During a workshop Thursday evening, the Snyder ISD school board heard details of the district administration’s planned budget for 2020-21.
The administration has drawn up two potential budgets — one showing 100 percent collection of local property taxes, and the other showing an 83 percent collection of local property taxes.
“(The second option) is assuming one large taxpayer chooses to pay basically nothing,” Superintendent Dr. Eddie Bland said, referring to Kinder Morgan’s mineral value dispute with the Scurry County Appraisal District. “We won’t know that for certain until we get to the deadline of January 31. They’re basically 17 percent of our (tax base).”
Bland said uncertainty with the budget makes planning for the future difficult.
“If it’s a standard year and with the current assessed, certified values they presented us with on July 24, we’re in great shape. We’re just not sure what the status is with one taxpayer,” he said.
The budget showing 100 percent revenue indicates General Fund revenues of $29,953,236 and total expenditures of $31,058,665, plus collection on long-term debt obligations in the amount of $2,082,295, for a total operating surplus of $976,866.
The budget showing 83 percent of revenue indicates General Fund revenues of $25,953,236. Total expenditures and collection of long-term debt obligations remain the same at $31,058,665 and $2,082,295 respectively, for a total operating deficit of just more than $3 million.
Both budgets provide raises for all district personnel, including an increase of one step on the district’s salary schedule for teachers and nurses, and a 2 percent increase for all other personnel.
“What we’re proposing is if we gave our teachers, if we just truly stepped them up once, not a certain percentage, but just truly stepped them, it would cost about $96,000,” said Chief Financial Officer Morgan Preston. “The next group would be everybody else excluding administrators. Areas such as maintenance, custodial, instructional support, librarians, your counselors, everybody. We put a 2 percent increase right here, so the total cost should be about $115,000. So a total increase for everybody of about $211,000.”
Trustees voted to grant the 2 percent raise to administrative employees as well, a step Bland said would add about $15,000 to the budget.
The board also approved the 2020-21 stipend schedule. The stipends include $3,000 for teachers in math, science, English/language arts, other subjects which require state testing and special education. These stipends are reduced to $750 per section for teachers responsible for fewer than four sections.
Other stipends include $3,500 for bilingual third through fifth-grade teachers, $3,000 for virtual campus leaders, up to $1,500 for virtual campus teachers, $1,000 for career and technical education (CTE) or career and technical student organization (CTSO) teachers in grades six through 12, $500 for capstone or STEM advisors, $7,000 for the coordinator of the district’s planned new greenhouse, $1,500 for school-based enterprise sponsors and campus academic leaders, $750 for members of campus leadership teams, $500 for mentor teachers, $2,000 for master teachers, $300 per event (capped at $1,200) for UIL sponsors, $500 for gifted and talented teachers and $1,500 for teachers with a master’s degree.
Stipends specific to Snyder High School include $10,000 for the band director, $1,500 for the National Honor Society sponsor, up to $7,500 for the drama teacher and the choir director, $1,500 for the cheerleading sponsor and $2,000 for the yearbook sponsor.
Stipends specific to Snyder Junior High School include $5,000 for the band director, $1,000 for the drama teacher, $2,500 for the choir director and $500 for the yearbook sponsor. The board’s next regular meeting will be Aug. 13, when it plans to approve publishing of the proposed budget and tax rate. The board also plans to hold a special meeting Aug. 27 to formally adopt the new budget and tax rates.