance and 150 days of the fund balance is 51 million. Again, another familiar slide, but just just as a reminder, building our M tax rate, which is our maintenance and operating tax rate, which is what we use to pay all of our bills, pay our employees, pay everything. Um, that is not
018bond related, is uh it's built on our uh m our maximum compressed rate. So, that is something that TEA gives to us. Mhm. They it changes every year. So, the amount that you have right here is uh 6323. That's that's what we that's what the estimate is of what it's going to be for fiscal year 26. So I'm building what our tax rate might be. Again, all that that number is an estimate and that's really the starting building block. So then you go down and you have um 4 cents plus another cent. You have 5 cents that uh we get to keep all of the tax revenue from that and then three cents that uh we can either use for evader or disaster rate. Those eight pennies right there, we don't pay any recapture back
019to our to the state. And then there's an additional nine pennies that is called the tier 2 copper pennies and that is part of the recapture and you can either have that for through evader or through um a disaster rate. So there's 12 pennies total that we can we have uh the ability to increase our ammo tax rate to pay for uh all of the maintenance operations of our district. So that would give an amino tax rate of 0823. I'm sorry, Stace. So the 0823 that is including the 12 cents. It is okay. 8023. Yes, ma'am. Yes, that includes the 12 cents. Okay. Okay. So this is again current law because as we know the 89th legislative session is still underway and for another week and then it ends. Um, so we don't, as of
020right now, nothing has been signed into law that would impact what our our budget would be and we'll talk about potential changes uh in in a couple more slides, but just right now current law, this is what the estimate would be. And again, a point out, as you can see, under the uh payroll expenses, it says no raise. So I'm I'm building this as everything is status quo. our expenses of this year are the same as next year because right now y'all haven't told me what the raise is, right? So, I'm building it just that. So, if we use no disaster rate, so that means that we would lose the three pennies that we used as a disaster rate this year. Um, our total revenue would be 115 million. Uh, payroll expenses, non-payroll expenses, and
021recapture would total up to $127 million. So, that would give us we would adopt a $12 million deficit. You know, if that if we estimated that we're going to end at 54, that means that at the end of next year, we would have a $42 million um deficit coming bond fund. Yes. A bond fund. Yes, sir. So, if we adopted a a 12cent de disaster rate, which due to hurricane burrow, we we have that option. Our revenue increases greatly from 115 to 133. Um, again, your payroll and non-p peril expenses are I'm keeping the same, but your recapture also increases by that same difference almost. So, about $10 million. Um, so our total expenses increase about $10 million, but our change in fund balance means since we get to keep so much more revenue, even
022though we're our recapture payments also going up, it actually is just a $4 million deficit. So when you do the math, a disaster rate is going to net the district $8 million this year. Okay. So that gives us a $4 million deficit, which means we would end next year at $50 million fund balance. Yes, sir. I'm guessing probably tonight we're talking a lot about like if this, if that, or disaster rate. Can we touch like I know we we've had discussions and different meetings about the disaster rate and so it seems like I'll speak for everybody on board that I think we're in favor of full utilizing the full disaster rate. be saying this to me as soon as that's the case. We want to hear that tonight. Y we don't get to vote on
023it tonight. We vote on it in September, but we we need to have that direction tonight. We have like the rest of the meeting in my brain. We know just assume so we don't have to rego. So we can't vote but we can't have consensus. Yeah. Because you have to give us direction to go build a budget with I believe our general consens 12. I do too. Okay. Perfect. So let me show you what that what happens. Sure. So, so this is what the tax impact is to homeowners. Um, and do you mind if I get close to Okay. So, um, this I just want to show youall what the tax impact would be to a tax to your homeowners using the disaster. Okay. So, right now in 2025, this is where we are. I
024did I used a house that has a property tax appraisal value of $300,000. Okay. So our our total tax rate is 9739. The difference from last year, you know, we have the same tax rate as we did last year. So our property valuation is 300,000. The port graciously gives every single homeowner an additional an optional tax exemption 20%. I don't know that people understand, right? So that's something that is something we should really proud of because not every district does that, right? We a homeowner automatically whatever their property evaluation is 20% of that is they're not paying taxes whether you have a homestead exemption or not right. So you could have a million dollar home and you're not going to have 20% of that. You don't have to pay taxes because the district says thank
