Education
BY THOMAS LEFFLER
Judson ISD ocials may call a voter- approved tax rate election, or VATRE, this November with hopes of increasing district revenue for the 2025-26 FY. VATRE consideration stems from an early proposed budget showing that total expenditures are $47.89 million higher than total revenue in scal year 2025-26. Revenue from the VATRE-if successful- would come from enrichment pennies, supplemental revenue that levy property taxes beyond the maximum compressed rate, according to the Texas Education Agency. Chief of Finance Larry Guerra said one option would be to go after $12 million of revenue from the VATRE, which would increase the district's tax rate from $1.0346 per $100 valuation to $1.11 per $100 valuation. JISD considers voter-approval tax rate election
Digging deeper
Employee budget savings If Judson ISD were to reduce an employee group’s calendar each year by one day, this is how much the district would save in FY 2025-26.
Cost reduction options for board consideration included the reduction of pay for District of Innova- tion teachers, with a possible 10% reduction for the 177 teachers, saving the district potentially $925,000 for FY 2025-26. A District of Innovation teacher is a teacher currently working on obtaining teacher certications. Two other cost-saving options presented to the board were adding responsibilities to district librarians and increasing student-teacher ratios in the classroom. A move that would save the district $750,000 for the 2025-26 FY would see all librarians kept at campuses, with elementary school librar- ians taking on additional responsibility through Academic Enrichment Teaching, or lessons that go beyond the typical curriculum. An increase in the teacher-student ratio would lead to class sizes going up by two students. This would raise the elementary class size to 23, middle school to 25 and high school to 26. Kristin Saunders, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction, said that while it may
District Oce/Education Resource Center/Technology/ Facilities: $84,084
Maintenance/ Transportation: $6,285 Principals: $17,347 Instructional Paraeducators: $25,252
Associate Principals: $3,072
not be desirable, going up to 23 students at the elementary level is not an “outlandish number.” Mary Duhart-Toppen, deputy superintendent of teaching and learning, said some middle school classrooms are already sitting at 25 students, and principals have supported increasing class sizes by two students.
Budget outlook
Next steps
Revenue
Expenditures
FY 2024-25 forecast
The district would then have to receive an eciency audit before a November vote, with the cost to run an election and receive the audit totaling $150,000, Guerra said.
The board will continue to meet on budgetary matters until a nal budget proposal is voted on during a June meeting. For a VATRE, the board will have to vote in May whether to seek an election or not, according to the presentation.
$251.3M
$273M
FY 2025-26 base budget
$232.3M
$280.2M
SOURCE: JUDSON ISDCOMMUNITY IMPACT
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