Flower Mound - Highland Village - Argyle | December 2024

Education

BY MARK FADDEN & JONATHAN PERRIELLO

Lewisville ISD trustees approved a one-time $1,000 dollar payment for all sta at the Nov. 11 meeting. Due to a murky nancial future, LISD ocials settled on a one-time payment for 2024-25. The board adopted a $4.5 million budget shortfall for the scal year 2024-25. LISD ocials drafted a com- pensation plan in May that would provide a 1% of the midpoint raise for all sta and/or a one-time $500 payment. The big picture After a Nov. 4 workshop, the administration decided to increase the one-time payment to $1,000 instead of a percentage raise. According to documents, a 1% raise would have equated to a $665 increase per sta member. “We have never not given a raise since my time on the board,” trustee Katherine Sells said, who joined the school board in 2016. In total the $1,000 one-time payment is estimated to cost $6.7 million, per district documents. The context The state allots school districts $6,160 per student based on daily LISD sta to receive one-time payment

“This is the very least that we can do for our sta members that show up for us every single day despite all of the

challenges they face.” STACI BARKER, LISD TRUSTEE

attendance, an amount that has not increased since 2019. Statewide school funding would need to increase by around $1,400 per student to provide the district with the same buying power they had in 2019, according to docu- ments from LISD. Sta worked to balance the $14.9 million shortfall in the adopted budget for scal year 2023-24 through reductions in central oce sta and land sales, according to district documents. In August, LISD ocials projected to close scal year 2023-24 with a $3.3 million shortfall but by the November workshop sta reduced the amount to $441,000, according to previous Community Impact reporting. Looking ahead The payment will be dispersed to sta by no later than Dec. 31, according to district documents.

NISD weighs class sizes for 202526

news release. Funds from this budget are used, in part, to help retain and attract teachers while also preventing cuts to student programs. Before any campus-based cuts are implemented, the news release states district ocials will meet with department leadership to make adjustments at both the district and campus levels.

Following the failure of North- west ISD’s Voter-Approval Tax Rate Election, NISD ocials will begin planning for class size changes for the 2025-26 school year. What you need to know The 3-cent increase in property taxes would have generated approximately $16 million in the district’s maintenance and opera- tions budget, according to a district

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