025you for being in our community. Okay. And we have our home our home city that everybody you know has to apply for. Right now remember it's 100,000. It was 60 and we went up to 40 two years ago. So right now it's 100,000. So if you take your 300 minus our our 60,000 that we're giving this homeus 100 their net taxable value is $120,000 $300,000 home. So they're they pay $1,300 on taxes to the district. Okay, that's the same thing they did last year. So the next one over here is walking down the same thing. So that's in 2026 with the disaster rate. Um so our total tax rate would go up to 1.064. So it's a 9 cent increase. It's not 12 cent increase. It's a 9 mcr down, right? So that means it's
026less, you know, that 12 cents doesn't hit as hard, right? Right. Okay. Um, so again, kind of doing the math all the way down, it would give usund their taxes would go up by $186 for the year, not per month, for the year. So that's like $10, right? So then we have this one. This is really good news for for homeowners and also really great news for um our district because this is Senate Bill 4. So that's raising our homestead from 100,000 to 140 40,000. Uh and for districts you're kept on home harmless. So what that means is remember our that the cuffs that I showed you where you have to pay it's not from tax revenue it's from the state. Total harmless means you still get a whole amount in there. So your tax
027rate goes down goes up. So this if it raises from 100 to 140, it's not going to impact us greatly. I mean it's we're still going to get the money. We're just going to get the state. So um a $300,000 house minus the 60 optional homestead minus 140 gives you $100,000. That that house will be paying $1,000. That's $300 less with the increased tax rate. They're going to be paying $300 less than they did this year. That's awesome. It is. So, that's a great thing. And this uh Senate Bill 4 is is right in the next the chamber. Next thing is to go to the So, we're going to the end right now, you know. So, that's a great thing for district homeowners forever. Yeah. Awesome. in our discussion about taxes. Obviously, it's sensitive to
028all and a lot of it is um there's a lot of conjecture clearly, but what people in our community need to know of that $15 billion in, you know, uh taxation, most of it is industry. Yes. So, we have to set these numbers right to to to address the $15 billion industry to get those revenues. All of this right here doesn't happen to correct. They pay their apprais but they don't get these but yes they are what is the lineion dollar that we're having that they're the line and I only say that because obviously people will listen to it but also we trying to educate everybody that hey this is kind of how it works. Same thing with with the bonds and stadium stuff. It's 10 cents on the dollar for rooftops compared to industry
029footing the majority of the bill and for everybody that complains about traffic and warehouses and all that stuff. If we're getting money for it, so at least we're getting money for it. I mean, if we're not going to change it, it is what it is. So, we are getting the benefit of those in this in this way. And I think we need to do a better job of kind of educating educating people so they know because I really think if they looked at it through that lens, it's going to change the conversation entirely. It really does because it makes more sense when you look at this way. I think a $300 property value uh is fair. That's pretty average around here for most a lot of people. And if you're obviously your home is valued
030less than that and obviously the the tax bill also is less correct, you know. So, I don't know. I appreciate that. That's a great illustration, Jeff. I think that was a great point. I'm glad you mentioned that. If we can assume that we're taking it, our discussions the rest of the day. Also, I'm the slot. I'm going assume that there, you know, we can get that full the rate, but also we assume they're going to have a bit of a savings on it, right? Like we're making our decision tonight or whatever. We're assuming that the state's going to give us some free and so we need this money. We're assuming that we're going to have a deficit budget this year, so we need to take full advantage of that. Yes, I and everything you just
031said, I completely agree with and that's exactly what I needed to know so I can move forward that y'all just answered question one for me. So, thank you very much. Uh, okay. Well, great. Now we're on to question number two. Perfect timing. Um, the next part that we're going to talk about is salary and uh raise increases if salaries and siphons. So again, this is a uh I just want to again provide this for you. This is our historical raise amounts uh that the district has given and from our compensation plan workshop, we took what you had asked for and we'll we'll talk about that in the next couple slides. But first off, let's talk about our starting teacher salary because that was one of the concerns and and that was brought up in our
032conversation. Um, you know, we moved from 60,000 as a starting teacher to 61 last year. We created a teacher uh pay scale uh schedule that's now published and it's available for everybody speaking to and as you can see on the on the right side of the screen, you know, we're one of the lowest ones. We do know that um our neighbor is is increasing theirs to 63. So um we believe that we believe that we've I've been told that. So um my recommendation and Dr. Jackson and I's recommendation also to as a starting teacher salary um to keep us competitive with other districts. And what that would look like is it's a starting teacher salary with 63 with $400 step every every year. So you can see move up $400 each time. That's very normal,
