Jennifer Perry Middleton/Jefferson Jimplecute
Jefferson Independent School District Trustees took a first look at the 2021-22 budget during their regular meeting Tuesday. The $12.8 million revenue budget is in an extremely early stage, stated Superintendent Rob Barnwell, and does not yet include payroll expenses.
“We don’t yet Know the tax rate,” he told the board, adding that Marion County Tax Assessor Karen Jones has to calculate the rate before the final budget can be set. The 2020-21 rate was 0.9664 and the district is looking to possibly set the upcoming year’s rate a bit lower, at 0.9634, according to Mike Wood, the district’s business manager.
Wood also told the board that the state-mandated financial software they use changes often during the budget process and reiterated that the budget was in its infancy at this point.
“This is basically a timeline I put together at this time each year,” Wood said. “This is a very fluid situation.”
Barnwell added that school districts are still in limbo about how many students they will have and definite funding amounts from the state, partially due to the current special session of the Texas Legislature.
“This is a moving target,” Wood said. “I’m fairly confident I will have more firm numbers before the next meeting.”
Trustees took no action on the budget, but will be required to adopt the 2021-22 budget by the end of August.
The board also adopted safety protocols for the upcoming school year. These protocols state that masks are optional, but not required on campus or at extracurricular events, that only on-campus in-class learning will be an option for the upcoming school year and that remote learning will not be available. JISD will continue to provide sanitation stations throughout the campuses and encourage proper hygiene and hand-washing, but will not enforce the six-foot social distancing rule, as it is almost impossible to do in a school setting. Extracurricular activities will be offered this year, but the University Interscholastic League has not yet released an update to their COVID guidelines. The district is also considering the possibility of live streaming home varsity football games, but all the pieces of that are not in place yet.
“Other superintendents are going along with the same theme, which is to have school as normal as we can have it now.” Barnwell said.
In other business, the board voted to reduce the substitute pay scale. During the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak, JISD was having difficulty acquiring substitute staff and teachers, and thereby increased the sub pay significantly. Barnwell said that while the pandemic isn’t over, they’re not having as much difficulty securing substitutes as they were, and recommended the pay scale reflect that. The 2021-22 scale is as follows: non-degreed substitute, $100 per day; degreed substitute, $115 per day; and certified substitute, $130 per day. The COVID pay scale was $120, 140 and 160, respectively.
“I’m hoping it will work,” Barnwell said. “We can always come back to y’all if we need to secure more substitutes for this coming year.”
Patti Wallace with the Marion County Tax Collector’s Office also told trustees that they had brought in $190K in delinquent taxes from the June tax sale, and that the funds came through both land sales and through those paying their delinquent taxes before the sale. She said there will be several large tracts up for sale in October and that she would have more information on those at a later time.
The board also chose Pete McCarty Oil, Inc. as the gas and diesel vendor for the upcoming year and Lemons Associates LLP as the auctioneer for district surplus equipment. A motion considering a property and casualty insurance company for the district’s buildings was tabled, as they did not receive three bids and the board also selected Health Special Risk as the provider for UIL and student supplemental insurance.