Superintendents Budget Message to Hays CISD Employees The following is the spring budget message from Superintendent Michael McKie sent to all staff members (sent April 24, 2014): Dear Colleagues, During the past several months, I have been meeting with senior staff members representing every department. We have been discussing our priorities as a school district in an effort to ensure we are investing money in the most efficient and effective manner to meet our districts goals. All of this work has resulted in several recommendations that are included the 2014-2015 proposed budget. Among the top priorities we identified is implementing most of the recommendations presented in the compensation study conducted by the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB). To make our salaries competitive, correct salary inequities, and to raise all of the salaries in our district to within 90% of market value will cost approximately $3 million. We also want to continue our work making our teacher salaries attractive in the Central Texas area. Our recommendation is to give teacher raises (with varying percentages based on years of service) and all other staff raises of 1.5 percent. As a growing district, we also know we need staff to support instruction and campus operations. The budget considerations include reducing the number of students per counselor at our middle schools, resulting in additional counselors at two to three schools. We hope to create a receptionist position at each middle school and add more personnel for our growing Mariachi program and new arrival center, just to name a few. Many of you may agree that our district needs content coordinators in the four core areas to strengthen and improve instructional practices, differentiate professional development, and provide content specific leadership. We also need additional support in technology, student information systems, human resources, bilingual/ESL, and special education. Our proposed budget includes nearly $1.9 million in additional curriculum and instruction resources, more than $6 million in added employee compensation and benefits, and funding for growth and recurring expense increases. We have scrutinized our existing budget to maximize savings that can be reinvested in our priorities so that we can achieve what is best for our students and staff. Between now and August, we will work to reduce our deficit and create a balanced budget. We can do this without any layoffs or substantial program cuts; but, as you know, balancing a school district budget is a difficult task. We won’t be able to accomplish this without making some changes. We continue to suffer the effects of the loss of millions of dollars in state funding to Hays CISD from the cuts made by the 82nd Texas Legislature in 2011. The outcome of the lawsuit against the state to restore this funding is uncertain. Hays CISD is one of hundreds of school districts in Texas who are plaintiffs in the case. The changes in our budget to achieve necessary savings may not be easy. We are considering changing our secondary staffing model, reconfiguring our GT program delivery model, reducing the number of lunch monitors, more strategically assigning our special education teachers, and changing our nurse requirements from RNs at every campus to LVNs in some locations. These changes will be realized through attrition, or in a few cases, a return to a regular classroom teaching assignment. No one will lose their employment with our school district. Though we can’t address everything we need to accomplish in this years budget, we will continue to focus on student achievement and employee compensation. Overall, despite the lack of state funding, this budget addresses many of our needs. As the administration and Board of Trustees work through the budget process, information will be posted on our website at hayscisd.net/budget. I encourage each of you to review the page periodically. I will also keep you informed through email. Everyone is doing a tremendous job!!! Mike
Posted on: Sat, 26 Apr 2014 02:41:22 +0000
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