033right? And it keeps a it keeps a secondyear teacher from making the same amount as a first year teacher. And that has happened in districts before when you don't have a step in there. Yeah. Um so that's something that we would like y'all to consider and think about is is making that um that jump up because as as you saw here we do we give wonderful you know the culture the district you know employee uh distribution for for our insurance is the highest in the area. So we do a lot of different things but as you can see we are but you still want your teachers to be able to see that. One of the things that I want to call to the board's attention is we don't compete directly with all of those districts
034up there, but the one that the ones that we are closely competing with. We're trying to to stay as neck andneck as we possibly can. So, we took the ones that we are closest to to do that and closest in channel view is not really our competition is what I'm trying to say. Geographically, these are close, but obviously in enrollment and size of our we're the smallest by a lot. I leave here and go to channel. Mhm. I I I love the idea of stepping it up, you know, like keep up with that every year. Problem is we have the same argument again next year if that Brussels company wants to go from 63 65 then what are we going to do then, right? Like why don't we do a step this year if because
035it's continually the same problem. They're going to continue because it's their part. They want to help us and everything. You know what I'm saying? like, you know, if we go forward next year, they're going to be like, well, this could be 66 78 70. Like, how do we compete against that? But they're playing it close. And when I say they, I'm talking about all of our competitors. They're playing it close to the vest as well because no one really has this coffer of money to just play with. So, everybody's just being as careful. I I hear what you're saying, but we're all playing it very close to the line because we just don't know. Now, we know what's going to happen. Should this uh House Bill 2 pass, we'll have that for the bienium, which
036is 2 years. But there are some things that are still unknown, and it's up to the board. It's your pleasure if you want us to do that. That was just our conservative recommendation. So, if we if we did go somewhere, just playing the game, if we went to $65,000 as a starting teacher salary, I I know I'm just making them 64. Sorry, 64. If we went to 64, how do we make sure that the teachers going into the second year aren't making less? That's exactly which is why we have that step, right? It is well, it is a step, but also you've got your teachers this year is 61. So next year they need to make if we're raising it up to 63, they need to make 634. Get it right to be ahead of
037every right to be $400 more than they're all getting. So it does it's a trickle down. You're correct. It's a trickle down effect um through that. And so it's it's through, you know, calculations that George and I go through and and make sure okay, who is an outlier? What do we need to do? And we'll address that in the next slide if I don't mind if I move on. Go ahead. Go ahead. Okay. Um we talked about this. This is what it would look like. So here's salary increases. Again, we're talking current law only. Um and I'm only I'm also talking current law, meaning we don't know any of the house bill stuff. None of that has been signed into law. Um, and then I'm only talking about general fund right now because general fund
038is what y'all have to adopt. Of course, we do have other employees that are paid out there. They would still get whatever raise y'all tell us, but I'm just giving you the numbers. So, a 1% raise um a raise increase by 1% 555. That's $550,000. Oh, somebody's telling me that they can't hear you. Oh, I'm sorry. That's okay. Okay. Well, I'm I'm being I'm good. Am I Am I okay? I apologize. Um I'm a mover and a pointer and I'm sorry. Okay. So, um I gave you four different options up here. So, 3% raise for all employees. Looks like you're about to perform a concert. I feel like it, right? Um is $1.65 million. And then we go to option two is a 4% that would cost 2.2 million that see right here will bring
039teachers align to that pay scale. So for a teacher like what we just talked about starting teacher this year was 61 million sorry 61,0001 I know for them to be man the door now everybody wants to work on the for first year teacher this year 61,000 it would they would need to be 634 next year to get them to 634 that's a 4% increase so a 4% raise would do that for all the teachers going forward on for the whole scale. For the whole scale all the way down once you do one it yes okay a 5% is 2.75 and then um Miss Johnson had asked for the breakout of if we did as we had done I believe it was in 20 2021 um 5% for teachers 4% classroom pairs and 3% for every
