Rosebud-Lott ISD teachers to get raise thanks to HB 3
Rosebud-Lott teachers will be getting a raise thanks to House Bill 3.
Superintendent Steve Brownlee said the RLISD Board of Trustees is in the middle of budget planning for the next year, but that budget will include a raise between six and eight percent for teachers and certain staff across the district.
“House Bill 3 has been very good to us and we are weighing how to reward our teachers,” Brownlee said. “Teachers are looking at between a six and eight percent raise. Our board is always wonderful about giving raises to our teachers. We have been able to do that for the last three years.”
He said the budget and tax rate will be approved on Aug. 19. The board met on July 22 to begin work on the budget for the coming year. They are expected to meet again on Aug. 7.
The board also met for its regular meeting on July 15 and took care of several different items on the agenda.
Brownlee said he updated the board on the move of the new AC unit at the new school due to an architectural mistake. The move didn’t cost the district anything.
He also told the board that the New Instructional Facilities Allotment grant has been submitted and acknowledged by TEA. He said the state grants $1,000 per child when any district across the state opens a new facility. He said there were 275 students in the elementary school at the end of last year, so that would give the district an additional $275,000.
“There is only so much in the pot,” he said. “So the money will be split according to how many requests there are.”
The board also approved the closeout of the CMAR contract.
“This is a big one,” he said. “This is our contractor. At the end of the contract you have to do an audit. Mr. Bennett who works for Erwin Construction has already done his own audit of the $11.6 million and did feel it was in the best fiscal responsibility to hire an outside auditor, which was Townsend and Associates. Mr. Bennett’s numbers were within $2,200 of being correct. We were very impressed. There was one section – things that are required to build the building but not in the building like the superintendent’s trailer and travel and those things. That was a bid price of $590,000 in the original bid in 2017. It was basically a flat fee. The auditor felt like that needed to be audited also. The board decided to go ahead and require the audit of that section.”
The board also discussed the future of the property that once housed Lott Elementary during the meeting.
Brownlee said that Stan Parker has approached the district with a use for the building. He would like to create a facility that would be used by his foundation for veterans.
“It would be for veterans fresh out of the military and back in the states that don’t have a trade,” he said. “This facility will help to teach them trades.”
Brownlee said the City of Lott has OK’d the use, but the board decided not to take any action on this item as of yet because they want to make sure the community is in favor of this also.
In other action the board: hear preliminary results from the STAAR test; approved meeting dates for the 2019-20 school year; gave the superintendent permission to hire a TASB trainer; approved the Rosebud-Lott Elementary Open House for Saturday, Aug. 17, from 10 a.m. to noon; and approved the RLISD Interdistrict Student Transfer Policy.