Education
BY BROOKE SJOBERG
Georgetown ISD shares 3-year budget plan Over the next three years, Georgetown ISD administrators and sta will work to balance the district’s growth with increasing costs of oper- ations, a new budgetary plan shows. This plan includes reducing stang and other expenditures. The big picture GISD Superintendent Devin Padavil and Chief Financial Ocer Jennifer Hanna shared the plan, which allows for a sustainable fund balance by reducing the district’s budgeted decits over time, during a March 4 budget update. One of the ways the district will reduce its bud- get, Padavil said, is to reduce stang via attrition, as well as make other hard decisions. Hanna said the district has identied some eciencies that will reduce the district’s budget decit. The plan projects the district will have a surplus of $625,073 for the 2026-27 scal year.
Vaping, THC incidents reduced by nearly half Student incidents involving vaping and THC were halved over the past school year, a new report from Georgetown ISD shows. The details Wes Vanicek, the district’s chief strate- gist for assessment and feedback, said in February the number of student THC and vaping incidents fell from 185 in the fall of 2022 to 95 in the fall of 2023. He attributed this to the vaping preven- tion and action team implemented during the 2022-23 school year. Vanicek said this team of administrators and sta have spearheaded strategies such as limiting student access to locations where they might use these substances and random searches using drug detecting dogs.
Cutting costs To reduce expenses, the district has identied the following areas for eciencies:
Reduce central oce and professional support positions by attrition
Larger class sizes for middle and high school
Eliminate travel stipends for executives and above Reduce food purchases, travel and overtime
Adjust transportation routes
SOURCE: GEORGETOWN ISDCOMMUNITY IMPACT
What’s next The board will hold additional budget work- shops in April and May before voting on the proposed budget in June, Hanna said.
Georgetown ISD considers updates to bell schedule Georgetown ISD sta are deciding between two options for an update to the district’s bell schedule to ease budgetary concerns around transporting a growing student population. What you need to know
Bell schedule options Option 1 High school: 8:40 a.m.-4 p.m. Middle school: 9 a.m.-4:20 p.m. Elementary school: 7:40 a.m.-3 p.m. Option 2 High school: 9 a.m.-4:20 p.m. Middle school: 8:40 a.m.-4 p.m. Elementary school: 7:40 p.m.-3 p.m.
the upcoming school year, Kirby Campbell, GISD’s executive director of support services, said the district is proposing a change to its bell schedule that would see start and end times for middle and high schools staggered, to give its existing bus eet more time to transport a greater number of students without requiring more resources. Doing so could save the district around $150,000 per year, he said.
Currently, both middle and high schools start and release at the same time. With the district projected to grow by about 4%—close to 500 students—in
SOURCE: GEORGETOWN ISDCOMMUNITY IMPACT
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