School Budgets Remain Hot Topic

EAST TEXAS — With the news that Gladewater ISD is hoping to unfreeze salaries in its 2012-13 budget, other area school officials said their decisions are not so easy to predict. According to the Longview News-Journal, in 2011, the state Legislature cut $5 billion from its education budget, resulting in two years of revenue losses for public school districts statewide. With another wave of revenue loss coming, 2012-13 budgets are uncertain, officials said.

Hallsville is looking for ways to make cuts and reductions without sacrificing its core instruction program while maintaining its extracurricular and support programs. Hallsville ISD, like Gladewater and many other school districts statewide, implemented salary freezes in 2011. Despite contending with another $518,785 in cuts in 2012-13, Gladewater ISD Superintendent J.P. Richardson said this past week his district is prepared for the continued reductions and expects to be able to unfreeze salaries.

Pine Tree ISD and Kilgore ISD were two of the few school districts to give raises in 2011, but officials said the 2012-13 budgets have not been finalized and it is too early to tell what the upcoming fiscal year may hold. Pine Tree, in 2011, gave step raises for teachers, counselors and librarians and a 3% increase for other employees

School officials agree that changes have to be made in the overall education finance system, so districts do not continue to lose millions of dollars in revenue in the future.