Brownwood ISD Board of Trustees unanimously approved the district’s 2012/2013 budget on Monday which includes raises for faculty and staff. The operating budget of $25,318,054, food service budget of $1,828,833, and debt services budget of $3,083,883 were all approved.
Deputy Superintendent Kevin Gabaree presented the board with a general fund balance of $4,932,588, which was several hundred thousand higher than previously reported and reinforced the board’s decision to include the raises. Gabaree explained the large difference to the board.
“The reason that it is greater than I had presented is because I have to admit that I am guilty of being extremely too conservative. I now have a breakdown of how that has come up,” said Gabaree. He explained that revenue last year was approximately $380,000 higher than what was budgeted (including local, state and federal funding) and that expenditures were more than $500,000 lower than the district had budgeted.
The board passed a resolution which stated their commitment to $415,282 from the general fund balance to be applied to salary step raises for district employees.
He credited faculty and staff for being frugal with the district’s money and not spending everything they had in their departmental budgets. Gabaree also pointed out that the district was able to buy a new bus and build a new maintenance facility during the past year.
“Our campuses, many of them did not spend their monies, so we were able to take care of them with this,” said Gabaree.
The board also adopted a 2012/2013 tax rate of $1.04 for maintenance and operations and an interest and sinking rate of $0.2616 (total of $1.3016/$100 valuation), which is nearly identical to the past year’s rates.
Budget amendments of $20,000 moved from the counselors’ budget to the nurses’ budget were approved to cover an additional nurse which was hired at midterm 2011/2012 and $700, which was moved from the maintenance budget to BMS attendance monitor, which covered a shortage in this security position, according to Gabaree.
Board member Roderick Jones expressed his appreciation for Gabaree’s ability to help the district manage their budget.
“Again I want you to know – you always stretch the budget, and that I know that some money is going to be there. Again we appreciate you Kevin, you gave us a balanced budget, you gave us more money than we were supposed to have and the school district is in good shape,” said Jones.
Gabaree stated that the district is already working on a plan for next year to work through another possibly tight financial year.
