Category Archives: Budget

HISD’s return to the classroom supported by $200,000 donation from Phillips 66

The Houston Independent School District has been disinfecting schools daily in order to combat the spread of COVID-19, and a $200,000 donation from locally based international energy company Phillips 66 is now supporting those efforts to protect students and staff.

HISD has utilized the donation to outfit schools with state-of-the-art electrostatic cleaning supplies and equipment. The Phillips 66 donation is designed to assist with safe continuation of in-person instruction on district campuses.

“There is no doubt that this generous gift is making our campuses safer,” Interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan said. “We deeply appreciate Phillips 66’s desire to help HISD keep our campuses clean and safe.”

Continue reading →

HISD Board approves $41 million budget amendment

$2.3 million in grants for mental health, afterschool supports also approved

The Houston Independent School District Board of Education voted 8-0 with one abstention to approve a $41 million budget amendment to fund additional supports for special education, pay for personal protective equipment (PPE), enhanced cleaning services and supplies, and computer devices and hotspots.

The extra funding for special education amounts to $17 million and has been under consideration since August of 2020. The funding will pay primarily for assigning speech-language pathologists to campuses where students in need have been identified and allow for expansion of the number of existing Intensive Intervention Teams. The funding will also pay for the addition of mental health specialists to address students’ emotional and behavioral challenges. The district will also use the additional funding to increase the number of occupational and physical therapists and assistive technology specialists.

The board also adopted by a vote of 9-0 the district’s 2020 tax rate of $1.1331 per $100 of taxable property value to allow the Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector to begin the preparation of 2020 tax bills.

Continue reading →

HISD receives $1 million grant from Moody Foundation to help close digital divide

The Houston Independent School District will receive $1 million from the Moody Foundation to help close the digital divide by purchasing computers for HISD’s Achieve 180 students on some of the district’s underperforming campuses.

The funds will be used to purchase more than 2,000 devices for students in pre-K through fifth grade at schools where Achieve 180 program is in place. Achieve 180 is a research-based action plan to support, strengthen, empower, and increase student achievement in underserved and underperforming HISD feeder pattern communities.

Continue reading →

HISD Board approves $54.6 million budget amendment to help students Reconnect Safely, Return Strong

The Houston Independent School District Board of Education approved a $54.6 million amendment to the 2020-2021 budget, which includes a $31 million purchase of devices and wireless hotspots to help close the digital divide and ensure students are equipped to Reconnect Safely and Return Strong when classes resume virtually on Sept. 8.

The district has provided 76,362 devices for students in need since the pandemic and plans to distribute 22,750 additional devices by next month. HISD has provided 6,628 hotspots for students in need and plans to distribute an additional 19,151 of the wireless devices by next month as well.

The added appropriations in the budget amendment will also fund additional special education positions, personal protective equipment (PPE), social distancing signage, plexiglass dividers, and instructional supports.

Continue reading →

HISD eligible for COVID-19 relief funds under the CARES Act

In March 2020, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, also known as the CARES Act, was signed into law. The bill dedicated $13.2 billion for K-12 schools through the Elementary and Secondary School Education Relief Fund (ESSERF). HISD is eligible to apply for ESSERF grant funds under the CARES Act.

The Texas Education Agency (TEA) has released the entitlements for HISD under the CARES Act, ESSERF. These are not additional funds to HISD, they are being used to offset the loss of average daily attendance (ADA) through the Foundation School Program (FSP) under Texas school finance.

Continue reading →

HISD 2019-2020 budget earns top honors for financial accuracy, accountability

The Houston Independent School District has received the Meritorious Budget Award (MBA) from a worldwide association of school business officials for producing a 2019-2020 budget that is accurate, informative and easy to comprehend.

HISD earned the award from the Association of School Business Officials International (ASBO), which has been in existence for 110 years. To receive the honor, the association required the district to submit a substantial packet of detailed budget documents, which were evaluated by a confidential panel of school finance experts.

Continue reading →

HISD Board of Education approves budget to raise minimum wage to $14 an hour

With a vote of 5-1, HISD’s Board of Education passed the budget for the 2019-2020 school year that will increase the district’s minimum wage from $12 an hour to $14 an hour. 

Trustees proposed and adopted an amendment that included $17 million in department cuts but any staff reductions as a result would be offset by utilizing fund balance. 

The spending plan mandates that district employees will see no increase in health insurance premiums.

The budget approved provides teachers, full-time counselors, full-time nurses, full-time librarians and other educational professionals with raises ranging from 3.5 percent to 8 percent, depending on years of service in HISD.

Trustees also approved increasing bus drivers’ minimum wage to $18/an hour.

The board also approved an amendment to provide no raises for staff earning more than $75,000 per year.  Instead, these employees would receive a one-time bonus of $1000 and two extra vacation days.

HISD’s administrators had presented a balanced budget for consideration to the Board of Education that included raises for every district employee and no staff reductions.

Several other amendments were made by Trustees which administrators will be analyzing over the next several days to incorporate into the budget.

HISD budget proposal for 2019-2020 includes no cuts to campus PUA, no pay increases

Houston Independent School District Chief Financial Officer Rene Barajas today will present a proposed budget to Board of Education trustees for the 2019-2020 school year. 

The proposed budget is based on current law and includes a $36 million deficit. This deficit is arrived at by estimating several key variables, the most important of which include property values, student enrollment, and recapture obligations. 

Under this proposal, the campus per unit allocation, or PUA, would not be cut by $73, and there would be no cuts to schools or departments. However, this does not prevent departments from reorganizing.  The budget proposal does not include pay increases or step increases for any employee group. 

Continue reading →