After about a month-long marathon of exhaustive work sessions, public
hearings, and staff presentations on the 1997-98 budget for AISD, you would have
thought that the last thing anyone would find edifying was a retrospective of those
discussions. But when AISD administrators surprised the board at the budget adoption
session with video clips of themselves discussing the budget with the board, set to upbeat
music and intercut with arty, black-and-white shots of AISD students striding
confidently across campus, the casual observer could have gotten the feeling that there
are some folks working for AISD who actually want to help educate kids. But this
reporter has a hunch that AISD staffers, punch-drunk and giggly as they were on Monday
from 15-hour work days, probably produced the video just so everyone could hear
trustee Geoff Rips say one more time, “I was just going to move that we adopt
the budget!” — a comment he’d really made in jest, because, you see, he said it in May,
long before the board had even deliberated the budget. (It sent the room into
gales of laughter.) After some of the levity was over, though, the board did adopt the
proposed budget — with a couple of significant amendments to raise teacher salaries
and help replace funds at low-income campuses. Trustee Melissa Knippa, one of three
board members who negotiated with teacher representatives for a higher salary
increase, recommended that the AISD Board of Trustees boost teacher raises to an
average of 5% of the salary scale (instead of the 4% originally proposed).
AISD Director of Personnel Services Paul Shooter told the board that all
teachers (and librarians) will be paid at least $380 above the state minimum salary
schedule, and many will be paid well above the minimum. To help reward the
district’s most experienced teachers, who are already at the top of the salary schedule
and would otherwise not realize much benefit from the 5% average hike, the
district will move them up an extra step on the pay ladder. The pay raises do include the
new, extra duty day for all teachers, which was recently mandated by the Texas
Legislature, Shooter said. Knippa said the salary increase will help keep AISD competitive
with other school districts in the area. Teacher association representatives Ruben
Valdez and Louis Malfaro agreed that the hike was adequate.
Board president Kathy Rider moved the adoption of the budget. Trustee Rudy
Montoya then moved that the board restore $250,000 in supplemental funds to 18 of 36
low-income elementary schools that otherwise would have had to curtail some of their
programs in 1997-98. “The administration accepts and supports this amendment to
the budget,” interjected AISD Superintendent Jim Fox. The board accepted Montoya’s
amendment without rancor.
A brief aside: AISD is launching in earnest an early literacy effort
throughout the district, which will be spearheaded by a nationally recognized program
called Reading Recovery. This program requires intensive (and expensive) teacher
training; AISD administrators felt that only half of the 36 low-income campuses that
need Reading Recovery could be trained in the method for this year; the others will get
the training for next year. In recent days, however, members of Austin Interfaith had
pleaded for more aid to the 18 schools that will have to wait for Reading
Recovery.
Originally, supplemental funds to all 36 schools were reduced by about $1
million — but then reallocated back to those schools in the form of Reading Recovery
(and other academic initiatives). After taking into account the district’s
reallocation of the $1 million, Interfaith members estimated the actual loss to the 18
Reading Recovery-less schools to still be about $443,000. The $250,000 figure,
derived at the eleventh hour through talks with Interfaith, was seen by everyone as an
acceptable compromise. “It will help protect schools that would otherwise have had
to make cuts in their programs,” said Interfaith co-chair Regina Rogoff.
Board members were unanimous in supporting the final adopted budget; a
veritable lovefest from the dais ensued. “The budget shows there’s a real
commitment [to education] by the administration, even though it’s going to cost some
money,” said Rips. He also said he was satisfied that the administration had kept its
new, $7.8 million classroom technology initiative in balance with other academic
initiatives. Since he is one of the board members who is probably the least dazzled by
technology, this was an area of particular concern to him.
Trustee Loretta Edelen joined the rest of the board in support of the
budget, especially because of the district’s efforts in early literacy and other
academic programs for low-income schools. “This is the first year that I’ve seen
a substantial restoration of money to the neediest schools,” she said. But she would
like to see a smaller tax increase for next year, she added. With the higher
salary increase and the restoration of funds to low-income schools, the budget for the
1997-98 school year will top out at a whopping $458.1 million. District officials believe
that a nine-cent increase in the tax rate will be needed to fund this budget,
bringing the rate to $1.40 per $100 property valuation. The tax rate won’t be set until
September, however, after tax rolls are certified.
In other board business: Trustees voted unanimously to sign a letter of
intent with IBM to be the systems integrator for the district’s new technology
infrastructure. The technical merits of IBM, as well as its costs, gave it the edge over GTE,
the other firm competing for the job, said instructional technology coordinator
Stephanie Hamilton. For their services, including wiring all of AISD for data, video,
and voice, IBM will be paid a gracious plenty — $42.8 million in bond funds. Trustee
Jerry Carlson, former site manager for IBM Austin, abstained from the vote. Trustee
Liz Hartman, whose spouse works for IBM, was not at the meeting because of
illness.
This article appears in June 27 • 1997 and June 27 • 1997 (Cover).