June 19, 2014- The Board adopted a $240 million budget for 2014-2015 to fund instruction, operations, services and payroll for the district’s 53 campuses, 33,000 students and 4,500 employees. The budget represents an increase of about 4 percent over last year. School district revenue primarily comes from local taxes, and also state funds which are based on student counts. Trustees also approved a raise of 2.3 percent for all staff for next year, and they set the teacher salary schedule which includes a beginning teacher salary of $44,626.
In other business, trustees approved an annual contract with Turn Center to provide physical and occupational therapy services for AISD students, and they added court lighting to the project to build a tennis facility on the campus of Bonham Middle School for the Amarillo High tennis program. The tennis courts at Amarillo High were not able to be salvaged and are being turned into additional much-needed parking.
The Board also heard an update on the progress of bond projects. Site work is beginning in the first phase of construction projects to build two new 6th grade campuses for Bowie and Travis middle schools. Both of these projects will be complete by Sept. 2015. Renovation to make entrances more secure at 13 elementary campuses should be finished by the start of school in August. Classroom addition projects at Mesa Verde, Rogers, Eastridge, and Hamlet elementaries are in full swing and are set to be done by Aug. 1. Another set of classroom additions at Tascosa High School, Houston and Crockett middle schools, and Coronado Elementary has started and should be complete by January 2015. Phase I of a three-phase HVAC replacement project is ongoing and set to be complete by Aug. 15.
Finally, the Board elected John Ben Blanchard as the new president and Renee McCown as the new vice president of the Board.
Additional settings for Safari Browser.
