BY EMILY LINCKE
Spring ISD reduces employee incentive program by $4.5M
Spring ISD trustees voted to reduce committed fund balance moneys by $4.5 million Oct. 17 in light of the district’s $25.4 million budget decit. The gist In a 6-0 vote, trustees approved the district’s proposal to reduce the $5 million fund balance committed for the Spring Rewards program to $500,000. Trustees expressed the desire to use the committed funds to create a reward program for SISD employees other than classroom teachers since the Texas Education Agency’s Teacher Incen- tive Allotment program granted $4.5 million in bonuses to SISD classroom teachers for the 2022-23 school year in July. “The ... teacher incentive allotment program doesn’t allow us to write in for anyone other than a teacher to qualify,” Westbrooks said. The highest-earning SISD teacher received $29,000, and multiple teachers earned more than
$20,000 through the state’s TIA program, Chief Financial Ocer Ann Westbrooks said Oct. 5. About 348 teachers received a combined $1.8 million in bonuses through the district’s Spring Rewards teacher incentive program, but only 210 of these teachers also qualied for the TIA program, Westbrooks said Oct. 17. Explained SISD initially considered reducing the commit- ted funds Oct. 5; however, trustees opted to delay the decision. Multiple trustees raised concerns about the dis- trict’s recommendation to reduce the committed funds to $0 at the Oct. 5 meeting, but expressed support for the altered recommendation of a $4.5 million reduction Oct. 17. With declining enrollment, low average daily attendance and the budget decit, Westbrooks said SISD cannot aord to continue to commit $5 million annually to the Spring Rewards program.
2022 23 bonus breakdown
$4.5M in bonuses was awarded to SISD teachers through the TIA $1.8M in bonuses was awarded to SISD teachers through Spring Rewards 138 SISD teachers qualied for Spring Rewards, but did not qualify for the TIA 210 SISD teachers qualied for both Spring Rewards and the TIA
SOURCE: SPRING ISDCOMMUNITY IMPACT
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