LISD Board Leaves Seat Open, Approves Publication of Proposed Budget

I'll have video and more in-depth coverage later, but I wanted to post a very quick recap of tonight's LISD Board meeting, and get some budget documents out there for the public to see.

Knapp's Seat to Remain Open
First, the LISD Board considered action on filling the seat left vacant by Jeff Knapp's resignation. In an ironic vote that proved the need for 7 trustees, the board had two tie votes 3-3 on two alternatives for the seat. Trustees Mike McDaniel and Brenda Latham were strongly in favor of leaving the seat open, with Latham saying that the board could handle the absence, and that it would be a sort of team-building experience. New trustee Trisha Sheffield was on the fence. Trustees Julie Foughty and Kathy Duke were in favor of filling the position, but only with a very good and non-controversial candidate.

Trustees went into closed session to discuss who the possible candidates would be. Former trustees Tom Ferguson and Amber Fulton were in attendance. When the trustees came out, they voted on the motion by McDaniel to keep the seat open until next May. That vote resulted in a 3-3 tie, with McDaniel, Latham, and Sheffield voting for, Duke, Foughty, and Kyer against. On a motion by Julie Foughty to appoint Ferguson, the board again split 3-3 on the same lines, with Foughty, Duke, and Kyer voting for.

When that vote failed, Latham motioned to reconsider leaving the seat open until May. On that vote, Kyer relented, allowing the vote to pass. The seat will be vacant until next May, but nothing prevents the trustees from coming back later to fill the position.

Here's the video of this portion:


Budget
Trustees voted to approve the publication of a proposed budget and tax rate, and set a public hearing for August 27th, at which time the budget and tax rate will be voted on.

The budget documents will be attached to this story so the public can review them. The maintenance and operations tax rate will remain the same next year at $1.04 per $100 property valuation, and the Interest and Sinking Fund (I&S) rate used to pay for construction debt will increase very slightly from 38.6 to 41.3 cents per $100 valuation, which is still 2 cents below the rate promised in the authorizing bond election. The district floated additional bonds this year, which will need to be repaid beginning in the 2012/13 school year. This puts the total rate at $1.453 per $100 valuation, or about $1,453 for a $100,000 home.

Even though the total tax rate is slightly increased, the district will see a total decrease in revenue of $9.1 million under 2011/12 due to continued decreases in state funding.

There is a budgeted shortfall of $23 million in the coming year, which would be taken from the reserves fund balance. The fund balance projected for September 1st is $128 million. In reality, the actual deficit is often smaller, but is usually over-stated due to conservative accounting practices.

The district expects to finish up the 2011/12 school year by tapping the reserves for last year's deficit of $5.3 million, compared to the $17.5 million originally forecast.

I'll try to get the video from this discussion posted soon.

Documents:
- Budget Workshop Presentation (PDF scan)
- Proposed Budget Spreadsheet (PDF scan)