ORANGE —
The West Orange-Cove school district will avert a $1.1 million budget deficit thanks to its taxpayers.
The West Orange Cove Consolidated Independent School District received voter approval for its tax ratification election on Saturday, June 30, by a vote of 264 - 123. The district will now be able to deal with its projected budget deficit and provide teachers and support staff much needed pay increases.
“It’s bittersweet,” said James Colbert Jr., West Orange-Cove CISD superintendent, of the results. “We’re happy voters approved the request, but you hate having to go to the taxpayers. The sad thing is other school districts across the state will probably be doing this soon too. West Orange-Cove was just one of the first.”
The district’s Board of Trustees called for the special election in early May as the school district prepared to deal with the budget shortfall. Now that voters have approved the district’s request, Colbert and his administration will get to work on the budget.
“We still have a lot of work to do. We created two budgets - one if voters approved the tax ratification election and one if voters denied the request,” he explained. “This request was far more about balancing the budget, but it will go a long way in helping us honor our employees by adjusting their salaries.”
Colbert said there is no set or approved percentage pay increase as of yet, but the district is “tweaking” numbers previously provided in a report by the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB).
“We are making strides in our employee salaries,” Colbert added. “The teachers are definitely due a raise, but we are going to give the greater increase to our support staff. They are way behind compared to what other districts offer their employees, as are many of our teachers which makes it hard for us to keep the really good teachers.”
The Trustees initially considered revoking the homestead tax exemption of $20,000, if the tax ratification election failed. Since it was approved by voters, the homestead exemption removal has been “taken off the table.” However, some taxpayers have cited fears the district could utilize that option next year.
“I’ve heard that rumor that the district could take the homestead exemption away next year, but that is not the intent whatsoever,” Colbert said. “We have a good perspective of what our needs are going to be for the next few years. This was the biggest hit we had to take because of the state funding cut. None of our future plans include taking the homestead exemption.”
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Voters approved the West Orange-Cove CISD tax ratification election by a vote of 264 (for) - 123 (against) on Saturday, June 30. Tommy Mann Jr.
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