The Temple Independent School District Board of Trustees unanimously approved the adoption of a $119.8 million budget for the 2019-2020 school year Wednesday night.
This budget adoption process has been a challenging and historic one due to the work that was done on House Bill 3 by our legislators in the 86th Legislative Session.
The passing of this bill brings more than $7 million of revenue to the district for the upcoming year. This supplement of revenue has allowed district leadership to increase per student spending by more than a $1000 per student.
“House Bill 3 has delivered the largest infusion of revenue that public education in Texas has seen in the last 30 years,” said Bobby Ott, Superintendent of Temple ISD. “The state has effectively increased its share of participation by 10 percent.”
The bill, which was signed into law by Governor Greg Abbot on June 12, stipulated that the use of the additional funding be directed in part to some key areas. These requirements happen to match some of the needs in Temple ISD such as prekindergarten programming and staffing compensation.
“The most important asset in Temple ISD is our staff and this has clearly been the number one priority from start to finish in this budget cycle,” Ott said. “This adoption will take care of those who contribute to the success of our students, and it will do so in a competitive manner because we know that our staff works as hard or harder than any other peer organization.”
District administration has tracked the development of this legislation from the beginning and worked closely with the board of trustees to update them on the different iterations it took on throughout the legislative session.
“As a board, we have been involved, updated and supportive of this budget every step of the way,” said Dan Posey, president of the Temple ISD Board of Trustees. “We could not be more proud than to adopt this budget and watch it change lives as it is delivered.”