Extra Credit

Editorial: Arlington school board needs to tackle budget issues

The Star-Telegram Editorial Board weighs in on the Arlington school board's decision to send its proposed 2008-09 budget back to a volunteer committee here. In a nutshell, the Editorial Board says trustees need to take responsibility themselves for figuring out how to bridge a $20 million deficit that could grow once salary increases are figured in.

An excerpt:

There is little that this committee can do to help the board. Whether trustees are on a genuine search for fresh ideas or are simply seeking political cover for a tough decision on taxes, they are the ones who have to produce this budget and face the consequences.

Read it and tell us what you think.

-Patrick M. Walker

Hurst-Euless-Bedford district ups ante in teacher salary battle

Hurst-Euless-Bedford school trustees on Tuesday approved a starting salary of $47,370 for teachers with a bachelor’s degree, topping the $47,000 starting pay offered by the Birdville and Northwest school districts, Terry Webster reports.

The salary schedule also includes a 3 percent across-the-board pay increase for teachers and support staff. Administrators will receive a 3 percent raise, based on the midpoint of the salary scale. That means that administrators at the bottom of the pay scale will receive a slightly higher increase, while the top-paid administrators will receive an increase smaller than 3 percent.

In all, the raises are expected to cost the district about $3 million. With the cost of new employees added in, the amount rises to $3.1 million, said Debbe Roesler, deputy superintendent for business operations.

In other area districts, Keller is offering a first-year salary of $45,100 and Grapevine-Colleyville is offering $44,900.

Get more details here.

-Patrick M. Walker

Arlington school district group recommends tax rollback vote

Shirley Jinkins reports that a school budget advisory group voted Tuesday to recommend a tax rollback election to the Arlington school board as a way to defray a $20 million budget shortfall for the 2008-09 school year.

If approved, the vote would increase the property tax rate from $1.04 per $100 evaluation to $1.17, the most allowed by the state. An election is required to raise the rate. The new rate would bring in $33.1 million.

The Financial Futures Committee — a volunteer group of residents of the six high school attendance zones, teacher organizations and other employees — will make its budget suggestions at the school board meeting at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at 1203 Pioneer Parkway.

Read more here.

-Patrick M. Walker

In Arlington school district, new funding ideas needed

Columnist Mike Norman writes:

Arlington property owners whose blood boils at the thought of a school tax increase should get real busy, real soon and come up with ideas to prevent it. There are still two months until the school board sets the tax rate, but things aren't looking good.

Many other districts are facing problems similar to Arlington's as they begin their annual summer ritual of setting budgets for the next school year.

The blame for those problems goes mainly to the Texas Legislature for adopting a school finance plan that freezes per-student revenue, seizes for the state any benefit from increased tax rolls and makes higher local taxes almost a certainty.

But whining about who's to blame doesn't solve anything right away. School boards need ideas for saving money -- BIG money -- or the only idea left will be a tax increase.

Read more here.

-Patrick M. Walker

Arlington school district may ask taxpayers for more

Shirley Jinkins reports:

Facing a $20 million budget shortfall, school district officials say they may hold an election to raise the property tax rate.

Such a move could add more than $100 to the annual property tax bill of a $100,000 home. It would help pay for, among other things, 33 new positions, including for disciplinary alternative education, in the district's $425 million budget for 2008-09.

"Arlington could go another two years [without an election], but we'll be in serious trouble by then if we don't do something," Superintendent Hector Montenegro said Wednesday.

Last year, the district took $16.8 million from savings to cover employee raises. It will cost $20.3 million of the district's savings to maintain those salaries through this year.

The proposed 2008-09 budget does not include employee raises.

The Financial Futures Committee, an advisory board that makes recommendations on the budget, could advise trustees as early as next week to call a tax rollback election to solve budgetary woes.

Steve Brown, the district's finance chief, said the committee could also recommend making no budget changes and spending more of the district's savings or cutting the budget.

Read more here.

-Patrick M. Walker

School closings, Part II

Whoops, I missed one. The Texas Education Commissioner has ordered Houston's Sam Houston High School to shut down after not meeting minimum academic standards for the sixth year. Like Austin's low performing high school, Houston has the option of reopening the closed high school under another name and new staff and new direction. Let's hope these two are it.

- Martha Deller

Lawmaker wants repeal of tuition deregulation

Tuition at Texas public colleges rose 112 percent from 2003 to 2007, according to a report by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

The news has prompted state Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, to renew his calls to repeal tuition deregulation.

"We should repeal tuition deregulation, then lower tuition by at least $500," Coleman said in a telephone interview. "The way it worked before worked well."

Texas public universities have been able to set their own tuition rates since 2003. Coleman blames Republican House Speaker Tom Craddick for thwarting bills Coleman sponsored in 2005 and 2007 to undo deregulation. He promised to try again in the coming session.

Average tuition for a Texas undergraduate taking 15 semester credit hours jumped from $625 to $1,330 per semester from fall 2003 to fall 2007.

Coleman has a personal interest in tuition. One of his children is a high school junior, and Coleman has been studying debt levels for college graduates and their parents.

"One thing that we don't have is a merit-based scholarship that isn't need-based," Coleman said, adding that middle-class families are now facing six-figure debts to finance undergraduate degrees. "Those are levels of debt we associate with medical school or law school, not an undergraduate degree."

Read the rest of John Austin's report here.

-Patrick M. Walker

Your A.M. roundup

Longtime Fort Worth youth mentor Margaret Williams is retiring

Program would let students double their degrees

Carroll swim center to get chlorine treatment system

Mother of invention

-Patrick M. Walker

A four-day school week?!? Where was that when I was young?

It's not set in stone yet, but I bet some kids in Minnesota are already making big plans for a future with three-day weekends. The MACCRAY school board in west central Minnesota voted to move to four-day school week, cutting out Mondays and adding an hour to the school days the rest of the week. Officials hope the move will save them operations costs of about $65,000. Check out FoxNews's story on it here.

-Eva-Marie Ayala

Cleburne waiting for answers

If you waiting to hear the Cleburne school district's' answer to the highly critical state audit report of the its federal spending, don't hold your breath. District officials, who initially intended to publically discuss their response to auditors at their May 12 board meeting, now say they'll wait until after a May 14 meeting with auditors in Austin. Then they'll make a power point presentation _ probably at a May 20 meeting _ to summarize their 2,000-page response to TEA. You heard it right _ 2,000 pages to respond to a 156-page TEA report. The public will be able to read part of it on the district website. For the more detailed documents, however. you'lll have to examine them at district ofices. We can hardly wait.

-Martha Deller