On Tuesday, the Fort Worth ISD Board of Education approved a new $820 million budget for the 2022-23 school year.
The school board also approved a 4% raise for teachers and a 4% midpoint raise for all other employees, with an exception of a 6% of midpoint increase for para-professional and hourly employees.
In addition, the school board approved a minimum rate of $15 per hour for full-time hourly employees. In an effort to retain employees at the district, a Team Member Incentive Stipend of $2,000 was approved for all full-time employees.
The budget of $819,514,450 for 2022-23 reflects deficit spending of slightly over $40 million and reflects a reduction of 5.6% from the prior year's budget of $865.5 million.
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Chief Financial Officer Carmen Arrieta-Candelaria said the district is "committed to continuing to work toward adopting a balanced budget while dealing with increasing operational costs due to inflation all while providing competitive salaries for all its workforce."
In the coming term, Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief, ESSER, funds will help to fortify the budget over the next two fiscal years.
FWISD is slated to receive more than $261 million from one-time federal ESSER programs over the course of July 2021 through Aug. 31, 2024. These funds will impact the final budgets for the next three fiscal years.
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The school board is required to adopt a budget each year prior to July 1. Fort Worth ISD's fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30. Tax rates will be considered by the board in August and are expected to decrease slightly.