040other employee that cost 2.5 so that's that's kind of where the breakout Again, this is um current law. This is current law. So, to that point, if we were to to do this, let's just say we did the 5% raise, all employees across the board, 2.75, and House Bill 2 passes, goes through, governor signs, it goes in a law, and if you were to take those monies, it actually equated to a sixpoint raise. What would we do? We we amend it. We amend it the 1%. Yes. Okay. To bring it to Right. So, let me just let me kind of say it back to you in this way. Okay. So, if I'm uh And you know what? I'm going to hold that because I'm going to talk about it in just a minute. Y'all y'all
041know exactly what I'm about to present. Um Okay. So, here's House Bill Two. Okay. So, House Bill Two, what we learned this past week. So, I I appreciate y'all allowing us to give another week to let the legislature kind of come up do what they do. do what they do and and kind of come to some kind of consensus. When when we met and talked um I believe I I can't remember if it was in the compensation plan meeting or maybe the past meeting in in May, we we talked about um it it was in the compensation meeting. We talked about what House Bill 2 said and at that time what it said was that whatever you gain you have to get 40% and then 75%. It went to teachers, nurses, counselors, librarians. All of
042that is thrown away cuz they sent that to the Senate and the Senate said no, right? Um which for districts it really is this is more beneficial. This this actually helps us do this. Um and it makes it the it more impactful to teachers across the board. Uh so what this says is House Bill 2 for the next two years the state will provide an aotment um to districts to pay for the salary increase for teachers and this is for a district our size 5,01 students or more. So teachers with three or four years of experience would get $2,500 this year and they get $2,500 next year automatic. That's their rate already built into it. teachers with 5 years of experience would get 5,000 this year and 5,000 next year. So what that for us
043for this year it's 48 teachers with 3 to four years experience and then u five and over is 383 teachers which when I look at that I think look at the longevity that we have I think that's impressive. Um and then again with the cost so total a lotment that the state would give us is $2 million cuz they're paying for this raise for the next two years. What was that? Yeah. So here we've been having that conversation for a week now, right? And that's I'm telling y'all y'all I feel like I feel like Dr. Jackson sent my presentation. You're asking all the right questions saying the same things. Yes. We don't know. Um because if you're not careful, this could bloat your budget and you know absolutely because if you have to do that
044and we do when they got when they pull out though. So you don't do the percent if you do that right for teachers only. They get this. Okay. the percent raise is for everyone else. Right. Right. That's the This would take the place of the percent that would take the place. So to Mr. Hank's point, let's say I am a teacher and uh and y'all went with a 4% raise and my raise was I don't know $3,000, but I have to get $5,000 because the state tells me I'd get $5,000. You would make it whole. We're we're going to make you whole. All of those teachers were going to physically touch and give them their $5,000. And it's going to be a salaried amount. It's not a onetime payment. It's not a makeup. I'm going
045to give you, oh, I only gave you said your salary is going to be up to this. So, I'm going to give you a $2,000 time dollar onetime payment. Nope. It's it's their salary throughout the year. The reason we don't do a one-time payment is because what if they leave us next month and we just paid them $2,000? Yeah. We're not doing that. And two, that's not how the law's written. That's right. that it has a salary, not a stipen or a onetime payment. Um, how does the state classify teachers? Like what I mean is like they put counselors, interventionist, reading specialists. It is the teacher of record meaning they are a classroom teacher classroom teacher. So everything else is not considered a teacher which is where the big debate has been where they've had
046that's where the impass has been because in the old days teacher was really librarian, counselor, teacher, the whole nine yards, right? But except for administrators. Now, you can correct me if I'm wrong. It sounds like the Senate and the House got together and some of the concessions were made. They did address that. They came back and earmarked. I haven't seen that. Okay. Perhaps it has. It just hasn't come across my desk yet or anything that I'm reading and if it does, we'll we'll obviously do it. But, um, do we have where that what that percentage is? say what that percentage uh $2,500 uh for a teacher with three to four years or both of those if we're looking at what the percentages as a whole and what would it be what would it be for
047so let us calculate that for you real quick so George can you calculate what the um the average teacher salary I believe that is 68 was it 67 something on one of our let's just say 68 cuz it's it's 67 and some change so 68 what is $2500 $1 of that and then what's 5,000 three and a half be three and a half or something. So yes, there's um sale right now. Okay. So I'm going to So 642 we'll say three years. We'll do the low side 64200 into 652. Yeah. 2500. So right at 4%. It would be for the 2500 and 7 and a half for the 5,000. They're focused on retention. They are. We have. So but also what's absent from this is there's zero adjustment for the one two the new teacher.
