You probably saw this coming, but it looks certain that Austin ISD will ask homeowners to vote to increase property taxes this fall. The request is baked into the 2024-25 school year budget that the district’s board of trustees approved unanimously at their June 20 meeting.
The tax increase request, known as a VATRE – a Voter Approval Tax Rate Election – is expected to be submitted by the district in August and become a proposition on the November ballot. If voters approve it, taxes on an average-value home will rise approximately $35 a month. The increase will deliver an extra $160 million to the district each year, but because of the state’s complicated school finance rules, only $41 million will be available for schools locally. The rest will go to the state of Texas for use in other school districts and, possibly, Republican projects like the militarization of the border.
This dynamic – that the district will only keep a quarter of any prospective tax revenue from the VATRE – has caused heartburn among the trustees, particularly Kevin Foster. In previous meetings, Foster seemed to lead a charge against the VATRE. But he has apparently changed his mind because the district plans to use $17 million of the prospective tax revenue to give targeted raises to teachers and staff.
“We love our teachers and last year, when we gave them a historic 7 percent raise, one thing that I said was that this can’t be a one-time thing, where we then give nothing the next year,” Foster said. “Because then what’s a 7 percent raise? It’s really a 3.5 percent raise over two years. And that’s not what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to lead in compensation now.”
Foster and Brandi Hosack, AISD’s teacher retention specialist, then staged a helpful back-and-forth explaining why the pay raise, and the tax increase to make it possible, are necessary. Hosack said last year’s raise made the district’s salaries for first- and second-year teachers competitive with surrounding school districts but didn’t do the same for teachers with more experience, those who have been with the district seven years or more. “We will not be able to retain them if we do not keep up with the market,” Hosack said. She added that the pay increases are dependent on the VATRE passing.
“I’m so mad at you right now,” Foster replied jokingly. “And the reason why I’m mad at you is because I never thought that I could come anywhere near supporting this VATRE.”
“I never thought that I could come anywhere near supporting this VATRE.” – Austin ISD Trustee Kevin Foster
Thursday’s meeting was the last before summer break, so there were other loose ends to tie up, including the finalization of the district’s so-called scorecard – its statement of purpose spelling out its biggest priorities. The previous scorecard had over a dozen priorities and was deemed too cluttered by the Texas Education Agency when AISD and TEA entered into an agreement last fall to solve the district’s special education crisis. The new scorecard, which will be in place through the end of the decade, focuses on improving five specific metrics: third-graders’ reading; third-graders’ math; disadvantaged middle schoolers’ completion of Algebra I; high school graduates’ readiness for college or a career; and high school graduates’ bilingualism.
The board also looked at end-of-year test results in reading and math for third graders, one of the most important bits of data it evaluates. This year’s results were modestly encouraging. Though the district didn’t meet its goal that 50% of third-graders would read on grade level by the end of the school year, the number did improve from 43% at the beginning of the year to 47%. It was a similar story in math: The district didn’t hit its goal of 50% of students performing on grade level, but it did raise those numbers from 33% to 39%.
After the data was presented, Trustee Lynn Boswell asked LaKesha Drinks, assistant superintendent of elementary schools, what factors distinguished the schools with better student performance from those with worse results, particularly for African American students. Drinks said the schools that did better identified the students who needed help and provided what is known as interventions – for example, tutoring or talking to a kid’s caregivers – early and often.
Drinks also said that in her many school visits this year it was easy to see which teachers were providing support and which weren’t. “When you walk into a classroom, it hits you immediately,” Drinks said. “You know right away if students feel like the teacher that is delivering instruction cares about them, that they’re invested, and that they are teaching to them. And in full transparency, I see an absence of that. It’s clear when you walk into a classroom and the five Black males are sitting at the back of the class and they’re totally checked out, but the class is running as normal.”
After discussing strategies to improve teaching next year, the board took a series of quick votes, with the budget vote coming last. The meeting had entered its sixth hour by this point and the trustees looked tired. Board President Arati Singh asked if any of them had comments before the vote. None did. “Oh my gosh, yes!” Singh said in delight. The trustees took the vote and Singh quickly adjourned the meeting.
This article appears in June 28 • 2024.
