SCHOOL NEWS
Bowie ISD reviews superior FIRST rating in hearing
By BARBARA GREEN
[email protected]
For the 15th year in a row Bowie Independent School District has received a superior rating in the Financial Integrity Rating System of Texas.
The board of trustees conducted the required public hearing during their Monday night meeting. Chief Financial Officer Jonathan Pastusek made the presentation noting the district received 90 out of 100 points in the review of the 2016-17 school year.
The purpose of FIRST is to ensure school districts will be held accountable for the quality of their financial management practices and achieve improved performance in the management of their financial resources.
There are 15 indicators a district is scored on encompassing all aspects of financial practices from compliance with debt, cash on hand versus current investments, liabilities’ ratios, deficit budget and administrative cost ratios.
Pastusek said indicator 10 was the only one where BISD did not receive any points. It asks: “Was the debt service coverage ratio sufficient to meet the required debt service.”
He explained the district ratio was .9599 and BISD had a deficit budget in both the general fund and debt service fund which lowered the ratio.
Patusek said the board opted to not increase the debt service rate because for the past few years it has collected more than was needed.
Read the full story in the mid-week News.
Bowie school trustees began the arduous task of creating a 2024-25 budget during a lengthy workshop this week.
The board also reviewed some possible changes in the student/employee handbooks and codes of conduct.
Superintendent Blake Enlow said the board spent about two hours in discussion Monday night and began crunching numbers; however, many factors still remain unknown including state funding and local ad valorem tax revenue.
Trustees examined where the district stands for the rest of the fiscal year that ends in August. Finance Director Paula Peterson said the district is catching up on the arrival some state revenues, which she hopes will help offset the expect shortfall. The 2023-24 budget adopted with a half-million deficit, but Enlow said they hope to keep that down as much as possible.
Read the full story in the weekend Bowie News.
As the Bowie School District launches into its summer projects, several department heads offered their year-end reports to the trustees last Thursday.
Annual reports
Wayne Walker, support services director, told the board the management team for all his departments set a goal to reduce budget expenses this year and so far they are below budget projections as the school year winds down and summer projects kick off.
As of June 6, child nutrition was $235,678.46 below budget; transportation, $217,942.20 below budget and custodial $312,277.44 below budget, for an overall projected amount of $765,898.10 below budget.
“We hope to finish August 2024 under budget to help out the district in recouping some of the adopt deficit budget for 2023-24. We are projecting in the right direction to end the fiscal year,” said Walker.
Read the full story in the mid-week Bowie News.
Bowie High School’s Mighty Marching Maroon Band will host a fundraiser paint party from 6-8 p.m. on June 18 in the high school cafeteria.
Cost is $30 to paint an 11 X 14 pre-traced canvas with $15 of each prepaid ticket going to the boosters. The band boosters will be providing snacks, and all supplies such as paint, brushes and canvas are provided.
Host will be Shannon Adkins of Texas Gals Creative Studio.
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