District continues with Spectrum, to pay staff during closure
DRIPPING SPRINGS – During its Jan. 27 meeting, the Dripping Springs ISD Board of Trustees unanimously approved several items, including the proposed budget assumptions and parameters for fiscal year 2025-26.
The 2025-26 budget assumptions and parameters as presented are to be used in developing the preliminary General Fund budget, covering all estimated revenues and proposed expenditures. However, according to Chief Financial Officer Gina Mitschke, they may be changed throughout the budget process.
Key assumptions for the 2025-26 budget include the following:
• Student enrollment of 8,975, reduced to 98% for funding estimates.
• Average daily attendance rate of 95.25%
• Property value growth estimate of 5%
• 1% pay increase for all staff
• Number of new full time equivalent positions to be determined (will be provided in March)
• Maintain the current monthly contribution to health insurance ($380/month)
• Maintain the current monthly contribution to Health Savings/Health Reimbursement Accounts ($25/month)
• Budget parameter of 2% (level of deficit approval based on board policy) General Fund revenues are calculated under current law and with an estimate of the maximum compressed tax rate (MCR). According to agenda documents, due to no additional funding for school districts, lower student growth and inflationary impacts, DSISD administration is recommending a 1% pay increase for all staff as a starting point.
Lower student growth is impacting the growth of revenues, which are no longer keeping pace with expenditure increases. DSISD administration is in the process of evaluating staffing needs due to growth and, once that analysis is complete, detailed budget information will be provided to the board.
Additionally, the budgets for the Child Nutrition Fund and Debt Service Fund will also be developed during the budget process and presented to the board at a later workshop.
Internet services
The board also approved the awarding of a Request for Proposals (RFP) for internet services to Spectrum Enterprises, which is the provider that DSISD currently uses.
The district's five-year internet services agreement expires in June 2025. In order to comply with E-Rate timelines, RFP #24-25-003 Internet Services was released in October, with a due date of Dec. 13, 2024.
“We issued a bid back in October. Responses were due in December for internet services across the district. Our five-year agreement expires in June of this year and so, that is the reason we went out for bid on these services,” explained Deputy Superintendent for Finance & Operations Elaine Cogburn.
The RFP requested three- and five-year pricing for five, 10 and 20 gigabits per second (Gbps) service. Based on pricing and current needs, the administration has determined that the most costeffective option to meet district resource needs is to begin a 60-month term with a 10 Gbps connection, including the option to increase to 20 Gbps as needed during the contract period.
The pricing offered under the RFP is lower than that of DSISD’s current monthly recurring costs.
Four responses were received by the deadline: FiberLight, Frontier Communications, NextLink and Spectrum Enterprise.
Frontier provided the lowest pricing at five Gbps, FiberLight provided the lowest pricing at 10 Gbps and Spectrum provided the lowest price at 20 Gbps. However, because the district intends to begin the new contract at 10 Gbps, DSISD used that pricing for the cost of eligible service criterion and ultimately recommended using Spectrum as the most cost-effective in meeting district needs.
“We had four responses. The technology team analyzed those and they are recommending that we stay with Spectrum. We are actually getting a lower price than we are paying now with 10 gigs, with an option to move to 20 if we should need to,” Cogburn said. “We submit our internet services for E-Rate reimbursement and so, we get a 50% discount on that.”
Employee compensation during district closure
Finally, the board unanimously approved a resolution to pay staff during the emergency closure that occurred on Jan. 21, due to inclement weather.
As a result of the inclement winter weather affecting the Dripping Springs community, Superintendent Dr. Holly Morris-Kuentz was required to close the district on Jan.
21. Therefore, the administration recommended that the board adopt a resolution to pay district staff for the district-wide emergency closure activated by the superintendent under board policy.
This recommendation does not negatively impact the operating 2024-25 budget, as the payment of all contract work days for each employee is already an expense accounted for in the current year’s budget, according to DSISD.
Board president Dr. Stefani Reinold explained to the board that this is a standard procedure: “We typically do provide coverage to hourly staff when we were closed and we were closed last week,” she said.
The DSISD Board of Trustees will meet next at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 18.
