Brownsville school district: No pay raises next year

In the face of an uncertain economy, the Brownsville Independent School District is planning to forego pay raises for all employees for the 2010-2011 school year.

“This is just not the time for that,” BISD superintendent Brett Springston said last week when asked about pay raises for the next school year. “It’s all because of what’s going to happen over the next biennium. ... We have to depend on our own resources.”

In fact, the Legislature has told the Texas Education Agency to cut 5 percent from its budget over the next biennium, meaning BISD and school districts across Texas must make do with less. The state as a whole is expected to run a budget deficit estimated at between $15 billion and $18 billion.

BISD must adopt its 2010-2011 budget by June 30. The district’s fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30.

“We are very much in a working format on the budget,” Springston said Wednesday. “Yes we are going to cut — but not on instruction.”

The new budget is likely to total only slightly more than the current budget because payroll expenses make up the largest part of the budget and no raises are planned, chief financial officer Tony Fuller said. This year’s budget is $493.08 million. BISD is Brownsville’s largest employer with 7,434 current employees, according to the district’s website.

Springston has asked all departments to cut 20 percent from their operating budgets — but not instructional budgets — in an effort to pare expenses.

“If we cut a little here and a little there, it adds up,” Springston said. “We’re not buying any new vehicles and that saves $2 million. The 20-percent departmental reduction saves $1 million. Reduction and consolidation of transportation routes saves $500,000.”

To balance its 2009-2010 budget, BISD used $11.8 million in fund balances. However, the actual expense won’t be known until the end of the fiscal year. Fuller said the actual expenditure could come in as much as $5 million less than budgeted — and whatever savings are achieved will carry over to the 2010-2011 budget.

The deficit, which was incurred over a period of years “will not be taken care of in one year,” Fuller said. “It will be a two-year to three-year process.”

As required by state law, BISD will advertise the budget on June 19, with final adoption by the Board of Trustees scheduled 10 days later on June 29.

“If you ask, ‘do we want to give raises,’ the answer is ‘yes’ because they work extremely hard at what they do for the kids,” Springston said of BISD employees, adding that preliminary results on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills look promising and if it weren’t for the economy, BISD might be going in a different direction.

“Where other districts are giving out pink slips, we have a healthy fund balance, which, by making the right decisions now, we’ll be able to maintain,” he said.

Meanwhile, the cost of opening two new schools — Edward Manzano Middle School and Veterans Memorial High School — are built into the budget.

Each school has a list of “singleton expenses” — hiring a librarian, nurse, principal and assistant principals — plus utility expenses. However, BISD will not hire a whole new group of teachers at each school.

“We’ll move around kids and the teachers that go with them,” Springston said. “What we’re doing is fulfilling the mission of what was stated in the 2006 bond issue.”

In 2006, Brownsville voters approved $135 million in school construction bonds. Those funds were used to build Pullam and Keller elementary schools, which opened this year, and Manzano Middle School and Veterans Memorial High School, which will open in the fall.

Peña Elementary, which was built using fund balances during the same time Pullam and Keller were built, also opened this year.