BEAUMONT, Texas — The Beaumont Independent School District Board of Trustees has approved calling for a Voter-Approval Tax Rate Election (VATRE).
District funding is provided by both local property taxes and funding from the State of Texas.
The district says that despite an increase in costs, the state has not raised the minimum amount of money it provides per student since 2019. Because of this, BISD is projecting a funding shortfall for the 2024-2025 school year.
They have found that salaries in the district are lower than the state averages, causing them to struggle with recruiting and keeping quality teachers.
If VATRE is approved, the district says it will provide upgraded security and safety features, increased pay for teachers and employees and enhanced educational student programs.
The programs that would be enhanced, according to the district's website are:
- Behavior Intervention - $1.0 million
- Targeted Math Support - $1.2 million
- Social Services for Students - $1.4 million
- Support for Bilingual Students - $0.2 million
- Other - $0.2 million
- Total: $4 Million
The passing of VATRE would give BISD access to an additional revenue of $13 million.
The district says that the tax rate will go down whether VATRE passes or not. This is because the Board of Trustees adopts two different tax rates.
The state calculates maintenance and operations (M&O) tax rate and the district can add up to 5 pennies to it.
The board voted to decrease the interest and sinking (I&S) tax rate by 9 pennies and add it the M&O. The district says that the total tax rates will actually be lower than it was in 2023.
So, without increasing the overall tax rate from the previous year’s tax rate, VATRE will create $13 million in new maintenance & operations funding for BISD from now on as long as the additional pennies are added to the state calculated rate, according to the district.