048Correct. Right. They they haven't met. They haven't proven themselves as to how is my thought. So if that's the that is the collective they would get whatever raise you give them right. However what I'm my point is is if the state is going to live I hate to say this but that they're just be flopping in the wind. Those one twoyear people they have no the whole state is looking at that way. They're not getting any funds for one or two either. So it will have to come out of your savings account that you have right now to do it. And there's a lot of schools that don't have the funds to address the one. Correct. And I'm not saying that they're not important, but they do have to. Right. You're exactly right. And the
049large urban schools are really 11, 1200 brand new teachers. Can you imagine these small West Texas schools where they're starting teacher salaries $48,000, $50,000, and you pop the $5,000 bonus on and that was the purpose. There's 10 because Oh, yeah. They're a smaller one. Yes. They will get double. the purpose to try to hold on to them and and they've not been on our scale for all of these years, you know. So, I'm going to move on to the next slide. Okay. Um, so let's talk about House Bill 2. We we and we've already kind of addressed it. Whatever the state gives in that aotment, that's that's the allotment that $2,500 or 5,000. This we're talking if the House Bill two goes through, then you only have to decide what kind of raise do you
050want for the rest of the employees. Right. Right. because the teachers have been told you're getting what House Bill is going to get. Um, so raise for other employees, again this is general fund only. So if a 3% raise, this is for every teacher that's I mean every employee that's not a teacher would cost us $736,000 because we're getting that money from the state. We're getting that 2 million that's going to pay this. So we're paying the difference. We're paying the difference. We're paying this is coming out of our fund balance. That's how you really have to think about this. So whatever raise you're going to give is is coming out of our fund balance. So a 3% is 736,000. I put stipens on here and we'll talk about that separately because that was a
051part of the conversation the compensation plan is whatever you give whatever the board decides to give they might give the same as to the stipens. So um just going to ignore the stipen piece right now and we'll come back to that. But a 4% would be a little less than a million. A 5% would be 1.23 million. Um, again, this is for everyone else. But then the point that Mr. Martin made, that's something to consider is if House Bill 2 is signed into law and we receive this $2 million for the next two years, so we get this $4 million, we don't know what the state's going to do in the next legislative session, meaning we don't know if they're going to say, "Okay, we're going to continue to give you this money," or say,
052"No, you got to you got to figure it out now." Because they've done that before. They have given us many, many directives that were initially funded and then taken the funding away. Um, and that's a significant increase to your overall budget if the state is not pitching that. That's a $2 million. And what you can't do is say in two years, well, we're going to give a raise to everyone else but teachers. No, we we would never do that. Correct. But that's something to that I thank you for bringing it up and we thought about the same thing and I just wanted to point it out to everybody. So when you are thinking about what type of raise you want to give to all other employees if House Bill 2 passes, that's that's why Dr.
