Fort Bend ISD to hold tax rate election to raise money for teacher pay raises, armed security guards

FORT BEND COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) -- Fort Bend ISD residents will have a ballot item up for vote this November that would alter the tax rate to raise money for teacher raises, staff pay increases, and provide armed security officers at campus elementary schools.

The proposal announced Thursday by the district is known as a Voter Approval Tax Rate Election, or VATRE. The district says the measure would raise around $35 million and is tied to Gov. Greg Abbott's big property tax bill passed in August.

The district projects Abbot's tax bill will save the average homeowner within Fort Bend ISD more than $1,100. The VATRE item would require residents to put some of those savings, around $108 per year, into the school district. The revenue would be used to raise teacher salaries by $2,500 with larger raises for more experienced teachers, and increase bus driver and teacher aide pay by $1.50 an hour.

Fort Bend ISD Deputy Superintendent Steve Bassett told ABC13 that despite recent budget cuts and a bond issue passed, the school is still lagging behind neighboring districts in teacher pay.

"We've been waiting for a while for the state to take action on school financing, and it still hasn't happened. But when they do put more money into the system they will mandate teacher raises, which means teachers across the state will benefit from that. And the gap that we have between us and the other districts around us will stay the same," Bassett said.

Fort Bend ISD passed a $1.26 billion bond in May for things like facility upgrades, but that money by law cannot be used for teacher raises. The district says they've made more than $40 million in budget cuts but have not raised salaries. There is also a new staffing item to fund: armed security officers in all campus schools, a requirement now by Texas state law in the wake of the massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. Our 13 Investigates recently showed how districts across our area are struggling to meet that new requirement at elementary schools.

"We don't even have the $2.5 million that it would take to fund security guards at each campus. And so this VATRE if successful would allow us to fund a security guard at all the campuses," Bassett said.

The VATRE item has to be approved by Fort Bend voters in November.

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