Published: July 21, 2008 09:29 pm      

Frost rollback election set for Sept. 30

Public hearing scheduled for library Monday

Voters in the Frost school district will be asked to vote on a tax rollback election Sept. 30, boosting the tax rate 13 cents, or about $43 per household per year.

The district’s financial challenges are the same as everyone else’s, higher gas, electricity and food bills, but the stagnant enrollment means less money coming in to cover expenses.

A public meeting to discuss the Frost Independent School District budget and the impending rollback election will take place at 7 p.m. Monday at the school library, 208 N. Wyrick St.

The district has known for about eight months that a budget shortfall would force a budget crisis, and either cause a tax increase or some personnel cuts, explained Jim Revill, superintendent.

“It’s not something that just came about,” Revill said. “The only way under the new finance system to generate new money is to increase enrollment. We’re just the opposite — we’ve lost enrollment.”

School districts get paid according to the number of students taught. However, Frost has been losing enrollment for the last five years, while costs of nearly everything have gone up.

The requested maintenance and operations tax rate is $1.17 for each $100 of appraised property value, or 13 cents more than last year’s rate. However, under state law, the district can’t just raise the rate — it has to get voter approval. If voters reject the measure, the rate will “rollback” to $1.04, the state maximum for M&O tax rates for public schools.

The district’s 11.5 cents for paying off its debt won’t change either way. The total tax rate, if the voters approve the increase, will be $1.29.

If voters approve the tax rate increase, it will raise about $75,000 locally, and the state will match that with an additional $225,000.

In 2005, the state legislature changed the school finance system again to reduce local property taxes and increase state funding to public schools. It also created a system that relies on enrollment going up and local property values going up, too.

In Frost’s case, the values have gone up, but enrollment hasn’t. The appraised values of F.I.S.D. have gone up this year, from $76.7 million to $84 million, according to early appraisal estimates. While that means local tax revenues will be up, it also means state contributions will go down.

“In an ideal world, we could use that to offset enrollment, but because we’ve lost enrollment, we’ve lost revenue,” Revill said.

In trying to stave off the rollback, the district did eliminate four positions. Four employees, a coach, two teachers and a custodian, left the district, and replacements won’t be hired, but it won’t save enough money, Revill said.

“Firing has been on the table, it has been part of the discussion,” he admitted. However, where to cut without violating state law and still retaining quality is the crucial question. All schools are required to offer certain programs, such as four math and science classes in high school, to have teacher-student ratios of 1:22, and a slew of other state mandates. The financial problems for small schools is that teachers all make about the same at both large and small schools for teaching a physics class, for example, but a large school will receive twice as much with a class of 30, as a small school will for a class of 15.

One option in Frost is to replace the older teachers, who make more money, with younger, new teachers. Replacing a teacher with 30 years of experience with one with zero years of experience would save the district $17,000 a year, Revill said, but the ultimate cost would be paid by students.

“I don’t know if that’s what we want to do,” he said. “There’s a reason our TAKS scores are as good as they are.”

In order to keep costs down, the school district isn’t giving out any cost-of-living raises, and the only raises will be according to the required step system.

Thus far, Frost is the only school district in Navarro County to ask for a rollback election. Statewide, about 120 school districts held similar rollback elections last year.

“In this area, Frost is probably ahead of the curve, and not by choice,” Revill said.

However, other districts are looking at ways to balance tight budgets.

Mildred was able to build its new elementary school, set to open Aug. 25, but utility bills and other increases are another budget item entirely, explained Doug Lane, Mildred superintendent.

“We’ve had some property value increases, and hopefully, everything will work out,” Lane said.

Blooming Grove is going to make it without a rollback election this year, but it could be an issue of when rather than if, said Superintendent Mike Baldree.

“It’s coming, but not yet. You’re going to see more of these,” he predicted.

Hubbard attempted a rollback election last year, but voters rejected it, along with a controversial bond election.

Hubbard officials are trying to decide what to do this year. An facilities committee is set to make some recommendations soon, said Superintendent Walter Padgett.

“We’re going to do something, we just don’t know what,” Padgett said. “At this point, we just don’t know.”

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Janet Jacobs may be reached via e-mail at jacobs@corsicanadailysun.com