053Dax and I are so conservative because we don't know and and we don't want to do something that's going to because when you give a raise Yeah. can't go back. That's coming out of your phone. So it here we have it to where we're going to give this race for all employees. I mean other than teachers obviously. That's your choice. But you know what if we went to the model that you had on the other one where we gave X amount to like the classroom pair professionals and then this amount to the other people. Um I don't know if that would be something we could consider instead of just a blanket like look at it break it down perspective you know break it down so where we're leading. We can break that down for if
054House Bill two goes and then this is what it would be. So you would want that model. I just think sometimes we without the I can always remember teachers talking about how well you know of course they were getting more like yeah you know I'm getting a 3% pay increase and you know no offense to anybody in this room but you know they're over there getting 3% of a hell of a lot more you know and and so they felt undervalued. Now that's perception, correct? And so, um, but if you if you look at it at a level, sometimes it's a more affordable, but look at look at the ticket prices of each 2.5 million and 2.2 million, right? Yeah. But I think what I'm saying though is that I understand what you're saying. I
055don't know. I just But the dollar amount is still a pretty hefty amount. It wouldn't be because the 5% for teachers would be out of that number, right? Yeah. So then it would be what you could do is not 5% for the counselors, nurses, librarians, 4% 3%. You could do something like that. We can model that for you and give that to you tomorrow if that's something that you want to consider. I think I just in our collective conversations, you know, here or there. I do think that there are certain groups on the campuses that need we've got to tune up a little bit, but we've got to be careful because we don't want to create this infighting with exactly your point where this group got something, but I didn't get anything. And now you
056start to have a morality. back to what Jeff said about, you know, if you for years, counselors and um reading specialist, librarians were included in that teacher in that teacher genre, whatever. Cuz I remember when I became a diagnostician, I was still a teacher, right? So that that everything applied to teacher. Definitely. Yeah. And I'm of the opinion that if you are a counselor, a librarian, if you're you're looking at kids and how they're being educated inside that building that that you should kind of be treated equally. So, you know, because we need good counselors, you know, we need good, you know, librarians and reading interventionists and things like that. So, to say that they're not cuz they are teaching. We all know that sometimes those counselors are in the classroom because there's not a
057teacher, you know. So, so anyway, just something to think about. I agree. I I think right now the the the overwhelming concern is sustainability beyond the buying. So, you know, that's why you you have to really carefully look at stipens because it's a one time it's a it's a it's a payment. It's a it's a debt. It's a one-time bill. we paid and it's that's over, right? It's not it's not well no it different siphons are paid monthly or or each paycheck. Most of them are very few that are that are not paid um part of their the pair professionals are twice a year right at all. Yes, there are there are very few that are not. Um do we know how much insurance is going to go up? We do not we won't know
058that until the middle of June hopefully. They're watching this meeting to decide how far. Our open enrollment starts July 7th. So we will know it before then. It starts when? July 7th. So we'll know it before then. But we don't know. Well, last year it was what? 30%. No. How much was it? Like eight. Oh, I thought it was more that like $30. $30. I'm sorry. That's where I like eight. So I look at like if you have like say a $70,000 employee and they go $5,000, that's about it's a little over 7% raise. M and so I want to look at more I guess in favor I definitely don't want to minimize what you are saying about like the tier structure. The only thing if we were to go that route, I just I
059would be adamant to keep the the pairs on the same level as the teachers because $14 an hour pair it goes from a 4% raise 56 cents, right? 5% raise is 70 cents. You're talking about 14 cents, right? Like higher than that. Say they're very minimal. Those should not get less than what I feel strong. I mean, they're one of those people that touch those kids every day in the classroom. So, I mean, to me, they should be treated the same. As far as that, if we're talking about being a trends setter and and trying to get ahead of some of that stuff, we know that that's a growing population. Everybody is facing that same issue and and where we can be competitive in that area. We've got to be more attractive in that area,
060right? To to find the the people that have the heart for for that for that job. Yeah, that's tough. And one of the things that kind of keeps niggling in my head is maybe I should stop reading Facebook, but the number of people that have posted that we're the lowest paid one of the lowest paying districts in the area, but yet we've built a $53 million statement. And so, and and that's not incorrect, but um well, actually, it is incorrect. Well, I mean, you know, if you look on this if you look on this sheet, well, that is that's not the average teacher salary. It's a starting teacher. Well, but that's what they're looking at. They're going online and pulling that. They can also pull the teachers pay scale and see that we're not correct.
