Levelland ISD held their monthly regular school board meeting Wednesday evening, where they held a budget workshop and reviewed multiple policies.
In the Fund 171 section of the proposed budget, the payroll cost is projected at $109,063 for the upcoming year compared to $100,618 in the 2022-2023 school year. In the revenues side of the 171 section, the district is looking at $123,563 in generated funds compared to $115,118 in the 20222023 year.
In regard to the athletics department, which is part of the Fund 181 section, the total expenditures projected is $1,117,614, which is a slight increase compared to last years $1,113,627. The reason for the .36% increase is a bump in payroll costs which is projected at $583,863 compared to last year’s total of $579,876. For the revenue portion of the section, the local, federal and other sources remain the same as compared to last year, however, the state revenue section is the difference as this year’s amount is $31,381 and the past amount was $27,905.
In the general fund section, the total expenditure amount for the upcoming year is projected at $29,361,221, which is a 4.46% increase from last year’s $28,107,492. The line items that create that increase include payroll costs at 4,29%, contracted services with a 13.65% increase, supplies with a .80% increase and other operating costs with an 18.61% increase. Debt services and capital outlay have both taken a decrease of 41.13% and 17.86%.
Revenues for the general fund for the upcoming year see a slight increase of $30,501,498 compared to last year’s amount of $29,239,675, which is a 4.32% increase.
In the Fund 240 Food Service section, the district projects total expenditures to reach $2,104,085, which is a 41.11% increase compared to last year’s $1,491,085. In the revenue section of the fund, the total amount projected is $2,154,085 and is a 39.78% increase compared to last year’s amount of $1,541,085.
LISD Superintendent Beckey McCutchen explained that the budget as a whole remains the same minus a few small changes in certain categories.
“It is similar to last year, with the exception of the expenditures,” said McCutchen. “Last year, we had the intermediate, but it is not on the budget anymore.”
With ABC and the middle school being the two campuses where there’s more kids and teachers, the district has allocated additional budgeting to them for supplies and staff.
McCutchen also pointed out the other noticeable change is in the 161 section deals with Medicaid reimbursement for services that were a stand-alone budget. Now, the district is putting that section straight into their section199 revenue budget because it doesn’t have to be stand-alone.
In regard to tax rate for the district, McCutchen explained that the state has required some tax compression as the November election is a large question mark for school districts across the state of Texas. Aside from the homestead exemption caveat, the district is currently proposing an overall tax rate of $0.9742, as the M&O would be $0.7142. and the I&S would be $0.2600. The tax rate would generate $0.1504 less than the 2022-2023 school year.
“Our values have increased within our district boundaries so with the increase in values, the tax rate goes down,” explained McCutchen. “I think if the state holds true to what they’re saying and they’re going to offset the funding we lose from the homestead exemption, I think it’ll be fine. Historically, they have only offset about $0.30 per dollar in the past.”
The board also discussed and unanimously approved a new compensation plan which includes a 3% increase in salary for all staff under the superintendent position. McCutchen explained they’re doing that based off of no additional funding sources and the reason they can do that is with the closing of the intermediate.
“We had talked about the amount we would be saving potentially which would be up to $700,000,” explained McCutchen. “This 3% increase adds $900,000 to our budget, but 3% is important for the staff and we’re excited to do that and really thankful that the board decided that. We kind of asked what you do with the savings and we’re giving that back to the staff which is as it should be.”
With staff retention and filling positions continuing to be a cause for concern, the district is in one of the better spots as they are only lacking a handful of positions.
“We only have one opening for a teacher and it’s a life skills teacher at the high school,” said McCutchen. “Of course, we’re able to make it work without that teacher, but we if we could have that teacher that would be great. I think we need needed maybe one teaching assistant and one of our professional aides. We wanted to try to get to two trainers; this year we did hire one and those are the only positions we still have open.”
McCutchen feels that a majority of the turnover this summer seemed to have been the teaching assistants in life skills classes.
The board also approved the yearly family engagement policy that is required by the federal government as the district receives more than $500,000 in federal funds. Essentially, the district surveys and decides if any changes are needed when it comes to incorporating parents and staff.
One of the bigger points within the meeting was approving the code of conduct as slight changes were made regarding student and discipline. The code of conduct is a legally approved document that keeps districts in complete compliance with state law on discipline. McCutchen explained that one of the things that the legislatures added this year was some more strict discipline rules dealing with students who are found with marijuana, THC and E-cigarettes.
“As every district across the state has been having some problems with vapes, some of those vapes contain THC and marijuana,” said McCutchen. “What the legislatures have said to us now is a student caught with a vape, E-cigarette or any type of vape, marijuana or THC is an automatic DEAP placement.”
If students in band, athletics, UIL or any extracurricular’s such FFA that our caught with those items, they go to DEAP and there’s repercussions. McCutchen explained that if a student is in DEAP because of marijuana or THC and then they have a student who commits an infraction that is more severe and has to go to DEAP, if it is full then that student goes back to ISS at the campus.
“There is kind of some backand- forth there and then an additional thing added is if a parent’s child is put into DEAP, the parent does have the right to request testing for special education,” said McCutchen.
For the district, McCutchen added that there have been a handful of cases with students carrying vapes at the high school and middle school levels. Previous to this legislation being passed, the district had already been operating under the rule if a student is caught with a vape it is an automatic DEAP placement.
“Now that the state is making it mandatory, it just kind of strengthens up the laws there,” said McCutchen. “We do have vape detectors at both campuses, so a lot of times we know when they’re doing it. Vapes these days can be concealed and are in different forms.”
As the new school year approaches, McCutchen shared that the staff is excited for their students to be returning. One of the difficulties this year for the district has been contractors completing jobs on a timely basis. Currently, contractors are continuing to work on vestibules that have been constructed at each campus to provide additional safety and security measures for students and staff.
Additionally, work on the portable buildings at the ABC campus is still underway to provide the most comfortable setting for teachers and students and make them feel part of the building as much as possible.