How the FISD Priorities-Based Budget Impacts You

UPDATE May 9, 2017:

Last night, the Frisco Independent School District updated their budget to reflect 2 items:

1. Proposing a 2% raise for staff
2. A fee for use of personal appliances

Original article:

The 43-page presentation by Chief Financial Officer Kimberly Pickens to the FISD Board of Trustees lasted hours, and teachers, students, and parents woke up this past Tuesday morning wondering where we stand. A super helpful “Cliff Notes” version of the powerpoint and background explanation can be found on the website, but I poured through my meeting notes and the resources placed on the FISD Budget website to help give you an even shorter version here.

It important to stress that nothing below is final as FISD Board Member, Bryan Dodson, said…

We’re just trying to figure it all out.”

In May, a proposed 2017-2018 budget will be presented and in June we can expect an adoption of the 2017-2018 budget. Nevertheless, the rumor mills are already going strong, and it’s important that we all stay informed with facts, not assumptions. What follows are the basics divided by what matters to individual groups as divided by me, an FISD teacher and Priorities-Based Budget (PBB) stakeholder committee member.

In no way is this an exhaustive list, and I encourage you to head to the FISD website to make sure you are informed.  The more we are aware about our schools in Frisco, the better we can support our children and their opportunities provided via FISD.

Parents

• Eliminate funding for Destination Imagination ($150,000). Being that it is already a parent-driven off campus activity, this decision will impact about 250 students. It will continue to be offered, but “FISD resources will no longer be used to support it.”
• Charge fees for printing transcripts ($25,000 revenue). After students are provided 3 free copies, they will then have to pay $3 per transcript, or of they are alumni, $6.
• Increase fees for summer athletics camps ($155,000).
• Increase adult gate admission to middle school and high school contests ($150,000). Charging $1 more to get in to everything, except for varsity football which recently had a price increase.
• Implement an operations fee for middle school and high school athletics ($1,278,750 revenue). $100 for middle school and $200 for high school per student, not sport, per year to pay for security, transportation, referees, etc.
• Eliminate funding for national travel for academic competitions ($120,000). Fees shifting to parents.
• Reduce high school musical theatre funding by 10% ($5,000);  Reduce high school dance team funding by 25% ($45,000);  Reduce high school cheerleading funding by 7% ($4,500);  Reduce contracted services for high school marching bands by 27% ($18,000);  Reduce elementary honor choir funding by 15% ($2,500). All of these reductions mean more of a reliance on campus booster clubs and PTA’s.
• Charge fees for parking passes at high school campuses ($250,000).
• Eliminate transaction processing fees for accepting online payments ($200,000). These “fees will be passed on to the consumer.”

Kids

• Reduce discretionary per pupil allotment (PPA) by 15 percent ($1,000,000). The Elementary PPA goes from $105 to $89, Middle School PPA from $115 to $98, High School PPA from $155 to $132. This funding pays for a variety of needs as determined by the campus principal – from classroom supplies to professional development.
• Eliminate 9th grade PSAT ($32,728).
• Eliminate the PSAT class offering.
• Reduce central budget for Library & Media Services ($113,350). Including “reducing the number of data bases, author visits, travel, and other hosting fees.”
• Provide budget to Fine Arts for FISD Band Night  ($15,000 new cost).
• Reorganize summer school offerings ($650,000) by offering online classes.
• Reduce partner campus shuttles ($150,000). While students cannot be guaranteed all courses in the course catalog across the district, there is a higher chance they can be in a class if their partner campus is offering the class. CTE is not impacted by this.
• Establish 15 as the minimum number needed for a secondary course to “make.” Classes will not be offered if not enough students signed up for it.
• GT Humanities will have up to 60 students with two teachers as following the GT Humanities guidelines.
• Eliminate “extra,” non-TEKS, Fine Arts programs such as the guitar programs at Lone Star High School and Staley Middle School.

Teachers

• Pay raises:  1% pay raise in in 2017-18;  2% 2018-19;  2% 2019-20 with comments from most board members supporting higher raises.
• Reduce technology specialist positions ($1,012,000) which has the potential to impact teachers who need tech support.
• Reduce budget for campus toner supplies ($117,550) including monitoring of paper usage.
• Reduce Fine Arts conference travel ($15,500) with the recommendation that attendees be put on a rotation to attend periodically to attend state conferences.
• Reduce discretionary Academic Decathlon stipends by $10,000 per campus ($90,000). The AcDec head and assistant will continue to receive their stipends of $9,000 and $5,000, respectively. This reduction lowers the campus budget from $12,000 to $2,000 which still places our district ahead of neighboring districts on funding.
• Reduce fine arts allocations by 14.5 FTE’s ($747,000) by realigning roles and by attrition over the next two years. These reductions include 1.5 Band, 2 Visual Arts, 5 Theatre Arts, and 6 Dance teachers.
• Suspend contributions to the TERRP 401(A) plan ($777,000) being that less than 25% of staff currently take advantage.
• Eliminate the monthly wellness benefit for employees ($30,000). This program rewards teachers for working out and impacts an average 133 employees a month.
• Eliminate the Masters Tuition Reimbursement Program and replace with an incentive for teacher certification ($50,000) since FISD benefits more from teachers certified in more areas rather than masters degrees. Of note, 48 teachers benefitted last year and participation has been waning.
• Eliminate personal appliances from classrooms/offices ($500,000).
• Limit one teacher per class for Academic Decathalon & Student Council which means the lead teacher will have a period to work with their students.
• Eliminate support periods for teachers such as: website coordinator, marketing store, cheer coordinator, ISM coordinator, CTE department chair.
• Establish a functional load of 160-180 students for teachers teaching 6 of 8 class periods at the secondary level.
• Transfer Fine Arts teacher between campuses to align with staffing guidelines.
• Reduce middle school and high coaching allocations through attrition to gain teaching blocks.

Other

• Eliminate K-12 Library Aide positions ($750,000) with suggestions that community volunteers fill the void of positions that are “eliminated through attrition and elimination of at-will positions.”
• Eliminate 10 maintenance positions ($362,000) which mostly impacts our neighbors who will see more weeds.
• Discontinue Adult Ed/GED program ($35,000) which is a class that has had a decline in attendance over the years. The monthly GED test will still be offered.
• Increase facility rental fees by 20% (500,000 revenue).