061But all I'm saying is that when you look at it, you want to make sure that we are not that we're not putting ourselves out there, you know, like that. So, but we would also want to speak truth to truth. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Um, hopefully they're watching the truth to truth. We're noodling in your Let's go around. What are your initial thoughts? We got to have a starting point. What are we thinking? What What are your thoughts? Go ahead, Dean. Go ahead, Dean. Let me look back. I'm going to if you mind, I'll just I just have one more. Well, what we didn't talk about was the stipen increase and this is how much it would be. So, that's something also to keep in mind. She's talking that is for clarification. That's the for the
062additional any stipens that are paid for additional duties. Yes. All of them would be impacted. All of them would be touched. Academic coaches every single one of them across the board at the at the back of your um arts. Yeah. At the back of your compensation plan under the supplemental pay is where it sounds. Go ahead. Okay. Um so things to consider. We already talked about number one and number two is just to continue to fund raises and inflationary costs for the district. the board will need to uh consider a vader for fiscal year 2027 which will be the November 26th election. Um and then just next steps again June 2nd is the end of the legislative session. June 10th is when we will have our our June board meeting and have a public hearing
063to discuss the budget and tax rate and we will ask the board to adopt uh the fiscical year 26 budget and the compensation plan. Um again they will be amended. It's okay. But we Yeah, the board if the board does not approve it, we can't pay. Okay. Um June 22nd is the last day for Governor Abbott to approve the bill. So just because June 2nd is the end of the session, he actually had till June 22nd. Well, by that time, we would have already asked you to adopt the the budget. So um fisc year I mean sorry, fiscal year 26 begins on July 1st. uh July 28th, we receive our certified tax values which will be used to amend the fiscal year 26 budget along with the maximum for us rate and then uh in
064September or October is when we will actually ask you to adopt the tax rate. So we're not talking anything. I just need to know what the tax rate so I can build the budget and then we can amend it later. Take your vote on that. Um and that's all I have for you. So, I already have the first answer question answered. So, we're good on that. We need to find a uh an agreeable something we can work to at least build this. Um, can we go to you know what type of anybody has for any of you? I'm still processing it. I'm processing too, but I almost think on the starting teacher salary when I look at surrounding districts that we may need to go to 635. Mhm. So, we're a little more a little
065ahead of I mean, Channel View is the next closest within reason there and closest to enrollment. I know that we're not, you know, next door neighbors or anything, but they're at 64. I I think Channel View may have to overcompensate cuz they may have other challenges. Just my two cents. Correct. Oh, whatever you guys decide. I just would like possible we put something in writing and said, "Look, we're going to keep it like this at le structure for a few the next three to five years cuz I guarantee next year it's going to happen again. Be another district clearly town where they're going to be like, well, we raised it to this, you know, we're going to be tempted again to go, well, we need to raise ours again everybody else again." I really like
066the idea of this like the structure the step structure. Well, we just have to have something to kind of meet the place and say like we're not go we're not going to be count every another year. And and I I will just say like I mean you can kind of see we have we haven't had the the the pay scale steps like we've had in the past. That was last year was the first year for that. But you can see that we we have kind of thought of that um in the past where we don't you know we we've kept it steady from we had a jump from 22 to 23 and then we kept it steady and then we just did a $1,000 jump. So, this would be um like a $2,000 step would
067be what we did in 22 23 and from 20. Yeah. So, um I'm just a dumb chamber guy, but to me, if I was in your seat, Dr. Jackson, uh I would expect a dinner from the the superintendent of Deer Park if we went to like a step program because like that makes it less likely that they feel like they have to go and raise their stuff every So, they're on a step. They they Oh, yes. They have always been on a step. We're on a step, too. So, okay. And that's different than what like do you know what their what are theirs? Theirs is going to be 63. No, but what is the 400 bucks? Oh, it's less than ours. We That's why I said when we did 400 it's it's we're we're beating.
