GISD school board approves raises for bus drivers

Gonzales ISD bus drivers will be getting extra money this upcoming school year.

The Gonzales ISD school board met for their regularly scheduled meeting Thursday, July 7, and they approved unanimously, 7-0, to increase the rate of pay for GISD bus divers by $3 for the 2023-24 school year.

New GISD bus drivers would go from $17.15 to $20.15, while experienced drivers’ medium and maximum pay will be determined through Human Resources, said Gene Kridler, GISD director of operations.

In other board business, GISD Chief Financial Officer Amanda Smith went over the dual credit program tuition with the board.

Smith said, if approved, the district would once again pay the higher ed tuition costs in full for the students who are enrolled in the program.

“Right now, we have two different offerings that they have available to them. One is the dual credit program course there at Victoria College, and then there is also college credit and it's through Onramps with the University of Texas,” Smith said.

The board approved the dual credit program tuition unanimously, 7-0.

The board later went through non-action items in reports. One of the big report items was “the bond and capacity and tax rate analysis.”

John Robuck, of BOK Financial Securities Inc., talked about numbers for the potential bond election in November.

“The purpose of tonight is to go through those numbers and the tax rate impact and to answer any questions you may have. We've run several different scenarios. Some have a worst-case scenario, while some are more actual,” Robuck said.

Robuck went over three different scenarios for the school board: The first excludes estimated 313 agreement values; the second includes 313 agreement values; and the third includes 313 agreement values and excludes approximately $750 million in oil, gas, and mineral values.

Each of the scenarios has the same three different bond options from $50 million, $75 million and $100 million, but each scenario has different tax rate increases for each bond.

GISD Superintendent Dr. Elmer Avellaneda said this is “great information to have” so the district can work the next few weeks to finalize the scope of work that the district can do.

“We now have a good grasp on what it's going to cost our community if we choose one of these three options. It's good information,” Avellaneda said.

The meeting concluded with Director of Special Programs Erin Lindermann-LaBuhn giving the report for the federal grants/funding plans for fiscal year 2024.