The Littlefield Independent School District’s Board of Trustees met in special session on Wednesday, Aug. 31st in the board room of the Administration building.
The Meeting was called to order at 12:02 p.m. by Pat Demel and the Invocation was given by Will Williams.
Demel opened the floor for public hearing, public comment regarding the 2022-23 LISD Budget and Tax rate, but there was no one present. There was also nobody present for public forum.
“Our Tax rate is $.9015 and then with the passage of the bond we are going up $.50, so our total effective tax rate will be $1.4015,” Superintendent Mike Read stated.
Bev Boldes commented that the 2022-23 budget is pretty similar to the 2021-22 budget.
The minutes from the previous meeting were approved as presented.
Item five on the agenda was to approve the Lamb County Tax Appraiser as Tax Rate Calculation Designee.
“The Board must designate the Lamb County Tax assessor, which is Lisa Kloiber; she completed our Tax Rate Calculation Worksheet for Littlefield ISD,” Supt. Read said. “This item must be done prior to adopting our budget and setting our tax rate. I recommend its approval.”
The motion was made by Williams and seconded by Hervey Valdez to approve the 2022-23 Tax Rate Calculation Worksheet. The motion carried.
“The budget was built on a $.9015 tax rate, which can only be achieved by unanimous vote of the Board as required by new legislation,” Supt. Read said. “Another big change enacted with the passage of House Bill III is application of current year values, rather than one year lag that has been the practice for many years. Our property values increased 4.5%, which compressed our rate to $.8515. When you add the five golden pennies to the compressed tax rate, you get $.9015. With the passage of the bond in May, we have an interest in sinking tax of $.50 added to our Maintenance & Operation rate of $.90, bringing the total tax rate to $1.40. All state revenue estimates are based off of TEA student ADA numbers and those numbers declined throughout the entire school year last year. This is our main funding driver for the school year.”
He added, “Our 2022-23 budget will be built on a refined ADA of 1,126 students. We are getting paid by the State on 1,200, but our refined ADA from a year ago is 1,126. That is why is it so important that we run a 95, 96, 97% attendance rate, because we’re funded whatever our ADM is, our total membership, so 97% of 1,212 students is roughly 1,160-1,175 students. We’re being very conservative and we’re building the budget based off of 1,126 students. We will also be receiving a payment from Continental Dairy in January of 2023, totaling $132,800, regarding our 313 Agreement.”
The motion to adopt the 2022-2023 Littlefield ISD Budget was made by Johnny Castillo and seconded by Gary Birkelbach. The motion carried. Next, the motion to move that the Maintenance & Operation property tax rate be increased by the adoption of a tax rate of $.9015, which is effectively a 7.02% increase over the no new revenue tax rate. On the Interest & Sinking, we will be adding .50 cents for a total tax rate of $1,4015 was made by Birkelbach and seconded by Valdez. The motion carried.
Bev Boldes discussed the 2021-2022 Budget Amendments and the motion to approve those amendments was made by Williams and seconded by Castillo. The motion carried.
Bev Boldes briefly went over the Financial and Investment Report. No action was necessary.
The Board had one Trust Property Disposition to consider: 940 W. 3rd Street. The motion to approve the sale of the property was made by Birkelbach and seconded by Valdez. The motion carried.
There was no action for Certified Personnel matters. Regarding At-Will Personnel, Darquinten Cleveland was hired as a SPED Aide in the Junior High.
Supt. Read gave his Superintendent Report stating that there are currently 1,206 students in the district. He also gave an update on the old and new softball fields, as well as activities going on within the athletic program and within the district.
With no further business to discuss, Vice President Demel declared the meeting was adjourned at 12:32 p.m.