068I feel like that's the place to be is the starting cell. Sorry. They range between 3 to 375. And sometimes they they build them and they're different amounts as you get longer. like it it gets less when you get longer getting it's just so I'd rather be like a bidding war if you will on a step program as opposed to like I agree with that. Mhm. And I feel like we're competitive with step. Yeah. So again I'm good with 63 635 whatever you guys like. Just know when you do 6 to35 that means that that 4% would get you per teacher for the 0 to one two teachers to get them into that next step because when you raise it $2,000 remember we talked about from 61 to 63 year one teachers now have to
069make 634. Can you go back to that step slide? Uhhuh. But they're going to get that from the state. No, not the zero. Not one and not zero and two. 0 one and two will not the raise that y'all provide. Okay, I'm sorry. I got you now. I got you. So, a four that's that's why I felt comfortable with coming to you with a 3% because four sorry 3% 3,000 uh 60 $2,000 increase because um from the compensation plan conversation it seemed like four was that's the that's kind of what I felt from you and from what I remember you saying. So, um that's why I felt good. And then also knowing that our neighbors are going to go to that number, it just made sense. Kind of fell in line. Of course, we're here
070to to do at your pleasure how you would want, but you're conservative. Yeah. And I'll I'll encourage the board as you have you continue with contemplating and and really reflecting on this. We've proven that we can keep teachers, you know, once we see that in the number, but we need to really have a we need to really deeply think about do we really want to invest in trying to hold on to the the new ones that we're bringing in, right? And I know I know your answer to that, but we need to figure out if that's our strategy or not. Yeah, we need to figure out if that's our strategy because we already know that the the 5 to 10, 15, 20 year folks are here and they're going to benefit from what the state
071does for them in the next few weeks. But we've got to certainly figure out what are we going to do to kind of attract and then hold those youngsters so that in 10 years they're the ones that are now the leaders in our district. So you almost have to constantly do that. [Music] Um, go ahead. Sorry. remind me we do a signing bonus or we don't do anything of that sort. We do not. We do not. We do not. And and Melissa, I'll say to you, we don't do that because we are not in that dire situation that some of our, you know, there are so many wonderful things that happen around here that we don't have to deal with with my peers. Um there's a reason why they run to 64 65 quicker than
072we can get there cuz they have to in in order to attract folks that way. We don't we we're we're still not there but we do want to make certain and and I think everybody here agrees with that that once we get them here we want to take very good care of them so that they don't don't want to leave behind salary if for any other reason right um board there's been a request to go to closed to discuss the sensitive nature of some of the compensation deals so we are going to adjourn and go to a closed session um and we will resume after those discussions so let me go back in the back real quick Yes. Like new teachers. Do we have like we always do like new teacher lunch? Typically 80 to
073120 new teachers. We have any rounded estimate budget new new teachers. Uh Dr. Rhodess, do you have an idea of how many new teachers we're planning on on uh bringing in this year? First year teachers or just No, new to the district. New to the district. New to the district. Um that's usually around 75 to 80 or so or higher. lower than that. It's probably about 60 but I mean but that's but that's what Yeah. I didn't think about that, but that number had like percentage wise round about how many of those you think would be for like for first year teachers? First year teachers we have four, right? Okay. So, it's not impacting us. No, it's not impacting and that es and flows. This year is a very good year for all of us.
074I really think and I've said that to you. I was going to say the better we do on the back, the less we have to worry about the top. It es and flows. But we're going to we're going to go to closure and we will be back. It is now 6 o' 6 o00. [Music] I'm good. I will tell you this. I've seen center point all around the court though. [Music] I don't care about Yes. Well, hold on. somewhere. I see what you did there. I don't really care to put over. Yeah, I'll do. I just want to do all that. at Rock the Dock. I haven't been to Rock the Dock since the dog was being robbed. They change it whether they do um the walk cuz normally the principal gives it to them
075and we just stand over there and tell congratulations. Mr. Shopppee will be right with us and we appreciate your patience. We are um back from close session at 658. Um Miss Mcdow, we do have a couple proposals. Um we would like to see um one, if House Bill 2 passes, we would like to see the starting salary taken up to 63,000. a 4% raise for all employees and a 5% raise for stipen increase. If House Bill two fails, we would still like the starting salary to be adjusted to 63,000, but a 3% raise for all employees and a 3% raise on the stipen. So, those are the the uh the two things. And I I appreciate I know we we had to step aside and and obviously this is a very sensitive subject. We were
076talking about compensation, but there's the uh Thank you. meal there. Lord, did I miss anything? We're good. Thank you, G. All right. pulled in with all matters discussed.