June 18, 2024 – Regular Meeting
Link to Board Docs
• Board approves balanced budget for 2024–25
At their regular meeting on June 18, trustees reviewed and approved a balanced budget for the 2024–25 school year. The $466 million operating budget includes a 1% increase in staff compensation, no jobs lost, and an additional 1% raise for all eligible staff that will go into effect if enrollment targets are met.
Round Rock ISD is currently one of the only school districts in Central Texas that have achieved a balanced budget for the upcoming school year.
Board Pres. Amber Feller Landrum: “I’m thrilled by that. There are so many more things that I want to do with this budget. Our teachers desperately need more money… I think this is a very good budget moving forward. This is my sixth budget [and] this is the first time we’ve had a balanced budget in a while.”
The proposed 2024–25 Adopted Budget reflects the following:
Maintenance & Operations Fund: $466 million in revenue; $466 million in expenses; proposed tax rate 0.6969. This represents a 2.41-cent decrease from the prior year’s tax rate. This includes the district’s recapture, which is projected to be just under $20 million for the upcoming year.
Interest & Sinking/Debt Service Fund: The I&S budget is used to pay off bonds and includes an estimated property value increase of 6%. revenue: $118,215,000; expenses: 118,008,000; surplus of $207,000.
Food Service Fund: $19.7 million in revenue; $18.8 million in expenses; surplus of $910,000. The budget included no increase in meal prices.
• Citizens Bond Committee Update
Co-chairs of the Citizens Bond Committee updated trustees regarding the group’s work to date to help trustees determine whether the district should call for a November bond.
Updates included draft cost estimates from each subcommittee—Capital Renewal, Fine Arts & Athletics, Growth, Safety & Security, and Technology. The CBC recommended to trustees that they call for a bond and limit the total bond amount so there would be no tax rate increase.
The current total for proposed bond projects is roughly $1.15 billion.
• Compensation, Benefits, Leaves and Absences
Bereavement leave: The board discussed providing additional paid leave for employees at the beginning of the 2024–25 school year. This would include adopting a policy that will allow the district to provide employees with three paid leave days upon the death of immediate family. Four of seven local peer districts currently have a bereavement policy in place.
Chief Human Resource Officer Eddie Curran: “To make sure that we’re able to be responsive in times of need for our employees, we would really like to put forward a policy that would allow us to provide a bereavement leave.”
YOU Days: The board approved a proposal to provide staff with two additional paid leave days. The district will close as part of its YOU well-being program days on Oct. 4, 2024, and Feb. 17, 2025. Curran and the administration worked to ensure there would be minimal impact on instructional time as well as on the district’s budget.
Superintendent Hafedh Azaiez: “As you know, when it comes to the budget, it was a very tight budget, so we weren’t able to really give a big raise that our teachers and staff deserve. So we asked, ‘What else can we do to take care of them and show our gratitude?’”
Because adding the two days would reduce teacher workdays to 185—down from the statutorily required 187 days—the administration will submit an amendment to Round Rock ISD’s District of Innovation plan to TEA.
Presentation Link
Board Doc Agenda
June 18 Public Hearing on Budget Video
June 18 Regular Board Meeting Video
• Upcoming Meetings
Tentative Called Board Workshop – Thursday, July 18, time and location TBD
July 9 – virtual information sessions for anyone interested in running for a seat on the board
July 23 – virtual information sessions for anyone interested in running for a seat on the board
July 20 – first day to file to run for a seat on the board
